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Question -

Write short notes on:
(i) WomenтАЩs Movement:
(ii) Tribal Movements:



Answer -

(i) WomenтАЩs Movement:

  • Early 20th Century saw the growth of womenтАЩs organisations such as тАШWomenтАЩs India Association (WIA) (1917)тАЩ AII India WomenтАЩs Conference (ARVC) (1926), тАШNational Council for Women in India (NEWI) (1925)тАЩ.
  • While many of them began with a limited focus, their scope extended overtime. It is often assumed that only middle class educated women were involved in social movements.
  • In the mid 1970s there was a renewal of the womenтАЩs movement in India. Some call it the second phase of the Indian womenтАЩs movement. While many of the concerns remained the same there were changes both in terms of organisational strategy as well as ideologies.
  • There was the growth of what is termed as the autonomous womenтАЩs movements. The term тАШautonomyтАЩ referred to the fact that they were тАШautonomousтАЩ or independent from political parties as distinct from those womenтАЩs organisations that had links with political parties. It was felt that political parties tended to marginalise issues of women.
  • There were new issues that were focused upon. For instance, violence against women. Over the years, important legal changes have taken place thanks to the campaign by the womenтАЩs movement. Issues of land rights, employment have been fought alongside rights against sexual harassment and dowry. There has also been greater recognition that both men and women are constrained by the dominant gender identities.
(ii) Tribal Movements:

  • Different tribal groups spread across the country may share common issues. But the distinctions between them are equally significant.
  • Jharkhand is one of the newly-formed states of India, carved out of south Bihar in the year 2000. Behind the formation of this state lies more than a century of resistance. The social movement for Jharkhand had a charismatic leader in Birsa Munda, an adivasi who led a major uprising against the British.
  • Literate adivasis began to research and write about their history and myths. They documented and disseminated information about tribal customs and cultural practices. This helped create a unified ethnic consciousness and a shared identity as Jharkhandis.
  • Adivasi experiences of marginalisation and their sense of injustice were mobilised to create a shared Jharkhandi identity and inspire collective action that eventually led to the formation of a separate state.
  • The issues against which the leaders of the movement in Jharkand agitated were:
  1. acquisition of land for large irrigation projects and firing ranges;
  2. survey and settlement operations, which were held up, camps closed down, etc.
  3. collection of loans, rent and cooperative dues, which were resisted;
  4. nationalisation of forest produce which they boycotted
  • The North East. The process of state formation initiated by the Indian government following the attainment of independence generated disquieting trends in all the major hill districts in the region. Conscious of their distinct identity and traditional autonomy the tribes were unsure of being incorporated within the administrative machinery of Assam.
  • The rise of ethnicity in the region is thus a response to cope with the new situation which developed as a consequence of the tribeтАЩs contact with a powerful alien system. Long isolated from the Indian mainstream the tribes were able to maintain their own worldview and social and cultural institutions with little external influence.
  • While the earlier phase showed a tendency towards secessionism, this trend has been replaced by a search for autonomy within the framework of the Indian Constitution.
  • One of the key issues that bind tribal movements from different parts of the country is the alienation of tribals from forest lands. In this sense ecological issues are central to tribal movements just as cultural issues of identity and economic issues such as inequality are.

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