Ch:5 Popular Struggles and Movements CLASS X

Ch:5 Popular Struggles and Movements

• Pritom Sarma
• Saquib Ahmed
• P.Suresh

What was the movement for democracy in Nepal?

1.       Nepal became a constitutional monarchy in 1990. King Birendra, who has accepted this transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy, was killed in a mysterious massacre of the royal family in 2001.

2.      King Gyanendra, the new king of Nepal, took advantage of the weakness and unpopularity of the democratically elected government. In February 2005, the king dismissed the then Prime Minister and restored monarchy.

3.      All the major political parties in the parliament formed a Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and called for a four-day strike in Kathmandu. People defied curfew and more than a lakh people gathered almost every day to demand restoration of democracy.

4.      On 24 April 2006, the last day of the ultimatum, the king was forced to concede all the three demands. a) Restoration of parliament b) Power to an all-party government c) New constituent assembly.

5.      The SPA chose Girija Prasad Koirala as the new Prime Minister of the interim government. The restored parliament met and passed laws taking away most of the powers of the king.

What was the second movement for democracy in Nepal?

1.      The SPA and the Maoists came to an understanding about how the new Constituent Assembly was going to be elected.

2.      This struggle came to be known as Nepal’s second movement for democracy.

Bolivia’s Water War

1.      Bolivia is a poor country in Latin America. The World Bank pressurized the government to give its control of municipal water supply for the city of Cochabamba to a multi-national company (MNC).

2.      The company immediately increased the price of water by four times. This led to a spontaneous popular protest.

3.      In January 2000, a new alliance of labour, human rights and community leaders organised a successful four-day general strike in the city. The government agreed to negotiate and the strike was called off. Yet nothing happened.

4.      Another strike followed in April and the government imposed martial law. But the power of the people forced the officials of the MNC to flee the city and made the government concede to all the demands of the protesters.

5.      The contract with the MNC was cancelled and water supply was restored to the municipality at old rates. This came to be known as Bolivia’s water war.

Similarities and differences between struggles of Nepal and Bolivia

Similarities

1	Both the struggles are instances of political conflict that led to Popular struggles.	Both the struggles are instances of political conflict that led to Popular struggles.
2	In both cases the struggle involved mass mobilisation.	In both cases the struggle involved mass mobilisation.
3	In both instances involved critical role of political organisations	In both instances involved critical role of political organisations

Differences

1	The movement in Nepal was to establish democracy	The struggle in Bolivia involved claims on an elected, democratic government.
2	The struggle in Nepal was about the foundations of the country’s politics.	The popular struggle in Bolivia was about one specific policy
3	Both these struggles were successful but their impact was at different levels	Both these struggles were successful but their impact was at different levels

What were the conclusions we can draw from the struggles of Nepal and Bolivia?

1.    Democracy evolves through popular struggles. It is possible that some significant decisions may take place through consensus. These moments come when the country is going through transition to democracy, expansion of democracy or deepening of democracy.

2.    Democratic conflict is resolved through mass mobilisation. Sometimes it is possible that the conflict is resolved by using the existing institutions like the parliament or the judiciary.

3.    These conflicts and mobilisations are based on public participation with the help of organised political parties and pressure groups.

People play their role in two ways in decision making

1.      One obvious way of influencing the decisions in a democracy is direct participation. This is done by creating political parties, contesting elections and forming governments.

2.      There is another indirect way in which people can get governments to listen to their demands or their points of view by forming pressure groups (Non- Political organisations) and undertaking activities to promote their interests or their viewpoints.

Pressure groups and types of pressure groups

Pressure groups are non-political organisations that attempt to influence government policies.

These organisations are formed by people with common occupation, interest, aspirations or opinions in order to achieve a common objective.

Sectional interest groups

Interest groups which seek to promote the interests of a particular section or group of society are called sectional interest groups.

Example

Trade unions, business associations, lawyers, doctors and teachers associations.

Promotional or Public interest groups

The organisations which are not representing the interest of one section of society but representing common or general interests of the public. The members of these organisations may not get benefit.

Example

The Bolivian organization-FEDECOR and BAMCEF (Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation) are examples of that kind of organisations.

Movements or movement groups

Movements or movement groups are non- political organisations which attempt to influencepolitics indirectly. Movements have a loose organisation. Their decision making is more informal and flexible. They depend much more on spontaneous mass participation.

Example

Narmada Bachao Andolan, Movement for Right to Information, Anti-liquor Movement,

Women’s Movement and Environmental Movement.

Types of movements or movement groups

1.      Issue-specific movements( Single issue movements)

Issue-specific movements that seek to achieve a single objective within a limited time frame.

Example

In Nepal, Nepalese movement for democracy arose with the specific objective of reversing the king’s orders that led to suspension of democracy.

 In India, Narmada Bachao Andolan is a good example of this kind of movement. The movement started with the specific issue of the people displaced by the creation of Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada River.

2.      Multi issue movements

Movements that are seeking to achieve many objectives or issues in a long term period

Example

Women’s Movement and Environmental Movement.

How do Pressure groups and movements exert influence on politics(Government)?

1.      They try to gain public support and sympathy for their goals and their activities by carrying out information campaigns, organising meetings, filing petitions, influence media etc.

2.      They often organise protest activity like strikes, hunger strikes or disrupting government programmes in order to force the government to take note of their demands.

3.      Business groups often employ professional lobbyists or sponsor expensive advertisements. Some persons from pressure groups or movement groups may participate in official bodies and committees

The relationship between political parties and pressure groups can take different forms, some direct and others very indirect:

1.      In some instances, the pressure groups are either formed or led by the leaders of political parties or act as extended arms of political parties. For example, Youth congress for INC and RSS for BJP

2.      Sometimes political parties grow out of movements. For example, when the Assam movement led by students against the ‘foreigners’ came to an end, it led to the formation of the Asom Gana Parishad.

3.       In most cases the relationship between parties and interest or movement groups is hostile. They often take opposite positions.

Is pressure groups’ influence in politics healthy?

Healthy	Unhealthy
It may initially appear that it is not healthy for groups that promote interest of one section to have influence in democracy. A democracy must look after the interests of all, not just one section	Governments can often come under undue pressure from a small group of rich and powerful people.
Public interest groups and movements perform a useful role of countering this undue influence and reminding the government of the needs and concerns of ordinary citizens.	Sometimes, pressure groups with small public support but lots of money can hijack public discussion in favour of their narrow agenda
The government gets to hear about what different sections of the population want. This leads to a rough balance of power and accommodation of conflicting interests.	If one group brings pressure on government to make policies in its favour, another willbring counter pressure not to make policies in the way the first group desires

Political Parties

A political party

A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. They agree on some policies and programs for the society with a view to promote the collective good.

Partisan (Active member)

A person, who is strongly committed to a political party

Partisanship ( Follower)

Partisanship is marked by a tendency to take a side and inability to take a balanced view on an issue.

Components of a political Party

 A political party has three components:

1.      The leaders

2.      The active members and

3.      The followers

What does a political party do?  OR What are the functions of political parties? ORWhy do we need political parties?

1.      Political Parties contest elections. In most democracies, elections are fought mainly among the candidates put up by political parties. In India, top party leaders choose candidates for contesting elections.

2.      Parties put forward different policies and programs and the voters choose from them. In a democracy, a large number of similar opinions have to be grouped together to provide a direction in which policies can be formulated by the governments.

3.       Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Formally, laws are debated and passed in the legislature. But since most of the members belong to a party, they go by the direction of the party leadership.

4.      Parties form and run governments. Parties recruit leaders, train them and then make them ministers to run the government in the way they want.

5.      Those parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the ruling parties, by voicing different views and criticising government for its failures or wrong policies. Opposition parties also mobilise opposition to the government.

6.      Parties shape public opinion. They raise and highlight issues. Parties sometimes also launch movements for the resolution of problems faced by people.

7.      Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemesimplemented by governments. For an ordinary citizen it is easy to approach a local party leader than a government officer.

Why modern democracies cannot exist without political parties?

We can understand the necessity of political parties by imagining a situation without parties.

1.      Every candidate in the elections will be independent. So no one will be able to make any promises to the people about any (National level Policies) major policy changes.

2.      The government may be formed, but its utility will remain ever uncertain.

3.      Elected representatives will be accountable to their constituency for what they do in the locality. But no one will be responsible for how the country will be run.

4.      The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative democracies. As societies became large and complex, they also needed some agency to gather different views on various issues and to present these to the government.

5.       They needed Political party to bring various representatives together so that a responsible government could be formed. They needed a mechanism to support or restrain the government, make policies, justify or oppose them.