Exploring Social Movements Theories, Experiences and Trends, edited by Biswajit Ghosh (published by Routledge) in 2024, is a timely intervention in the bourgeoning fields of social movement studies. The anthology consists of case studies by oft-cited sociologists on various popular struggles in India. Despite the heterogeneity in social actors, objectives, and political implications of the struggles, the collection attempts to analyse them under one rubric. Further, the text also emphasises the growing trend of technological mobilisation in social movements.

The book contains nineteen chapters that are thematically divided into three parts: theory, social movements in India, globalisation and social movements. Part one (Chapters 1-5) discusses different approaches to understanding social movements, their limitations and contributions, the complex engagement among social movements, globalisation, state, market and social change. Part two (Chapters 6-13) delineates the origin, trajectories, and analysis of (new) social movements in India. Part three (Chapters 14-19) discusses the role of technology, media, and civil society in enabling social movements at national and global levels.

In the first chapter, titled Understanding Social Movements: Conceptual and Theoretical Issues, Biswajit Ghosh and Rabindra Garada begin by discussing what is a social movement. They argue that spontaneous collective actions of the crowd, protest or agitations that abruptly end without having much impact are not instances of social movements. Instead, collective mobilisation, organisation, ideology, interest articulation, leadership, and identity formation are essential elements of social movements.  Chapters 3 and 4 provide an analytical engagement between social movements and other phenomena. Subhasis Bandyopadhyay, in Intrinsic Dynamics of State, Market and Social Movements, challenges the limited perspective of social movements as reactive forces and argues that the state, market and social movements are interrelated as an organic whole. The author attempts to understand their interlinkages and impacts on capitalist social formation. Similarly, Swattasiddha Sarkar, in Social Change through Social Movements Role of Leadership and Ideology, unravels the relationship between social movement and social change. He argues that the two phenomena could exist independently with definite meanings but share an inter-relational or ‘reciprocal causality’. He also notes that “globalisation as a social phenomenon has penetrated every aspect of social reality” (p.79), and technology has enabled the spreading of awareness, mobilising and creation of global networks.

Most chapters from 6 to 13 broadly trace the trajectories and typologies of various social movements in India. The colonial and Indian state’s response to (new) social movements and technological globalisation are also covered. In Chapter 6, From Peasants to Farmers’ Movement: The Changing Agrarian Dynamics in India,  Jyotiprasad Chatterjee points out that the recent farmers’ protest against the repealing of three farm bills witnessed the participation of several women, Dalits, Muslims, and landless labourers. He suggests that the leader’s vision and sensitivity towards the movement are responsible for consolidating and expanding the ‘wide network’ against the state and global market forces. By and large, the chapters in part two are undergirded with questions like- How does the Indian state respond to the demands of the tribals, peasants, women, Dalits, ethnic groups, working class and environmental issues? How has the liberalisation, privatisation, and globalisation (LPG) development model affected marginalised groups? Are protest movements resisting the state and global market forces?

In Chapter 14, Globalisation, Technology, Media, and Social Movements, Sthitapragyan Ray and Neha Oja argue that technology and social media are pivotal for marginalised groups in communicating, organising, and mobilising people across national boundaries. In Dalit Movements: Typologies and Trajectories, Vivek Kumar shows that various Dalit newspapers, websites, YouTube channels, TV channels and other social media are used to communicate and create consciousness amongst the people. Similarly, In Chapter 19, Anti-Globalisation Movements, Shweta Shukla reaffirms the arguments that electronic media plays a crucial role in expanding and coalescing smaller and larger movements on global issues related to human rights, environmental degradation, labour rights, development and democracy. However, in Chapter 10, Movements of Organised and Unorganised Labour, Biswajit Ghosh and Tanima Choudhuri argue that digital technology has enabled trade union workers to communicate information and organise the workers, but simultaneously, the use of automation has generated problems of unemployment and ultimately weakening of the union’s power.

Exploring Social Movements Theories, Experiences and Trends justifies the title as each essay engages with concepts, theories and many recent protest movements. Although they claim to study experience, they want an ethnographic engagement with the social actors of those movements.

However, the book offers comprehensive perspectives on social movements and globalisation. The elaborate discussion on the various social movements in India also shows the interlinkages of social phenomena and their impact on marginalised groups. The enabling role of digital technology also urges us to think about the emerging structures of mobilisation. Further, examples of various protest movements of the past and present society enrich the study.

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Niki Rai is pursuing her PhD in the School of Liberal Studies, Dr B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD)