Social Movements in India and Gandhi

The long history of social movements clarifies that social movements are not a new phenomenon in India. But the studies of social movements have found significantly less attention in India. Survival of the fittest is the scientific theory that states that only those species will survive, which will fit according to the nature of a particular place. Human beings have always struggled for their survival. The struggle may be with nature, the environment or within the society. And, the study of social movements is the study of human struggle for survival. Social movements have various kinds like some time; they bring structural changes in the society and become the cause of social transformation. Social conflicts play an essential role in the emergence of social movements. In this way, social movements are the manifestations of the social problem. Social movements in India are as old as human civilization. When we study the history of India, we find that social movements in ancient India occurred in the form of religious movements. Buddhism and Jainism emerged in ancient India because of the religious movement. In modern Indian society, the colonial intervention provided reasons for the emergence of social movements. Social movements occurred because of political consciousness among the various ethnic groups. After the foundation of the Indian National Congress, the Indian masses got leaders like Gandhi and Ambedkar, who participated in social movements. Gandhi led political as well as social movements in India. On this ground, the paper is an attempt to understand the social movements in India. The article defines the conceptual understanding of social movements, history, types, and reasons. This paper emphasises on how Gandhi contributed to giving a new direction to the social movements in India? This paper will also focus on the use of Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence in social movements.