Insurrection to Agitation: The Naxalite Movement in Punjab 8171545270, 9788171545278

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S..... -- •' . . ·1· . - . Ult - , ...EC.-T '.·O T-0 AGITAT IO···\ · '.

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riva~o-~ma3or flaws·. The .conc.epts of structural sofs 0 -· •. • .. • . • . do.not adequately explain the ernergepce

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f.nsurrection ·toA'gitation· . ' .

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social:. moyem~nY~Jt1~ir. explanations .;of. ~0'1diti9~s.(leadiilg ·to, the,· dcvelopmtnt of a·ni?vement, they focus?~ 1~lated formation, losing_. sight of totalio/,- Moreov_er,\lhey ~tte~pt to pr~vi~e ~ universal explanation of the emergence·ofa rfiovem~nt by treating the.m.e_m bers of a soerietyas a homogeneous mas~-\The p~cularity_ of society has not been taken into account by these th.eorie~very society, in terms of its history and culture, and in te~s of its co.nte.mJ?Oraneo,uscultural and social features, -differs frc?mother socie~~ There may be-certain objective conditions which 'can ~, generalized for all societies, but . • I these· conditions- ~d the emerge·nce of a social movement cannot ~ mechanic~ly related-to each.other. . A question c~ b~ raised : What)s the rriediating factor betw~n the development of a· social movement ancl the conditions. -whieh• are considered ~ conducive to its emergence? .•It may n9t be .ppssible to understand 'the _emergence. of a:,m~vem~_ntw.i~QUt iden~(ying the particul~ty 9f a society both in terms of_its~is.toryas we~ as the unique .cultural-features whicf\ distinguish it fu:>in.oµier soc.i~tjes.For_instance,. in feudal societies, .the form and content of ~movements have been entirely different from-those in capitalist systems.· • _ Moreover, .a comparison dftwo·capitalist-societies.with ahtjost the same level of economic development, for inktance~the English-and the French, shows that the f0rin and content of ~ial movements in ·these societies have certain unique features. Nineteenth century •France experienc-ed revolutionary upheavals which. had little .i~pact on England. Moreover, in the same .socio~historical conditions of deprivation and strain there;can s'imultane6usly occ~ ~wj -kinds of movements .iith .different· °forms of.·,stniggle · India,. . .. ' .. In qol~ajal ~,.,. pational liberation movements showe4'two disti~ct _approaches. W~ile • .. • ' ! . .. the Congress led .by Gandhi- adop~ the •~aceful, .saty~graha,- other ' .. I • nationalists resorted to _te1T9rism to get i:id of\.the British. _ The rise of Sikhism in Punjab irfQiedievai ~q,es .was quali~_tively different 'from· earlier· social.·movements~Afid ·now, fn the' rnooern period, tlie form and·content' 0f the Sikh m9vbmen~.are- ~Iso.,different from the earlier Sikh·movement. • .·. · \ • .• • The arg'urnent here' is;that,withithe.adve~·t, of, capiUllis.m,. use• Lukacs's (197l)'expression, ~'both·the·s~µo-ili'mporal ~ru:riers·between' different lands and territories, and also ttieleghl partitions betwee.n the different estates were destroyed. Man became \"consc~ousof himself as a social being" thal is, both the subject and obje~t of "the socio-historical process". Consequently, the nature of social ovem~mtsch~gcd from •

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Introduction 9

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natural and automatic eruptions arising out of strained ·a1 . . • d d • d . . soc1 crrcum stances to organize an su~tame movements. . / In general it can_be argued tha~odern movements are . . 'th 1 d consciously organized w1 p anne strategy and tactics which are subie t d • • • J c e to modificauons un der c hange d c1rc.umstances. These movements . 1 " • d . . exp Oll what may be ea IIe d the strru~e conditions" or the conditio f . . . ,, G ( ns o 9 "rel~uve depnvauon • uevara 1 (?1},on the basi~ of the experience of the Cuban revolution, asserts that it is not necessary to wait for lh revolutfrmary situation to develop; a revolutionary situation can i: crea~esesconsequences produced by social movement in terms of its functions. At the mani(est level it may bring about intended or unintended changes. The latent functions of a . sociaJ movement are primarily two, viz. a mo~ contr,ibutes t~ ~e formation of public opini()II, and it provides a platform for the tram mg of future leaders of societ0 . Smelser (1962) indicates three possible outcomes of a sociaJ movement. These arc : (i) success in terms of revolution or whatever is intended. (i 1)formation of a collectivity whicifTias durability and which --, docs not pose any threat t.o the system; and (iii) disappcaranc~ Wallace (1968). in his discussion of nativ.istic and revivalistic movements, writes that in the post-movement phase there are. , ' 'routinization" and a "steady state", implying that a social momement transforms itself into either a church or a political party and leads a normal Sl.3tc entirely different from the previous steady state. Since a so~ial movement is generally waged to change th~ •existing state of affa1rs, the-consequences of a particular movement are necessarily Lo be understood in the light of the genesis of the mo~cmcnt. That a particular movem~~t~an disappear without affecting so~1e_LY seems L? be a remote poss1b1Jity~A ma·o:- weakness of the cx1sung_explanauonsof the genesis of a soci ovement is that the d nottakc1moaccountthehistoryofamo'{C . ent Vari·ous Y. oh . • ·eh angesw 1 UC occu~ as a r~sult of a movement help in understanding the movcme J1 The ~ntcracuon between a social movement and the soc· l i IllJ rcacuon of the cstablishmenuo that movement may afi ·c/~ orces pnd that movement Thercforclit •. . . 1...: c course of ;ccn in the ligh; of the purplie •~d~sstntrnl ~•at consequences must be ,•I 0 social movement:· ' ogy an level of organization of a Fi na• I I y. a· word • • on what is gcnerall c] i . ' , . I movement or a 'pure' soci· I y ; evcd as a pure pohticat r~lations· among differnnt sc:m:~:em n~. !n modem socictics,intcrd1fficult to talk about a pure polit .. l a soc_ictyarc such !hat it is very o~ the other, the seemingly Jta or socml _movement. In on·e way • dimensions of society. Evc,ru~c ~ovcmcnt tntcrmingJcs \~ith oth,er Y soc1al movement has political implica-

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/ntrodu.ction

. f the movcmc'nl c.Jo not aim at Pol' . • 1 ll1c•1 Lions'even Similarly. poliuca movements have s _a 68 ov1.cr(Heberle. l 9 ): . ~ 1society. ;\s Marx wrote ( l 975: 16l) ~ 1~1 P . • . ,y struLJ ict • . • 1 ' t) implicauons in 31 it excludes pohuca movement. The