Social Tensions and Protest Movements in MaharashtraAuthor(s): D. N. DhanagareSource: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 20, No. 24 (Jun. 15, 1985), pp. 1030-1031Published by: Economic and Political WeeklyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4374511 .

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June 15, 1985 ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY

Social Tensions and Protest Movements in Maharashtra

D N Dhanagare

GROWING social tensions have become an inseparable part of modernising socie- ties and have been an important source of a variety of protest movements-a social reality that sociologists encounter prac- tically everyday. These tensions and social movements emanate from the ever- widening gap between rising aspirations of the people and limited resource-base as well as limited capacities of social systems to fulfil them. In other words, certain structural conditions and institutional inadequacies in bringing distributive justice to diverse but competing interest groups or pressure groups give rise to tensions and protest movements which in turn contribute significantly to social dynamics and change. For far too long sociologists in India had neglected study of social and political movements and although in the last decade and a half some sociological studies and researches on social movements have taken place, no attempt has been made to bring this theme on the cognitive map of those engaged in the teaching of sociology at the under- graduate level.

The need of sensitising sociology teachers to their immediate social sur- rounding and social reality must therefore be acknowledged. With a view to make under-graduate sociology teaching more purposeful and relevant by enriching its content through illustrative material drawn from immediate life situations, a ten-day long workshop on "Social Tln- sions and Protest Movements in Mahara- shtra" was organised by the Department of Sociology, Poona University from March 18 to 27, 1985. The workshop formed an integral part of the Depart- ment's activities initiated under the University Leadership Programme (ULP) of the UGC. From time to time different seminars, symposia and workshops had been organised by this Department for orientation and training of sociology teachers from colleges affiliated to the Poona University. It was felt that the benefit of such an innovative exercise should go to sociology teachers from other universities in Maharashtra too.

The workshop was inaugurated by Ram Joshi who stressed the need for studying social protests and movements from a more analytical and a more sympathetic point of view. He went into the question of concepts and definitions of 'social movement' in his inaugural address. In yet

another lecture Ram Joshi highlighted the social tensions arising out of the rapid and somewhat indiscriminate expansion of education (higher education in parti- cular), the growing inequalities in higher education (particularly professional edu- cation), the falling standards and quality of academic excellence, and the failure of the educational system to bring higher education within the reach of the disad- vantaged sections of society.

A number of topical themes were selected and on these lectures were arrang- ed by guest-speakers consisting of social science scholars, social reformers and activists. D N Dhanagare gave two lec- tures spelling out a proper conceptual and analytical framework and typologies for studying social protests and movements. On the very first day Sharad Joshi, the ideologue of the Shetkari Sanghatana in Maharashtra elucidated the ideology, organisation, agitational strategies and tactics of the recent farmers' movement for remunerative prices for agricultural produce. On the theme of women's libera- tion movement Neelam Gorhe an active worker of the Nari Samata Manch, Pune, highlighted the ideological streams and shades represented by different women's organisations and recapitulated the main demands of the women's movement today. Sharad Kulkarni, an activist engaged in the work of tribal conscientisation talked to the workshop participants on the tribal movements in Maharashtra. He focused attention on the questions of forest-lands, bonded labour, and rehabilitation of tribals affected by the newly constructed dams. Related to the theme of tribal pro- test movements, yet another lecture was delivered by R K Mutatkar of the Anthro- pology Department, Poona University.

In,recent times the Dalit movement in Maharashtra has attracted considerable attention of social scientists, politicians and activists alike. There are many thought streams within the Dalit move- ment and these were searchingly discussed by Baba Adhava of the Mahatma Phule Samata Pratishthan, Pune. He not only explained the legacy inherited by the pre- sent day Dalit movement from Mahatma Jyotiba Phuley and Babasahib Ambedkar but also stressed the need for a dialogue between the Dalits and the non-Dalits (caste Hindus) since confrontation would lead both of them nowhere except to

growing distrust and disaffection. The reflections of this discontent are increas- ingly seen in Dalit literature. In fact one can talk of a Dalit literar.y movement in Maharashtra. On this theme V G Pundlik delivered a lecture elaborating the various protest themes and their sensitive nuances as they have been reflected in various literary forms-novels, autobiographies, short stories, plays and poetry. Apart from these Anil Awachat spoke on the Devadasi pratha (the traditi6n of temple-women) and problems arising out of this custom. Prabhakar Mande of the Marathi Depart- ment, Marathwada University, talked to the workshop on the theme of 'supersti- tions, folkways and beliefs of people in Maharashtra'.

The working class movement was dis- cussed in three separate sessions. In one session M K Singh, Department of Socio- logy, Poona University, lectured on the problems of the working class movement today. Vijyendra Kabra from Aurangabad spoke on the changing nature of the labour/trade union movement, and diffe- rent labour laws in Maharashtra. This was followed by the third session in which Malanibai Thlpule narrated her expe- riences while working as an activist in the workers' movement, specifically in the engineering, chemical and bidi industries. She totally rejected the view that the leadership of professional 'outsiders' is largely responsible for the problems of working class movements today.

The Hindu-Muslim tensions, the pro- blem of Muslim, identity and roots of communal riots were discussed by U B Bhoite, Sociology Department, Poona University, in his lecture, while the problems of rural-urban-migration and the social tensions in urban slums were critically analysed by A Bopegamage and A Ramanamma. The latter attributed the rise of the Shiv Sena movement primarily to inter-state migration and competition among ethnic groups for scarce oppor- tunities.

Social tensions and protest movements arising out of regional disparities and developmental imbalances are burning issues today. The rise of the movement for a separate Vidarbha state and growth of a separate identity and consciousness among the people from the Marathwada region are cases in point. These were discussed by Vijayendra Kabra. He put forward the case of the Marathwada region very poignantly and criticised the recent Dandekar Committee's report which had bypassed the question of regional disparities as such by selecting the district and the taluka as units

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ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY June 15, 1985

for assessing development. In the next session a counterpoint was presented by V M Dandekar who was chairman of the Committee on Regional Imbalances. He brought out the political motives and undercurrents of the hue and cry over regional imbalances. Through statistics Dandekar showed that often some talukas within a district have received most of the benefits of development while other talukas-for example, in Sangli district- have remained dry and drought-affected in spite of massive capital inputs in irriga- tion schemes in that district. DandeKcar enumerated such instances of unevenness of growth both in the infrastructure (such as roads, transport, industries and irriga- tion) and in social welfare schemes (i e, education, health services and the like) and strongly defended the methodology adopted by his Committee in calculating the backlog of developmental expenditure districtwise, instead of regionwise. The two presentations, by Kabra and Dandekar, giving opposite viewpoints helped participants in the workshop in understanding the complexities of the pro- blem of regional disparities, in separating myth from reality and also in seeing through the motives of the political elite who have vested interest in promoting the 'regional identity'

A massive and somewhat indiscri- minate expansion of education (higher education in particular) has not only created its own problems but has led to intensifying educational inequalities in recent times. Social tensions arising out of such disparities manifest themselves in agitations and protest movements both for and against the reservation policy. The recommendations of the Mandal Com- mission in general and its retention of 'caste' as one of the important criteria for determining social and economic back- wardness in particular have sparked off such agitations and protests in certain parts like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. The root causes of these social tensions and protests were discussed in a symposium in which six teachers re- presenting different universities partici- pated. The symposium was conducted by T N Valunjkar.

Some 10 teachers from Amravati and Nagpur universities, one each from Shivaji and Bombay Universities, two from the SNDT Women's University, seven from Marathwada and 13 from Poona Univer- sity participated in this workshop. The workshop was in the form of a follow-up on a mo-nth-long Winter Institute which the Poona University's Department of Sociology had organised in November

1981 on 'Maharashtra-Society and Culture. The exercise enabled sociology teachers to perceive and to bridge the gap between the arm-chair musings of social scientists and the grassroots level social realities as well as the problems faced by social reformers and activists working in

different spheres. The nature of interface between social analysis and social action, the strength and limitations of both, and above all the need to bring effectively both of them into teaching and research prio- rities were revealed by the workshop with some measure of success.

Fidel Castro on Third World's Foreign Debt Firdaus Jhabvala

T'OWARDS the end of March, Fidel Castro, Cuban President, was interviewed by Regino Diaz Redondo, Director of Excelsior, one of Mexico's leading newspapers. At the time of writing this report, the interview was still being serialised. In the interview, Castro deals with a range of issues, including Central America, the Reagan Administration, Castro's own early years as a conspirator in Mexico in preparation for the over- throw of the Batista regime, etc. However, the first three parts of the serialised interview deal with the foreign debt of the Third World in general, and Latin America in particular. In three taped ses- sions that lasted 16 hours and three more conversations that went well into dawn, Castro sets out what he himself terms an 'Economic Proclamation. His basic theses are that the foreign debt of the Third World is so large that it is not repayable; that the effort to extract just the interest on the debt is converting the deep social crisis of the underdeveloped world into a revolutionary problem; and that a just solution to the problem would be for the creditor nations to pay off the foreign debt of the Third World employing 10 to 12 per cent of the resources that go into armaments.

In what follows, I have translated ex- cerpts from the Spanish text published in Excelsior and have attempted to select those parts of the interview that bear on the problem of foreign debt. Even so, for reasons of space, what follows is a sample of the interview.

Castro's first thesis develops out of the following question: "Could there be unity in Latin America among governments so dissimilar?"

Fidel Castro: "I think so. T he economic crisis and the debt are what is going to unite Latin America, and it's going to unite it much more thap the Falklands War (between Great Britain and Argen- tina). In this case, the Latin American people united because of a problem, we might say a sentimental, moral and poli- tical family relationship. We were dealing with the fight against a fellow people originating in a colonial pretension, a

historical booty, an unjust act when England was the most powerful empire on earth. They saw in the Falklands War a European country against a Latin American one, but it was not something that affected vital patriotic interests for the Latin American countries. That is to say, except for this patriotic Latin American aspect and the political aspect of the question, they didn't have anything to gain or lose economically. This solida- rity was really disinterested. However, given the relationship between the eco- nomic crisis of Latin America and its foreign debt, the solution of this problem is a question of survival for the Latin American countries.

"They talk of the crisis of the thirties. The present crisis is worse still. If oil is left out, the purchasing power of Latin America's export products is inferior to that of the crisis of the thirties. But without going back to such a distant date, calculating the prices of our products 24 years ago, the purchasing power of the principal traditional articles of export in many cases, among them sugar, is three to four times less at this moment ... Now, we have a bigger crisis, accumulated social problems incomparably greater, and a debt of 360,000 million dollars [md].

"An arithmetical analysis of this situa- tion shows that this debt is not payable, whether you analyse the situation of all the countries together, or of any one of them. In some cases it is more serious; but in all, without exception, it is serious.

"Brazil, according to the latest data compiled by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean of the UN, owes 101,800 md; Mexico 95,900 md; Argentina 48,000 md; Venezuela 34,000 md; ...

"Some countries, like Argentina, are utilising 52 per cent of their exports to pay interest on the debt; Bolivia uses 57 per cent; Mexico 36.5; Peru 35.5; Brazil 36.5 and Chile 45.5. It is considered that 20 per cetit of the total exports for the payment of the foreign debt is in itself an unsus- tainable percentage"

Regino Diaz Redondo: "What do these figures signify?"

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