SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND POLITICAL TRANSFORMATION IN INDIA: A STUDY OF POLITICAL AGENDAS, POLICY REFORMS AND DEMOCRATIZATION

Povzetek

This paper explores the role of social movements in political agendas, policy reforms, and democratization in post-independent India. Constituting an interface between political sociology and constitutional law, this study attempts to address the paradox of democratic deepening through expanding avenues for intersectional mobilization and diminishing physical space for free dissent. The paper employs a qualitative and comparative case-study research design to examine the friction in state-society relations in three major social movements: farmers’, anti-corruption, and Dalit mobilization. In particular, it focuses on the democratic outcomes of the 2020-2021 farmer protests, India against Corruption (2011), and ongoing Dalit mobilization for social justice. The paper reveals the mechanisms by which these movements have influenced Indian democracy and its institutions. The analysis highlights the limitations of the state’s responsiveness to popular dissent as well as the movements’ adaptability to institutional design and policy consultation procedures. While collective action often predetermines the modification of democratic institutions, state responses tend to instrumentalize movements’ visibility for political capital. This paper argues in favor of the conceptualization of social movements as processes through which India’s democracy permanently renegotiates its critical constituents. It also offers policy recommendations for policy consultation practices in the pre-legislative scrutiny framework and ways in which social movements’ collective action can affect democratic change.