institutionalised

Sometimes, resistance of the people against dominance, directionand commands of the dominant groups and the state is treated as a social movement.Resistance is certainly an expression of protest. But so long as it remains at an individuallevel and desists from confrontation involving collective action it is not a movement

All those who strive for ‘political change’ do not always struggleagainst the government alone. The collective actions of the people are at various levelsagainst dominant culture, caste, class and ideology.Non-institutionalised collective action takes several forms, such as, protests,agitations, strikes, satyagrahas, hartals, gheraos, riots. Agitations or protests are notstrictly social movements, if we follow the working definition quoted earlier. But, moreoften than not, a social movement develops in course of time, arid it begins with protestor agitation on a particular issue which may not have the ‘organisation’ or ‘ideology’ forchange

In David Bayley’s words, it is ‘illegal publicprotest’ (1962). The term ‘illegal’ raises many questions and it is a matter ofinterpretation of law and the constitution. A particular action can be interpreted as illegalby those who are in authority or support the status quo, but the same action may beinterpreted as legal by those who strive for social change. ‘Direct action can be defined’,according to Rajni Kothari, ‘as an extra-constitutional political technique that takes theform or a group action, land] is aimed at some political change directed against thegovernment in power’

direct actions of agroup of people confronting authorit