B.A.

(Programme) Semester- VI History

Discipline Specific Elective (DSE)

Issues in Twentieth Century World History-II
Study Material : Unit I-IV

SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING

University of Delhi

Department of History
 Graduate Course
Discipline Specific Elective (DSE)
Issues in Twentieth Century World History-II
History
Study Material: Unit (I-IV)
Contents

War case studies, Korea/Vietnam

UNIT I: The World Divided: The Cold War-case
1. The Cold War Satish K. Jha
2. Politics of Cold War: Super Power Relations Dr. Smita Agarwal
UNIT II: Decolonization and the long shadow of colonial exploitation: Ghana/Algeria
1. Decolonization and After Ekta Shaikh
UNIT III: Popular Movements
1 (i) Environmental Movement: North and South Diwakar Kumar Singh
(ii) Environmental Disasters and Struggles Dr. Avantika Singh
2. Student Movements: Paris 1968 Prabhat Kumar
3. (i) South Africa: From Apartheid to Reconciliation Alisha Dhingra
(ii) Civil Rights Movements Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Nishant Yadav
4 (i) Issues In 20th Century World-Feminist
World Movement Puja Rani
(ii) Women’s Movements: Issues and Debates Rashmi Gopi
UNIT IV: Leisure and Entertainment
1. Neo-Realist Trends in
i World Cinema Sanchita Srivastava
2. Cinematic, Cultural, and Social Significance of Satyajit Ray Films Sanchita Srivastava
3. Socio-Political
Political Significance of the James Bond Films Sanchita Srivastava

Editor:
Dr. Rajni Nanda Mathew
Prabhat Kumar

SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING

University of Delhi
5, Cavalry Lane, Delhi-110007
 UNIT I :THE WORLD DIVIDED: THE COLD WAR-CASE STUDIES,
KOREA/VIETNAM
1. THE COLD WAR
Satish K. Jha
Reader in Political Science
RLA (E) College, Delhi University
The Second World War unleashed new forces and new powers in World Politics. In 1945,
the allied forces led by the US, Soviet Union, Britain and France defeated the axis powers
led by Germany, Italy and Japan. Thereafter, the world witnessed the rise of two centres
of power – the US and the USSR. Gradually these two centres of power turned into
power blocs – The Western camp led by the US and the Eastern camp led by the USSR.
The two groupings in The World Politics for the first time in human history got organized
on ideological lines. The rivalry between the two became intense setting the new type of
warfare in operation, which came to be known as Cold War.
The Cold War was different from earlier wars in the sense that no military conflict
between the US and the USSR took place. It was an ideological warfare in which power
rivalries, military alliances and new type of balance of power equations were tried. The
western alliance led by the US and its allies like Britain and France represented the
ideology of liberal democracy, were as the Soviet Union championed the ideology of
socialism and communism. The struggle for the power and the strategic superiority which
this period witnessed was ideological warfare between the ideological blocks, known as
the Western and the Eastern blocs. The bipolar division of World had a strategic
dimension as well which got manifested in military alliances like NATO and Warsaw
pact. The Cold War was a state of tension in which each side adopted policies designed to
strengthen itself and weaken the other but it always fell short of actual war. In fact it
involved all means of warfare except direct arm conflict, thereby, pushing the World in a
state of uneasy peace.
Thus, the Cold war was central defining feature of post world war politics. However,
what precisely caused this war and who were principally responsible for this conflict has
been a debatable question. There are different theories and interpretations of events
leading to the Cold War.
Western scholars talk of soviet expansionism, its occupation of Eastern Europe and their
design to impose communism on nation after nation to be primarily responsible for
compelling the U.S. to take defensive measures. On the other hand, scholars who were
sympathetic to the Soviet Union held American Scheme of global domination and its
imperialist design to be responsible for it. However, there is a third approach which
believes that both were responsible and they give the example of Soviet refusal to allow
elections in East Germany, their refusal to withdraw army from Iran after the war as to be
provocative action. Similarly, they hold the US responsible for Cold War in the sense that
it hardly ever missed an opportunity to prick Soviet Union and it could be seen from
dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima to ‘Iron Curtain’ speech of Churchill.

1
Williams, has opined that the Soviet Union was not interested in expansionism as it is
believed to be what it was doing was building friendly relationships with neighbours in
Eastern Europe and it was primarily interested in rebuilding its War- ravaged economy.
Fleming, on the other hand feels that it was not the role of ideology which caused Cold
War. Had president Roosevelt of the US been alive, the policy of co-operation would
have continued with the Soviet Union. In his opinion, it was President Truman and his
advisers who adopted the policy of confrontation leading to the Cold War.
Albert Carry is of the opinion that the Cold War was the result of changes in balance of
power equations. He feels that Europe which was the earlier centre of World Politics, had
been eliminated from central position without blaming either the US or Russia, he says
that demotion of Europe and emergence of the US and the USSR as major actors of
World Politics were responsible for the Cold War.
Louis Halle feels that Cold War was caused by Russia. He does not blame either Stalin or
Communism as responsible for the Cold War. In his opinion whenever balance of power
in world politics had been disturbed, a combination of forces emerged to restore it and at
that time Stalin was disturbing it. Hence, a combination of nations emerged to check it.
Halle condemns Russia for having Russian behaviour and not communist behavior under
communism. The Soviet Union continued to practice Tsarist culture, which was
authoritarian and non-conciliatory.
Causes of Cold War
There is no unanimity among scholars about the origin and the precise reasons of Cold
War. Some of them have traced its origin to Bolshevik revolution of 1917. While for
others, the cold war started about the time the three powers namely U.S., Soviet Union
and Britain started a conference in 1945 at Post Dam to discuss the future shape of World
Politics. The mutual mistrust between the east and the west (Russia and the USA/Britain)
got reflected in this conference itself. But some scholars seem to believe that the
immediate reasons of the Cold War lay in the very circumstances under which the Second
World War came to an end. Few of them also attribute it to the law of history, i.e., the
victorious powers always tend to fall out among themselves when the conflict which
earlier had brought them together ceases to exist.
But on the basis of what happened in 50s, 60s and to some extent even in 70s, some
factors can be mentioned which in one way or the other contributed towards plunging the
entire World into the Cold War.
Bolshevik Revolution
Once communist revolution took place in Russia, the Western powers were
uncomfortable with this development in the middle of the Europe. Though Western
powers and the communist Russia fought against Nazi Germany together during the
Second World War. But the western world always looked at Stalin and his communist
ideology as dangerous as Nazism and Fascism.
Hence, the U.S. and its allies were not ready to accept the Soviet Union in the emerging
framework to govern the world order. This mistrust between the two superpowers was at
the root of all that transpired during the Cold War.

2
Question of Second Front
During the Cold War, Hitter had started fighting on the two fronts. On the eastern front
Soviet Union solely bore the brunt of fighting Hitter whereas on the western front, the
western powers were jointly dealing with Germany. Stalin, who was finding difficult to
neutralize Hitter alone, requested the western powers to join the Second Front along with
Russian army in order to take the pressure off from Russia. However, the western powers
turned it down thus making Stalin quite suspicious about western intentions and their
strategic designs.
Atom Bomb
It was decided during the war itself that the two superpowers will together attack Japan
after the conclusion of war but the US in order to demonstrate its strategic and military
superiority over the Soviet Union dropped and atom bombs in 1945 on Japan. This action
was meant to send signal to the Soviet Union that the U.S.A. was the nuclear power and
hence would dictate terms – in the post Second World War world politics. Besides this,
the U.S.A. had also concealed the research that was going on during Second World War
to develop nuclear weapons particularly from Soviet Union.
Germany and Eastern Europe
The future of Europe in general and Germany in particular added new dimensions to
already existing tensed political climate. At the conference four powers occupation of
Germany and Berlin had been agreed upon. But the fact of the matter is that both the
camps were strategizing to enhance their respective influence and control over Germany.
Similarly Russia wanted that the Eastern Europe which was closer to its borders to be
communized and by February 1948, Stalin succeeded in this endeavour when Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland were brought under Russian security umbrella. This
communization of Eastern Europe triggered reactions in the rival camp and they reacted
with equally provocative policy measures.
Iran and Turkey
Soviet armies, it is well known were kept in both Iran and Turkey for much longer period
than it was stipulated earlier in the agreement. This action confirmed the western
suspicion that the Soviet Union was interested in expanding its arena of influence to
encircle the western democracies with ideological and strategic alliances and influence.
Churchill’s Foulton Speech
British former Prime Minister Churchil who delivered his greatest policy speech at
Foulton in the U.S. Prepared a ground for post war ideological confrontation of the Cold
War. In this speech Churchill called Stalin and communism to be one of the greatest
scourge for humanity. During this speech he also used the term ‘Iron curtain’ to explain
how Russia had created barriers in Europe to protect its sphere of influence. Many
scholars today believe that this Foulton speech was primarily responsible for starting the
Cold War.

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Growth and Evolution
The Cold War progressed through different phases till it was formally over after the
disintegration of the Soviet Union, one of the main players in this game of Politics.
First phase (1947-1950)
The formal beginning of the Cold War was made with the initiation of the Truman
doctrine, which put Cold War in action. Truman’s ‘Policy of Containment’ was based
on its assessment of the Soviet Union as inherently hostile to western interests and which
is hell bent on expanding its area of influence.
The Truman doctrine was accompanied by a strategy known as the ‘Marshall Plan’. This
plan was meant for economic recovery and reconstruction of Europe. The idea behind this
plan was to extend help to those European nations which had been devastated during the
World War and who were interested in accepting economic assistance. What worried the
U.S. at that time was that for poverty stricken people in Western Europe communism
might appear very attractive and hence they might go the Soviet way. Hence, the
Marshall Plan was proposed to neutralize such danger of more and more European power
sliping into Stalin’s ideological framework. In other words one can say that the Marshall
Plan was the economic version of the policy of containment propounded through the
Truman doctrine.
In reaction to these measures, Stalin reactivated com inform to co-ordinate the activities
of its allies. It was meant to tighten Soviet’s control over the Eastern Europe.
Hence, we find that the Cold War was in full swing with these measures and counter-
measures and the ideological warfare spread throughout the Europe. The Berlin blockade
was the first indication of a confrontationist political climate and the subsequent creation
of NATO in 1949 was further vindication of this politics. Apart from this, the thirty-years
long Chinese civil war led to victory of the communists. This had a major impact in
Asian affairs and perception in both Moscow and Washington.
Second Phase (1950-1953)
The Cold War entered into second phase with the Korean crisis which also took the Cold
War outside the borders of Europe. Through this war did not bring any significant change
in power equations but it certainly globalised the containment policy as well as the cold
war. This period is also significant for the Soviet Union as it exploded its atom-bomb and
attained strategic party with the U.S., forcing many scholars to observe that it was
beginning of an era of balance of terror. Because both the superpowers now possessed the
nuclear arsenals.
Third Phase (1953-1957)
The third phase of Cold War was marked by death of Stalin in 1953. There was also a
change in Presidency in the U.S., as Eisenhower replaced Truman. In this period it is to
be recalled that the US shifted its policy from simple containment to massive retaliation,
to liberate people from communist dictatorship.
In Russia, interestingly a process of de Stalinisation was started by Khrushchev. This
opened however of a possibility of some mitigation in the hostility. But very soon these

4
hopes got shattered and the Cold War was transported to another part of Asia i.e.,Indo-
China and Vietnam. Militarily, this phase was marked by the signing of Warsaw Pact
among Russian allies and the formal division of Germany into East and West.
The death of Stalin in 1953 signified many developments for the USSR at home as well
as in foreign affairs : Khrushchev policy let loose reformist forces in the Eastern Europe.
Though Poland was controlled but situation in Hungary became worrisome for the Soviet
Regime. In 1956, Soviet intervention in Hungary led to blood shed and heated up the
Cold War temperature.
The Soviet intervention in Hungary coincided with an attack on Egypt by Britain, France
and Israel, which was precipitated by Colonel Nasser’s seizure of Suez Canal. Though
American president Eisenhower was not in support of his allies act in Egypt as it
deflected the attention from the Soviet action in Hungary. But, still the Suez crisis took
the Cold War politics to the Middle East, which was smoldering since the founding of the
state of Israel in 1948. Though both the USA and the USSR had supported the creation of
a Jewish State. But in 1950’s, the Soviet foreign policy supported Arab nationalism.
Nasser moved towards a form of socialism, though not of Marxist-Leninist brand. In the
meanwhile, Israel developed relations with British and the French leading to a secret
understanding to attack Egypt is 1956. The signing of Baghdad Pact (1955) later known
as CENTO was a fall out of these events. Before this, in 1954, the SEATO had already
come into existence in the South East Asia after the defeat of the French by the
Vietnamese and the subsequent division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel.
Fourth Phase (1957-1962)
This phase was marked by two extreme trends – one in direction of the principle of co-
existence, while the other pulling in another direction of bellicosity as reflected in the
Cuban Missile crisis which brought the entire world on the brink of nuclear war.
The crisis over Cuba in 1962 was the most dangerous moment is the Cold War. The
superpowers, perhaps, for the first time, stood in eye ball to eye ball confrontation. But
both American President Kennedy and the Soviet President Khrushchev became anxious
to reach at a diplomatic settlement. Finally Khrushchev decided to withdraw the missiles,
which he has installed is Cuba in return of assurance that America would not invade
Cuba.
Fifth Phase (1962-1969)
The happenings of 1962 were followed by a period of both competition and coexistence.
Though nuclear armaments continued to grow and some new nuclear weapons states
came into existence – Britain, France and China. But this was period was marked by the
new realization that nuclear weapons were not good for peace and humanity. Hence
Partial Test Bar Treaty (PTBT) was negotiated in 1963, which banned testing of nuclear
weapons in the atmosphere. Simultaneously, the growing concern over the spread and
proliferation of nuclear weapons culminated into the negotiation of Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treat (NPT) in 1968. Under this treaty, the states, which possessed nuclear
weapons, committed themselves to stop arms race, while those who did not have,
resolved not to develop them ever. In this period, Khrushchev talked of peaceful
coexistence and carried it forward by visiting America.

5
Sixth Phase (1969-1978)
This phase is remembered for ‘Détente’ which was cessation of tensions. Interestingly,
whereas the USSR and the USA began a new era of co-peration. On the other side of
spectrum, a new rift started between two ideological friends and partners – the USSR and
China known as Sino-Soviet conflict.
We will do well to remember that in spite of superpower ‘Détente’ they meddled in local
conflicts, as for e.g, Indo-Pak war of 1971 is a case to be mentioned.
This period would be remembered for the ‘Détente’ between the USSR and the USA and
rapprochement between China and the USA on the other. While America’s involvement
in vietnam was deepening, the Soviet-Chinese relations were also becoming strained. By
1969, China and the Soviet Russia had fought a minor border war due to territorial
dispute. This Sino-Soviet Conflict became a major turning point in the history of Cold
War, as it became in compatible with the ideological pattern of the Cold War Politics.
The American president Nixon and his adviser Henry Kissinger were instrumental in the
US-USSR ‘Détente’ as well as the Sino-American rapprochement. Though it is to be
remembered that this new phase in the Soviet-American relations did not lead to
cessation of all political conflict. Both superpowers supported and patronized friendly
regimes and movement, while at the same time tried to subvert their adversaries. And
most notably, the third world countries became the theatre of such activities. The Indo-
Pak war of 1971 and the upheavals in Ethiopia in 1975 and Aagola in 1978 are case in
point when the two superpowers pursued their political goals by meddling into local
conflicts.
Seventh Phase (1979-1987) : The New Cold War
The new Cold War started with Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979 as it marked
the end of the period of ‘Détente’. The new cold war phase witnessed massive arms race
and it also reached the outer space which was done through American President Reagan’s
‘Star-war programme’.
The new or the second cold war, which followed the short peiod of detente in super
power relationship is associated this period. The critics of détente in the west got
vindicated when the Soviet forces occupied Afghanistan is 1979 and which is considered
to be the beginning of the second cold war. The Western critics of détente, from the very
beginning, were arguing that Soviet Union was only buying time to acquire nuclear
superiority. The subsequent strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which become popular as
“Star Wars” and which was defence related research programme designed to explore the
possibility of space based defence against missiles, was the immediate fall out of the
second cold war.
The USA, under its new president Regan made significant departure on Nuclear Weapons
and its intervention is Grenada (1983) and Libya (1986). Regan’s support to rebels in
Nicaragua and his doctrine for Latin America triggered fresh controversies.
The Soviet were not for behind. In 1983 its air defences shot down a South Korean
civilian airlines in its air space.

6
But with a peculiar twist of history, Mikhail Gorbachev became president of the USSR in
1985. His new thinking and reformist approach in foreign policy along with his initiative
for domestic reforms created a sort of new revolution both within the Soviet Union and
its relations with the USA and the Western powers. His policy of Glasnost (openness) and
Perestroika (restructuring) unleashed forces for change, which facilitated a new ‘Détente’
with the west.
End of the Cold War
The advent of Gorbachev on the Soviet scene and his reform policies of Glasnost and
Perestroika in domestic matters and his desire to engage the west into peace negotiations
transformed the international politics of the Cold War days. He paved the way for
agreements on nuclear weapons and conventional forces. In 1987, Gorbachev signed the
Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which banned intermediate-range nuclear
missiles, including cruise and perishing II. Later the American President George Bush
and Gorbachev concluded a strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) agreement, which
reduced long-range nuclear weapons. But this phase of new détente did not last long as
due to quick succession of events and crises, the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991 and
formally ended a long chapter in international politics, that was the cold war.
Impact of the Cold War on International Politics
The Cold War impacted the World Politics to the same extent as the two world wars had
done. The fear psychosis in international politics was triggered which set the nation-states
on path of arms race. The division of the globe into rival camps-ideological and strategic
– was the result of the cold war. The formation of military alliances – NATO and Warsaw
Pact – and the covert and overt interventions in different regions were the manifestations
of the cold war politics, which adversely affected both development and progress in the
world. The nation-states diverted their resources from development to armament which
sustained the military – industrial complexes which had come up in the developed
countries of the west.
But the Cold War Politics also met with some resistance and reaction. The non-aligned
movement (NAM) was one such protest movement in the world politics, which
championed constructive dissociation from active power politics in context of the cold
war and caught the imagination of many countries. It questioned the policies of the super
power and tried to bring back the agenda of development and disarmament before the
world community. The demand for New International Economic Order (NIEO) was the
offshoot of this politics.
The cold war also made the United Nations which was created to enforce collective
security totally ineffective and country after country looked towards the super powers and
their security umbrella for their protection than relying on the U.N. system.
But the end of the Cold War has equally transformed the politics of the globe. The end
of it has impacted international politics as massively as its on set had done. Some of its
impacts are :
(a) It has destroyed the bi-polarity in the world.
(b) It has put question mark on the relevance of NAM.

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(c) The Third World Countries have become more vulnerable to arm twisting by the big
powers.
(d) The disintegration of the Soviet Union and the new dominance of the USA which is
now called new Pax-Americana, has a created new structures of dominance and
resistance.
(e) The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and creation of new
terms for trade and development which are loaded in favour of more developed
countries are some of the indications of the post cold war world system.
(f) Proliferation of nuclear weapons and the rise of ethnic nationalism and religious
fundamentalism in different parts of the world and their confrontation with the
secular states, which is some time referred as the ‘New Cold War”, are emerging
sites of threat to world peace and have become new menace in post cold war world
politics.
SUGGESTED READINGS
 Fred Halliday – Making of the Second Cold War
(London, Verso, 1983)
 John Baylis, Steve Smith and Patricia oweas – The Globalisation of World Politics:
An introduction to International Relations
(London, Oxford university Press, 2004)
 J.Young and J.Kent – International Relations since 1945
(London, oxford university Press, 2003).
 Northedge and Grieve – One harded years of international relations
(New York: Praeger, 1971)
 Peter Calvocoressi – World Politics since 1945
(London, Longman, 2001)

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 2. POLITICS OF COLD WAR: SUPER POWER RELATIONS
Dr. Smita Agarwal
Structure
2.0 Objective
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Origins and Causes of Cold War
2.3 Phases and Politics of Cold War
2.3.1 First Phase (1946-1949)
2.3.2 Second Phase (1949-1953)
2.3.3 Third Phase (1953-1957)
2.3.4 Fourth Phase (1957-1962)
2.3.5 Fifth Phase (1962-1969)
2.3.6 Sixth Phase (1969-1978)
2.3.7 Last Phase (1979-1987)
2.4 The Collapse of Communism
2.5 Vietnam War
2.5.1 Vietnam divided after the End of French Rule
2.5.2 Geneva Accords in July 1954
2.5.3 Gulf of Tonkin Crises
2.5.4 United States negotiates a Withdrawal
2.6 Korean War
2.6.1 Invasion
2.6.2 Super Power Rivalry
2.7 Summing up/Conclusion
2.8 References
2.9 Self Assessment Questions
2.0 Objective
The aim of this lesson is
 To discuss Cold War. Various Scholars have discussed Cold War as indirect
confrontation between USA and USSR that was due to ideological difference
between Capitalism and Communism.

9
  To acquaint students with the Political history of the time starting from 1945 to
1990
 To understand why there were no direct wars between Superpowers
 To understand why Cuban Missile did not escalate into complete War.
2.1 Introduction
Cold War, has been defined in dictionary of Politics as “ a state of tension between
countries in which each side adopts policies designed to strengthen itself and weaken the
other but falling short of actual hot war” (Arora & Chandra: 1997,182). Cold War was an
open confrontation but restricted in terms of direct war that developed between the
United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that occurred after Second
World War. The Cold War had only limited uses of weapons as it was mostly war of
ideas in which propaganda method was used. The term was described by the English
writer George Orwell in an article published in 1945 to refer to what he predicted would
be a nuclear stalemate between “two or three monstrous super-states, each possessed of a
weapon by which millions of people can be wiped out in a few seconds.”(Britannica
Encyclopedia, 1998) It was first used in the United States by the American presidential
adviser Bernard Baruch in a speech at the State House in Columbia, South Carolina, in
1947 when he said that “let us not be deceived, we are today in the midst of a Cold War”
(Britannica Encyclopedia, 1998). This situation that arose was the result of a long mutual
distrust and jealousy among the super powers. Russia developed deep suspicion about
Anglo- American motives when it delayed in sending help to Russia in opening second
front against Germany during Second World War. America had also maintained secrecy
over the manufacturing of atom bomb. At the same time, west was upset over Russia’s
sudden war with Japan and annexation of its territories. These instances of mutual distrust
had led to sharp rivalry immediately after the end of Second World War that developed
into Cold War.
2.2 Origin and Causes of Cold War
After the end of Bolshevik revolution, Russia had emerged as another nodal super power
that irked the west. Initially, the western powers were against the communist government
that was set after the revolution. Before the beginning of Second World War, in order to
maintain peace, Russia had tried to bring all power holders under the security system of
League of Nations. In the early years of Second World War, Russia had opposed western
powers’ Policy of Appeasement towards Germany that ignored her moves to annex
neighbouring countries. The seeds of the Cold War germinated from that time onwards.
Despite Russia joining the Allies during Second World War to fight Germany, it did not
help in bridging the distrust as they lacked coordination. This was because Anglo-
Americans had delayed opening second front to defend Russia from Germany. Also
America had maintained its secret of manufacturing of atom bomb from Russia. With the
end of Cold War two opposite conditions evolved: one was America’s aim in bringing out
stability in the world to avoid economic depression through use of capitalist ideology and
second, Soviet wanted Germany to be partitioned so that it could be used as a buffer zone
between West and friendly Eastern Europe countries. The final turning point was that
triggered Cold War was Soviet’s refusal to open Black sea straits and Danube waters to

10
curtail America’s expansion towards Eastern Europe. Thus, in 1946 Winston Churchill’s
speech in United Kingdom said “A shadow has fallen upon the scene so lately lighted by
international organization... from Stettin in Baltic to Triestie in the Adriatic an iron
curtain has descended across the continent” (Britannica Encyclopedia, 1998). He called
for Anglo-American alliance and declared that Soviet Union hegemony can be fought
only by language of force. Thus this marked the beginning of Cold War.
Some of the reasons for beginning of Cold War have been discussed by Scholars of
international relations as follows: “Firstly, usually they see Cold War as the result of
mutual antagonism that arose out of ideological incompatibilities between Capitalism and
Communism. For example, James F. Bynes US undersecretary had said that “there is so
much of differences in the ideologies of USA and Russia that working together will be a
problem” (Lowe 1997: 122). Soviet’s suspicion of America was also based on past
incidences, wherein, after Bolshevik revolution when communist government was set up
in Russia, America had not established diplomatic relations with new government till
1933. It did not involve Russia in Manhattan project that was developing atom bomb and
Allied powers delayed opening second front against Germany when it attacked Russia.”
(Lowe 1997: 122) Secondly, after the Second World War, the Armament race between
the two super powers picked up. This strained the relationship further. This happened
when after the Second World War, Soviet Russia had increased its military strength
which posed a threat to the Western Countries. Americans started to manufacture the
Atom bomb, Hydrogen bomb and other deadly weapons. So, the whole world was
divided into two power blocs and paved way for the Cold War. (Lowe 1997: 127) Lastly,
the continuous use of Veto power in the Security Council of the United Nations by Russia
irked USA. This was done as the reconstruction of world on capitalist lines was proposed
by USA which was opposed by Soviet Russia. This crushed all the plans of western
countries who became annoyed with Soviet Russia thereby giving rise to the Cold War.
(Lowe 1997: 123)
2.3 Phases and Politics of Cold War
Cold War has gone through many ups and downs. While at some moments it was a silent
current, at other times, it blew out. In all these phases what we see was that there were
indirect conflicts where super powers were at loggerheads. Broadly, Cold War can be
divided into following phases:
2.3.1 First Phase (1946-1949):
The Second World War ended in 1945 and strain erupted between two super powers i.e.,
US and USSR in the first phase. The problem started at Yalta Conference when it was
decided that immediately after end of War free elections would be held in Eastern
Europe. America had always tried to control the spread of Red Regime in Russia. The
geo-political climate during this phase changed so swiftly that Russia got a chance to set
up communist government first in Poland. It was then through plots and ploys communist
government extended to Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary, Yugoslavia and then to other
Eastern European countries. This was usually done by use of deceptive measures such as
killing opposition leaders or jailing them and sometimes by use of force. This extended
the influence of Russia which was seen as a strategy to counter America. Following
Russia’s example, America helped Greece and Turkey in establishing capitalism through

11
the use of Truman Doctrine (March, 1947). The aim of this doctrine was “to support free
people who were resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure”. It led
to receiving of aid and arms from USA to counter the communist pressure. After these
interventions, USA increased its policy of containing communism by announcing
Marshall Plan in June, 1947. According to this plan, America gave financial and
ammunition assistance to Western European countries who were reeling under poverty,
hunger and instability. Russia on the other hand tried to safeguard its allies by
announcing Moltovo Plan that gave assistance to its satellites and setting up of
Cominform to draw together all satellite communist parties and bring them under one
umbrella. Following its extensive campaign to bring as many countries under
communism as possible, Russia intervened in Czechoslovakia and brought her also under
the communist rule in 1948. With tensions mounting in both the camps, Germany got to
see super power rivalry next. This happened when western powers merged their areas to
create Trizonia that later came to be known as Federal Republic of Germany while Soviet
Union converted its occupied territory of Germany to German Democratic Republic. This
partition of Germany was the result of Postdam resolution that was held in 1945.
Tensions escalated between the two camps when Soviet stopped western powers access to
Berlin that led to massive airlift (known as Berlin Blockade and Airlift). These tensions
were further escalated when USA refused to accord recognition to communist
government of China and support to Formosa Government and Russia refused to
withdraw army from Iran. After the formation of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization) in 1949, furious race of nuclear weapons took place that created more
tension. However with the death of Stalin and change of regime in USA, the Cold War
took a halt. (Lowe 1997: 128-129)
2.3.2 Second Phase (1949-1953):
This phase marked some cooling off period which was due to change in leadership in
both the countries. In 1945, at Moscow Conference, Soviet Russia, America and UK had
decided to bring stability in Far-East especially Korea. At that time majority of the
Koreans favored complete independence. As the talks were going on to form the
commission as per Moscow agreement, USA showed reluctance to form the commission
fearing that interim communist Government of North Korea might win. This suspicion
led to the matter being referred to United Nations in 1950. Before any decision could
come, North Korea declared war against South Korea by taking armaments help from
Russia and army personnel from China. With things getting out of hand, America used
this situation to gain legitimate sanctions from United Nations and sent military aid to
South Korea. With favorable political climate, both North Korea and South Korea signed
peace treaty in 1953 and ended the war. Fearing more such actions USA tried to reduce
the impact of Soviet Communism, by spending a huge amount of dollar in propaganda
against Communism. On the other hand, Soviet Russia tried to equalize itself with
America and tested atom bomb. Despite the signing of treaty both the powers continued
to exercise their influence in Korea there by triggering hostility. In this phase what we see
is that both the powers tried to curtail the influence of the other and played game of
power with politics of vengeance (Baylis, Smith & Owens 2011:58).

12
2.3.3 Third Phase (1953-1957):
During this phase a number of regional co-operations were announced. United States of
America continued its military and economic offenses with rigor against Soviet Russia.
Firstly, it formed South-East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) in South East region
with its supporters in 1954 in order to minimize Soviet Russia’s influence. Next in 1955,
America formed Middle East Defence Organization (MEDO) in Middle East. Within a
short span of time, America encircled Soviet Russia thereby restricting its expansion by
giving military assistance to 43 countries and forming 3300 military bases around Soviet
Russia. This mutual confrontation then showed off in the Vietnamese War that started in
1955. To counter the American Power, Russia signed WARSAW PACT, a Defence pact
with 12 Countries in 1955. At the same time, America finding an opportunity ripe, tried
to free Hungary from communist rule. This attempt was foiled. Both the super powers
continued to increase their military strength and tested hydrogen bomb. Their actions
showed as if war was inevitable but they maintained restraint. With change of leadership
political relationship between the two super powers changed. First thing that happened
was that an agreement was signed between America and Russia in 1956 regarding the
Suez Crisis that moderated international relations. According to this agreement, America
agreed not to help her allies like England and France and Soviet agreed to help opposing
parties. This move saved West Asia from a great danger of full war and destruction. Very
soon Vietnam War (Elaborated later in this lesson) started that again pitched both the
powers against each other. However, intensity of the war subsided when first peace talk
summit was held in Geneva in 1955. Later a treaty was also signed between Australia,
New Zealand and America in September, 1957 which was known as ANZUS to
strengthen military and economic relations (Baylis, Smith & Owens 2011:59)
2.3.4 Fourth Phase (1957-1962):
This phase was marked by two extreme ends. On one hand, the theory of peaceful
coexistence developed and on the other hand, the world saw the most dangerous nuclear
confrontation in the form of Cuban missile crisis which brought mankind to the brink of
third war. Initially both powers showed mutual co-existence by having social, cultural
and economic exchanges. In 1959 the Russian President, Khrushchev went on a historical
tour to America that sent a new message of cooperation that would begin the political
history of two countries. However, this was very short-lived as new incidences marred
their relationship. For instance, U-2 accident occurred where an American-spy plane was
shot down in heart of Russia which was accepted by America. Next, the Berlin crisis took
place when Russian President insisted on withdrawals by American forces from West
Berlin which was rejected by America. At the same time, the problem further escalated –
East Germany people were reeling under economic strains that were making living
impossible as a result thousands of them were escaping to West Germany. This prompted
Russia to build a 25 km Berlin wall in 1961, in order to check the immigration of eastern
Berlin people to Western Berlin. All these incidents narrowed down to one of the biggest
nuclear war in 1962, through Cuban Missile Crisis. It aggravated the Cold War. This
incident was predecessor to political events in Cuba which started from Fidel Castro
coming to power and nationalizing American owned estates and industries. This put a
strain on Cuba-American relations, while Russia-Cuba relationship improved. America,
convinced of curtailing spread of communism in Cuba, attacked Cuba in Bay of Pigs.

13
However the intensity of attacks was easily turned down by Cuban government who
defeated the American forces. Following this incident, Russia decided to set up nuclear
missile launches in Cuba (only hundred miles from USA border) which were aimed at
USA. The missiles’ range was very large that could destroy all major cities of USA.
While military advisers of Kennedy wanted him to attack Russian bases, he acted in
restraint because he was aware of possible aftermath which may take place if he
retaliated. This incident created an atmosphere of conversation between American
President Kennedy and Russian President Khrushchev under the guidance of United
Nations President. In this discussion, America assured Russia that she would not attack
Cuba and Russia in turn would also withdraw missile station from Cuba (Lowe 1997:
135-136).
2.3.5 Fifth Phase (1962-1969):
This phase saw marked increase in cooperative relationship between USA and USSR.
After Cuban Missile crises there was a worldwide acceptance that demanded a ban on
nuclear weapons. This compelled both the parties to refrain from nuclear war and Nuclear
Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was signed in 1968. Peaceful co-existence became the
norm that pushed for agreement for disarmament. As a result a Hot Line was established
between USA and Russia. However, Cold War continued due to the tensions caused by
Vietnam War and problem in Germany.
2.3.6 Sixth Phase (1969-1978):
This phase saw a series of peaceful agreements between the two super powers that led to
the scholars of International relations to announce DÉTENTE. (The word détente meant
“permanent relaxation between east and west.” (Lowe 1997: 158) This was made possible
by the American President Nixon and Russian President Brezhnev who played important
roles for putting an end to the Cold War. The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)
of 1972, the Helsinki Summit Conference on Security of 1975 and Belgrade Conference
of 1978 brought both the powers closer. America wanted to improve relationship with
China which led to American Foreign Secretary, Henry Kissinger, paying a secret visit to
China in 1971 to explore the possibilities of reconciliations with China. However this co-
operation was short lived. As America moved to convert Diego Garcia into a military
base, it increased suspicion in the minds of Soviets who saw it as a move to check their
presence in the Indian Ocean. During the Bangladesh crisis of 1971 and the Egypt-Israel
War of 1973 the two super powers extended support to the opposite sides thereby
standing opposite to each other again.
2.3.7 Last Phase (1979-1987):
In this phase certain changes were noticed in the Cold War due to which scholars referred
to this phase as New Cold War. Though in 1979, the American President Carter and
Russian President Brezhnev signed SALT-II treaty that aimed at reducing arms, in 1979
new developments took place that reduced the prospects of mitigating Cold War. This
started with new interventions of both the powers in Afghanistan. This led to direct
confrontation between the two super powers in Afghanistan, by supporting and creating
their allies, which impacted the geo-political scenario of the region. At the same time new
American President started Human Rights and Open Diplomacy that was aimed at

14
defaming Russia. Both these policies questioned the well being of citizens living in
Russia as the American agencies tried to report gross violations of human rights
happening in Communist Russia. To add fuel to fire the SALT-II treaty was not ratified
by the US Senate. In 1980, America boycotted the Olympic held at Moscow thus ending
their co-operation. By 1985, conditions worsened in Afghanistan that brought lot of
embarrassment to the USSR. New agreements were signed in which both the parties
decided to pull off from Afghanistan and stopped aid to its allies in Afghanistan. At the
same time to counter America, new chapter in Sino-Russia relationship began when five
year trade agreements were signed in 1985 and regular contact took place.
2.4 The Collapse of Communism
A sudden change of events in the satellite areas transformed the geography of USSR and
communism fell apart like a pack of cards. The process started in August 1988; when
Poland’s Trade Union organized an over throw against its government through strikes.
This eventually forced the government to allow free elections in which communist lost
thereby bringing an end to the rule of communist party. This process was followed in
other Russian satellite states thereafter, when revolutionary protest spread rapidly
everywhere. After Poland, Hungary, then Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania allowed
free election and threw out the communist government from power. In East Germany,
situation was different. Firstly the communist leader tried to control the protest but was
met with resistance by the public that finally ended in demolishing of Berlin Wall and
resulting in unification of Germany. Finally by the end of December 1991 USSR had
itself split into several republics and Gorbachev resigned thus bringing an end to
communism.
Following this, Scholars declared that Cold War came to an end and new alignments took
place at the international level. Firstly, Countries of NATO and WARSAW signed a pact
stating that they will co-operate with each other. Secondly, with the demise of communist
government in erstwhile communist countries inside fighting took place that led to break
up. For example, Czechoslovakia divided itself into Czechs and Slovaks, while a bloody
war ravaged in Yugoslavia that killed millions. It was divided into five separate states of
Serbia (with Montenegro), Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia. Still,
peace was distant as a complex civil war broke out in which Serbia tried to grab as much
territory as possible from Croatia. In Bosnia: Serbs, Croats and Muslims fought each
other till a ceasefire was called in 1995. Thirdly, Nuclear Arms race during the Cold War
now became a headache for international community as nuclear weapon supervision
became a concern. This was because new unstable or irresponsible governments that
emerged with disintegration of USSR had easy access to nuclear weapons. The
international community was afraid that if these governments used them carelessly they
might destroy human civilization. So better international safeguards were debated,
thought and deciphered to save the world from disaster. Stability among the erstwhile
communist countries became a concern. This was because they faced economic crises as
they had become extremely poor and there was lack of resources to convert themselves to
‘free-market’ economies. A carefully planned and generous financial assistance was
required, else the unstable conditions in those parts would create world turmoil. Finally
Relationship between western allies changed as with the disappearance of common
enemy that is USSR, USA moved out of the system to provide stability to world order.

15
For instance, it refused to provide troops to UN peace keeping forces leaving burden on
other member countries. (Lowe 1997: 136-137)
2.5 Vietnam War
Vietnam War (1954–75), was a long and deadly, violent conflict that got aggravated due
to critical involvement of super powers in Asia. It was an ideological battle that was
between the communist government of North Vietnam on one hand and shaky
government of Premier Diem in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong on the other.
The roots of the conflict goes back to the aspiration of North Vietnam, which had
defeated the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954 and wanted to bring the
entire country under a single communist regime. The South Vietnamese government had
a backing from a small number of U.S. military advisers who were present during
Vietnam’s struggle against France to enter the war. As Cold War got strengthened,
Vietnam gave an opportunity to US to check the onslaught of communism. “By 1969
more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the
Soviet Union and China poured weapons, supplies, and advisers into the North, which in
turn provided support, political direction, and regular combat troops for the campaign in
the South” (Spector, R : 2016).
2.5.1 Vietnam Divided after the End of French Rule
The Vietnam War was against colonial rule of Japan and France was inspired by Chinese
and Soviet Communism that made nationalist groups of Vietnam such as Ho Chi Minh’s
Viet Minh consolidate and bargain for freedom through war. The French-Indochina War
broke out in 1946 and ended in 1954. It was supported by USA who wanted to help
France so that it could contain spread of communism further in Asia, after China
established communist government. Despite such efforts, “France was defeated by the
Viet Minh at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954” (Spector, R : 2016). After this
battle, the French rule came to an end in the Indochina. The battle also brought forward
various warring camps together for negotiations at the Geneva Conference to produce the
settlement known as Geneva Accords.
2.5.2 Geneva Accords, 1954
The war ended with accords in Geneva. As a result both the parties decided the 17th
parallel (latitude 17° N) as a temporary demarcation line between warring military forces.
“The accord led to the division of Vietnam on the latitudinal basis” (Spector, R : 2016).
On one side of the parallel was The Democratic Republic of Vietnam or North Vietnam
under the reign of Ho Chi Minh’s Vietnamese communist party. Its capital was at Hanoi.
In the South, the State of Vietnam, with its capital at Saigon and Bao Dai as its premier
was set up. As per the agreement a demilitarized zone, or DMZ, was created by
withdrawing forces on both sides of 17th parallel. Civilians were given the option to move
to either side of the border. These agreements called for open elections by 1956 in whole
of Vietnam in time bound manner to decide its future course. Though USA accepted this
partition but it was uncomfortable with Communist government in North Vietnam. With
a determination to halt the spread of communism in Asia, United States started assisting
South Vietnam, so that it does not fall under the influence of communism. The new
premier of South Vietnam Ngo Dinh Diem was not able to provide a stable government

16
as it faced internal squabbles from the communist regime of North on one hand and from
the armed religious sects in the South on the other, and to make matters worse even the
premier did not have support from some sections of its subversive own army. Despite
these compelling circumstances, premiere was got support by U.S. military advisers, who
trained and reequipped his army along American lines and foiled coups and plots by
dissident officers. Sometimes Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) intimidated Diem’s
domestic opposition and other times killed them. “U.S. aid agencies helped him to keep
his economy afloat. By late 1955 Diem had consolidated his power in the South Vietnam,
it defeated the remaining religious sect forces and arrested communist operatives who had
surfaced in considerable numbers to prepare for the anticipated elections. When public
was not supporting elections, Diem called for a referendum only in the South Vietnam,
and in October 1955 he declared himself president of the Republic of Vietnam.” (Spector,
R : 2016).
Conditions in the North Vietnam were also not encouraging. While, trying to emulate
soviet and Chinese communist model, it started agrarian and industrial reforms in its own
region. These reforms were not successful and it led to revolt. At the international
scenario the distancing of Soviet and China had an adverse impact in North Vietnam.
This was because it was not getting military aid or support from either of them and was
facing internal farmers’ revolt. Now all its strength was diverted in consolidating its
power. By the middle of 1960, it was apparent that the South Vietnamese army and
security forces could not cope with the new threat that emerged from opposition of Diem
rule from Buddhist religious sects, also known as communist guerrillas. “Despite efforts
to control dissent, situation went out of control and US was faced with helplessness as
Diem government fell through. At the same time Soviet-China relationship improved and
it started supporting the Vietcong volunteers who helped in Diem fall. This became their
new strategy to counter shaky governments of newly Independent nations and bring them
under the influence of Communism.” (Spector, R : 2016). For President, John F.
Kennedy, who came to power in 1961, Vietnam represented both ‘a challenge and an
opportunity’. It was a challenge as instability of new governments in South Vietnam was
not proving beneficial to them to check “counterinsurgency” against communist
subversion and guerrilla warfare. It was an opportunity that USA saw as a chance since a
win in Vietnam War could help put a check on USSR. “U.S. intelligence estimated that in
1960 about 4,000 communist cadres infiltrated from the North; by 1962 the total had
risen to some 12,900. This infiltration was the result of North Vietnam getting access
through Laos to send crew served weapons and ammunition in steel-hulled motor junks
down the coast of Vietnam and also through Laos via a network of tracks known as the
Ho Chi Minh Trail. This kind of influx and instability was the result of continuing
incompetence, rigidity, and corruption of the Diem regime that was ignored by USA.
Despite repeated warnings to White House to put a check on Diem’s regime, the U.S.
administration made great efforts to reassure Diem of its support, dispatching Vice
President Lyndon B. Johnson to Saigon in May 1961 and boosting economic and military
aid but all in vain.” (Spector, R : 2016).
2.5.3 The Gulf of Tonkin Crises
This crisis was the result of frustration of US not able to make headway in Vietnam, in
bringing out stability on capitalist lines. “While Kennedy had at least the comforting

17
illusion of progress in Vietnam, Johnson faced a starker picture of confusion, disunity,
and muddle in Saigon and of a rapidly growing VietCong in the countryside. A short-
lived military junta was followed by a shaky dictatorship under Gen. Nguyen Khan in
January 1964. In Hanoi, communist leaders, believing that victory was near, decided to
make a major military commitment to winning the South. Troops and then entire units of
the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) were sent South through Laos along the Ho Chi
Minh Trail, which was by that time becoming a network of modern roads capable of
handling truck traffic. Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong strongly supported the
North Vietnamese offensive and promised to supply weapons and technical and logistical
personnel. With the South Vietnamese government in disarray, striking a blow against the
North seemed to the Americans to be the only option. At the same time with change in
regime in USA eminent, U.S. interest in Southeast Asia was declining. Johnson, however,
preferred to shelve the controversial issue of Vietnam until the November election.
However an unexpected development in August 1964 altered that timetable.” (Spector, R
: 2016). When in August US warship by name Maddox was apparently attacked by North
Vietnamese army by mistake in waters of Gulf of Tonkin, US saw it as a step to damage
its status at the international level. In order to show its power, patrol boats of the South
Vietnamese navy purposely carried out raids on the islands of Hon Me and Hon Nieu
near North Vietnam. As the patrolling of both Vietnamese boats increased another US
boat was sent to support Maddox. Out of confusion thinking that repeated strikes were
taking place, US took permission from White House and ordered complete retaliatory
actions in order to protect its forces. This brought US in direct military confrontation.
Counter attacks and struggle to attain supremacy lasted long, conditions got worsened
and still victory was far. Under this scenario “US President announced on the television
for peace talks with communist government of Hanoi. However these talks were not
successful and attacks continued. After a year with neither side winning the war and huge
loses piling up , now in October the Soviets secretly informed Washington that the North
Vietnamese would be willing to halt their attacks across the DMZ and begin serious
negotiation with the United States and South Vietnam if the United States halted all
bombing of the North” (Spector, R : 2016). Seeing this ripe situation for cooling off and
uplifting his status as peacemaker, Johnson announced the cessation of bombing on the
last day of October. The bombing halt achieved no breakthrough but rather brought out
tensed relationship between the United States and its South Vietnamese ally about the
terms and procedures to govern the talks. By the time South Vietnam joined the talks,
change in regime had taken place and Richard M. Nixon had been elected president.
Seeing victory to be very far, US thought for “honourable” settlement that would afford
South Vietnam a reasonable chance of survival. They also saw that a sudden withdrawal
by America would undermine U.S. credibility throughout the world as US public opinion
made it impossible to commit more troops. US tried to achieve this by bringing on to
negotiating tables the Soviets and China, both of whom were eager to improve their
relations with the United States. It arm twisted “North Vietnam that had launched another
round of attacks in South Vietnam in 1969, which was shown when the United States
bombed the secret communist base areas in Cambodia near the Vietnamese border. This
brought Cambodia into the war and also unveiled Cambodia’s so called neutrality that
was in favor of communism.” (Spector, R : 2016). These attacks on Cambodia were
planned secretly but they brought down Nixon’s (President of US) image that eventually

18
led to the Watergate scandal of 1972. At the same time US soldiers were tired of this
pointless war that had only brought them destruction.
2.5.4 The United States Negotiates a Withdrawal
While troop withdrawals proceeded in Vietnam, the negotiations in Paris remained
stagnated as both the parties could not decide on terms of agreement. This was because
while America wanted both sides of the party to withdraw, North Vietnam wanted only
US withdrawal that was supporting regime of Nguyen Van Thieu by a neutral coalition
government. Facing a deadlock, US tried to start fresh rounds of bombing to bring
communist leadership to talks, but military and intelligence experts of US wanted no such
actions that would not be liked by American public who were eager to see continued de-
escalation of the war. US did not intervene in Vietnam but could not resist itself in
Cambodia, where a pro-Western government under Gen. Lon Nol had overthrown
Sihanouk’s neutralist regime in March 1970 and came to power. This regime had
attempted to force the communists out of their border sanctuaries. “The North
Vietnamese who was very powerful could easily fend off the attacks of the Cambodian
army began arming the Cambodian communist movement, known as the Khymer Rouge.
Eager to support Lon Nol and destroy the communist sanctuaries, US escalated a full war
by entering border areas of North Vietnam and capturing enormous quantities of supplies
and equipment but it failed to trap any large enemy forces. In the United States, news of
the Cambodian incursion triggered widespread protest and demonstrations. These became
even more intense after National Guard troops of US opened on a crowd of protesters at
Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding several others, on 4th
May. This resulted in nationwide strikes in various universities against USA that made
USA seriously think of withdrawal.” (Spector, R : 2016).
As discontent against US actions built high, US thought of withdrawals and a peaceful
settlement. However, now the communist government of North Vietnam did not want this
settlement. This was because it saw in this the last opportunity to gain control of whole of
Vietnam. As a result the Hanoi leadership launched an all-out invasion of the South on
March 30, 1972, spearheaded by tanks and supported by artillery. With the failure of their
attacks, Hanoi leaders were ready to compromise. Now the settlements proceeded as
demands of both sides were met. The agreements were as follows: North Vietnamese
forces will not withdraw completely from the South. In return, North Vietnam agreed that
it would not insist on replacing Thieu with a coalition government in South. A pact was
decided in 1972 which was rejected by The South Vietnam government as their interest
was not taken care of. “In November (following Nixon’s reelection), Kissinger returned
to Paris with some 69 suggested changes to the agreement designed to satisfy Thieu. The
North Vietnamese responded with anger with proposed changes. Nixon, exasperated with
what he saw as the North’s audacity to reject the proposed changes and also anxious to
persuade Thieu to cooperate, ordered B-52 bombers again to attack Hanoi. This so-called
Christmas bombing was the most intense bombing of the war. After eight days the North
Vietnamese agreed to return to Paris to sign an agreement essentially the same as that
agreed upon in October. Thieu, reassured by a massive influx of U.S. military aid and by
a combination of promises and threats from Nixon, reluctantly agreed to go along. On
January 27, 1973, the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam was
signed by representatives of the South Vietnamese communist forces, North Vietnam,

19
South Vietnam, and the United States. Despite the agreement signed, 1974 saw a
discernible pattern of hostilities. Hundreds of Vietnamese continued to lose their lives
each day after the fighting was supposed to have stopped. By the summer of 1974 Nixon
had resigned in disgrace, Congress had cut military and economic aid to Vietnam by 30
percent, and the Lon Nol regime in Cambodia appeared close to defeat. Thieu’s
government, corrupt and inefficient as ever, now faced enormous difficulties within a
nation, unemployment, apathy, and an enormous desertion rate in the army. After an easy
success at Phuoc Long, northeast of Saigon, in December 1974–January 1975, the Hanoi
leaders believed that victory was near. In early March of 1975 the North Vietnamese
launched the last phase of what was expected to be a two-year offensive to secure South
Vietnam. As it happened, the South’s government and army collapsed in less than two
months and war ended.” (Spector, R : 2016).
2.6 Korean War
The origin of the war lay much before the actual war started. Since 1910 Korea had been
under Japanese occupation, after its defeat in 1945 Korea was divided into two zones
along the 38th Parallel. This arrangement was considered to be temporary and United
Nations announced elections for whole of country. This was in favour of America as it
thought that their zone contained two-thirds of population and communist government
would be voted out. However with change in international scenario unification of Korea
got tied up with Cold War rivalry that took nasty turn and no agreement was reached.
Elections took place in South Korea that installed SyngamRee as their president and
Seoul as the capital while democratic republic of Korea or North Korea under the
communist government of Kim II Sung with its capital at Pyongyang was set up. Though
Russia and American troops were withdrawn, a potentially dangerous situation was left
behind. With people of the country remaining unhappy with the division and rulers of
both the Koreas wanting to rule, North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950.
2.6.1 Invasion
In early 1950 Kim II sung crossed 38th parallel and invaded South Korea in search of
unity. Scholars see that the reason behind invasion may have been either of the following:
1. Kim II Sung’s own idea possibly encouraged by American secretary statement of
strengthening America’s influence around Pacific in which Korea was left behind.
2. Kim II sung may have been encouraged by new Chinese government which was
at the same time preparing troops to attack Taiwan that was under Chiang Kai-
Shek
3. Russia wanted to extend its influence after its defeat in West Berlin. (Lowe
1997:144)
2.6.2 Super Power Rivalry
Harry S. Truman, America’s President, was convinced that the attack was carried out by
Stalin. He took it as a deliberate challenge and saw it as a part of vast Russian Plan to
spread communism. In order to check this growth USA decided to help South Korea with
not only economics but also with military support. An urgent UN security council
meeting was convened that requested all countries to send troops in case North Korea

20
does not withdraw. When North Korea did not withdraw, US got the sanction as Russia
was boycotting meetings in protest against China’s Mao’s government being
unrepresented in UN. The forces just reached in time as barring South East Korea that
included port of Pusan, rest of South Korea was under communist hand. Guided by huge
force and superior warfare within no time UN re-enforcement, American marines pushed
back the communist government. Now US did not want truce rather it invaded North
Korea so that free elections could be held with UN approval. The Chinese government
had warned against invasion but warning went unheard and by end of October, UN troops
had captured Pyongyang, occupied two-thirds of North Korea and reached Yalu River the
frontier between Korea and China. The Chinese government was seriously alarmed as the
America government had already placed a fleet between Taiwan and mainland to prevent
the attack on Chiang and there seemed every chance that they would invade Manchuria
(part of China bordering North Korea). In November Chinese launched a massive
counter-offensive with over 30000 troops described as volunteers who drove UN troops
out of North Korea and captured Seoul again. However, after this counter-attack US
thought that more retaliation would lead to further counter attacks that would escalate
into more wars. As a result, it was decided that containing communism should be the
goal, so they stopped war once communist groups were driven out of Seoul across 38th
Parallel. Peace talks opened in Panmunjom that lasted for two years ending in 1953 with
an agreement that 38th parallel would be international boundary between the two Koreas.
(Lowe 1997, 144-147)
The Korean War devastated Korea as millions were killed and economics hurt. This war
also gave another dimension to Cold War as now relationship of America was strained
not only with Russia but now China also. This war brought China on stage of emerging
power that USA would have to tackle in future. The United Nations asserted its authority
which was good indication as now new international organization got strength and fear of
it being lost unlike League of Nations faded away.
2.7 Summing up/Conclusion
 The Cold War erupted after Second World War due to the decline of harmony
between USA and USSR. It caused perpetual tension between USSR and the West
even when no direct confrontation took place. The Cold War can be summed up in
seven phases.
 This period continued with some phases of thaws till disintegration of USSR. The
Cold War had following seven phases (a)First Phase (1946-1949) (b) Second Phase
(1949-1953) (c) Third Phase (1953-1957) (d) Fourth Phase (1957-1962) (e) Fifth
Phase (1962-1969) (f) Sixth Phase (1969-1978) (g) Last Phase (1979-1987). The
rivalry of the powers was limited to spreading propaganda, using economic
sanctions and adopting non-cooperation against each other.
 The highlights of Cold War are Vietnam War (1961-75) and Korean War (1950-53)
that brought a lot of destruction.

21
2.8 References
 Baylis, J, Smith,S& Owens P. (2011) The Globalization of World Politics : An
introduction to International Relations. Oxford University Press: Delhi
 Chander P& Arora P(1984) Comparative Politics and International Relations. Book
hives: Delhi
 Lowe N (1997) Mastering Modern World History Macmillian: Delhi
 Spector, Ronald H. Vietnam War, 2016 https://www.britannica.com/print/
article/628478) (https://www.britannica.com/print/article/125110) Cold War
2.9 Self Assessment Questions
Check Your Progress-1
1. Which plan was announced by Russia for its satellites?
(a) Marshall Plan (b) Truman Plan
(c) Moltovo Plan (d) Comniform
2. When was WARSAW pact signed?
(a) 1954 (b) 1955
(c) 1953 (d) 1957
3. When did Cuban Missile crises happen?
(a) 1960 (b) 1964
(c) 1962 (d) 1963
4. Who ruled Vietnam till 1954?
(a) France (b) Japan
(c) USA (d) China
5. What was the dividing line between North Vietnam and South Vietnam?
(a) 19th Parallel (b) 17th Parallel
(c) 21st Parallel (d) 15th Parallel
Answers
1. (c); 2. (b); 3. (c); 4. (a); 5. (b)
Long Questions
1. Analyse the Origin and Evolution of Cold War (2018)
2. Critically examine Cold War (2019)

22
Write Short Note on
a) Détente (2017)
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b) Vietnam War (2019)

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Suggested Questions
1. Discuss the phases of Cold War
2. How did Cold War come to an end? Do you really think Cold War ended?
3. Discuss the evolution of Vietnam War
4. Was Korean War result of super power rivalry? Critically analyze this statement.

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 UNIT II :DECOLONIZATION AND THE LONG SHADOW OF COLONIAL
EXPLOITATION: GHANA/ALGERIA
1. DECOLONIZATION AND AFTER
Ekta Shaikh
Structure
1.0 Objective
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Background
1.3 What is Decolonization? Conceptual Understanding
1.4. When Decolonization Started?
1.4.1 The Algerian War of Independence
1.4.2 Indonesia
1.5 Post- Decolonization Phase
1.5.1 Post-colonialism
1.5.2 Neo-colonialism
1.6 Conclusion
1.7 Self Assessment Questions
1.8 Bibliography
1.0 Objective
The lesson aims at developing a conceptual understanding of decolonization with special
reference to decolonization process in Algeria and Indonesia. It helps in developing a
comprehensive understanding of the subject by explaining the crux.
1.1 Introduction
The understanding of history is immensely pertinent for gaining academic reflection
about the human behavior and human society in general. It allows us to build perspectives
regarding economic, political, social, cultural, ideological and communicative domains in
order to develop theoretical nuances for various phenomena. Decolonization is one such
important phenomenon because it changed the course of development for nations and
regimes in terms of economics, politics, intellectualism and culture. The process is
impactful because it influences contemporary times as well. Now, the understanding can
be developed in two ways: theoretical and factual. Theoretical approach will help to grasp
the meaning of decolonization and will equip us to answer questions like What? Why?
When? and How? The factual approach, which comprises of real examples of
decolonization, will help us to substantiate our theoretical understanding. Broadly, the
goal is to develop conceptual understanding of decolonization.

24
1.2 Background
A whole new direction was found when the European empires started looking for wealth
and resources in ‘far away lands’. Around 17th Century onwards, European empires like
that of Portuguese, Dutch and Spain achieved innovation in the ship building technology
and maritime travel. They utilized the innovation to launch expeditions to the ‘new
world’. Through the expeditions, they were able to extend trade to Asia and Africa. They
established spice, precious metal and cotton textile trade which eventually converted into
European imperial overseas rule. Later on, British also started extending their trade
overseas through which they were also able to establish colonial rule. This is also known
as the second phase of imperialism. There are two types of explanations for the decline of
colonial rule and jumpstart of Decolonization- Eurocentric and Excentric. The
Eurocentric version argues that the economic decline of the European empires was the
core reason for decolonization. In 1929, the Great depression affected the European
powers and this encouraged them to take control of more colonies especially in Africa.
However, the sun started setting upon the imperial powers after First World War and this
got fastened due to the Great depression which originated in USA. The situation was
further worsened by Second World War which drained the European powers
economically. However, the French and the Dutch wanted to consolidate their overseas
empire. The three major European colonial powers were French, Dutch and British.
French initiated the consolidation process by setting up a constitution which was for both
the France and its colonies. The Dutch planned to unify the mainland with the colonies
under the rule of their queen and the British tried to maintain the colonial empire in
Africa.
The decolonization process started in Asia when British granted independence to India.
This process picked up pace when the colonial powers started realizing the cost of
maintaining the colonial empire (Rothermund, 2005). However, the excentric perspective
argues that the activities within the colonies were responsible for the decline of European
imperialism. It highlights the role played by the colonial people in establishing the
colonial empire and without this support the empire was bound to crumble.
1.3 What is Decolonization? Conceptual Understanding
Decolonization marks the beginning of new political order of ‘self-governing’ states. The
word ‘decolonization’ first appeared in 1836 in a French–Algerian tract. However, it was
first used to suggest decline of the colonial empire by German economist Moritz Julius
Bonn in the inter-war period. The word has a strong political connotation to it because it
is specifically used to understand the dissolution, disintegration, collapse of colonial rule
in Asian and African nations. This term also helps us to understand the binary of colonial
and anti-colonial. In a simple manner, decolonization can be understood as the transfer of
institutional, legal and territorial control from colonial powers to indigenous people.
Decolonization as a process gained motivations from the normative values like national
self-determination, equality and freedom. Political changes were taking place at both
internal level i.e. within the colonial empire and external level i.e. at an international
level.

25
From the internal viewpoint, bad decision making, suppression, gross exploitation on the
part of colonial powers contributed towards their decline. The growth of nationalism and
self-determination among the population of colonies helped to assert themselves and
confront the colonial powers. From an external viewpoint, at the international level
legitimacy of empires as a political unit was becoming questionable as there was a
decline of Ottoman and Spanish Empire. Nation-state as a political unit was more
acceptable as it was able to reflect the new values of equality, freedom, democracy, self-
determination and independence. However, these new values were Eurocentric because it
did not influence removal of racial inequality, injustices in the colonies and voluntary
relinquishment of control over colonies by the colonial powers. The process of
decolonization gained speed and momentum after World War II and this is visible from
the membership of United Nations that grew significantly from 51 in 1945 to 117 in
1965. Yet, one needs to understand that decolonization is a multi-layered process in
which despite the territorial independence having been declared, the intellectual problem
remains.
1.4 When Decolonization Started?
The political change that occurred 1940s onwards was of global scale and its intensity
was quite dramatic. Colonial powers were facing heavy resistance from the colonized
people. The colonial powers did fail in a disastrous manner, for instance, the Dutch lost in
East Indies in 1949, British had quit India in 1947 and French faced military defeat in
Dien Bien Phu in 1954 (Betts, 2012).
The foremost critical literature that influenced the understanding of decolonization was
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon where he describes it as a violent
phenomenon (Betts, 2012). It was a violent affair because second half twentieth century
is filled with examples such as, partition of India in 1947, the Algerian war 1954-1962,
1946-1954 war in Indochina, bloody violence in Indonesia in 1945-1949, Korean war
1950-53 etc. This is representative of the end of the Europe’s overseas empire and
installation of sovereignty where newly formed political units were able to define their
national territory, legal order, constitution, government, flag and national anthem. The
process of decolonization can be understood from various viewpoints such as the
developments within the colonies where the resistance to colonial powers intensified
overtime, the disintegration of the empire itself where decolonization is understood to be
an event within the history of a longstanding empire and the growth of international
consciousness where colonization went against the spirit of normative values such as
freedom, equality and rights.
Let us now understand the process of decolonization through detailed examples of
Algeria and Indonesia.
1.4.1 The Algerian War of Independence
Algeria’s war of independence has been one of most controversial and vicious conflicts
related to the process of decolonization. It is notoriously famous because of the violent
means used by the nationalists and torture techniques by the French.
French occupied Algeria in 1830 through invasion which was violent and bloody in
nature. The location of Algeria was of strategic importance and French invaded this area

26
in order to gain an upper hand over the Ottoman Turkish Empire. The French occupation
of this region was unique because France declared it to be a part of metropolitan France
itself rather than declaring it a colonial state. Due to this, large number of French people
settled in Algeria who was treated quite differently than Algerians. The European settlers
had access to political and civil rights those were provided by the French government and
native people of Algeria were denied these rights.
The population of Algeria was diverse in nature as it comprised of Berber, Arab and
Turks. The resistance to French rule provided a basis to unite the diverse population and
develop the myth of national identity (Farell, 2012). A sense of suppressed national
identity was developed but this was intermingled by the French reinforcement of French
civility among the local population. Algerians were classified under three broad groups
by 1930s because of their different perceptions regarding independence from an unequal
and suppressive French rule. The first group was led by Messali Hadj who wanted to
restore the independent states of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. The second group was of
native Algerians, distinctly classified as Arabs, who saw French occupation as a threat to
their culture and an effort Europeanize them. The third group was led by Ferhat Abbas,
who distinguished between Ideal France of liberty, equality and fraternity and the
European settlers in Algeria. This group believed in the ideal France and argued that
Algerians can be French and follow Islam as religion at the same time because they have
liberty to choose whatever they want. This problem further festered when France faced
the brunt of World War II. Two French groups-- Petains Vichy France in collaboration
with Axis powers and Free France were in conflict with each other over the future of
France. This impacted Algeria because the Vichy France group’s policies favored the
dominance of Europeans over the non-Europeans which was discriminatory in nature and
Free France group promised overseas territories self-determination after the war. The
France was completely devastated after the World War II and wanted to recover. The
French leaders wanted to re-build it as a symbol of power and prestige which made them
look towards overseas territory for economic support. In Algeria, the mood for post-war
independence was at a high that was visible from the manifesto distributed by both
Messali Hadj and Ferhat Abbas. The demand for post-war independence got combined
with economic problems that led to clashes in a town called Setif in May 1945. The
Algerians were no longer ready to be treated in a discriminatory manner in their own
country. The European community did not want to relinquish its dominance in Algeria.
The French were weak because of the war and could not introduce radical changes in the
overseas territory. French weakness, new Algerian expectations and European
intransigence combined together to create grounds for war of independence. The young
Algerians after being motivated by the political atmosphere around them went on to form
Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) that later shaped the war of independence. FLN
wanted to organize new Algeria around Socialist principles. The violence escalated when
French government refused to grant equal status to Algerians just like Europeans. This
led to an armed struggle against the French government.
The Growth of Violence
Many groups were formed, who wanted to free Algeria from the French power. These
groups were- the Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Liberte´sDemocratiques (MTLD), a
major nationalist party who organized a paramilitary underground wing: Organization

27
Spe´ciale (OS). Another group was the ComiteRe´volutionnaire pour l’Unite´ et l’Action
(CRUA), who aimed at uniting Algerian nationalists in armed struggle to end French rule
in Algeria. CRUA leaders organized the FLN, and its military wing: the Armee de
Libe´rationNationale (ALN). There were many incidents of violence and armed struggle,
for instance, FLN carried out thirty attacks in different parts of Algeria on 1st November
1954 where it targeted police stations, French civil servants and state officials etc. (Farell,
2012) This attack by FLN instigated French government to act against it and sent
paramilitary troops in that area to control the attacks (Farell, 2012). A conflict started
between French government and the groups resisting French powers which lasted until
July 1962. This conflict caused a lot of destruction where half a million people died; the
Fourth Republic of France was annihilated and Europeans who were settled here were
forced to go into permanent exile. This shaped modern France and Algeria.
The French-Algerian War was a combination of conflict between FLN and Algerian
Nationalist groups, guerilla war between French army and FLN and French army’s clash
with policy in both countries. FLN actions were labeled as terrorist actions and French
power further retaliated against it. FLN went on to organize many acts of struggle against
the colonial rule where violence remained prominent as a means to break any moderation.
One of the significant acts of violence is the battle of Algiers which was a form of urban
terrorism carried out by them at the capital city called Algiers. The acts of violence were
impacting the politics in France also. Two governments in Paris were toppled by Algerian
controversies.
ALN’s unit attacked in 1957 the supporters of Messali Hadj in Melouza which signified
the conflict among the groups within Algeria but ultimately the Algerian nationalism was
defined by FLN. French government made efforts to sway Algerians towards them and
French rule. A prominent leader de Gaulle tried his best to normalize the situation where
he even communicated back in France about the Algerian motives of being independent
but this garnered backlash from the European community in 1960s which was countered
by the FLN demonstration. Alge´rieFrancaise, the Organisation de l’Arme´eSecre`te
(OAS) was formed by the European settlers who were dedicated towards keeping Algeria
as a part of France. OAS launched new terrorism over Algeria which was more violent
than ever. FLN and OAS were at loggerheads because of which they clashed causing
conflict and damage. Most of the European settlers left Algeria. On 1st July 1962, Algeria
was declared an independent sovereign state.
Algeria’s experience of decolonization is an important example in order to understand the
dynamics of the process itself. Algeria after gaining independence was left impoverished
and drained. French aid increased and huge number of Algerians rushed to France
because of the conditions in Algeria. The whole experience left both France and Algeria
bereft and the ‘peace’ was not long lasting in Algeria because FLN became intolerant
towards the pluralistic nature of the society. It can be said that Algeria is defined by
violence after the war of independence also and it still impacts contemporary politics.
Check Your Progress-1
1. Who is known as the pioneer scholar of Decolonization?
a) Mahatama Gandhi

28
 b) Kwame Nkrumah
c) Frantz Fanon
d) Ferhat Abbas
2. Which theoretical concept arose specially from the struggle of independence?
a) Secularism
b) Nationalism
c) Liberty
d) Equality
3. Name the organization who was chiefly active in the war of independence in
Algeria.
a) Front de Liberation Nationale
b) the Armee de Libe´rationNationale
c) Organization Spe´ciale
d) Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
Answers - 1. c, 2. d, 3. a
1.5 Post-Decolonization Phase
The impact of Decolonization phase is multifaceted that can be understood by analyzing
the phase after the process of decolonization. The colonial legacy remained in the former
colonies even when politically they were independent states. Most of the independent
states inherited the colonial administration and concept of nation-state. But most
importantly, it was the colonial thinking, mindset and economic system that persisted
long time after the colonial rule was gone. Usually, scholars have understood through the
theoretical approaches of post-colonialism and neo-colonialism.
1.5.1 Post-Colonialism
Post-colonialism presents the philosophical critique of the cultural legacy of colonial
empire and advocates ‘decolonization of minds’. Whenever we try to understand the
struggle of independence, the narrative comprises of economic exploitation done by the
colonizers in the colonies which is true but does not present the complete picture
regarding the ways exploitation is carried out. Franz Fanon was the first one to highlight
two types of decolonization- true and false decolonization. True decolonization meant
getting rid of all forms of colonial presence and false decolonization meant that even
though it appears that colonial power has left the colonies but yet, they manifest
themselves in invisible forms. Edward Said in his work called Orientalism presented a
fuller argument in order to explain incomplete decolonization (Collins, 2015). He
explained that colonial powers controlled a colony through various means among which
was controlling of culture and ideas. The perception of the people in the colonies was
given to them by the colonial powers i.e. they saw and understood themselves and the
society through the concepts of European thought. In order to be truly independent, the
colonies are supposed to unlearn the colonial concepts and thought which cannot be
achieved through the change in government. The creation of a discourse for non-west

29
people by the western powers was a method of control and oppression. The colonies
consisted of society, people, categories, structures etc. which were alien to the colonial
powers and hence, beyond their comprehension. To have a better control of these lands
they meticulously tried to understand the social, cultural, political and economical
structure and they created discourses which could help the Europeans.
1.5.2 Neo-Colonialism
Neo-colonialism is used to denote a phenomenon after decolonization where control is
exerted over the former colonies in an indirect way. Kwame Nkrumah first used the term
‘Neo-colonialism’ to explain it as a ‘last stage of imperialism’. The colonial powers
continued to control the economic functioning of the former colonies through various
means, for example, Belgium continued to control 70 percent of the Congolese economy
through the MNC Société Générale de Belgique decolonization of Congo (Collins, 2015).
The approach of neo-colonialism arose when newly formed nations started noticing that
anticipated outcomes of decolonization are not there. A comprehensive critique has been
‘dependency theory’ which presents a critique of world economy from Marxist historical
perspective. It critiques the present timeline of decolonization because it is set in a much
later era. Instead, it argues that the understanding needs to be built from the very starting
i.e. from establishment of empire to the struggle of independence in order to know the
integration of the colonies in the world economy which can help to measure the level of
‘under-development’. The colony was essentially a place from where the colonial powers
were able to extract resources like labour and raw material. This can be understood from
the core-periphery model where colony was the periphery that was benefitting the core
economies. Even though dependency theory was not the most popular conceptual tool to
understand economics, it has helped to develop a critical analysis of World Bank and
IMF regarding their steps in third world nations to uplift their economies. It has also
facilitated broadening of the scope of development by scrutinizing it and presenting a
deeper concept.
After the end of colonial empire, former colonial powers like France have been very
much interested in maintaining their hold in the former colonies. This is another aspect of
neo-colonialism where political interference is one of the means through which control is
exerted. Neo-colonialism can be understood by three following examples. First,
Francfrique is the political subjugation exerted by French over their former colonies in
Africa like Senegal, Gabon etc. Second example for neo-colonialism is the politics of
Cold War. The former colonies like Africa, Latin America, South-east Asia were of area
of interest for both Soviet Union and United States. Informal control was extended
through military alliances or friendly alliances with the rulers. Third example is the
existence of international organizations like British Commonwealth or Commonwealth of
Nations and the Communauté Française. The role which Britain or France has in these
organizations is symbolic of the power they once held over the former colonies.
After the decolonization process, migration is one of the less anticipated outcomes. Many
people from the former colonies have migrated to France, Britain, Holland etc.
Decolonization has led to the onset of many other complex phenomena which are leading
to integration of population on a global scale. On a different note, decolonization has also
played a key role in determining the political course of the former colonies in both

30
positive and negative manner. For instance,in some colonies rise of nationalism led to
creation of solidarity, growth of state as the sole powerful unit but in other it lead to
rampant violence and weak institutional structures. Western influence is very much
visible in other forms such as in the area of technological innovation, military
advancement, neo-liberal policies prevalent in the third world and the intellectual
discourse. The ability of people being able to ‘self-define’ themselves and feeling of
nationalism controlled the philosophical bent of the twentieth century in general.
Benedict Anderson’s Imagined communities: Reflections on origin and spread of
Nationalism, Ernest Geller’s Encounter with Nationalism tried to explore the reasons for
the popularity of Nationalism and its significance in the struggle of independence. The
spread of print media and the rise of consciousness within the people played an important
role in the rise of Nationalism. It was used to build the feeling of oneness and community
spirit that cut across the group divisions within the society. This was essential for the
creation of solidarity among masses which was used to assert oneself as an independent
unit at an international level. The colonized societies were complex because of their
pluralistic nature and they were often affected by internal dissent, yet, ideals of popular
participation and democratic rule provided legitimacy to the struggle of independence
(Collins, 2015). The decolonization process bought forth the hypocrisy of colonial
powers at an intellectual level. Liberal values like liberty, equality, inclusiveness,
fraternity and democracy were forgotten by the British, Dutch or French colonial rulers
when colonies demanded independence, for instance, in Kenya and Algeria. The future
politics and conditions of colonial states were defined by the way they struggled for their
independence.
International order was re-shaped by the ideals and events of the Decolonization process
but most importantly, the idea of nation came into existence where the group identity of a
population was redefined in a concrete manner. The process of globalization strengthened
via decolonization because after that a sense of global community was developed in order
to recognize the newly developed states. However, does this really mean that the process
of decolonization process is over? As pointed out earlier in this essay, change of
government or transfer of power does not signify complete independence. Complete
independence also requires lack of negative form of dependence that is still visible in the
‘post-colonial’ states.
Check Your Progress-2
1) Name the theory used to present Marxist economic critique of world economy after
decolonization process
a) Post- Modernism
b) World System theory
c) Dependency theory
d) Modernization theory
2) Which theoretical concept is used to present a philosophical critique of colonial
empire’s legacy in former colonies?
a) Nationalism
b) Neo-colonialism

31
 c) Imperialism
d) Post-colonialism
3) Neo-colonialism was described as last stage of imperialism by whom?
a) Joseph Broz Tito
b) Kwame Nkrumah
c) Gamal Abdel Nasser
d) Jawaharlal Nehru
4) Which of the following phenomenon was experienced by colonial powers too as a
result of decolonization?
a) Partition
b) Famine
c) Migration
d) Political instability
5) After independence, colonies are still affected by which of the following because of
colonial rule?
a) Under-development
b) Colonial empire
c) Monopoly of trade
d) Migration
Answers - 1. c, 2. d, 3. b, 4. c, 5. a
1.6 Conclusion
Decolonization is one of the most significant processes to change the course of history,
politics, economics and culture. In this lesson, we have tried to develop basic
understanding of the concept. In simple words, it refers to the political process where
colonized units declared themselves as ‘self-governing’ units. However, the actual event
is not that simple and a more nuanced understanding is built through the examples of
Algeria and Indonesia. One can become familiar with the historical event but a fuller
understanding requires theoretical and empirical analysis. The decolonization has deeply
impacted the world overall and not just the colonial empires and colonized units. Yet,
more perverse forms of colonization has managed to percolate the politics and
functioning of the ‘new nation states’. These new forms of colonization can be
understood through post-colonialism and neo-colonialism. The whole aim of this lesson is
to equip oneself with the intellectual tools for fully understanding a significant event
which changed the world.
1.7 Self Assessment Questions
Short Questions
1. Explain briefly the concept of Decolonization.

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2. Enumerate various events that led to war of Independence in Algeria.
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3. What is Post-Colonialism?
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4. What are the main causes for Decolonization?
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Long Questions
1. Give a detailed overview of war of independence in Algeria. What does it imply
about decolonization as a process?
2. Explain the decolonization process in Indonesia. How is this different from the
process in Algeria?
3. What are the causes of decline of colonial rule? Give a comprehensive outline.
4. Elaborate upon the impact of decolonization process on a global scale.
1.8 Bibliography
 Betts, Raymond F. (1998) Decolonization, Routledge, NY
 Collins, Micheal (2015) Decolonization, The Encyclopedia of Empire, John Wiley
& Sons Inc. NY
 Farrell, B. P. (2011). Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962). The
Encyclopedia of War, Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
 Rothermund, Dietmar (2005) The Routledge Companion to Decolonization,
Routledge, London, UK

33
 UNIT III :POPULAR MOVEMENTS
1 (i)ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT: NORTH AND SOUTH
Diwakar Kumar Singh
Research Scholar
Department of History
University of Delhi
Introduction
The term ‘environment’ in a broader sense connotes a set of factors such as physical,
biological, psychological, social and cultural which constitute the context in which life
(vegetal, animal and human) has evolved and continues to evolve. The origin of word,
can be traced to the term ‘oecologie’ coined by German biologist Ernst Haeckel in 1860,
referring to the ‘science of relation of living organism to their external world, their
habitat, parasites, predatators, exposure to certain types of soil, climate and so forth’
(Arnold, 1996: 3-4).
Environmentalism or the movement to protect the natural environment has had a long
history, but it assumed its institutional prominence only in the recent past. The
emergence of this key phenomenon of world history known as ‘environmentalism’ or
ecological movement encapsulate a cluster of issues pertaining to the human-nature
interaction and its causes and consequences. Thus, the second half of the twentieth
century represents a conscious endeavour to protect the natural environment both from
preservationist (those who seek to make the best use of natural habitats as they are) and
conservationist (those who seek to make the best use of natural resources without doing
damage to the environment) perspectives through intellectual ideas to mass activism.
This chapter is an attempt to review the perspectives on environmental movement as a
phenomenon, which gained momentum both in advanced nations also known as global
‘North’ and poor or less advanced countries also known as global ‘South’.
Environmentalism in the North
Environmental movements both in the North and the South represent similar trends but
differ in their ideological origination. The issues of ecology in the South is seemingly
linked with issues of human rights, ethnicity and distributive justice (Guha, 1997: 18).
Their movements are seldom associated with protection of locality against the state and
explicitly lay emphasis upon the issues of subsistence and survival, whereas in the North,
its origination can be traced outside the production process. In all likelihood, the question
of locality too is not as important as the question of biosphere as whole in the context of
the North.
Industrial revolution and its consequences resulted in a rapid exhaustion of resources,
massive production, and a surge in population. As a result, the twentieth century
witnessed the emergence of a deep consciousness towards ecological concerns. Thus,
people from all quarters have effectively mobilized against the destruction of wilderness,
making of big dams and industrial wastes.

34
It is imperative to understand the intellectual approaches and articulation of ideas, which
have played an important role, as McNeill has rightly argued that ‘for environmental
history the powerful, prevailing ideas mattered more than the explicitly environmental
ones’ (McNeill, 2000: 325). Thus, from historiographical perspective, certain important
precursors of this movement needs to be discussed which may help us to develop a
broader understanding of environmentalism. Samuel P. Hay’s ‘Conservation and the
Gospel of Efficiency’ (1959) seems to be an ostensive documentation of ‘nature’ as
embodied in wilderness in the United States this writings reflect Roosevelt’s
Conservation concerns for ecological causes. Moreover, he has discussed the great
change in American attitudes towards the environment in the period after the Second
World War. In his another richly evocative work, ‘Beauty, Health, and Permanence:
Environmental Politics in the United States, 1955-1985’, Hay carefully observes the
emergence of new environmental amenities, recreation, aesthetics, and health – all
associated with rising standards of living and education.
One of the most influential works ‘Silent Spring’ appeared in 1962 authored by Rachael
Carson, a marine biologist. The book was full of details of lethal impact of the use of
various pesticides, most significantly the use of DDT (dichloro-diophenyl-trichloro-
ethane). The rapid use of this pesticide in U.S. shows a quantum jump in its consumption
from 1.24 to 6.37 million pounds between 1947 and 1960.
According to Guha, ‘The consequences of the book were far-reaching. In the wake of
Silent Spring, town ‘reconsidered their foolish herbicidal assault’ on avenue, shrubs and
trees; citizens and officials became more alert about to potential fish kills in rivers; ...a
federal committee on pest control was established to scrutinize new products... (Guha,
2000: 72). The DDT was banned and the US Governments in order to, control and
monitor such harmful chemicals, brought up many laws such as Pesticide Control Act of
1972 and Toxic Substances Control Act of 1974. Both from individual and institutional
perspectives, the wave of environmentalism surfaced in US and Europe. The individuals
like Barry Commoner argued for non-polluting technologies to preserve ecology.
The Club of Rome prepared a report in 1964 called “Limits to Growth”, which
categorically manifested the consequences of rapid growth and exploitation of resources,
and moreover, suggested to follow a moderate path for development. A conscious
mobilization of people and their massive procession against pollution and other
ecological concerns eventually culminated into the celebration of ‘Earth day’ on April
1970. The entire decade of seventies has witnessed an impressive growth of
organisations, clubs, societies in the US, primarily concerned with the conservation
movement. Stephen Fox (1985) has shown that there was a phenomenal growth of
membership in these organizations between 70s and 90s. According to Andrew Jamison,
there was a huge participation of youth who stood as ‘the mere impatient with the
political method of their elders’. The environmentalists in North America particularly
played a significant role in raising the issues such as industrial emission, toxic wastes,
designating protected or endangered ecological entities and more importantly, they
helped to set up environmental prosecution agencies which became an integral part of the
US environmental policy.

35
As a social movement, environmentalism in US encapsulates varieties of ideas. For
instance, ‘Deep Ecology’ expounded by a Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess in 1972,
gave emphasis on ‘bio centricism’, which rejects a human-centered perspective by
looking at history from the vantage point of other species and nature as a whole’ (Guha,
2000: 85). In a sense, the ethics of the wilderness movement posits a greater degree of
importance to the nature.
Another interesting dimension of environmental movement seems to appear what has
been described as ‘environmental justice movement’, which largely represents the
involvement of people from lower income groups and ethnic minorities (such as African-
American).
The anti-toxic movement of Love Canal is one such striking example of justice
movement. The massive deposition of toxic wastes by Hooker chemical company in and
around Love Canal in New York caused birth defects, cancer and other health problems
in the same locality which was also inhabited largely by African-Americans. A
movement against this was led by Lois Gibbs to clean up Love Canal, which helped to set
up a national co-ordinating body, the Citizens Clearing House for Hazardous Wastes
(CCHW). By 1980, due to the mounting pressure from affiliated groups and their
campaigns, the Government of North America evacuated thousands of people and
officially made it a natural disaster area.
In Europe too, the concerns for bad consequences of industrialization and ecology gained
momentum and there are evidences of many such outcrops of activism. Some of such
activism culminated into political parties. In New Zealand, the Value Party born in the
1960, was the first explicitly green party.
In 1978, a group of people formed Green Party in Germany. The German Green became
a beacon for environmentalists in other European countries. Consequently, the Green
Party made a strong presence in countries like Belgium, Italy and Sweden. According to
Guha, “German Green stand out for their political victories and for the moral challenge,
they offer to the governing beliefs of industrial civilization” (Guha, 2000: 90).
Movements in the South
Generally, it is believed that environmentalism as a movement emanated from the rich
and industrialised nations. However contrary to such assumption the decade seems to
have been witnessed an equal degree of ecological concern in the South too. The
countries such as Brazil, Kenya, India and Thailand – all underwent the varied wave of
environmentalism.
In Brazil, uncontrolled exploitation of its forests between 1960 and 1984, created a huge
deforestation problem and turned larger part of Amazonic region into deserts. In 1976,
we come across a strong ecological movement there, also known as ‘Chico’, as it was led
by Francisco Chico Mendes – a leader of a group of rubber tappers (gatherers of natural
latex from rubber trees). The movement started on March 10, 1976, against the ranchers
and loggers who were supported by the Government involved in displacing more than
10,000 rubber tappers. Those rancher took over the forest land from tappers and around 6
million hectares of land were under their possession in the name of development.
Mendes along with men, women and children marched to the forest, joined hands and

36
dared the workers and their chain-saws from proceeding further’. In December 1988,
Chico Mendes was murdered a by land owner but left an enormous impact. In Kenya,
there is another striking example of ecological movement, founded by a woman Professor
of Anatomy, Wangari Matthai, who was later awarded the Nobel Prize. The movement
known as ‘Green Belt’, started in 1977, left a powerful impact. Rooted in common mass,
it shows a brilliant example of plantation in environmental history. ‘The Green Belt
movement proved strong enough to make an impact on the land and provoke a backlash;
it had planted some 20 million trees in Kenya by 1993’ (McNeill, 2000: 352).
In India, we come across some brilliant examples of ecological movements. One of the
earliest and novel examples of ecological movement can be seen as ‘Chipko’ in Garhwal
and Kumaon region in 1970s led by Sunderlal Bahuguna and Chandi Prasad Bhatt. The
great concern for protecting forests resulted into a huge mobalisation of people with an
unique mode of protest involving the hugging the trees by men and women of the village.
Although the protest was for their legitimate claim for subsistence against the commercial
exploitation by outsiders, yet it reflects a great sense of ecological consciousness.
Another fascinating example is Narmada BachaoAndolan led by Medha Patkar, a woman,
social activist. One of the largest ongoing movement against the construction of a dam
on Narmada river, it has raised strong protest due to the government’s plan to build 30
large, 135 medium and 3000 small dams to harness the waters of Narmada and its
tributaries. The consequences of the construction of dam manifest in huge displacement
of people and destruction of their land. More than 250 villages are on the brink of
destruction.
There are some other examples of ecological movement in India such as Silent Valley
movement which is also an anti-dam movement. The movement was started in 1970s and
got huge support from Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad. Thus, there are several examples
to conclude that ecological movement appeared simultaneously in the South in its own
socio-cultural milieu.
In retrospect, the differences between the Northern and the Southern environmental
movements lie in a set of assumptions. It appears as American environmentalism,
according to Hay, ‘was not a throw back to the primitive, but an integral part of the
modern standard of living as people sought to add new “amenity” and “aesthetic” goals
and desires to their earlier preoccupation with necessities and conveniences’ (Hay, 1982:
21). However, in countries like India, it has clearly originated from the conflict between
competing groups – typically peasants and industry – over productive resources (Guha
&Gadgil, 1995). Even, regarding the modes of protest and communication of agenda,
there is marked difference between the two. In the north persists generally the language
of protest in politically organised and structurally instituted forms, whereas in the South,
it has been oriented in conventional forms of activism.
Global Environmental Debate and the North-South Divide
The decade of seventies shows a paradigm shift in environmentalism. The threat of
ecological crisis was increasingly felt on a wider political platform. The first
international conference on environmental concern was organised at Stockholm in 1972
by the United Nations. The meeting agreed upon a wide range of issues including a

37
declaration containing 26 principles concerning the environment and development. Since
then, many such conferences have been held to provide an enduring framework, central to
environmental problem.
In 1987, the UN established a World Commission on Development chaired by the Prime
Minister of Norway, Grottarteen Brundtland produced a report also known as Brundtland
Report. The report exposed the global patterns of consumption. In a sense, the report
offered a key explanation to understand the relationship between environment and
economic development. The significance of report also lies in the fact that it bears the
concept of ‘sustainable development’ as a remedy for both poverty and
environmentalism.
The concept of ‘sustainable development’, according to the report, posits a development
‘that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation
to meet theirs’. The idea was further elaborated in 1992 at Rio UN Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED) also known as the Earth Summit. The Summit
was organised, in order to, promote and develop certain principles to provide guidelines
on environment and development. The Rio-Conference proclaimed 27 general principles
to guide action on environment and development. Maurice Strong proposed a document
to set out how to make the planet sustainable which is also known as ‘Agenda 21’. The
400 page-document covers a wide range of issues such as promoting sustainable urban
development, managing fragile mountain ecosystems and hazardous wastes.
There was sharp disagreement between nations representing the North and the South
(industrialised and poor) on certain issues including bio-diversity. On the question of
bio-diversity, the biasness in favour of the Global North was distinctly clear. The major
portion of biodiversity (70%) lies in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,
Brazil, Zaire, Madagascar, China, Malaysia, India and Australia but due to weak
economies, they were more vulnerable to exploitation.
The developed countries wanted the developing countries to take measures for the
conservation of biodiversity resources. However, the cost of the most protection
programmes was in the range of $ 10 to $ 14 billion per annum, and technological
advantage derived from the genetic resources would go into the pocket of advanced
countries. Thus, this principle was highly contentious and embedded within ambiguous
agenda.
Subsequently, in 1997, Kyoto (in Japan) protocol was successfully agreed by many
nations to limit their green house emissions. The EU, USA and Japan respectively
committed themselves to reduce their annual green house gas emissions by 2012 to 8, 7
and 6% less than 1990 level. India too signed and ratified it in year 2000.
Even after rounds of negotiations between the Developed and the Underdeveloped
nations on certain issues, related to protection of environment, there is a wide gap of
understanding between them. The most disappointing fact is that many industrialised and
developed nations want to negotiate certain issues with underdeveloped or developing
countries in the most rigid and hegemonic framework.

38
The paradox can be understood in the words of Agrawal and Narain (1985: 363) –
“In all those who came from the Third World, there was a sneaking suspicion that the
western countries were up to some trick. The West may simply be pushing the
environmental concern on to an unsuspecting Third World to retard its technological
modernisation and industrial development. It was even argued that having got their
riches and affluent life styles, westerners were now simply asking for more affluence;
clear air, clean water, and a large tract of nature of enjoyment and recreation, many of
which were going to be preserved in the tropical forests and Savannas of Asia, Africa and
South America.”
At the international level, in 1987, the Montreal Protocol was signed to prevent the
depletion of the ozone layer. Thereafter, it led to the 1990 (London), 1992 (Copenhagen)
and 1995 (Vienna) Conventions for adopting substantive measures to curtail ozone
depleting substances such as CFC, halons, methylchloropen, carbon tetrachloride etc.
The recent data released by UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
suggests that emission of green house gases has increased upto 10% by rich nations in the
last 16 years. The problem lies in the relationship between industrial development and
green house emissions. The North blames the South for using conventional sources of
energy which is principal cause of green house gases. However, industrialized countries
are responsible for about 77% of the accumulated stock of green house gases, a
fundamental reason for phenomenon of climate change. Moreover, the contentions and
negotiations over the issues of emission of green house gases and climate change between
the North and the South envelops the causes for this divide. Due to the enormous
emission of green house gases (carbon dioxide, methane, CFC, nitrous oxides etc.), ozone
layer is being depleted day by day and consequently has affected the ecosystem by rise in
temperature, a phenomenon also known as ‘global warming’.
According to McNeill, ‘for the thousand years before 1800, carbon dioxide levels in the
atmosphere varied around 270 to 290 parts per million (ppm). Around 1800, an
accelerating buildup began, reaching about 295 ppm by 1900, 310 to 315 ppm by 1950
and about 360 ppm by 1995’ (McWeill 2001: 109). McNeill outlines two reasons for this
enormous increase in the amount of carbon dioxide-fossil combustion and deforestation.
For the rich countries, it is easier to put such blame on poor; however, it is strange
enough that despite of their claims to have green technology and strong economy, they
have failed to address their own pollution problems. It is true that poor countries are
heavily dependent upon conventional sources of energy and it equipped with technology,
and thus, a wide gap exists between them.
In a nutshell, the effective solution lies in adopting an integrated approach to bridge this
hiatus. Developing or less industrialized countries too need to address this problem in
formidable ways while adopting innovative methods and effective tools to save the
environment from the impending dangers of all kinds of emissions and pollutions.
SUGGESTED READINGS
 Agarwal, Anil and Narain, S. (1985). The State of India’s Environment: The Second
Citizens’ Report. New Delhi, Centre for Science and Environment.

39
 Arnold, David (1996). The Problem of Nature Environment, Culture and European
Expansion. USA, Blackwell.
 Guha, Ramchandra (2000). Environmentalism: A Global History. New Delhi:
Oxford.
 Guha, Ramchandra and J. Martiner-Alier (1997). Varieties of Environmentalism:
Essays North and South. London: Earthscan.
 Hay, S.P. (1982). From Conservation to Environment: Environmental Politics in the
United States since World War Two, Environmental Review 6(1).
 Hughes, J. Donald (2006). What is Environmental History? UK: Polity Press.
 McNeill, J.R. (2000). Something New Under Sun: An Environmental History of the
Twentieth-Century World. London: Allen Lane.
 Rangarajan, Mahesh (2007). Environmental Issues in India: A Reader, New Delhi:
Pearson Longman.

40
 (ii)ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS AND STRUGGLES
Dr. Avantika Singh
Structure
2.0 Objective
2.1 Introduction
PART-I
2.2 Bhopal Gas Tragedy
2.3 The Intervening Night – The Bhopal Gas Tragedy
2.4 Chernobyl Disaster
2.5 Understanding the Chernobyl Accident
2.6 Analysing the Chernobyl Disaster
2.7 Similarities and Dissimilarities between Bhopal Gas Tragedy and Chernobyl
PART-II
2.8 Introduction to the Chipko Movement
2.9 The Chipko Agitation in Action
2.10 Many Facets of the Chipko Movement
2.11 Amazon Movement
2.12 Self Assessment Questions
2.13 References
2.0 Objective
1. The objective of this chapter is to expose students to the industrial disasters and
struggles which have shaped human ecology.
2. The chapter primarily focuses on case studies to elucidate how disasters are not
sporadic events, rather they occur with formidable institutional pressure and denial
of safety measures.
3. The objective of the chapter stretches to acquaint students on how people have
struggled for their subsistence and rights challenging the very authority of the day.
The chapter focuses on Chipko and Amazon movements to unravel the complexities
of interaction between the local and administration.
2.1 Introduction
This lesson focuses on the analysis of environmental disasters and struggles dramatically
exposing local communities with environmental risks. The lesson is broadly divided into
two parts. The first part covers the section on environmental disasters using two case

41
studies namely Bhopal Gas tragedy in India and the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. It
attempts to unravel the most catastrophic industrial accidents in human history by
understanding the underlying causes and the aftermath of these deadly explosions.
Further, it also briefly explains the striking similarities and differences between both the
hazardous events.
An environmental disaster always implies a social crisis, which can be tackled in different
ways and at different levels: individual, group, organization and community.
Communities experiencing a catastrophic event and living with those risks which add to
their layer of vulnerability often challenge the given through forms of civil mobilization.
With this theme, the second part is dedicated to know about the environmental struggles
using the case study of the Chipko movement of India and Amazon movement of Brazil.
The first case, will enable students to understand what is Chipko and how it translated
from Mandal to Reni village and thereafter. It also briefly looks at a different lens with
which Chipko has been interpreted. The second case, accounts the journey of Chico
Mendes who started as a rubber tapper and turned to become a social change maker for
protecting the Amazon forest.
PART-I
2.2 Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Bhopal the capital of Madhya Pradesh in the decade of 1970s-80s was among the least
industrialized state in India wherein the manufacturing sector in the year 1978-79
contributed to just over 11 per cent in state’s domestic product (Minocha, 1981).
However, the city was slowly but positively undergoing an economic expansion attracting
companies to invest in this promising land of economic return.
In 1969, the Indian version of Union Carbide Corporation ( henceforth UCC) originally
hailing from the United States of America with 50.9% of ownership, installed its
chemical factory unit in old Bhopal with the name Union Carbide India Limited (Sarangi,
2012). The decision making authority over the plant's maintenance and operation was
reserved and controlled by the parent organization. With the aim of getting high returns
from the ongoing Green Revolution project in India, the Bhopal unit worked to
manufacture chemical pesticide. However, ‘the early 1980’s, while there was
considerable overcapacity in the pesticide industry, coupled with reductions in demand’
(Malcolm, 1997). As a result, UCIL decided in 1984 that they will sell Bhopal plant,
while the MIC plant will continue functioning under them.
Malcolm (1997) in his work also points out that as per the records stated in Union
Carbide’s internal documents (19-20), the authority approved the use of untested
technology to cut the manufacturing cost. The greed to earn heavy returns, in turn,
impacted the safety standards required to store methyl isocyanate which is known to be
more toxic than phosgene. This chemical by nature is unstable and should be stored at a
low temperature. Municipal authorities disapproved the use of this very harmful chemical
in the densely populated city of Bhopal by UCC which was given license only for
commercial and light industrial use (Bhopal town and country planning department,
1975). But the objection was overruled by the governments both at the centre and state
allegedly under the heavyweight influence of the company. An initial widespread belief

42
among the managers and workers on the nature of MIC was something equal to tear gas
and thus it was not considered potent enough to be objected against. But, the myth that it
is not very harmful got busted as workers were getting severely affected by its exposure.
Before the catastrophic tragedy uncovered to the world the hazardous situation of the
factory unit, the safety conditions remained a bone of contention between the labour
union and UCC, wherein on routine factory workers were exposed to potent chemicals.
Despite pressing demands by a labour union, the officials of Union Carbide repeatedly
ignored it. The workers at Union Carbide were occasionally falling prey to the hazardous
working conditions at the factory. For instance on 26th December 1981, Mohammad
Ashraf a maintenance worker lost his life as he inhaled phosgene. The Union Carbide
regretted his death but in turn, held the deceased as responsible for his death. His demise
did little to improve the hazardous conditions. Later in January and February 1982, forty-
two workers were hospitalized on account of toxic inhalation. However, no response was
initiated to stop the harmful exposure of toxins. These were not the isolated cases which
were registered. In August 1982 a chemical engineer who was exposed to liquid MIC,
suffered 30 per cent of body burn. Making the safety concerns from worse to worst, in
September 1982, the siren system which would alert the people living in the Union
Carbide surroundings of toxic leaks was dismantled. Just after a month, hundreds of
residents living in adjacent areas of Union Carbide unit were hospitalized after been
exposed to toxic leak. A supervisor who tried controlling this leak in Union Carbide
suffered chemical burn too while few other workers were exposed to harmful gas. With
the fatal accidents becoming a daily life of workers and inhabitants living nearby, the
labour union this time aggressively manifested their demands by distributing pamphlets
to people living in nearby locations with the warning and caution on the danger they are
greatly exposed to. As a result, all the union activities inside the factory unit were banned
by the Union Carbide officials.
The accidents, when read in the background of cost cutting measures which were taken
by officials at Union Carbide, affirms further that the script of catastrophe was not a
sporadic event but a well planned negligence. Safety standards such as safety training
which normally spanned for 6 months was limited to 15 days. While in sync with the
Indian government enthusiasm to have a more labour intensive plant, the Bhopal Union
Carbide setup opted for manual control system over the computerized system. However,
impacted by loss the number of staff was drastically reduced in the plant. For instance in
MIC unit, work staff was reduced from twelve to six and maintenance staff from three to
one. It eventually led to an absence of both the computerized control system as well as
the staff for the manual control. Besides, the safety guidelines were revised making things
more abysmal.
2.3 The Intervening Night – The Bhopal Gas Tragedy
It was the fateful intervening night of 3rd and 4th December 1984, when India witnessed
its most catastrophic industrial accident at the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India
Limited (UCIL) in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Many research based accounts state the
release of methyl isocyanate gas along with other toxins in the environment as a cause of
the industrial catastrophe. To understand what went wrong inside the operating unit, it is
important to take note of the sequence of events on that fateful night. There were two

43
important functions carried out in the chemical unit: flushing operation using water to
flush out from pipes trimers that had built on the pipe walls and then blocking off that
water with the slip blind to prevent it from getting into the storage tank. On an
intervening night, while the MIC supervisor was looking at flushing operation there was
no one to insert slip band. A few days back the post of maintenance supervisor was
abandoned. The operator noticed the problem with the functioning but before he could
investigate, he was ordered by MIC supervisor to resume the operation (ICFTU, 1985).
This carelessness coasted ill fate for approximately 5,00,000 people who were exposed to
hazardous gases.
While doctors at hospitals unaware of the actual event, were trying to understand the
reasons of this sudden difficulty in breathing, burning sensation in the lungs by the
patients which were increasing in numbers, the impact of gaseous transmission in the air
claimed the lives of many. The spill over impact was seen in nearby areas too, where
short term health effects were reported.
It is pertinent to mention that this factory was set up in old Bhopal, which comprised a
huge population of daily wage earners and migrants. Scandrett et al. (2009) in the work
on Bhopal noted a strong resentful narrative from the local resident Hazira Bi who lived
in heavily impacted Jai Prakash Nagar colony. In her words, “When the gas leaked it
poisoned the area close to Union Carbide… all the places where the poor live. There is
certainly a reason why only the poor were allotted land near a dangerous factory like
UCC". It is in this scenario of brazen negligence of health and safety measures, that the
world witnessed the worst of an industrial accident on 3rd December 1984.
2.4 Chernobyl Disaster
Two years later after the infamous Bhopal gas tragedy happened and shocked the world
to devise better safety standards along with strict functional mechanism, the humanity
witnessed yet another disaster. On 26th April 1986, a nuclear accident happened at the
Chernobyl nuclear plant situated near to Pripyat city of northern Ukraine. Majorly an
agrarian economy the nuclear power accounts to 38 per cent of energy needs of Ukraine.
Soviet interest in nuclear technology started during second world and became kind of the
highest priority for the soviet regime. This could also be understood in the background of
establishing the hegemony among powerful nations who were also beginning with their
series of nuclear based experiment. All the nuclear stations were state managed and just
before the break up of USSR, Soviet operated 46 nuclear power stations. Chernobyl is a
highly advanced RBMK based commercial nuclear station which was installed by Soviet
under its flagship programme. It became operational in 1977. Being the most advanced
reactor of the time, RBMK has been able to prove itself as a reliable producer of
electricity. There were four RBMK nuclear reactors at the site each capable of producing
1000 Mw of electric power. It operates principally different from other forms of
commercial reactors in the world. In this, water travels through pipes which pass through
core where nuclear fission takes place. The boiled water in pipes generates steam which
goes to turbo generators to create electricity.

44
2.5 Understanding the Chernobyl Accident
On the night of 25th April, 1986 sleep deprived plant workers ran a series of test on
Reactor 4 during a period of routine maintenance. The objective was to assess if the
reactors remained cold in events of a power cut or fluctuations. But the staff in charge of
the experiment violated fundamental security protocol and several power surges occurred
inside the reactor. Power went below 30 Mw. 'The reactor was operating at far lower
power than expected, but the flow of coolant through the core remained at levels
demanded by the experiment programme. As a result, there was even less steam in the
mixture in the core, resulting in an even more unstable condition (Malcolm, 1997).
Further, the increased levels of xenon in the fuel which was hardly being burned up due
to low power output made the situation worse as it became much difficult to reverse the
situation. Several signals from various parts of the station were sent to trip the reactor.
However, these warnings were overridden by the operators, who disabled that part of an
automatic control system. The shift manager in an attempt to shut off the fission process
inserted the control rods manually rather than by gravity in the time frame of 10 seconds.
3 seconds later the power output increased to 530 Mw but this, in turn, gravitated the
situation by a condition called ‘prompt critically’. The consequent repercussion was two
consequent explosions.
'It is believed that the first explosion resulted from an interaction between the fuel and
the coolant once some of the fuel rods were destroyed with a sudden power surge, while
the second explosion might have resulted from an explosion between hydrogen and air
which entered the reactor space’ (Malcolm, 1997).
It led to the chain reaction of explosions powerful enough to blow up the steel and
concrete lid. With reactor’s core exposed, radioactive material spurred up the atmosphere.
Emission from the affected reactor continued until May 5, when in effect they ceased.
The official report claims that two plant workers died in the initial explosion while a
dozen others were hospitalized with radiation sickness, including the fire workers who
were attending to their duty to extinguish the flames.
With the cold war still going on, the Soviet Union did all to avoid the international media
attention on the tragic nuclear accident. It was only 36 hours after the accident that the
orders were passed to evacuate the residents of nearby Pripyat town since the soviets
wanted to maintain the secrecy around the outburst of the accident. A few days later after
an outcry over the dangerous radioactive emission posed, the Soviet decided to reveal the
accident to its people and the world. To contain the continuous flames from the reactor,
sand, clay etc. were dropped off to doze it. The Soviet then tried clearing debris through
remote controlled automated robots. But, when the machines started breaking down in the
toxic atmosphere, a group of men were brought in to clear 100 tons of radioactive debris.
Later in the year, the first steel sarcophagus was built surrounding the reactor to contain
further damage by Reactor 4. Despite being structurally unsound, it remained in place
until 2016, when the new protection shield was built. Even with this added layer of
protection, the area remains unsafe for habitation for years to come. The Soviet
eventually established 90 wide mile exclusion zone around the reactor displacing the
large population to camps. Estimated disaster cost is projected to be 235 billion dollars in

45
addition to the one quarter of agricultural land contaminated for further use in modern
Belarus.
2.6 Analysing the Chernobyl Disaster
This chemical reaction accident at Chernobyl was unique on several accounts. The
fundamental being that this accident did not result from plants component malfunctioning
rather it was aggravated by the deliberate violation of operation rules. Reactor 4 at
Chernobyl plant was scheduled for routine maintenance on April 25th, 1986. As
experiments were only possible once a year when the plant was coming offline for
maintenance there was a determination to carry out the experiment under any condition.
The first factor relevant to the cause of the accident is the very conception of the
experiment itself. The electrical engineer who was a brain behind the design of this
experiment, was of the view that function of reactors were irrelevant for this experiment
which can be tripped off before the experiments start. However, the reactor at low power
output was kept functional with researchers intention of running the test second time, in
case the experiment is not able to get valid results from the first trial. Important to note
here is that the station director was not aware of this experiment. The experiment, as the
record puts, was just allowed by chief engineer and head of the reactor without actually
knowing the details of it. While this is bureaucratic laxity, the operation itself relaxed on
strict protocols. For instance, the test was originally scheduled in the afternoon, but it was
carried out in the early hours of the next morning when most of the professional scientist
and engineers had already left for their home. The sleep deprived staff at an experiment in
their quest of increasing the falling power output removed many control rods from the
reactor than permitted by safety guidelines. The staff despite taking note of the problems
emerging in the course of the experiment did not stop it but continued with hit and trials
with intent of reaching at the conclusive end of the experiment.
2.7 Similarities and Dissimilarities between Bhopal Gas Tragedy and Chernobyl
The study into the reasons and impacts of fatal accidents at the contrasting sites of Bhopal
and Chernobyl brings out events of similarities and differences. The similarity of thread
between both of these unfortunate events can be cited in the human, organizational and
technological deficiencies. This lesson aims to briefly cover a few of them.
Both of these accidents were highly technical in nature while the Union Carbide unit in
Bhopal was involved in the production of pesticide, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl
produced electricity. They were located in relatively poor localities surrounded largely by
the residents who were struggling to meet their ends. Both these accidents are reported to
occur in early morning hours with the blame being put on the operator. However,
analyzing both the events the managerial and institutional weakness comes as an
underlying factor triggering the rather bound to happen tragedy. Therefore using the word
error seems erroneous in the context of what had happened mainly on two accounts: First,
in both the cases, the underlying problems with the process as an when it emerged was
noticed and reported by junior staffs only to be ignored under the institutional pressure.
There was thus no remedial action to rectify them. Second, the loss making plant at
Bhopal was pressurized by its principal owner to commercially generate more profit,
while on the other hand the unexpected need to increase the power in Chernobyl to bring

46
experiment at the conclusive end guided these units to an extent that they broke all safety
standards. For instance: at the Chernobyl Reactor 4, the automated emergency protection
was switched off, while at Bhopal the coolers and absorber which had a protective
function were switched off. At both the plants, the formidable pressure aggravated the
situation to a non reversible situation.
In both the cases, the bureaucratic order was rather delayed with no immediate action
been taken to contain the situation with immediate effect. The active intervention like an
immediate rescue plan of the locals by the authorities could have saved many lost life.
Government functioning in both the countries it seems was putting things under the
carpet as if nothing has happened. In the absence of credible information, people were
struggling with the accident and its aftermath. Stress was the expected outcome of this
horrible accident and so was the lack of trust and confidence between the people and its
government.
Both the cases: Bhopal Gas Tragedy and Chernobyl disaster, known as the most
catastrophic accident became a defining calling for active activism by civil society and
activists. Series of questions related to industrial safety, risk, compensation and relief for
victims of industrial disasters, regulation related to use and transportation of hazardous
substance prompted legal bodies in the both the countries as well as internationally to
manifest clear rules and accountability.
There are also few of the striking differences between both the plants. Like at Bhopal, a
considerable component failure occurred like dysfunctional pressure valve of tank E610,
there was no apparent component failure at the Chernobyl plant. Another striking
difference is the industrial standards. The plant unit at Bhopal was below the industrial
standards. Considered to be a 'dead-end' as running in losses, the only way it could
survive its existence was to extremely push itself beyond its own limit in rather
deteriorating instrumental setup. Skilled staff were moving rapidly with no incentive and
promotion and with remaining staff one of the important barrier was the inability to read
and understand English, the language in which the instructions on machines was
embossed. The workers were performing their task without any impactful training. They
had no training in how to deal with an emergency. There were no emergency plans. In
case of any such emergent situation, the physical messenger would move from place to
place to circulate the information. Compared to the Bhopal unit, the nuclear reactor at
Chernobyl was a flagship programme of the then Soviet government. It was set up with
the most advanced technology and its scientist and other staff were highly qualified,
trained and paid well by the government. As stated earlier the accident at Chernobyl was
not a result of component failure at the plant reactor which was apparently among the
cause with Bhopal plant. The accident in both cases, however, resulted primarily from the
negligence of safety standards.
As per the official accounts, nearly 3800 deaths were reported along with 203000 injuries
in the case of Bhopal leak, while 33 deaths were reported as a consequence of radioactive
leak along with 600 registered cases of thyroid cancer by 1995. In terms of the financial
cost borne in responding to Chernobyl accident, it has by far outweighed the response
cost at Bhopal. One of the reasons for this high response cost in Chernobyl is because the
radioactivity can be detected at even lower levels and stays in the environment for a

47
longer period. The consequence of Chernobyl accident can be traced even to the land of
North Wales in the form of contamination of the agricultural land. In contrast, no such
trace of plume being found elsewhere than to the near vicinity of Bhopal has been
noticed.
On account of health hazard caution, even after many years of Chernobyl accident, the
counter measures for the surrounding population is still live in the public orders to deter
the likely health hazard. Additionally, the research in knowing the undetected problem
which might be a result of the nuclear explosion is still going on in Chernobyl and nearby
impacted area. It is assumed that the MIC release in the old Bhopal was hydrolyzed over
the time in comparison to Chernobyl fallout which is assumed to stay for long in the
environment and hence future generation remains at risk of health hazard. This seems to
be a reason that Chernobyl is a highly cited accident in the literature compared to densely
populated Bhopal which otherwise witnessed large scale human death toll.
PART-II
2.8 Introduction to the Chipko Movement
Chipko movement is a widely cited and celebrated non violent forest conversation
movement in India. It also became an inspiration point for environmental movements
around the world. It manifested the growing environmental awareness among the people
and echoed importance of civil society in India which started attending to the miseries of
the tribal and marginalized community. The idea of Chipko first originated in the early
1970s from the Mandal, a village in Chamoli district in the present day state of
Uttrakhand. It began as a struggle of the local people to assert control over the forest
produces in their vicinity, which was crucial for their livelihood. The important people
related to Chipko Andolan which was stylized with satyagraha method were namely:
Gaura Devi, Sudesh Devi, Chandi Prasad Bhatt and others. The impact which Chipko
made was applauded in the form of Right to Livelihood award in 1987 for its ‘dedication
to the conservation, restoration and ecologically sound use of natural resources’.
Historically, Chipko style innovation dates back to 1730 AD when 363 Bishnois
sacrificed their lives in the village in Rajasthan for saving the Khejri trees.
2.9 The Chipko Agitation in Action
Until recently, the locale remained generally disengaged from a great part of the Indo-
Gangetic plain by a region of swamps that made access troublesome. This
disengagement, together with different ecological issues often restrained any prospect to
economically generate a surplus. As a result, the mass population from these areas was
greatly dependent on forest produce to earn their livelihood. However, with the state
orders like that of forest department's concentration on chire pine other than reliance on
sustainable varieties of trees for the local agro-forestry is evidence in point that the
government of the state continued with a colonial legacy of exploiting the natural
resources. Despite the heavy reliance on forest produce, the community who lived nearby
these forests was continuously denied its rights and neglected. The local residents were
also denied of any employment opportunities germinating from such commercial logging.
Migrants were the preferred choice over the local residents for such jobs (Tucker, 1993).

48
This created layers of problems related to subsistence wherein the pressure on the limited
hill resource increased manifold with both local as well as migrants, depending on them.
Guha (1989) in his seminal work also notes that the people in hill shared common
concern over massive and unsustainable penetration of forest department causing further
livelihood concerns for the local residents after the strategic road was built up following
the Indo Chinese war of 1962. The unsustainable expedition by forest department resulted
in a serious flood disaster in the early 1970s (Pathak, 1994). In absence of any resolute
administration, more than 200 people lost their life. In this background, a cooperative
organization : Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh (DGSS), which was established in 1964 by
the Gandhian social activist Chandi Prasad Bhatt became an active agent in rescuing
people. DGSS was set up in Gopeshwar as a small scale industrial unit using local
resources and recruiting local people. It was also active in fighting against odds like
untouchability, liquor sales in hills and forest contract system (Guha, 1989). While doing
the rescue work in flood impacted hill, a need to further intervene triggered for initiating
an argumentative discourse with the government opposing the large scale industry. In
1973, after DGSS was denied the contract to use ten ash trees for manufacturing small
scale production, the same contract which allowed the provision to cut the great number
of trees was given to a private sports company, Symonds with its working office in
Allahabad. This invited confrontation between the forest department and DGSS. The
Symonds Company was forced to stop its work in the forest as it faced wider agitation by
the DGSS activists who hugged the trees to prevent it from getting axed. The continued
protest forced the government to cancel the logging permit of Symonds Company and
with effect transfer the contract to DGSS which was initially denied that right. The issue
though now was not limited to the annual procurement of ash trees instead it got focused
around unsustainable and frequent commercial logging contracts to big private factory
units and against the forest policy of the government. Both of them were unfavourable for
villagers whose livelihood largely dependent on forest resources.
After successful activism in Mandal forest, Chandi Prasad Bhatt led activists decided to
take this project further down to villagers in Phata-Rampur which was also under the
same threat by same sports good company. Chipko, therefore, which originated as a non
violent protest in the forest of Mandal expressed its solidarity by offering support to
villagers living in the surrounding areas of other forests exposed to similar unsustainable
large scale expedition. This was a defining movement shaping Chipko as a social
movement with regional implication outsourcing its services beyond their local spatial
needs.
While the Chipko strategy was widely circulated to regions inflicted by the large scale
logging threat by privately owned companies, the defining moment for Chipko came
when this stylized modus was used prominently by the women in Reni to protect the large
scale felling of trees in the forest which was the source to their livelihood. In 1974, the
contract to axe more than 2,000 trees was given for commercial exploitation. Under the
leadership of Chandi Prasad Bhatt, several group meetings and rallies were organized to
incite the villagers against the government approach on commercial logging. It was
decided that villagers will embrace the trees as a mark of protest when lumberman was to
axe the trees.

49
Lured by the government of compensation, the men of Reni villagers and DGSS workers
travelled the long muddy tattered roads of the hills to reach Chamoli where the expected
meeting was to take place. However, this was a fictional site and a staged drama set up by
the government and contractors to divert the population to a place far off from the forest
in Reni. As the large population was diverted, the truck loaded with lumbermen arrived to
start the logging operation. A local girl reported the incident to Gaura Devi, who headed
the Mahila Mangal Dal at Reni. Knowing this Gaura Devi along with 27 other women in
the village decided to confront the loggers on their own. As the talks failed between the
lumbermen and women, the women retorted to their already decided plan of action. They
hugged the trees to prevent them from getting axed. This continued as an all night vigil.
As a result, few of the lumbermen exited from the site. The men and DGSS workers
returned the next day. The news spread to the neighbouring villages inciting others to join
the Reni villagers in their protest. The contractors were forced to leave after the long
standoff which continued for four consecutive days.
The incident at Reni became prominent enough that the then chief minister Hemwati
Nandan Bhaguna had to interfere by setting up a committee to look further into the
matter. The committee ruled in favour of the villagers. This was a crucial turning point
instilling the zeal to take the movement to new places facing similar type of issues.
The success of Chipko was further replicated at different other sites like in Pulna village
in the Bhyundar valley in 1978 where women seized the tools of the loggers. Between
1972 and 1979, more than 150 villages became part of Chipko struggle. The collective
fight resulted in 12 major protests along with numerous minor confrontations in
Uttrakhand. With Chipko's remarkable imprints, in 1980, Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister
of India put the blanket ban for 15 years on commercial logging in the Himalayas of
Uttrakhand.
Chipko later became more pronounced and launched a save Himalaya movement. It
started extending support to many project based activism across the Himalayan belt.
2.10 Many Facets of the Chipko Movement
The imagination of Chipko attracted the fancy of world environmentalists to undertake
the project of conversation with Chipko as a point in reference wherein the communities
will have a centre stage fighting the odd government policies of their respected countries.
Vandana Shiva an active proponent from essentialist eco-feminist school, which
describes the relationship between women and nature as foundational to its analysis,
explains Chipko movement as an ecological movement dominated by women. According
to Shiva and Bandyopadhyay (1986), the Chipko struggle was unique in a way that it was
not primarily manifested on the politics of distribution of wealth but was pronounced in
its cardinal value of ecological stability, wherein women performed their sisterly role to
protect the forest trees. Juxtapose, Ramchandra Guha in his work ‘The Unquiet Woods’
explores historical and cultural roots of Chipko struggle. He contends that unlike the
popular image of Chipko as a grass root environmental movement, Chipko is primarily a
peasant movement to defend traditional rights in the forest" (Guha, 1989) and can qualify
if at all to be called as an environmental movement only later. According to Guha,
Chipko was centered around the locals’ struggle for subsistence which involved both men

50
and women to assert control over the forest produce which was crucial for their
livelihood.
Chipko continues to attract numerous interpretations with its fluid nature, but the
relevance of it remains intact in the fact that it captured the imagination of people to
protest as a group. Further, this provided momentum to the environment based movement
across different parts of the country. It did bring the rights discourse at the centre stage.
2.11 Amazon Movement
This movement in the forest of Acre, Brazil under the union leader who fought for the
preservation of the Amazon rainforest, Chico Mendes became an important civil based
movement in environmental history. His brutal murder in 1988 by a rancher made
headlines. Though the violence against the Amazon activists continued, his death marked
a huge impact on the conservation movement at Amazon. The supporters challenged and
struggled with enormous zeal with a new defined environmental sustainable development
in Acre.
Chico Mendes born in 1944 in the poor family spent his childhood in a town Xapuri in
Acre. At the age of 9, he started working as a rubber tapper along with his father. Without
any formal education, he self-learnt the art of reading which helped him in knowing the
deep exploitation and injustice which he and his fellow people at rubber reserve were
subjected to by the rubber barons. In 1970s Chico Mendes organized for a rural workers
union in Xapuri to fight against injustice and rural rights.
Within a decade the collective organization of rubber tappers under the leadership
guidance of Chico Mendes established a strong foothold as a local grass root social
movement. They developed the institution of National council of Rubber tappers. It was a
combined alliance between rubber tappers, river dwellers and indigenous people,
collectively they came to be called as ‘Peoples of the forest’. The forum was advocacy
against the deforestation of the amazon rainforest and people rights.
It is pertinent to mention here the political cloud surmounting Brazil in the 1970s and 80s
wherein Brazil was under the military dictatorship which encouraged clearing of the
Amazon for cattle ranching. In sync with this policy which aimed at bringing more land
under agriculture by clearing the forested area, rubber tappers were removed by the
ranchers from the rubber plantation unit. The alternative been given by the military rule
was the relocation of rubber tappers and their families to other state sponsored projects –
where the situation was abysmally poor.
In a retaliation, Chico Mendes and his associates alongside their families occupied the
forested areas which were to be cleared for mandating agricultural. The style of protest
was termed as ‘empate’ where they stood in front of chainsaws to block bulldozers.
To attract wider attention of the people around Amazon, he as a president of National
Council of Rubber Tapper, partnered with international conversation movement. The
concept of ‘extractive reserves’ was pioneered which meant a strategy used by protesting
people to make a living while they fight to preserve the rainforest of Brazil. This, in turn,
angered the landlords and their backers. The protest however continued and in 1987,

51
Mendes and his associates forestalled the plan of a rancher named Darly to axe the trees
in forested areas that was a slated as a nature reserve.
With his continued successful protest, he was becoming more of a threat for state strategy
which aimed at deforestation of the rainforest. In 1988, he was shot outside his home. The
murder gripped the international headlines and lead to increased resistance.
As a mark of continuing Mendes legacy which was not contained in Acre alone but
across Brazil, country’s first extractive reserve was established which has continued to
grow over the time.
A decade after Mendes death, his allies came to power in Acre. They established the self
proclaimed Government of the Forest and instituted many environment friendly policies
with an intent to maintain the remaining forest cover.
However, the challenge remains. Many people have been murdered in rural dispute across
Amazon, combined with this, though the deforestation rate has declined the forest
remains in a continued threat from illegal and unsustainable logging, agriculture
expansion and infrastructure development. But, the legacy of Mendis continues at abating
such challenges.
2.12Self Assessment Questions
Check Your Progress
1. When did Bhopal Gas tragedy happened?
1. 1981 2. 1983
3. 1984 4. 1985
2. At which reactor did the problem occurred due to ongoing experiment at Chernobyl
plant?
1. Reactor 1 2. Reactor 2
3. Reactor 3 4. Reactor 4
3. The Bhopal Union Carbide plant manufactured:
1. Uranium 2. Chemical Pesticide
3. Electricity 4. Solar Energy
4. The Chernobyl plant was responsible for the production of:
1. Fertilizer 2. Electricity
3. Steel iron 4. Wind Energy
5. Chipko agitation took place in which Indian state?
1. Uttrakhand 2. Bihar
3. Gujarat 4. Punjab

52
6. What was the first site of Chipko struggle?
1. Reni Village 2. Pulna Village
3. Mandal Village 3. Bhyundar Valley
Answers:1. (3); 2. (4); 3. (2); 4. (2); 5. (1); 6. (3)
Suggested Questions
Q1. Critically evaluate the Bhopal Gas tragedy.
Q2. Critically evaluate the Chernobyl disaster,
Q3. What were the underlying similarities and differences between two catastrophic
industrial disasters which happened at Bhopal and Chernobyl nuclear plant
respectively?
Q 4. Explain the trajectory of Chipko movement. What are the different interpretations
on Chipko struggle?
2.13 References
 Grimston, Malcolm (1997). Chernobyl and Bhopal ten years on comparisons and
contrasts. Advances in Nuclear Science and Technology, 24.
 Guha, R. (1989). The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance
in the Himalayas. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
 International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) (1985). The Trade
Union Report on Bhopal. Geneva: International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions
 Minocha A.C. (1981). Changing Industrial Structure of Madhya Pradesh: 1960-
1975. Margin, 4 (1), pp 46-61.
 Pathak, A. (1994). Contested Domains: The State, Peasants and Forestry in
Contemporary India. New Delhi: Sage.
 Sarangi, Satinath (2012). Compensation to Bhopal Gas Victims: Will Justice Ever
Be Done? Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 9 (2), pp. 118-120.
 Scandrett, Eurig., Suroopa Mukherjee, Dharmesh Shah, and Tarunima Sen (2009)..
Bhopal Survivors Speak: Emergent Voices from a People’s Movement. Edinburgh:
Word Power Books.
 Shiva, Vandana, and J. Bandyopadhyay (1986). The Evolution, Structure, and
Impact of the Chipko Movement. Mountain Research and Development, vol. 6 (2),
pp. 133–142.
 Town and Country Planning Department (1975). Bhopal Development Plan.
Bhopal: Municipal Corporation.
 Trent Brown (2014) Chipko Legacies: Sustaining an Ecological Ethic in the Context
of Agrarian Change. Asian Studies Review, 38 (4), pp. 639-657.
 Tucker, R.P. (1993). Forests of the Western Himalaya and the British Colonial
System (1815-1914), in A.S. Rawat (ed.) Indian Forestry: A Perspective. New
Delhi: Indian Publishing Company, pp. 163-192.

53
 2. STUDENT MOVEMENTS: PARIS 1968
Prabhat Kumar
Structure
2.0 Objective
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Reasons behind Student Activism
2.3 Paris Student Movement (1968)
2.3.1 Introduction
2.3.2 Background
2.3.3 The Events
2.4 Check Your Progress
2.5 References
2.0 Objective
The purpose of this lesson is to bring forth the various students’ perspectives behind the
important student movements that took place in the latter half of the twentieth century.
The lesson will focus primarily on the Paris Student Movement (1968).
2.1 Introduction
For fairly long period of time, Student Movements have been important political and
social forces in many nations. History bears testimony to the fact that the students played
a crucial political role in several European revolutionary movements (such as the German
revolutions of 1848 and the Russian revolutionary movements) in the nineteenth century.
However, it is difficult to make generalizations about the various youth and student
movements since each nation had its own set of circumstances constituted by the political
and educational conditions then prevailing in the given nations, against the background of
which these movements took place. For instance, the student movements of the 1960s and
the 1970s in the United States and Europe were the outcome of the civil rights protests
that began in the United States in the 1950s and the peace (anti-H bomb) marches and
demonstrations in Europe. The movement against United States involvement in the
Vietnam War resulted in anti-war marches and other protests which were initiated by
peace activists and leftist intellectuals on college campuses. These gained momentum in
1965, after the United States began bombing North Vietnam. Though the vast majority of
the American population supported the administration’s policy in Vietnam, a small but
outspoken liberal minority which included members of the leftist organization Students
for a Democratic Society (SDS), as well as prominent artists and intellectuals and
members of the hippie movement (a growing number of young people who rejected
authority and embraced the drug culture) began organizing “teach-ins” to express their
opposition to the way in which it was being conducted. The protests which initially
focused on opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War gradually adopted a

54
wider range of new issues – ‘second wave feminism’ (aimed at increasing equality for
women by gaining more than just enfranchisement), environmentalism, global justice and
most importantly, a call for greater personal freedom, as it spread beyond the two
continents to other parts of the world.
2.2 Reasons behind Student Activism
All over the world, students form a significant section of the population of a country and
irrespective of its orientation the locus of student activism is in the university. The
university students are the first to be affected by “new” ideas and are politically aware.
They are comparatively ‘freer of societal constraints than other groups in the population,
are usually not working for a living, have no family responsibilities, and often live away
from home in a peer-group subculture’(Altbach 334). Besides, since they are located on a
campus, they are easy to mobilize. All these factors are responsible for the active
participation of students in the various movements, be it social or political. The
educational and institutional environment of activism is a vital variable in determining the
nature and goals of any student movement.
We shall now focus on the Paris Student Movement (1968).
2.3 Paris Student Movement (1968)
2.3.1 Introduction
Social movement of any kind is to be viewed with sensitive eyes. It is more true when
one is looking at the movement led by the youth – the restless, imaginative young souls in
pursuit of a dream, chafing at restrictions and repelled by chaos, anarchy and the ugliness
of war.
Two campuses of University of Paris were engulfed in riotous outbursts, barricading and
stone pelting in 1968. The movement left behind it a trail of graffiti, slogans, songs and
images. These slogans and images throw a considerable light on the angst and euphoria of
the participants of the movement and which in suggestive ways define the contours of the
movement.
‘It is forbidden to forbid’, screamed one graffiti while the other declared it as its goal –
‘Enjoy without hindrance. With this being the goal the method employed for achieving it
was quite adventurous. ‘I love you!!! Oh, say it with paving stones!!!’ read one graffiti.
Another graffiti hinted at a new down, ‘Under the paving stones, the beach’. Paving
stones were frequently used as a weapon of protest in their fight with the police.
Paris student protest movement is quite often described as a movement in the realm of
ideas. Alain Geismar, a contemporary leader, described its success ‘as a social revolution,
not as a political one’. Since the movement was of the youth and the ideas that they
championed its roots too are to be traced in the domain of thought.

55
2.3.2 Background
In the 1950s and 60s there were visible signs of intellectual ferment worldwide. A brief
reference to the literary classics and the major intellectual figures will provide a glimpse
into the growing collective mentality of the times. It was a time when existentialism was
the reigning doctrine in France and one of its chief profounder was Jean-Paul Sartre. It
was a doctrine of despair and emptiness. In a remarkable passage Sartre wrote, ‘God does
not exist, and as a result man is forlorn, because neither within himself nor without does
he find anything to cling to.’ He also wrote against prevailing misery and injustice.
Across the English Channel ‘Lady Chatterley's Lover’ of D.H Lawrence which was
initially banned got published in 1960. The Second Sex, a major work of Simone de
Beauvoir, who was a close associate of Jean-Paul Sartre, came out in 1949. The work is
hailed as a pioneering feminist writing. In 1966 Juliet Mitchell wrote an essay titled
‘Women: The Longest Revolution’. It put the problems faced by women in bold terms.
To quote: ‘like woman herself, the family appears as a natural object, but it is actually a
cultural creation... Both can be exalted paradoxically, as ideals. The ‘true’ woman and
‘true’ family are images of peace and plenty: in actuality they both may be sites of
violence and despair.’
Many other movements were taking root in the cultural field. A wave of new cinema
emerged in Europe. The period is also known for the growth of gay rights movement. The
movement for black pride was a concomitant development. Bob Dylan summed up the
mood in an evocative song sung in 1965:
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
The period preceding the protest movement was marked by significant demographic
changes. More people were now taking to education. The trend towards modern
education started in the nineteenth century. Its pace quickened in the twentieth century.
The spread of primary education was universal from which a large number of students
reached the secondary school level. The post Second World War ‘baby boom’ period saw
a phenomenal growth in the enrolment of students in the university across Europe. In the
1960s the figure for students pursuing higher learning increased from 196,000 to 376,000
whereas the numbers for the corresponding period in France was 202,000 going up to
615,000. Unfortunately, the trend towards growing student numbers was not matched by
requisite financial investment in the educational sector. This negatively affected the
infrastructural facilities and the teaching staff needed to address the needs of the missing
number of students. The University buildings were woefully inadequate to meet their
residential and academic needs. Moreover, despite the winds of change blowing all
around the atmosphere in the Universities remained authoritarian and bureaucratic
frowning upon liberal ideas and values.

56
“A storm swept the world in 1968’, wrote Tariq Ali, a notable participant in the
movement. He went on, ‘It started in Vietnam, then blew across Asia, crossing the sea
and the mountains to Europe and beyond.’ The image of the horrors of Vietnam War, of
carpet bombing and the burning of villages, was being telecast every night. The resistance
of US might by a poor third world country fired the imagination of people. It also filled
them with hope that if Vietnam, a poor Third World Country, could challenge the United
States they too could topple authoritarian regimes.
2.3.3 The Events
The movement of 1968 started by the student protesters also had an epicurean side to it.
They demanded sexual freedom. As stated earlier the general atmosphere in the
Universities was orthodox and puritanical. This was reflected in the dormitory rules
which was based on segregation of sexes. The movements actually started in the suburb
of Paris. One of the campuses of the University of Paris was at Nanterre which was still
under construction since 1962. Apart from the building being at a rudimentary stage
accommodating around 12,000 students the dormitory rules prohibited the entry of
students of the opposite sex. In January 1968 Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a student leader, gave
vent to the students’ frustration before a visiting French Minister, Francois Missoffe to
which the latter retorted that he should rather cool himself off by diving into the pool. On
March 22, 1968 around 150 students along with some poets and musicians occupied a
building on the Nanterre campus of University of Paris to discuss the issues pertaining to
its functioning. The building was surrounded by the police. Following that the students
left after making their wishes public. This came to be kwon as the ‘Movement of 22
March’.
A disciplinary committee was formed to take action against the protesters. In the
meanwhile skirmishes continued between the students and the authorities from March
through May. This led to the closure of the Nanterre campus on May 2. In protest against
the shutting down of the Nanterre campus and against the threat of expulsion looking
over the students the Sorbonne campus of University of Paris rose in solidarity on May 3.
Events happened in quick succession thereafter. For the next seven weeks the streets of
Paris turned into a battlefield. Union Nationale des Etudiants de France (UNEF), a
students’ body, and the teachers union, gave a call on May 6 for a protest march against
the closing down of the campuses of Nanterre and Sorbonne. The next seven weeks are
fabled in French history as the time of street fights with paving stones, teargas shells and
barricades. Twenty thousand protestors were pitted against fifteen hundred armed
personnel. The students and teachers were marching towards Sorbonne while the police
was determined not to let them get close to it. As the crowd moved ahead the police
attacked them with batons. The crowd dispersed but soon regrouped itself, put up
barricades with whatever material was at hand and charged the police with cobble stones.
The intervening night of May 10-11 is known in French history as ‘The Night of the
Barricades’. By then the students' strength had swelled to 40,000. They assembled on the
Rive Gauche attempting to cross it. The police blocked them. The students responded by
piling up cobble stones and erecting barricades. This act remains one of the enduring
images of the May movements. The police charged at them at 2 in the morning with
batons and teargas shells. The repression continued till the dawn. Around 500 students

57
were arrested and hundreds of them were hospitalised. The police crackdown was
broadcast on radio at the time it was happening and later also shown on television.
Public knowledge of police brutality created a wave of sympathy for protesters across
French society. The intelligentsia, including poets and singers, condemned police action.
In support two major left unions, the Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT) and the
Force Luvriere, gave a call for a one day strike on May 13. On that day Paris witnessed a
march of over a million people through its streets. At that point the movement
transcended the boundaries of the Universities and came to engulf all sectors of French
economy and administration.
As it grew out of the confines of the Universities the movement from the middle of May
became more spontaneous and radical. Now it was not led by the left unions but by the
workers themselves. The union leaders tried to veer the movement towards higher wages
but the workers were now demanding change of government and control of their
factories. ‘Ten years that's enough!’ said one slogan demanding to bring the curtain down
on the large rule of Charles de Gaulle as president. Within a week the number of workers
on strike rose from 200,000 on 17 May to two millions the next day and ten million on
May 23.
A joint rally was held at Charlety stadium organization by the UNEF student union and
the CFDT trade union. Sensing trouble De Gaulle fled the country on May 29. It was
thought that he would soon resign. Sensing the dawn of a new era 400,000 to 500,000
marched through the streets of Paris on May 30 ranting the air with chants of ‘Adieu, De
Gaulle.’ De Gaulle, however, had something else up his sleeve. He dissolved the National
Assembly and gave a call for election on June 23. Simultaneously he organized a counter-
demonstration of hundreds of thousands of Frenchman in support of himself. In the
ensuring election De Gaulle's party achieved a resounding victory. At the same time the
protest movements by the students and the workers gradually petered out.
2.4 Check Your Progress
State whether True or False
(i) People’s Republic of China was established under the leadership of Mao Zedong.
(ii) On May 19, 1989 Premier Zhou Enlai declared martial law.
(iii) This was the first student movement to be crushed by the repressive state.

Answers
(i)T;(ii)F ; (iii)F.
2.5 References
 Corinna-Barbara Francis, (1989). “The Progress of Protest in China: The Spring of
1989” in Asian Survey, Vol. 29, No. 9, pp. 898-915( Available online:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2644834)
 Altbach, Philip G. (1970), “Student Movements in Historical Perspective” in Youth
and Society, March 1970.

58
 Anne Brown, M. (2010), “China – the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989” in
Human Rights and the Borders of Suffering, Manchester University Press.
 Calhoun, Craig. (1989), “Revolution and repression in Tiananmen Square” in
Society, 26 (6). (Available online: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/42467/ )
 Nathan, Andrew and Link, Perry,(eds.) (2001), “The Tiananmen Papers”, Little
Brown & Co., London.
 Kent, Arthur. (1993), “Between Freedom and Subsistence: China and Human
Rights”, Oxford University Press, Hongkong.
 Macartney, J. (1990), “The Students: Heroes, Pawns or Powerbrokers?” in G. Hicks
(ed.) The Broken Mirror: China After Tiananmen, Longman, Harlow, Essex.
 Walder, A.G. (1996), “The Workers, Managers and the State: The Reform Era and
the Crisis of 1989” in B. Hook (ed.), The Individual and the State in China,
Clarendon Press, Oxford.

59
 3. (i) SOUTH AFRICA : FROM APARTHEID TO RECONCILIATION
Alisha Dhingra
Outline

1.0 Objectives
1.1 Historical background: Creation of the Union of South Africa
1.2 Struggle against Apartheid Regime in South Africa
1.3 Emergence of Nationalism in South Africa
1.4 The Saga of Reform and Despotism
1.5 Attempts towards Constitutional Remedy
1.6 The Insistence for a Dialogue-based Agreement and its Outcome
1.7 Conclusion
1.8 Let us sum up
1.9 Self Assessment Questions

1.0 Objectives
This lesson attempts to understand the evolution of South Africa from a country which
had legalized racial discrimination to a country that adopted the new constitution in 1996
with the objective of establishing a non-racist and non-patriarchal society.It gives a
historical background of the Anglo Boer War leading to the formation of Union of South
Africa. Besides tracing the struggle against apartheid regime by specifically focusing on
the role of African National Congress in this struggle, it also familiarizes students with
the constitutional developments leading to the adoption of the new constitution of South
Africa in 1996.
1.1 Historical Background: Creation of the Union of South Africa
The Anglo-Boer War, also known as Boer War began in the year 1899. The British
Empire fought this war with two Boer States, namely the South Republic (the Republic of
Transvaal) and the Orange State. It was fought in order to get control over the Republic
of Transvaal. The war came to an end in1902. The British forces won this war after a
long-drawn struggle and fighting.Many meetings and conferences were held for many
years for drafting the constitution for the newly-created State. South AfricaAct was
enacted in the year 1910 in Britain which led to the creation of the Union of South Africa
after the amalgamation of four States – Transvaal, Orange Free State, Cape Colony and
Natal. It is essential to understand the events that led to the enactment of South Africa
Act.
On 12 October, 1908, a gathering of the Whites of the four amalgamated States took
place and this meeting was called National Convention. The Whites (who were until then
at war with one another) amalgamated themselves to form a government that omitted the
black Africans and the coloured Africans. Two major debates dominated the discussion
of the framers of the constitution. One was related to the Native Question (which

60
meantthe role of the natives) while the other was about the option amid a federal system
and a unitary system.
In September1909, two things were proclaimed. These were a report of the National
Convention and a draft of the South African Act. For averting many adverse and
unfavourablebearings, a joint gathering of black Africans and coloured people in Africa
was held by the Orange River Native Congress. Many people from different parts of
Africa took part in this meeting. Their object was to articulate as well as to spread their
opposition about the newly formed amalgamation of the aforesaid four States.
On the other side, all the four colonial Parliaments approved the draft titled South Africa
Act and they sent this Act to the National Convention in May 1909. There were some
Parliamentarians who opposed this Act.During the time of the discussion on this Act in
Cape Parliament, W.P. Schreiner, a votary about equal rights delivered a fervent appeal
highlighting the matter of non-racialism and his maxim was “Union with Honour.”He
made anunqualified statement with regard to the rights of the black people and the
coloured people. He asserted that those rights must not be ignored for giving any
advantage to the residents of Europe. W.P. Schireiner went on to declare that he would
discard the concept of the Union rather than not follow his vision and conscious in the
matter of upholding other person’srights and dignity. It was further claimed by him that
Federation, Unification, and some other connected issues were the questions of detail, but
the most significant issue that was of paramount and overriding value was “Union
withHonour.” Thus, the hazard and despair arising out of “Union without Honour”
constituted a supreme hazard that a country was in a position to incur. (Odendaal 1984)
After the approval of the draft constitution by the Cape Parliament, it was sent to the
government of Britain for approval by the Imperial Parliament. Black Africans and
coloured citizens considered this act of submitting the Constitution to the Imperial
Parliament as an additional prospect for anchoring for thebetterment oftheir status. On
account of this hope, a petition wassubmitted to the House of Commons by a delegation
of these black African leaders and the coloured African leaders. The petitioners made a
submission that the House of Commons should declare that the grant of equal political
rights to the competent and deserving citizens should be done without considering their
race, colour and creed. Despite the fact that this vividrepresentation was submitted for
favourableconsideration, the Imperial government of Britain passed the draft Constitution
on August 19, 1909 without making any amendments to it. A domineering All-White
government was imposed by means of this Constitution.This Constitution further divested
the black Africans and the coloured Africans of the right of voting although this right of
voting was there prior to the passing of the Constitution.
1.2 Struggle against Apartheid Regime in South Africa
A set of legal Acts such as the notorious Land Act of 1917 came into being after the
creation of Union of South Africa entrenching the apartheid regime.The Land Act of
1917 deprived black Africans of their right to vote and right to holdproperty.One of the
crusaders of the struggle against apartheid was Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, a lawyer who
received training in Britain. He further founded a body called “Native Union.”He made a
plea to all the dark races of the subcontinent to meet once or twice a year for appraisal of
the past and oppose those laws and policies responsible for retarding the progress of dark

61
races. In the pursuit of bringing together the people of Africa,he made considerable and
appreciable contribution. He asserted that the evil spirit of racialism and eccentricities of
Xhosu-Figo feud, acrimony existing amid Zulus and Tjsjongas, amid Basthos and other
natives needto be annihilated. This narrative went on the state thatthis animosity between
different ethnicities among dark races had shed sufficient blood amongst all of them who
were one mass of persons. These divisions were the reasons responsible for their
miseries,fortheir depravity,and for theirlack of knowledge (Rive &Couzens, 1991).
Seme (Pixley Ka IsakaSeme, the lawyer) gave a call and this was responded with the
establishment or founding of the African National Congress (ANC)on the 8th day of
January, 1912. A unified leadership came into existence for leading the black African
people for stating their problems and for spearheading their struggle. However, quite
significantly it offered the black African citizens a concept of good existence. This
struggle led by the ANC was opposed to the provisions of the Constitution which floated
many lawful provisions and means directed towards the oppression of the black people.
Hence, the outlook of the Blacks also comprised a vision for such a constitution which
ensured fair and democratic rights to all(Rive &Couzens, 1991).
1.3 Emergence of Nationalism in South Africa
The specks of patriotism became clear in the Blacks and the White in almost equal
proportion with the coming into existence of the Union of South Africa. The black tribes
who till now were drawn away from oneanother, found a familiar enemy whowanted to
rob them of their voting right. The new arrangement coming out of the creation of the
Union of South Africa paved way for an economy that became reliant on ordinary
working classes.Hence, the sudden expansion of the Communist movement was
observed. The South African Communist Party (SACP) was already there in South Africa
and was popular with the people of the working class. In 1928, in the month of
December, this party exhorted people by saying, “A South Native Republic as a stage
towards workers’’ and peasants’ government with full protection and equal rights for all
national minorities” (Rive &Couzens, 1991).
The Communist International deliberated the state of affairs in the Union of South Africa
during the sixth congress. The concept called ‘Native Republic’ was dealt in the annual
report of the Communist Party of South Africa.This thesis or resolution offered some
basis for developing conceptual progress of the nationalism amongst the black Africans.
The emerging African nationalist people of South Africa were inspired by the Atlantic
Charter which was signed in 1941 in the month of August.Prime Minister, Winston
Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt were the signatories of this Charter. This
charter comprised the following eight main rules in a nutshell:
1. Discarding of attack and seizure of any foreign territory.
2. The boundaries of any nation cannot be altered without the consent of the citizens
involved.
3. Reintroduction of the sovereign rights and the concept of self-government.
4. Permission to every other country to get raw material from a given country.
5. There should be teamwork among all the countries regarding economic tie-ups.

62
 6. Citizens should be free from fear and free from the paucity of things.
7. There should be liberty for every country to use the seas.
8. Every country that attacks another country should be disarmed.
The African National Congress (ANC) prepared a charter of its own. This charter known
as “African Claims” got drafted by the ANC because it was impressed and impelled by
the Atlantic Charter of 1941.This African Claim Charter wanted complete citizenship, the
authority to own land, and the annulment of all prejudicial laws. The notion of
fundamental rights or the right of the self-determination came into being.
A party called National Party (NP) came into power in the year 1948, and at that time the
government of this party introduced apartheid. It made disreputable acts like Suppression
of Communism Act (1951), Group Areas Act (1950), Separate Registration of Voters Act
(1951), Bantu Authorities Act (1951),andStock Limitation Act (1950).Entrenched
confrontation and struggle started with the introduction of apartheid.A defiance campaign
was launched in 1952 for the purpose of expressing resentment against these rules. The
participants in this agitation were the black Africans, the coloured people and the people
of Indian origin.
The Congress of the People, which was organized for the people of all races, took place
on June 26, 1955. It was convened by the National Action Council which was a multi-
racial organization. This Congress was attended by many thousand participants and then
came into existence a draft called Freedom Charter. It can be considered as the
preliminary draft of the new Constitution of South Africa, 1996. It is noticeable that the
very first paragraph of this Charter lined out an idea of a concept that was needed for
shaping the country’s political set-up and profile. This newly created concept of political
set-up became an overriding factor later on for many years for several political leaders
and workers. We can clearly deduce the inspiration imparted by this Charter to the new
constitution of 1996. The first paragraph runs as under:
“We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know:
that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and black, and that
no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the
people. That our people have been robbed of their birth right to land, liberty and
peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality; that our
country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood,
enjoying equal rights and opportunities; that only a democratic State, based on the
will of all the people... Can secure to all their birth right without distinction of
colour, race, sex, or belief” (Freedom Charter 1955)
A strident and earnest exhortation was made by the then President-General of the African
National Congress in the month of May, 1957 that a National Convention should be
conducted for permitting various delegates belonging to every segment of the population
for gathering and for deliberating the feud and disagreements in the set-up and for finding
a resolution to the prevalent chaos and unrest. His appeal was not heeded by his
contemporaries.
During a Consultative Conference of African Leaders in Orlando, Swato, forty African
leaders held a meeting with some progressive and moderate leaders of the White

63
community in December, 1960. The founding of the Republic was discarded by this
Conference and it appealed to African leaders that they should take part in “All-in
Conference.” The intention of this “All-in Conference” was that a National Convention
should be held. This proposed Convention was meant for reflecting on the new order of
political and legal set-up ensuring fundamental rights of every citizen.
The proposed All-in Conference was held on March 25,1961.This Conference made a
firm proposal for bringing about a truly democratic government. About 1400
representatives who participated in this Conference, came from all over the country and
were affiliated to various religious, social, cultural, and political groups. Nelson Mandela
gave a clarion call with regard to organizing a national convention for elected delegates
so that they could take a clear-cut and firm decision with regard to a constitution which
would be democratic and establish anon-racial society. It was proposed in this convention
that Nelson Mandela should apprise the then Prime Minister, Hendrik Verwoerd (who
was the Prime Minister of South Africa from1958 to 1961), with regard to this resolution.
A letter was drafted by Nelson Mandela and it was forwarded to the Prime Minister and
the letter made categorical references to the growing unrest and tendency towards chaos
in the nation.The letter further suggested that the tide of unrest and chaos could be
stemmed if a National Convention of delegates is called for drafting a new constitution
that bring a non-racial and democratic society.
However, it so happened that the South African government declared South Africa a
republic after conducting only an all-White referendum.This step of the government led
the country to a drastic change in the history of South Africa which slid into an armed
civil war and this civil war went on for 30 years.The government did not pay any
attention to the warnings and proposals of the ANC On the contrary, the Government
banned the ANC and some other organizations. The banning of these political bodies
debarred them of any right whatsoever for the resolution of their grievances. This led to
the conclusion that without resorting to a struggle with the help of arms they could not get
the much-needed relief. In this manner, a wholly peaceful African nationalist
organization, the A.N.C had to become an insurgency-linked liberation movement.
However, many of the leaders of the A.N.C were sent to jail and it appeared that the
resistance had become subdued and silenced.
1.4 The Saga of Reform and Despotism
After the banning of the ANC and other Bodies of Blacks and Coloured people, the
government foisted the Afrikaans language as the medium of instruction. Reacting to this,
there was a very ferocious and violent resistance by the students in the month of June,
1976.The unrest was very severe and brutal in which many hundred students were killed.
This devastating unrest and the resultant violence made South Africa a fulcrum of
attention for the entire world as apartheid was the main cause for this unrest, violence,
and killings, and the world never approved apartheid. Many black Africans left their
country for joining the struggle from outside. In this manner the armed struggle became
more intense. All these fervent and fast-moving activities forced the government to relent
and come down to the discussion table for finding a solution of this devastating and
crippling problem.

64
In the wake of the aforesaidhappening, Prime Minister (later President) P.W. Botha
started a process of rearranging the State after he came to power in 1978. A new
government department, named Department of Constitutional Development and Planning
was established and this creation was one of the most prominent steps.(Swilling &
Phillips, 1989). The government entrusted this curious task of delegating authority and
bringing changes by means of multi-layered inter-departmental configuration named
National Security Management System (NSMS). To take care of and resolve vital and
volatile issues like social and economic turmoil was the main task of NSMS. The NSMS
was authorized to do so in order to succeed in winning the goodwill of the local citizens.
In 1983, another noticeable progress in the constitution development took place as an
element of Botha’s plan for reforms. This step was in the shape of a new Tricameral
Parliament and a Council of the President. This Parliament comprised three houses,
namely the White House of the Assembly, The Coloured House of Representatives, and
the Indian House of Delegates. What was striking in this was the absence of the black
people. A dual strategy was brought into play by the administration of President Botha
for solving the mounting militancy unleashed by anti-apartheid forces. This dual
approach consisted of reform along with despotism.
A reallocation of the policy of the National Party (NP) became apparent with the
approach of the National Security Management System (NSMS) which was brought into
existence in1979 and secondly with the 1983-based constitutional reforms started by
Chris Heunis, Minister of Constitutional Affairs and Planning. Although NP Government
retained the provisions of apartheid but it started focusing on some other reforms-related
aspects which could be used for controlling the Black population. The development-
related package of 1980s was meant for establishing a faction consisting of “urban
insiders” made up of a limited number of aristocratic black Africans so that they could
become a buffer opposite the majority consisting of black Africans. (Cock & Nathan,
1989). The Ricekert and Weihahn Commission and the Constitution of 1983 worked
towards achieving this very goal.
The National Party (NP) government used a very sophisticated tool called NSMS
(National Security Management System) for the dual purpose of reform as well as
repression. This approach brought some temporary respite for the Botha government.
With this method, the government was successful in suppressing political chaos to some
extent in the period of mid-80s and demonstrating the deceptive might of an apartheid-
practicing government.From a retrospective point of view, a kind of stalemate of impasse
came into existence in that period of mid-80s. The military power of the South African
government came into scene with the implementation of NSMS. Thus, the NP
government was successful in averting any decisive victory infavour of the anti-apartheid
factions.
Armed rebellion against the NP government became more intense with the passage of
time. Till the year 1984, the number of armed rebellions ascended to 50 attacks per year.
In the year 1985, ANC used landmines and started displaying its violent form for the first
time. ANC declared the year of1986 as the year of People’s Army because of the
command of its leaders. The state of South Africa that carried the agenda of revolutionary
politics started making frantic efforts to control and administer the major part of the
country. Then came the next step in the matter of resistance, and this step was the

65
declaration that the armed struggle be converted into “People’s War.” A trial named
BethalTrial connected with the underground militants of the ANC uncovered the
exhaustive arrangement that was created by ANC with regard to its revolutionary
warfare.
1.5 Attempts towards a Constitutional Remedy
For finding a constitutional remedy,one exploratory meeting was held in the year
1985between Nelson Mandela and some delegates of P.W. Botha’s government. By then
the fact that South African crisis had become unmanageable was clear to P.W.Botha. He
further felt that radical political and constitutional reforms were the need of the hour. It
was further realized by the government that the participation of the black majority was
imperative for such moves. Two alternatives were available to the government of
P.W.Botha, the first one was that he should release all detained political leaders and start
negotiating with them. The other alternative was that he could handpick some black
representatives and arrive at a favourable solution with them. P.W. Botha chose the
second alternative and not the first one because he was not sufficiently bold to hold
negotiations with the detained political leaders.
During this time, the approach of the South African government with the neighboring
States was similar to its approach with the local majority. From a period beginning with
the advent of the year 1988, South African government carried out cruel and atrocious
attacks against its neighbouringcountries as they were attempting to destabilize the
government in South Africa.
For the purpose for resolving this crippling crisis, Botha now had further incentives in his
plan of things. In the month of April, 1988, P.W. Botha floated a fresh constitutional
structure for his nation and the framework of this structure was based on federal or co-
federal set-up. Through this set-up there were arrangements wherein black South Africans
could be co-opted into the political set-up and they could be co-opted till the level of the
posts of Cabinet Ministers.
1.6 The Insistence for a Dialogue-based Agreement and its Outcome
Many new bills were initiated in the months of June and July 1988 for bringing forth a
new constitutional scheme of the government. The backdrop of bringing these Bills into
existence was to bring some reform and fortify the position of black leaders of temperate
nature. These Bills also wished to bring these moderate and temperate black leaders into
the process of the drafting of the Constitution. The abrogation of limitations stated by the
Group Areas Act (1950) wished to pacify many moderate black, coloured, and Indian
citizens. It was thought that the changes ushered through these reforms would, in addition
to all other changes,help temperate black persons in charge towards the task of
contributing their efforts in the envisaged National Council. To wean away black and
other affected Africans towards a path of negotiation and reconciliation for peace and
prosperity was the cardinal aim of these new Bills.
The outlook of the various political organizations outside South Africa for a new
constitution was also under review during this time. The ANC printed the main highlights
of the new constitution at the end of various meetings and deliberations that lasted for
two years. A few of these provisions averred the existence of a state based on democratic

66
values where the fundamental rights of each citizen are guaranteed and where he/she has
complete freedom of participation in activities leading to his/her growth and happiness.
In addition to this, many leaders were assessing the constitutional approach of the
Progressive Federal party (PFP). This party which was founded in 1977 was opposed to
apartheid. It believed in power sharing and envisaged a geography-based federation
having universal franchise but governed by checks and balances for averting any
misdemeanor through majority rule. The PFP monitored the working of the national
convention about constitution-related arrangement.
To prepare for the forthcoming elections, the NP (National Party which was established
in 1948 and which was the creator of apartheid) made public its five-year plan on June
29,1989.There were indeed some noteworthy and people-friendly provisions in this plan.
This plan limited the provisions only to the extent of general reforms that included Bill of
Rights permitting some rights to groups. This plan also indicated the participation of
“reputed leaders of every group” for bargaining a new arrangement, for reviewing new
tasks and powers of the Head of the State and for promoting the concept of self-
determination about “own affairs” with joint verdict-taking on “general affairs.” There
were some deficiencies and shortcomings in this plan, but this plan of the NP started
looking like the people-friendly plan of the Democratic Party and the recently launched
PFP. Above all, it became clear that the NP had by then started casting doubts over some
of its own plans and policies.
Many leaders from the black African community did not accept this new five-year plan
and they wanted the total annihilation of the curse of apartheid for establishing an
environment beneficial towards dialogue.This five-year plan received notice of the
British media as well and that media too did not approve of this plan. Even then, a good
feature of this plan was that it envisaged a dialogue with the black people.
Thereafter, from October, 1989, onwards the international sympathizers of South African
government too began mounting pressure on it for bringing in reforms. The government
was advised by Mrs. Margaret Thatcher for carrying out reforms if it wanted to ward off
the threat of sanctions by other nations. The U.S. government directed this government
for removing ban on all political parties, removing state of emergency, eliminating every
discriminating law, and starting dialogue with all races before June, 1990 to draft a new
constitution. Locally, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) too did not agree to negotiate till
thee impediments were removed. A few days later, the government unconditionally
released many prominent political prisoners of repute and seniority.Finally, De Klerk
held a meeting in November,1989, and agreed for a provision that would give full
political rights to every citizen. He also stated that in no country of the world a minority
had been able to be in power without waging a war. The claim that situation favorable for
dialogue could not be denied was accepted by him because there was no other option
available to him.
Negotiations between an apartheid-inclined administration and the members of freedom
movement officially started after the convening of a Conference for a Democratic South
Africa (CODESA) in the month of December in 1991. CODESA was unsuccessful in its
attempt and it could not bring about any agreement on the constitution-making process
for a new constitution because of different viewpoints of the NP and the ANC. The

67
deadlock called for an early settlement for avoiding any more conflict and bloodshed. For
warding off bloodshed and further feud, a conciliation was reached through a document
called Record of Understandingin September, 1992. This was followed by Multi Party
Negotiation Process (MPNP) in1993. TheMPNP agreed to thirty-fourconstitutional
principles. These principles were derived from thewell-known features of various
democratic countries. These were: separation of powers and an independent judicial
system, rule of law and preclusion of discrimination.
In the early 1993, an accord on the interim Constitution was ultimately reached. The last
White Parliament adopted this interim Constitution on December 22,1993. The first
democratic elections were held on April 27, 1994 and this interim Constitution came into
force on the same day. The interim constitution brought an end to apartheid. This interim
Constitution granted justiciable Bill of Rights to all South Africans.In this manner, the
concept of Parliamentary Sovereignty which controlled the apartheid legal order was
replaced by the doctrine of the Supremacy of the Constitution. This replacement meant
that all governmental conduct will be examined against the threshold of the Bill of Rights
and other constitutional stipulations and the judicial system was invested with the power
to declare null and void such legislation as was not in conformity with any provision of
the Constitution. Along with these aforesaid changes, another significant change that
came intoexistence was the adoption of federalism by means of which the centralized
executive powers and centralized legislative powers which were enjoyed by the apartheid
government were declared null and void, and these very vital powers were distributed
amid national, provincial, and local elements of the government. Chapter 11 of the
interim constitution made traditional leaders an inseparable part of provincial government
and local government.
The ultimate and the finalized Constitution was adopted democratically by the
Constituent Assembly on May 8, 1996, and sent to the newly established Constitutional
Court for ratification.
Adding to the drama of constitutional transition, the Court held that the ultimate
Constitution was not in consonance with the thirty-four principles agreed in MPNP in
1993. For instance, it was ruled by the Court that the Constitution did not grant the right
of individual employers to participate in collective bargaining. It was further held
unconstitutional because it did not allow the permission to amend the Bill of Rights.
Lastly, it was unconstitutional because this Constitution did not protect the autonomy of
the Public Protector.
On account of this judgment, the Constitution was, for this reason altered and amended
by the Constituent Assembly in consonance with the orders of the Court and later it was
submitted to the Court again for certification. On December 6, 1996, the amended text of
the Constitution was finally approved by the Court. This text was assented by the then
President Nelson Mandela on December10, 1996. The Constitution was enforced with
effect from February 4, 1997.
The two elements or defining features of Constitution of South Africa 1996 are, namely
number one justiciable Bill of Rights stated in Chapter2 of the Constitution, and number
two Constitutional Court. This bill gives immense curative powers to the Courts for
implementing the provisions of the Bill of Rights.

68
1.7 Conclusion
The new Constitution of South Africa, 1996 intends to lead in the transformation of the
unjust and cruel social set-up throughout the period of apartheid.The Bill of Rightsis
based on the supposition that law and human-rights related litigations or cases can serve
as a mechanism with regard to fundamental social change. Very serious violations of
citizens’ civil and political rights were very clearly evident during the era of apartheid
years and this era was marked by torture, detention without trial, extra judicial
executions, judicial executions, restraints of freedom of expression, and restrictions of the
assembly of people. In addition to the foregoing elements, the era of apartheid further
methodically impoverished the majority of the population; black people in particular.
Even after these favorable changes, the imprints of poverty created by apartheid exist till
now and these imprints of poverty pose the most serious challenge for South African
democracy that is comparatively new compared to other established democracies. This
new constitution seeks to surmount these problems by granting, not only civil rights and
political rights but also economic rights to each and every citizen of South Africa. The
Constitution of South Africa, 1996, in this manner, serves as a manifesto of the ‘post-
liberal’ era for transformationof the post-apartheid society into a multi-cultural
democracy and making the new society aclassless social democracy.
1.8 Let us sum up
 South Africa Act was enacted in the year 1910 in Britain which led to the creation
of the Union of South Africa after the amalgamation of four States – Transvaal,
Orange Free State, Cape Colony and Natal.
 A set of legal Acts such as the notorious Land Act of 1917 came into being after
the creation of Union of South Africa entrenching the apartheid regime.
 The specks of patriotism became clear in the Blacks and the White in almost equal
proportion with the coming into existence the Union of South Africa. The black
tribes who till now were drawn away from one another, found a familiar enemy
who wanted to rob them of their voting right.
 A party called National Party (NP) came into power in the year 1948, and at that
time the government of this party introduced apartheid. It made disreputable acts
like Suppression of Communism Act (1951), Group Areas Act (1950), Separate
Registration of Voters Act (1951), Bantu Authorities Act (1951),and Stock
Limitation Act (1950).
 A dual strategy was brought into play by the administration of President Botha for
solving the mounting militancy unleashed by anti-apartheid forces. This dual
approach consisted of reform along with despotism.
 Armed rebellion against the NP government became more intense with the
passage of time. Till the year 1984, the number of armed rebellions ascended to
50 attacks per year. In the year 1985, ANC used landmines and started displaying
its violent form for the first time.
 Negotiations between an apartheid-inclined administration and the members of
freedom movement officially started after the convening of a Conference for a
Democratic South Africa (CODESA) in the month of December in 1991.

69
  In the early 1993, an accord on the interim Constitution was ultimately reached.
The last White Parliament adopted this interim Constitution on December
22,1993. The first democratic elections were held on April 27, 1994 and this
interim Constitution came into force on the same day.
 The ultimate and the finalized Constitution was adopted democratically by the
Constituent Assembly on May 8, 1996, and sent to the newly established
Constitutional Court for ratification. Adding to the drama of constitutional
transition, the Court held that the ultimate Constitution was not in consonance
with the thirty-four principles agreed in MPNP in 1993.
 On December 6, 1996, the amended text of the Constitution was finally approved
by the Court. This text was assented by the then President Nelson Mandela on
December10, 1996. The Constitution was enforced with effect from February 4,
1997.
 The two elements or defining features of Constitution of South Africa 1996 are,
namely number one justiciable Bill of Rights stated in Chapter 2 of the
Constitution, and number two Constitutional Court. This bill gives immense
curative powers to the Courts for implementing the provisions of the Bill of
Rights.
 The Constitution of South Africa, 1996, in this manner, serves as a manifesto of
the ‘post-liberal’ era for transformation of the post-apartheid society into a multi-
cultural democracy and making the new society a classless social democracy.

1.9 Self Assessment Questions

Multiple Choice Questions
1. When did the Anglo-Boer war begin?
(a) 1989
(b) 1878
(c) 1899
(d) 1786
2. Which act amalgamated the four states of Transvaal, Orange Free State, Cape
Colony and Natal into Union of South Africa?
(a) South Africa Act, 1910
(b) Union Act 1905
(c) Amalgamation Act 1929
(d) Merger Act 1917
3. Who was the founder of African National Congress?
(a) Nelson Mandela
(b) Pixley Ka IsakuSeme
(c) Ronald Dworkin

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 (d) P.W. Botha
4. When was the new Constitution of South Africa enforced?
(a) 1993
(b) 1996
(c) 1998
(d) 1997
Answer
1. (c); 2. (a); 3. (b); 4. (d)
Long Questions
1. Examine the context that led to the creation of South Africa with special reference
to Anglo-Boer war.
2. Analyze the struggle against apartheid regime in South Africa with reference to the
role of African National Congress.
3. Discuss the dual strategy of reform and repression pursued by the governing
Nationalist Party in South Africa during anti-apartheid struggle.
4. Discuss the constitution-making process in South Africa. What are the main
objectives of Constitution of South Africa, 1996?
1.10 References
 Cock, Jacklyn & Laurie Nathan eds1989, War and Society: the militarization of
South Africa, Cape Town: David Phillip.
 Freedom Charter.1955. Kliptown, downloaded from
https://disa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/DC%20Metadata%20Files/Gandhi-
Luthuli%20Documentation%20Centre/TheFreedomCharter1955/TheFreedomChart
er1955.pdf
 Karis, Thomas and Gwendolen M Carter. From protest to challenge: a documentary
history of African politics in South Africa 1882-196.Stanford, Calif.: Hoover
Institution Press, Stanford University, 1972.
 Klare, Karl “Legal Culture and Transformative Constitutionalism” (1998) 14 South
African Journal on Human Rights.
 Odendaal André (1984) Vukani Bantu!: The beginnings of black protest politics in
South Africa to 1912. Cape Town: Centre for African Studies at the University of
Cape Town.
 Ricard Seme and Tim Couzens (1991), Seme: The Founder of the ANC. Skotaville
Publishers: South Africa 1991

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 (ii) CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTS
MARTIN LUTHER KING AND MALCOLM X
Nishant Yadav
Outline
2.0 Objective
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Civil Rights Movements in America: Historical Overview and Evolution
2.3 Martin Luther King and Civil Rights Movements
2.4 Malcolm X and Civil Rights Movements
2.4.1 Malcolm X and The Nation of Islam
2.4.2 Organization of Afro-American Unity
2.4.3 The Explosive Chapter Left out of Malcolm X’s Autobiography
2.4.4 Malcolm X Assassination
2.4.5 The Autobiography of Malcolm X
2.5 Aftermath
2.6 Strengthening of Democracy
2.7 Contemporary Relevance
2.8 Conclusion
2.9 Self Assessment Questions
2.10 Bibliography

2.0 Objective
Thislessondeals with the history of civil rights movements that took place between 1950
and 1980 in different countries of the world under various discontented leaders, but
focuses primarily on the two great civil rights activists namely Martin Luther King and
Malcolm X. Despite the fact that in many countries most of thesemovements could not
achieve their goals to the fullest, these civil rights movements are very important as they
echo the debates of second generation rights.

2.1 Introduction
In the process of developing a relatively stable political system, every citizen gets equal
rights before the law but discrimination remains a practical problem. There is a possibility
of violation of civil liberties in everyday life in the society. In American democracy,
despite successful institutionalization, political and social exclusions were practiced in
the form of apartheid, racism and gender inequality which persisted due to the
discriminatory American past history. In the late 20th century, between 1950 and 1970,
there was a movement challenging apartheid, racial, and legal inequality, which has been
termed as the civil rights movement in America, called Second Re-construction, and was
considered a part of the American reformist movement.

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These movements achieved significantly in the field of education and social problems.
For solving these problems, various legislations like Civil Rights Act of 1964, 1965, and
1968 were introduced. Civil Rights Act of 1964 made discrimination in the field of
employment, public housing etc. illegal. Achievements of reform movement included the
Election Rights Act of 1965, throughwhich universal adult franchise was introduced and
the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which ended through the discrimination in selling or renting
housing. The period from 1955 to 1968 transformed US by bringing in mature democracy
and inspired many nations to follow the footsteps of Martin Luther and Malcolm X, who
inspired civil rights movements in other parts of the world, like Kofi Annan in Ghana,
Nelson Mandela in South Africa. The culmination of this sequence reappeared in 2009,
when the first black president of America, Barack Obama, took the oath and heralded a
new era in America. In fact, this incident is a culmination of the long-term struggle
waged by the civil rights activists in America.
2.2 Civil Rights Movements in America: Historical Overview and Evolution
Civil rights are defined as “the nonpolitical rights of a citizen; especially those guaranteed
to U.S. citizens by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and by acts of
Congress” (Merriam-Webster Online). The 13th amendment of the Constitution in 1865
abolished slavery in the U.S., and the 14th amendment in 1868 insured African
Americans of their legal citizenship and equal protection under the law (National
Archives Experience). Movement is defined in part as “a series of organized activities
working toward an objective; also: an organized effort to promote or attain an end”
(Merriam-Webster Online). The Civil Rights Movement was an era defined by activism
for equal rights and treatment of African Americans in America. During this period,
people rallied for social, legal, political and cultural changes to forbid discrimination and
end segregation.
Many events which involved discrimination against African Americans preceded the era
known as the Civil Rights Movement. The importation and enslavement of Africans
marked the beginning of the black experience in America. In 1808, there was a ban on the
import of slaves, but despite prohibition the trade continued. In 1863, the Emancipation
Proclamation issued by then President Lincoln officially ended slavery. However, the
proclamation failed to instantly change attitudes of many citizens or the heritage of a
country that had considered African Americans as less than human. In 1865, the
Emancipation Proclamation was confirmed by the 13th amendment of the Constitution
which instantly outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude. In 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson
established a policy of separate but equal accommodations for African-Americans.
In 1954, the Supreme Court made racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
The case of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, proved important step in
initiating integration, presented by Thurgood Marshall, overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. In
1957, the governor of Arkansas tried to prevent nine black students from entering Central
High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Eisenhower sent federal troops to impose
the court order. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 protected the freedom of African
Americans to vote. In 1960, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation was illegal in
interstate bus and train stations. Freedom Riders, a group of citizens tested this ruling as

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they traveled throughout the southern portion of the country on buses. They encountered
violence in Alabama. President Kennedy intervened to ensure their safety.
In 1962, President Kennedy sent federal troops to the University of Mississippi to ensure
James Meredith, the school’s first black student safe attendance. The Civil Rights Act of
1964 prohibited discrimination in public places and by any program that receives federal
government funding. The act also established the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC), a government agency that takes employment discrimination
complaints to court, in an effort to enforce laws that prohibit job discrimination. The
Voting Rights Act of 1965 suspended the use of voter qualification tests, creating a sharp
increase in black voter registration which had been used to disqualify African Americans
from their voting rights.
The non-profit sector and philanthropy also contributed greatly in Civil Rights
Movements. Many non-profit organizations were created during this era specifically to
assist in the instrumentation of events. These organizations, acted as facilitators for
change. Philanthropy assisted many legal and political endeavors that were necessary to
promote change in the government. Without philanthropic aid, many of the nonprofit
organizations created during the Civil Rights Movement would not have been able to
carry out their missions.
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, US on January 15, 1929. Martin Luther King
Jr.’s father’s name was Martin Luther King Sr. and mother’s name was Alberta Williams
King. He was a descendant of the same African descent who worked as a bonded laborer
in South America for decades. Americans did not do away with bonded labor and wanted
Africans without rights of any kind. This deprived African-Americans from rights a
common White American enjoyed. Martin Luther King was a very bright student as well
as a very good speaker. He had the ability to rule the front man’s heart with his words.
He later ventured into politics and conducted a successful non-violent movement against
discrimination against the Black community in the United States. The year 1955 was the
turning point in his life. The same year he was married to Coretta Scott, he was called to
speak at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, the southern state of
Alabama, USA. In the same year, a woman, Mrs. Rose Parks, was arrested against the
distinction of black and white in public buses of Montgomery. The law stated that when
any black people of African descent, sitting on the seat in the bus, and if a white
American came, he had to leave the seat and stand. Rose Parkes opposed this and she did
not get stiff from her place. After which she was arrested and following this Dr. King
launched the bus movement.
After this movement, which lasted for 381 days, the provision of separate seats for black
and white passengers in American buses was abolished. Later, with the help of religious
leaders, he spread the same civil law movement in the northern part of America. He was
awarded the youngest Nobel Prize for World Peace in 1964. Many American universities
awarded him honorary degrees. Religious and social institutions gave him medals.
America’s famous ‘Time’ magazine selected him as the ‘Man of the Year’ of 1963. He
was deeply influenced by Gandhi’s non-violent movement and following him Martin

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Luther King launched a successful movement in America, which was supported by most
of the Europeans. Also, the then President John F. Kennedy supported him.
In 1959, he traveled to India. Dr. King wrote many articles in newspapers. ‘Stride
towards Freedom’ (1958) and ‘Why We Can't Wait’ (1964) are the two books he wrote.
In 1957 he founded the South Christian Leadership Conference. His efforts have led to
progress in the field of civil rights in America; hence he is also recognized today as a
symbol of human rights. Two churches have referred to him as a saint.
2.3 Martin Luther King and Civil Rights Movements
The last decade of the 19th century was dominated by racial discrimination laws and
racial violence in America. In American history, this period was also known as Nadir of
American popular relations. Notably Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia,
Vicky, Natharina, Newria, Arkansas, Tanissi, Oklohama, and Caisson were the states
with Afro-American logo in each region at government and non-governmental level
discrimination was done. This discrimination existed in almost all levels, such as
economic opportunities, political representation, employment opportunities, etc. People
affected by this discriminatory strategy (mainly blacks) started the movement in 1955 and
adopted a strategy of non-violent resistance with direct action initially which was later
known as civil disobedience.
The agitators organized a variety of boycotts, foot marches and meetings to support their
demands. Prominent among these were: Montgomery bus boycott 1955-1956, Greens
borough meeting 1960 and Selma to Montgomery March 1965 etc. Perhaps the most
famous of these protests was the Tishigatan marches for employment and freedom, in
which the Martin Luhar King delivered a highly influential speech and emerged as the
leading leader of the agitators. This movement represented the goals of many white
intellectuals, thinkers and politicians, besides Afro-American blacks. The leading leaders
of this movement, also known as Big Six, were Chill Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Martin
Luther King, Whitney Yang, James Former and Ajon Lewis. During this movement, the
government took quick measures to end the situation and certain demands of the agitators
were abolished.
These are the following notable initiatives:
● Montgomery Bus Boycott (Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955)
Martin Luther King Jr. was duly ordained pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in
Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954. In 1955, Rose Parks, a woman, arrested against
Montgomery’s public buses for the distinction between blacks and whites. Subsequently
in December 1955, Dr. King led the famous bus movement. He received threats that
made situation very frightening, King was arrested and his house was bombed. In the end,
the Supreme Court intervened in this campaign and called racial discrimination in public
transport illegal. Eventually, Montgomery began operating by removing apartheid in
public buses. This Satyagrahi Movement, which lasted for 381 days, the provision of
keeping separate seats for black and white passengers in American buses was over.

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● Southern Christian Leadership Conference
In 1957, Martin Luther King was elected President of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC). The purpose of this group was to conduct non-violent protests in the
interest of civil rights reform movement by using moral authority and mobilizing the
power of churches of black people. His ideas included SCLC from Christian teaching,
Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent movement and the ideas of Henry David Thoreau.
● Birmingham Campaign (1963)
In 1959, Martin Luther King went to Atlanta to take over as co-pastor of his father’s
church. He then organized a number of protests, demonstrations and processions,
including the Birmingham Campaign in Alabama in 1963 that supported the right to vote,
abolition of apartheid, labor rights and other basic civil rights. In addition, Martin Luther
King also led several campaigns until 1968, including St. Augustine;Florida (1964),
Selma; Alabama (1965). During this period, King was arrested several times. Martin
Luther was also kept under the secret supervision of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to
prevent any conspiracy behind the movement.
● Washington March 1963
A great march, in Washington DC, was led by Martin Luther King In March 28, 1963, a
planned civil rights law, including a ban on racial discrimination in public schools and
employment, demanded a lawful end to racial segregation. The protest also demanded
need for civil rights for all workers and a minimum wage of $ 2. Establishment of self-
government for Washington DC was also demanded in March. The march proved
successful and concluded with Martin Luther King’s 20th greatest speech, “I Have a
Dream” at the Lincoln Memorial, now taken the form of a historical speech.
● Chicago Tour
In the South, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Chicago where successful campaigns,
protests with Ralph Abernathy and a series of events with some members of civil rights
organizations were organized to spread civil rights activities in the north. King and Ralph
went to the slums of North Londale, west of Chicago, to support and show sympathy to
the poor people living in those areas. Due to corrupt politics and threats of violence, both
Ralph and King eventually returned to the south.
● Vietnam War
Martin Luther King, spoke out on the Vietnam War in order to maintain distance from
President Johnson’s administration. It was Muhammad Ali who severely criticized the
Vietnam War, which inspired the King. King began voicing against Vietnam War for the
first time since he was already suspicious of America’s role in the Vietnam War. In his
speech titled ‘Beyond Vietnam’, King expressed his doubts about America’s involvement
in the war. He opposed the Vietnam War because it was a waste of money and resources
which could be used for the welfare of poor people.
● King’s views on Malcolm X
As the nation’s most visible proponent of Black Nationalism, Malcolm X’s challenge to
the multiracial, nonviolent approach of Martin Luther King, Jr., helped set the tone for the
ideological and tactical conflicts that took place within the black freedom struggle of the

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1960s. Given Malcolm X’s abrasive criticism of King and his advocacy of racial
separatism, it is not surprising that King rejected the occasional overtures from one of his
fiercest critics. However, after Malcolm’s assassination in 1965, King wrote to his
widow, Betty Shabazz: “While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the
race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had the great
ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem”
2.4 Malcolm X
Malcolm X was an African-American leader in the civil rights movement, minister and
supporter of Black Nationalism. He urged his fellow black Americans to protect
themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary,” a stance that often put
him at odds with the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. His charisma and
oratory skills helped him achieve national prominence in the Nation of Islam, a belief
system that merged Islam with Black Nationalism. Malcolm X was born as Malcolm
Little in 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was a Baptist preacher and follower of
Marcus Garvey. The family moved to Lansing, Michigan after the Ku Klux Klan made
threats against them, though the family continued to face threats in their new home. In
1931, Malcolm’s father was allegedly murdered by a white supremacist group called the
Black Legionaries, though the authorities claimed his death was an accident. Mrs. Little
and her children were denied her husband’s death benefits. After Malcolm X’s
assassination in 1965, his bestselling book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X,
popularized his ideas and inspired the Black Power movement.
2.4.1 Malcolm X and The Nation of Islam
It was in jail that Malcolm X first encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, head
of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, a Black Nationalist group that
identified white people as the devil. Soon after, Malcolm adopted the last name “X” to
represent his rejection of his “slave” name.
Now a free man, Malcolm X traveled to Detroit, Michigan, where he worked with the
leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, to expand the movement’s following
among black Americans nationwide. Malcolm X became the minister of Temple No. 7 in
Harlem and Temple No. 11 in Boston, while also founding new temples in Hartford and
Philadelphia. In 1960, he established a national newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, in order
to further promote the message of the Nation of Islam.
Articulate, passionate and an inspirational orator, Malcolm X exhorted blacks to cast off
the shackles of racism “by any means necessary,” including violence. “You don't have a
peaceful revolution. You don't have a turn-the-cheek revolution,” he said. “There’s no
such thing as a nonviolent revolution.” His militant proposals a violent revolution to
establish an independent black nation won Malcolm X large numbers of followers as well
as many fierce critics. Due primarily to the efforts of Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam
grew from a mere 400 members at the time he was released from prison in 1952, to
40,000 members by 1960.
2.4.2 Organization of Afro-American Unity
Disenchanted with corruption in the nation of Islam, which suspended him in December
1963 after he claimed that President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was “the chickens

77
coming home to roost,” Malcolm X left the organization for good. A few months later, he
traveled to Mecca, where he underwent a spiritual transformation: “The true brotherhood
influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision,” he wrote. Malcolm X
returned to America with a new name: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
In June 1964, he founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which identified
racism, and not the white race, as the enemy of justice. His more moderate philosophy
became influential, especially among members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC).
2.4.3 The Explosive Chapter Left out of Malcolm X’s Autobiography
Malcolm was released from prison after serving six years and went on to become the
minister of Mosque No. 7 in Harlem, where his oratory skills and sermons in favor of
self-defense gained the organization new admirers: The Nation of Islam grew from 400
members in 1952 to 40,000 members by 1960. His admirers included celebrities like
Muhammad Ali, who became close friends with Malcolm X before the two had a falling
out later.
His advocacy of achieving freedom and equality “by any means necessary” put him at the
opposite end of spectrum from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s nonviolent approach to gaining
ground in the growing civil rights movement. After Martin Luther King’s“I Have a
Dream” speech at the 1963 March in Washington, Malcolm remarked: “Who ever heard
of angry revolutionists all harmonizing ‘We Shall Overcome’ … while tripping and
swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be angrily
revolting against?”
Malcolm X’s politics also earned him the ire of the FBI, who conducted surveillance of
him from his time in prison until his death. J. Edgar Hoover even told the agency’s New
York office to “do something about Malcolm X.”
2.4.4 Malcolm X Assassination
Malcolm X was assassinated by a Black Muslim at an Organization of Afro-American
Unity rally in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City on February 21, 1965. Malcolm
X had predicted that he would be more important in death than in life, and had even
foreshadowed his early demise in his book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
2.4.5 The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X began work on his autobiography in the early 1960s with the help of Alex
Haley, the acclaimed author of Roots. The Autobiography of Malcolm X chronicled his
life and views on race, religion and Black Nationalism. It was published posthumously in
1965 and became a bestseller. The book and Malcolm X’s life have inspired numerous
film adaptations, most famously Spike Lee’s 1992 film Malcolm X starring Denzel
Washington.
2.5 Aftermath
Affirmative Action programs seek to enhance the diversity of the classroom or
workplace, often to remedy the cumulative effect of prejudice. Black Power is a term that
refers to the goal of black self-determination. This idea was supported by African

78
Americans who wanted control over their own communities as well as schools,
institutions, services and products. Disfranchisement refers to the denial of voting rights-
most often to African Americans. Despite the illegality, many southern states employed
strategies to prohibit African American voters.
Integration during the Civil Rights Movement refers to the incorporation of African
Americans outside of areas that were usually designated by race, for example, public
schools. Jim Crow refers it as laws and policies that enforced the discrimination of
African Americans by designating the use of many places such as parks, schools, and
restaurants for ‘whites only’ or for ‘coloreds.’
Segregation refers to the intentional (usually by law) separation of African Americans
from whites. Sit-ins were a tactic often used by African American students during the
Civil Rights Movement. Students would sit at the counters of restaurants designated for
‘whites only’ in an effort to force desegregation. These sit-ins were successful, leading to
the end of Jim Crow at many establishments.
2.6 Strengthening of Democracy
Jelani Cobb, a black American writer and Pulitzer Prize nominee, in the New Yorker
called the movement after the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile as
“An American crucible”, followed by the slaughter of five police officers in Dallas and
the injury of seven others. In its aftermath, after a season of rising bellicosity at home and
abroad, millions of Americans wonder if deepening fractures along racial and other lines
can be reversed.
To counter despair, we would do well to recall the forgotten “second voice” from the
civil-rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s. The public memory is the movement’s
prophetic moral voice against the outrages of segregation and racial bigotry. This voice
was expressed in Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to “make real the promises of democracy”
and testimonies like that of Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi sharecropper who transfixed
the nation by her account at the Democratic National Convention in 1964 of brutal efforts
to prevent black voting.
But according to moral prophecy, “without attention to the interests, needs, and fears of
the audience, easily leads to a Manichean division of the world between the righteous and
the damned”. Here, it is crucial to remember that in the civil-rights movement moral
prophecy was held in tension with a politics of engagement, based on the premise that
real change requires understanding of the complexity and interests of those to whom one
is speaking, including adversaries.
The movement’s signature practice, non-violence, was expressed in the refusal to
demonize segregationists—indeed, in the working belief in the possibility of their
redemption. Martin Luther King Jr., madenon-violence as a political strategy that is
distinguishable from pacifism, a distinction he learned from the theologian Reinhold
Niebuhr. As Taylor Branch describes in his biography of King, Parting the Waters,
Niebuhr saw non-violence as “a particularly strategic instrument for an oppressed group
which is hopelessly in the minority.”
Nonviolence as discipline and belief in redemption was connected to a shrewdly crafted
message aimed at winning over “middle America,” racial moderates and even

79
conservatives. This was the strategy of Bayard Rustin, organizer of the March on
Washington in 1963, embodied not only in King’s “I Have a Dream” speech but also in
the comportment of marchers. The program notes encouraged participants to act with
dignity and discipline even if provoked.In similar vein Boyte writes, “In a neighborhood
dispute there may be stunts, rough words and hot insults, but when a whole people speaks
to its government the quality of the action and the dialogue needs to reflect the worth of
that people and the responsibility of that government.”
Finally, the movement schooled citizens in communities via politics of engagement by
teaching skills to work with others of different views and backgrounds on a large scale.
Charles Payne’sI’ve got the Light of Freedom explains that a group of movement leaders
taught this approach through citizenship and freedom schools. “If people like Amzie
Moore and Medgar Evers and Aaron Henry tested the limits of repression, people like
Septima Clark and Ella Baker and Myles Horton tested another set of limits, the limits on
the ability of the oppressed to participate in the reshaping of their own lives,” writes
Payne.
The final chapter of King’s work, the Poor People’s Campaign, sought to put these
elements together. King, Rustin, and others believed that an interracial movement
comprising of poor and working class whites along with blacks was necessary to address
structural and institutional questions such as unemployment, crime, poverty, and failing
schools. King’s sermon a month before he was killed, “The Drum Major Instinct,”
includes a conversation he had with working class white wardens in a jail, expressing his
belief in the possibility of such interracial alliance. “King assigned me, as a young field
secretary for SCLC, to organize poor whites, which I did in Durham for seven years.”
2.7 Contemporary Relevance
In the decades since his assassination on 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr has been
sanitized and sanctified; coopted and embraced by the American establishment as a
bland, nonthreatening saint of racial equality. In truth, he was a radical dissenter who
challenged the political, economic and military status quo at least as much as African
American militants like Huey Newton of the Black Panthers and Malcolm X of the
Nation of Islam. Hence the FBI’s obsessive, relentless attempts to discredit King and
those around him, including smears that he was a communist, traitor, adulterer and
pervert.
Now, many people think of King solely as a black rights champion. But he was much
more than that. He opposed the US war in Vietnam, supported striking workers and
demanded economic justice for poor Americans, black and white. No wonder
Washington insiders saw him as a dangerous radical and a threat to the social order.
King’s civil rights campaign played a pivotal role in ending racial segregation and the
denial of voting rights to African Americans in the southern states. It also created a
cultural shift in attitudes on race issues in much, but not all, of the US.
After race equality was secured in law, statues commemorating pro-slavery Confederate
leaders remained on their plinths and new ones were added. The Confederate flag
continued to be flown from many public and private buildings. This was proof that
changing the law to end racist discrimination and voter suppression was not enough. The
focus of the black civil rights movement was legal equality. While this was

80
understandable and the immediate priority, it also had a downside. Once official
discrimination was ended and formal legal equality won, the movement dissipated. The
direction, coherence, dynamism and coordination that were its great strengths, and
powered its many successes, were lost. Moreover, racism was not vanquished. It
continued to plague the lives of African Americans. Civil rights was not the panacea that
many had assumed.
This illustrates the danger inherent in any struggle that is pivoted on the sole and limited
goal of equal rights. King understood this limitation. That’s why, post legal equality, he
wanted to push the movement into a new phase focusing on economic injustice, which he
saw as the other major factor holding back African Americans. He also saw this agenda
as a means to transcend the racial divide by uniting disenfranchised black and white
people in a common struggle for economic emancipation.
Half a century after the end of racially discriminatory statutes in the US, we see the stark
limitations of mere equality. The informal segregation of black and white communities in
some parts of the US is almost as great as it was back in Dr King’s day. While the black
middle class has gained hugely since the 1960s, millions of poor black people are just as
locked out of economic upliftment as they were prior to the start of the civil rights era.
Too many black districts of major cities and rural communities remain blighted by slum
housing, unemployment and sub-standard education and healthcare. The racist bias in the
criminal justice system means that black people continue to account for 40 per cent of the
prison population, despite being only 12 per cent of the population overall. All this is
further evidence that the legal equality striven for, and won, by the heroic civil rights
activists was, by itself, insufficient.
Indeed, today, King’s legacy looks shaky and some fear it is being reversed. In a
throwback to Jim Crow discrimination, recent US elections have been marred by voter
registration and ballot rules that are biased against African Americans. Percentages of
black people working in senior posts in federal agencies have recently declined. The
repeated, ceaseless police killing of unarmed black people is, to some, another form of
lynching. And, as in the pre-civil rights days, few officers have faced disciplinary action.
This has fueled the Black Lives Matter movement, which many see as the civil rights
movement mark 2. They cite the need to continue what King began but, cut short by an
assassin’s bullet, never finished – the dream of a non-racial America.
In the month prior to his death, Malcolm X had been dictating his biography to noted
African-American author Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published
in 1965, just months after Malcolm X’s murder. Through his autobiography, Malcolm
X’s powerful voice continued to inspire the black community to advocate for their rights.
The Black Panthers, for example, used Malcolm X’s teachings to found their own
organization in 1966. Today, Malcolm X remains one of the more controversial figures of
the Civil Rights era. He is generally respected for his passionate demand for change in
one of history’s most trying (and deadly) times for black leaders.
By the early 1960s, Malcolm X had emerged as a leading voice of a radicalized wing of
the civil rights movement, presenting a dramatic alternative to Martin Luther King Jr.’s
vision of a racially-integrated society achieved by peaceful means. Dr. King was highly

81
critical of what he viewed as Malcolm X’s destructive demagoguery. “I feel that Malcolm
has done himself and our people a great disservice,” King once said
In the immediate aftermath of Malcolm X’s death, commentators largely ignored his
recent spiritual and political transformation and criticized him as a violent rabble-rouser.
But especially after the publication of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, he will be
remembered for underscoring the value of a truly free populace by demonstrating the
great lengths to which human beings will go to secure their freedom. “Power in defense
of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression,” he said. “Because
power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising
action.”
2.8 Conclusion
Significant social, economic and political change doesn’t happen by accident. It comes
with a movement and a leader of tremendous courage and faith. The civil rights
movement had that in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and it changed laws, lives and this
country for the better. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that
matter,” King said. People being treated unfairly, inhumanely and without basic dignity
should matter to us all. We are not that far-removed from the brutal, systemic oppression
that spurred the movement. There are still those with the capacity to carry out such
injustices. But thankfully, there are more of us who believe in the ideals that King so
eloquently espoused, and we are motivated to keep forging ahead.
It’s because of Martin Luther King and the efforts of his supporters that America came to
understand the power of nonviolent protest. When his nonviolent efforts were met with
violence, it actually garnered empathy and support for his cause. The public was swayed
to such a magnitude that major acts of Congressional power were set in motion.
King was largely responsible for the passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting
Rights Act of 1965. The Civil Rights Act banned discrimination in the workforce and
public accommodations based on “race, color, religion, or national origin.”
The Voting Rights Act protects African Americans’ right to vote. He also played a major
part in the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. This prevents people from banning
black people from any sort of housing, be it a rental or a sale. Even until the day he died,
King never allowed fear to triumph. He unified people together under a common goal.
Today, you won't find black people and white people forced to sit in separate sections on
a bus or drink from separate water fountains in a public space. Although prejudice
remains, the tide is shifting in a way where the racists of the world are scorned, and not
innocent African Americans.
Segregation in America has been abolished in an official manner, although we still see
discrimination in other ways. Certain inner cities continue to struggle with violence and a
need for equal pay and equal opportunity. If King were alive, he'd be rallying in every
city that faced inequality and injustice.
At the same time, in 2008, America elected its first African American president to office.
President Barack Obama is a man born of a white, American woman and a Kenyan
father. That’s something King would be very proud of. His name is still spoken with

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pride and his legacy of non-violence has proven that the race war can be settled through
nonviolent protest and a common endeavor for an anti-antagonistic world.
2.9 Self Assessment Questions
1. Explain in brief the various civil rights movement in America in the 20th century.
__________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
2. What according to you is the contribution of the famous characters of the civil
rights movements?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
3. Discuss in brief the life and contribution of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King in
the civil rights movements.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
4. Discuss the contemporary relevance of the civil rights movement in today’s time.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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5. How has the civil rights movement contributed towards the strengthening of
democracy all over the world?
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2.10 Bibliography
● Julie Buckner Armstrong and Amy Schmidt, eds., The Civil Rights Reader:
American Literature from Jim Crow to Reconciliation (Athens: University of
Georgia Press, 2009).
● Ronald H. Bayor, Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century Atlanta, revised ed.
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000).

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● Owen J. Dwyer and Derek H. Alderman, Civil Rights Memorials and the
Geography of Memory (Chicago: Center for American Places at Columbia
College Chicago, 2008; distributed by University of Georgia Press).
● Donald L. Grant, The Way It Was in the South: The Black Experience in Georgia
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001).
● Melissa Fay Greene, Praying for Sheetrock, 2nd printing ed. (Boston: De Capo
Press, 2006).
● Maurice Daniels, Saving the Soul of Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia
Press, 2016).
● Adam Fairclough, Teaching Equality: Black Schools in the Age of Jim Crow
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001).
● Claudrena Harold, New Negro Politics in the Jim Crow South (Athens: University
of Georgia Press, 2016).
● Tera Hunter, To ‘Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors
after the Civil War (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997).
● John Lewis with Michael D'Orso, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the
Movement (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998).
● Andrew M. Manis, Macon Black and White: An Unutterable Separation in the
American Century (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2004).
● Gary M. Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn: The Saga of Two
Families and the Making of Atlanta (New York: Penguin, 1997).
● Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, the Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights
Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (New York: Knopf, 2006).
● Stephen G. N. Tuck, Beyond Atlanta: The Struggle for Racial Equality in
Georgia, 1940-1980 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001).
● Andrew Young, An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the
Transformation of America, forward by Quincy Jones ed. (Waco, TX: Baylor
University Press, 2008).
● The Autobiography of Malcolm X. With the assistance of Alex Haley. New York:
Grove Press, 1965.
● Mamiya, Lawrence. “XMalcolm.”Encyclopædia Britannica, 1 February 2019.
● Remnick, David. “This American Life: The making and remaking of Malcolm X.”
The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19 June 2017
● Coates, Ta-Nehisi (May 2011). The Legacy of Malcolm X: Why His Vision Lives
On in Barack Obama. The Atlantic. Accessed March 17, 2019.
● Love, David A. (February 23, 2017). Malcolm X and the Black Lives Matter
Movement.” Huffington Post. Accessed March 17, 2019.
● Malcolm X (October 29, 2009). History.com. Accessed March 17, 2019.

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● Malcolm X (April 2, 2014). Biography.com. Accessed March 17, 2019.
● Shabazz, Ilyasah (February 20, 2015). What Would Malcolm X Think? New York
Times. Accessed March 17, 2019.
● Worland, Justin (February 20, 2015). On 50th Anniversary of Assassination,
Malcolm X’s Legacy Continues to Evolve. Time Magazine. Accessed March 17,
2019.
● Books
● Davies, Mark (1990). Malcolm X: Another Side of the Movement. Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Simon & Schuster.
● Goldman, Peter (1979). The Death and Life of Malcolm X (2nd ed.). Urbana, Ill.:
University of Illinois Press.
● Graves, Renee (2003). Malcolm X: Cornerstones of Freedom. New York:
Scholastic.
● Roberts, Randy; Smith, Johnny (2016). Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship
between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X. New York: Basic Books.

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 4 (i)ISSUES IN 20TH CENTURY WORLD-FEMINIST MOVEMENT
Puja Rani
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Gargi College
University of Delhi
Although the term ‘Feminism’ is of recent origin (late nineteenth century)
feminist/women’s movement has a long history. Feminist views have been expressed in
many civilizations, long back since Italy’s Christine de Pisan in her Book of the City of
Ladies (1405) advocated for women’s rights. In Europe feminist consciousness began
spreading during and after the French Revolution. However, by the end of the century in
England, France and Germany, the feminist ideas started being expressed by radicals.
The first text of modern Feminism is usually taken from Mary Wollstonecraft’s
Vindication of the Rights of Women ([1792] 1967), written against the backdrop of the
French Revolution. Later in the nineteenth century, women’s nature, capacities and
potential became subjects of heated discussion all over the world. Views on women in
India began with social reform movements that started deploring the wrongs done to
women such as practice of sati, child marriage etc. However, the common starting point
of all feminist ideas was the belief that women are disadvantaged in comparison with men
and this disadvantage is not natural or inevitable result of biological difference but
something that can be and should be challenged and changed.
Nevertheless, the existence of an organized women’s movement could not develop until
the nineteenth century, and it first culminated into a demand of franchise to women. They
started with an assumption that all the forms of sexual discrimination would disappear if
women were given the right to vote. The famous Seneca Falls Convention held in 1848
marked the birth of the United States (US) women’s rights’ movement. Later in 1869
Stanton and Susan B. Anthonyled to the set up of the National Women’s suffrage
Association. In United Kingdom (UK), too, Women’s Social and Political Union was
established in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst.
This struggle for suffrage got its first success in 1893 when New Zealand granted the
voting granted the voting right to women. Correspondingly the UK and the US, too,
granted the same in 1918 and 1920 respectively. However, more importantly, this
struggle and its achievement united the feminists across the world and provided a new
inspiration to the movement. They now also expanded their agenda of political
emancipation and became more coherent in their structure. Soon their interest started
growing in liberating women from all other oppressive aspects too. Political rights, to
them now were not sufficient enough to solve all their questions. So at this stage
women’s ideas grew were more radical andstarted focusing attentionupon the personal,
psychological and sexual aspects of female oppression. Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics
(1970) and Betty Freidan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963) can be said as the chief
proponent of the radical thought.
By the early twentieth century women’s own autonomous organizations began to be
formed and women’s activism was constructed. Feminist thought after the 1960s became

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more diverse. It is believed that feminist movement during this period expanded beyond
single goal oriented movement and established ‘Feminism’ as an ideology.It was
established that women’sconditions based on birth by accident, cannot be treated as
inferior to men. Earlier it was taken for granted that both the sexes were such that their
functions, role, aims and desire were different. So both the sex has to be treated
differently.
Major Themes/ Ideologies of Feminism
With the growth of Feminism as an ideology, it brought into its ambit several major
themes. Some of the important themes of feminism are patriarchy, personal to political,
sex and gender, and equality and difference. In what follows, we will discuss each of
these themes in detail.
The term‘patriarchy’ (pitrasatta- Hindi) is derived from the word ‘patriarch’, which
means that the headof the specific type of male dominated family will always be the
eldest man of the family or the father. This is a very specific type of practice of male
domination. Feminist used theconcept of patriarchy to describe the subordinate situation
of women in the family where the father or eldest male is the head of the family.
However, later they showed that patriarchy produces male dominance in all walks of life.
Patriarchy includes many things like preference of male child;, discrimination between
girls and boys; lack of educational opportunities for girls; burden of household work on
the shoulder of women and harassment of women in work place. They also linked
patriarchy with women’s property rights. Daughters are seen as burden, and as a
temporary member of their father’s family. Having daughters is equated with draining of
resources and as serving no purpose for family.Male is always considered as the
successor of the family. Continuity of the family is linked through him, only. Feminists
believe that all these practices, mentioned above symbolizes the male supremacy in the
structure of the family and italso decides the gender relations in a society at large. A
patriarchy is a hierarchic society where male is always in the highest order and women
are subordinated. Men under patriarchy enjoy privileges, power and rights by virtue of
simply being men.
As feminists believed that men have dominated in all societies, so inorder to expose the
whole gender based system of sexism and patriarchal power expressed in social,
economic and political structures; in languages and cultural images of men and women,
adopted the term ‘patriarchy’ enthusiastically. They started questioning the repression of
their sexuality and male violence against women. According to Millet (1970) patriarchy
contains two principles i.e. male shall dominate female and elder male shall dominate
younger. Patriarchy is therefore a hierarchic society characterized by both sexual and
generational oppression. Thus, they started using patriarchy in a broader sense of rule of
men both within the family and outside. However, they continued to believe that
patriarchal families lie at the heart of a systematic process of male domination, and in that
process, it spreads its dominance in every sphere. Men havemoulded women according to
their expectations and needs.
Some feminists do not view the concept of patriarchy as universal, as they say, it is not
practiced everywhere. There is/are evidence of matrilineal society where a woman who is
the head of the family or the tribe. However, this dissenting expression of feminism

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should not be confused as an attempt to prove a substantial shift in their stand. It was
primarily to denote that though historically our societies are patriarchal, it does not
demonstrate that male domination is either natural or inevitable. It’s a great challenge for
feminist to understand patriarchy as it operates at many different levels and in all social
institutions.
The feminism derives its second important theme around the public-private divide. They
say that sometimes ‘personal is political’, too. This originated as a concept of US civil
rights movement and later gained an enormous significance for modern feminism.
Feminists consider that gender division within society is ‘political’ and not ‘natural’. It
reflects a power relationship between men and women. Feminists argue that sexual
inequality has been preserved because the sexual division of labour that runs through
society has been thought of as ‘natural’ rather than political. The book Public Man,
Private Woman (1981) by Jean B. Elshtain highlighted this issue. Since then the feminists
have questioning the origin of the division and the politics behind its sustenance.
Simultaneously, they also started to challenge and overthrow the existing thought.
Feminists basically were attempting to break down the resonance of divide between
public and private to that of between men and women. They started saying that
emancipation could only be achieved if some or perhaps all of the responsibilities of
private life are transferred to the state or other public bodies. So in the nineteenth century
the idea that the ‘personal’ is ‘political’ was widely accepted and many issues acquired a
central focus.
This can be better understood in the context of family were there is unequal distribution
of domestic labour. Politics has usually been understood as an activity that takes place
within the public sphere of government, institutions or overall in the public platform.
Traditionally the public sphere of life encompassing politics, work and art has been the
preserve of men and women were confined to domestic responsibilities. Women were
restricted to private role of housewife and mother and are excluded from politics. So
family is a part of private sphere and therefore it is non-political. The family has so far
been not only relegated to the private realm but has simply been ignored. So women
interests were harmed because it failed to be examined in the public sphere.
Feminists say politics is found everywhere, but even the conventional political theorists
have upheld the former belief by ignoring gender divisions altogether. So the demarcation
of public and private sphere needs to be changed. Women are confined to household
responsibilities and if politics takes place within the public sphere then the women issues
will always be excluded. Feminists want to have equal access in the public sphere; their
role in decision making; and their will to bring any change in their position. They also
want to overcome the barriers between the public and private spheres and recreate the
society, culture and politics in new and non-patriarchal forms. The political character of
male and female relations and the idea that the ‘personal is political’ thus are widely
accepted and great changes have taken place.
The third important theme of feminism distinguishes between sex and gender. According
to the feminist theory, sex refers to biological term that distinguishes between men and
women. Therefore it is natural. But, on the contrary, gender is not natural but a cultural
term. It means that the difference between masculinity and feminity is created by the

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different roles ascribed to men and women in society. So the gender differences are
entirely cultural because it is imposed upon individuals by the society. There is also a
common thread in the way the male and female are shaped and valued. First women
biological factor is linked to women’s social position and the capacity of child bearing.
The result is that, t has acquired values of nurturing, service and subordination to the need
of others, i.e. the reproductive role as a whole is identified with women, only. On the
contrary, men are encouraged to be masculine, assertive, aggressive and competitive.
The activities and attributes provided to men are not just different from those of women
but are valued more highly too.
Anti feminists argue that the gender divisions have been designed by nature and,
therefore, in a way it is natural. In other words, they say that ‘biology is destiny’.
However, feminists believe that sex differences are biological facts of life, but they have
no social, political or economic significance. Women and men should not be judged by
their sex but as individuals or as persons. Gender differences are not natural and can be
expunged from the society. Simone de Beauvoir (The second sex 1949) says “women are
made, they are not born”. Thus gendered differences are made by the society by creating
certain stereotypes of men and women behaviour, and are not natural.
The fourth theme of feminism is revolves around the debate of equality and difference.
Despite the fact that the overall goal of feminism is equality between sexes, they have not
been able to come to a concrete conclusion for what does it mean in practical terms.
Different schools of feminist movements (discussed in detail below) have expressed
different opinion about the issue. While some (liberal feminists) believe that women
should be treated equally with men, in political and legal aspects, irrespective of sexual
differences and should be given equal opportunity to compete with men. Some feminists
(socialist feminists) add that political and legal equality should also be complemented
with social equality, which in simpler words means abolition of both sexual and class
oppression. However, some feminists oppose this view on the ground that their struggle
should not be equated with ‘equality with men’ as it identifies with a ‘male identified’
norms and practices. They want to build a society that is developed and achieved
completely by women, i.e. ‘women identified’. In other words, they insist on separatism
from men and male society.
According to MacKinnon (Feminism Unmodified, Discourses on life andlaw, 1987)
sexual equality laws have been ineffective in getting women what they need. They are
still socially prevented from physical security, minimal respect and dignity. Equality
could not be achieved by allowing men to build social institutions according to their
interests and ignoring the women and their role in the institution. According to feminists
the problem is that the roles may be defined in such a way which suited men. Hence
there is no guarantee of sexual equality under these circumstances. If a group is kept out
of something for long enough then it is likely that activities of that sort will develop in a
way unsuited to the excluded group. Women are kept out of many kinds of work and this
resulted in the belief that the work is unsuited to them. The most obvious example is the
incompatibility of most work with bearing and raising of children. If women had been
given opportunity or involved in running the society from the starting, then the division
of work would have been sorted out.

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Various Schools in Feminism
There are different schools of feminism, viz. liberal, socialist, radical, and feminism of
the women of colour and they disagree, fundamentally on the nature of causes and cure of
women’s inequalities, subordination or oppression.
Liberal feminism talks about equal rights and opportunities to compete with men in all
fields. They believe that women should have same rights and privilege as possessed by
men. They assert the equality of men and women through political and legal reform.
According to liberal feminists, all women are capable of asserting their ability to achieve
equality, and therefore, it is possible to change the society without altering the basis
structure of the society. John Stuart mill a staunch supporter of liberty believed that an
individual should be left free for his or her development. Mill’s ‘On the Subjection of the
Women’ was an important work in the history of feminism. It was written in collaboration
with Harriet Taylor and proposed that society should be based on reason and accidents of
birth such as sex should be irrelevant. Liberal feminists emphasize on the principle of
individualism and consider that all individuals are of equal moral worth.
Liberals demand for equal rights for all and advocates that all individuals are entitled to
participate in or gain access to public or private life. Indeed, the entire suffrage movement
in the early days of feminist movement was based upon liberal individualism and the
assumption was that female emancipation can be achieved, once women enjoy equal
voting rights with men. However, in the later days, some of the other important issues
raised by liberal feminists include education, reproductive rights, abortion access, sexual
harassment, fair compensation for work, affordable childcare, affordable health care, and
bringing to light the frequency of sexual and domestic violence against women. Hence
liberal feminists are understood as reformists and it seeks to open up public life to equal
competition between men and women. Betty Friedan and Mary Wollstonecraft stand high
on the list of the liberal feminist.
Radical feminism considers patriarchy as a root of all problems. It believes that the
complexity of relationship between men and women emerge from the family. This is
based on the male supremacy and this supremacy is used to oppress the women. Radical
feminism aims to challenge and to overthrow patriarchy by opposing the standard gender
role. They view it as the main reason for all kinds of male oppression on women, and
calls for a radical reordering of the society. According to Kate Millet (1970) patriarchy
should be challenged through a process of ‘consciousness raising’, and this can be
achieved through discussions and women education. This would help women understand
the situation and then they will be able to challenge the society. Women’s liberation
requires a revolutionary change where the sexual and psychological oppression have to be
destroyed at all levels of society.
Though Millet saw the roots of patriarchy in social conditioning, Shulamith Firestone in
her work Dialectic of Sex (1972) argued that gender inequality forced on women,
originated in patriarchy through their biology. The physical, social and psychological
disadvantages have made them imposed of pregnancy, childbirth, and subsequent child-
rearing. She said that society could be understood not as Marx had claimed through the
process of production but through the process of reproduction. She also tried to explain
the social and historical processes in terms of sexual divisions. However, Firestone

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believed that modern technology will relieve the women of the burden of childbirth and
pregnancy.
Socialist feminism focuses upon both the public and private spheres of a woman's life and
argues that liberation can only be achieved by working to end both the economic and
cultural sources of women's oppression. According to Socialist feminists, patriarchy can
only be understood in the light of social and economic factors. It seeks to combine the
radical perspective of patriarchy with the Marxist class analysis by exploring the
relationship between capitalism and patriarchy. Engels (The Origins of the Family,
Private Property and the State; [1884] 1976) suggested that position of women has
changed in the capitalist society. As capitalism is based upon the ownership of private
property by men so the position of women has changed in this system. Engels argued that
bourgeois family is always patriarchal and oppressive because the successor of property
will only be passed to their sons. He believed that marriage should be dissolved and once
private property is dissolved than features of patriarchy will also disappear. He suggested
that class exploitation is a deeper and more significant process than sexual oppression.
Women are exploited not by men but by capitalism and private property. So through
revolution capitalism should be overthrown and replaced by socialism.
Feminism of the Women of Colour pointed towards the more intense kind of oppression
of black women on the hands of white women. Feminists of this school contend that the
liberation of black women entails freedom for all people, since it would require the end of
racism, sexism, and class oppression. It was a struggle for recognition not only from men
in their own culture, but also from White women. Black women, though, faced the same
struggles as white women; however, they had to face issues of diversity on top of
inequality. Black feminist organizations emerged during the 1970s and started fighting
against suppression from the larger movements in which many of its members came
from. However, the Black feminists had to overcome double challenges than any other
feminist organization: one was to “prove to other black women that feminism was not
only for white women”, two, they also had to demand that white women “share power
with them and affirm diversity”.
Besides the various schools of feminism discussed above, when the feminist theory
reached a high point of creativity in the 1960’s and 1970’s, there emerged some others
schools, too. This was the period of modern women movement. However, modern
women movement was so heterogonous that there was hardly any unified structure on the
basis of which certain thought could be easily categorized. There were several issues,
such as eco-feminism, lesbianism, separatism and many more.
Feminist/Women’s Movement in India
Movements related to women’s rights have not existed as a single movement in India. It
has rather, over the years, surfaced as a part of various social movements, both in the pre-
Independence and the contemporary era. However, this does not mean that there hasn’t
been any existence of a self-conscious women’s movement in the country. Despite being
a part of broader social movements it has always maintained distinctiveness for itself. For
the purpose of this paper, the discussion on women’s movement in India is presented in
two parts.

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The Historical Context
During the pre-Independence phase, women’s issues came to forefront in the context of
the colonial encounters. The social reformers who emerged in the late nineteenth century
were western educated elites and it was they who, for the first time raised the question of
women’s oppression. During this time there emerged several groups, such as the Brahmo
Samaj, the Prarthana Samaj, the Arya Samaj, the Theosophical society etc. that started
working largely for social reform, but also included the issues of woman. However,
women themselves remained largely absent from these campaigns (except in few
examples such as the Theosophical society in southern India). These movements were
largely comprised of men, and therefore, the laws that emerged from them in many ways,
were in continuation of patriarchy.
Some of the important issues raised in this period were sati, women’s education, widow
remarriage, female infanticide, child marriage, and purdah system. Raja Ram Mohan
Roy, considered as the modern man of India was the first man to raise his concern against
sati. He said that sati is a social evil and it should be abolished. Though for the initial
years, British parliament refused to make law against sati, on the ground that it would
amount to interference in the religious affairs of the Hindus, they finally accepted Roy’s
demand in 1829 and passed the Abolition of Sati Act.
With the achievement against sati, social reformers also started raising issues like
women’s education. They wanted to create a new Indian woman who would have new
approach to life. The schools for girls were first started by English and American
missionaries in the 1810. However, in the year 1827, there numbers increased upto twelve
(in Calcutta). By the mid nineteenth century women’s education had become an issue and
it was supported by many unorthodox students of Bengal. Later these educated women
formed different groups like Indian Women’s Association; National Council of Indian
Women etc. and started pressurizing the governments for their demands.
The mid-nineteenth century social reformist also raised the issue like widow remarriage.
I.C. Vidyasagar launched a campaign to remove the ban on widow remarriage. He
debated the issue with Hindu pundits and showed them that widow remarriage was
accepted by shastras. The act for widow remarriage was passed in 1890s and the widow
remarriage society conducted several widow remarriage after that. By the late nineteenth
century social reform movements created a great impact and as a result role of woman in
public spheres increased considerably. Names of such few women leaders during this
period were Anandibai Joshi, Jyotiba Phule, and Tarabai Shinde.
Soon, there came into light the issue of child marriage. In the 1920s, organizations started
campaigning for an increase in the minimum age of marriage. This campaign became
successful by the passage of the Child Marriage Restraint Act (1929) that increased the
age of marriage for women to 14 and that for men to 18. However, with the advent of the
new century there also had begun the movement for freedom struggle. The women’s
organizations such as the All India Women’s Conference established in 1927, during this
period though began taking up ‘women’s issues’, they were subdued by the nationalist
fervour. Thus, these organizations became a part of the larger freedom movement.
Women started participating in the movement with full vigour. They did not even hesitate
in taking the leadership on many occasions. Later when Mahatma Gandhi joined the

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freedom struggle, women’s participation reached to its zenith. Gandhi’s believed that
women have the great capacity of self sacrifice and the role of tolerance and self
sacrificing attitude will play an important role in non-violent nationalist struggle. Thus,
he intentionally started making appeals to the women to participate in the freedom
struggle. Responding to Gandhi’s call for satyagraha and civil disobedience movement,
women came out in large numbers from their houses. The salt satyagraha also saw huge
participation of women. Gandhi’s support for the women participation in the politics led
the congress party to draft the Fundamental Rights Resolution at the Karachi session in
1931 and it passed the resolution of equality of the sexes. Later, when India became
independent, it incorporated this resolution in our constitution.
Women’s Movements in Contemporary India
Women’s movement in contemporary India is multi-associational, ideologically diverse,
regionally broad, and concerned with a vast array of issues. As a new independent
country there were lots of hope it would improve the women’s position in society. The
period between the 1950s and 1970s saw women organizing in different parts of the
country on specific issues relating to their livelihood and the well-being of their families.
Women’s movement activists re-emerged briefly in the 1950s during debates surrounding
the passage of a Hindu Code Bill. Demands for a comprehensive and uniform law to
reform Hindu personal laws were made by women’s organisations in the 1930s.
However, no action was taken on this issue until after Independence, when a committee
was appointed by the government in order to look into the matter. This committee
followed the recommendation made by feminists earlier and introduced the Hindu Code
Bill, which raised the age of consent, and to give women the rights to divorce,
maintenance and inheritance. Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar (as Law Minister during the time)
defended the idea of women’s equality in matters related to marriage, divorce, adoption
and property rights. However, the bill despite the support amongst feminists and the
Congress could not get passed because of objections raised by Hindu revivalists. In order
to appease the opposition, the Bill was watered down and passed in the form of four
different acts in 1955-56, the Hindu Marriage Act, the Hindu Succession Act, the Hindu
Minority and Guardianship Act, and the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance.
The women issue rose again with the rise of the leftist struggles in different parts of the
country. It once again saw the support of women in large numbers. The Telangana
Movement that occurred between 1946 and 1951 in Andhra Pradesh for widespread
changes in the land distribution system saw thousands of women involved in the struggle.
Later, there came into being several individuals, groups and networks that started
working locally and nationally on a range of gender-related issues. The contemporary
Indian women’s movement emerged in the 1970s in response to wider political changes
that were occurring at the time.
One such important precursor to the contemporary women’s movement was the
formation of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Gujarat. SEWA was
one of the first attempts at organizing women’s trade union and was started by Ela Bhatt,
a member of the Gandhian Socialist Textile Labour Association. It was formed in 1972 in
Ahmedabad. Sewa focused on the issue of exploitation and low wages paid to women in
informal sector. It advocated that the work of women was not even recognized. It was a

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big achievement since its members did not work either in a factory or for a particular
employer. The Chipko movement of the 1970s was another important movement that saw
the participation of women in large numbers. It was an environmental movement to save
the trees of the Uttranchal.
Later in the year 1970s, there grew an international concern for women’s issues all across
the world and India too. This was marked by the UN’s declaration of 1975 as the
International Year of Women, which was then followed by the UN’s Decade of Women.
In preparation for this event, the Indian government appointed a Committee on the Status
of Women, which published their report, Towards Equality in 1974. This event was a
watershed in the development of the contemporary women’s movement. The findings of
the report revealed major disparities in terms of the status of women, and especially poor
women, in terms of employment, health, education, and political participation as well as
drawing attention to the declining sex ratio.
However, in the later decades, the focus of the India’s women’s movement kept revolving
around the issue of violence perpetrated against women. The issue of violence in the form
of rape, dowry, and the problem of female infanticide were issues that brought the
women’s movement together on a national scale. Though these issues were not new to the
Indian context, its ability to mobilize significantly around such isues, was certainly new.
Violence against women was perpetrated by power-holders at various levels of society,
including the agents of the state, local landlords, family members. These mobilizations
highlighted the gender-specific nature of women’s oppression. In the mid 1980s, the
women movement was focused around the Shah Bano controversy. However, this led
women’s movement in India to reach an impasse with regards to the rights of Muslim
women. Furthermore, the Supreme Court judgement called for the creation of a Uniform
Civil Code, reopening a long-standing debate over the relationship between the state and
religious groups.
In the year 1981, the Communist party of India (Marxist) established the All India
Democratic Women's Association and it started working for women's education,
employment and status. Simultaneously, there came into being many more issues and
campaigns such as reservation, family laws, environment, and women’s land rights that
became part of women’s movement in India. Besides these issues there were legal and
constitutional reforms which helped in women empowerment. The Government of India
in the year 1992 established a statutory body for women, National Commission for
Women (NCW).
The most significant development for women in the last few decades, perhaps, has been
the empowerment of women at the Panchayat level. The government of India, responding
to the various concerns, passed the seventy third amendment (22nd December 1992, came
into effect from 24th April 1993) that allowed thirty three per cent reservation for women
at grass root level. This gave the women of India a platform to raise their voice and
become a part of decision making. However, women still is not represented in the
legislatures and the Parliament adequately, and they are fighting for their quota in the Lok
Sabha. According to them a greater presence of women will be a step towards
empowerment of Indian women. Reserving one third of seats (33 per cent) in the

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Parliament will undoubtedly bestow special power and privileges and many women on
the strength of quota system will reach to the highest law making body.
The women's movement in India has reached today to a rich and vibrant phase of the
movement. It has spread to various parts of the country. Though, critics say now that
there doesn’t exist a single cohesive movement in the country, they cannot deny the fact
that there are a number of fragmented campaigns that are struggling for the issue of
women. Women movement sees this as one of the strengths of the movement which takes
different forms in different times. Today women have reached to a position where they
can take leadership in their own hands not only for their causes, but also for larger issue
of mankind and humanity. Medha Patkar (for her role in Narmada BachaoAandolan),
who is fighting for poor people is a well known example of this kind. While the
movement may have gone scattered, it has nonetheless become a strong and plural force.
SUGGESTED READINGS
 Bhasin, Kamala (1986). What Is Patriarchy? New Delhi: Kali for Women
 Geetha, V (2002). Gender. Calcutta: Stree.
 Kumar, Radha (1998). The History of Doing. New Delhi: Kali for Women
 Mehrotra, Deepti Priya (2001). Bhartiya MahilaAndolan: Kal, Aaj aur Kal , Delhi:
Books for Change.
 Menon. Nivedita (ed.) (1999). Gender and Politics in India, New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.

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 (ii)Women’s Movements: Issues and Debates
Rashmi Gopi
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Liberal Feminism and Women’s Movements
2.2.1 Context
2.2.2 Features of liberal feminists
2.2.3 Women’s Movements based on Liberal Feminism: Suffrage Movements
in Great Britain and the United States of America
2.2.4 Limitations of Women’s Movement Inspired by Liberal Feminism
2.3 Marxist Feminist and Women’s Movements
2.3.1 Context
2.3.2 Features of Marxist Feminists
2.3.3 Women’s Movement Inspired by Marxist Feminists: The International
Wages for Housework Campaign
2.3.4 Limitations of Marxist Feminists
2.4 Radical Feminism and Women’s Movements
2.4.1 Context
2.4.2 Features of Radical Feminists
2.4.3 Women’s Movement Inspired by Radical Feminists: Beauty Standards,
Sexual Assault and Abortion
2.4.4 Limitations of Radical Feminism
2.5 Socialist Feminists and Women’s Movements
2.5.1 Context
2.5.2 Features of Socialist Feminists
2.5.3 Women’s Movements Inspired by Socialist Feminism: The Chicago
Women's Liberation Union
2.5.4 Limitations of Socialist Feminism
2.6 Alternative Feminist Schools and Women’s Movements
2.7 Conclusion
2.8 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

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2.9 Self Assessment Questions
2.10 Reference
2.0 Objectives
Women have been subjugated by men for long. This experience of subjugation has both
universal and particular narratives. The ideological prism through which subjugation of
women have been articulated, addressed and alternatives have been proposed is popularly
called feminism. As the experiences of women differ from context to context, there are
various schools of feminism and women’s movements inspired by these diverse
viewpoints. Objective of this chapter is to understand evolution, features and limitations
of various schools of feminism and the women’s movements inspired by these schools of
feminisms.
2.1 Introduction
Feminism is about exploring human relationships. It is about understanding and
questioning power equations between persons, social institutions and society at large. It is
an exercise to search into the past to know the present and to envision a better future.
Feminism has a universal appeal as there is a common bond of oppression. Yet it has
particular narrative as oppression takes place in varied forms. Basically, feminism is a
tool to learn questioning – social practices, human behaviour and most importantly the
self. Women’s movements throughout the world have been based on politics of struggle
and transformation. These movements have been political and ethical in nature. Political
for they have raised the questions related to power structures of the society. Ethical as
they are concerned about what ought to be the right way of being a human. Women’s
movements have been contradictory, inconsistent, fiercely radical and utterly committed
to a better and saner world. In the following sections we will be discussing evolution,
features and limitations of liberal feminism, Marxist feminism, radical feminism and
socialist feminism. Women’s movements inspired by these schools of feminism will be
discussed. Feminist schools and women’s movements which emerged in recent times as a
response to fill gaps in the above mentioned four major feminist schools will be
discussed.
2.2 Liberal Feminism and Women’s Movements
2.2.1 Context
Liberal feminism emerged in the context of rise of capitalism. It puts forth the inherent
equality of human beings. In the background of rising capitalism, new bourgeois men
questioned divine and absolute right of the king. Similarly, in this period, women
questioned absolute right of husband over wife. Liberal feminism has a history of three
hundred years and over the years it has many variations. In the eighteenth century, this
school highlighted the fact that women are equal to men and therefore also have natural
rights. In the nineteenth century, this school emphasised on equal rights for women under
the law. In the twentieth century, this school demanded equal opportunities for women in
all spheres of life.

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This school is called liberal feminist as it has borrowed its fundamental principles from
traditional liberalism. The basic argument of traditional liberalism is that human beings
are essentially rational agents. The rationality was derived from the mental capacity of the
individual. Therefore, rationality is property of the individual and not of the group or
larger society. This is the notion of abstract individual who is separate from social
circumstances. Here physical capacity is immaterial. There are different ways to
understand human capacity to reason – moral, instrumental and combination of the two.
In the moral way, we have Immanuel Kant who believes that the ability to grasp rational
principles of morality is what makes human beings different from other living beings. All
human beings have this inherent capacity. In the instrumental way, we have Thomas
Hobbes who believes that the capacity to calculate the best means to an individual’s end
is unique to human beings. John Locke, John Rawls and Robert Nozick believe it is the
combination of moral and instrumental ways that makes human beings different. For
them, both rational evaluation of end and adoption of most efficient means to reach the
end are equally important. Traditional liberals emphasised on two basic universal desires
in human beings – reputation and self-respect. Hobbes stressed the importance of
unlimited accumulation by an individual in a world marked by relative scarcity of
resources to build one’s reputation. On the other hand, Rawls underscored the
significance of universal benevolence to earn self-respect. Liberal feminists accepted
traditional liberals’ centrality of abstract individual with inherent quality of rationality as
the basic unit of political analysis. Liberal feminists agreed with traditional liberals on the
vision of the state as an impartial instrument and the necessity of division of public and
private realm to ensure maximum individual freedom in the realm of private due to non-
interference of the state.
2.2.2Features of Liberal Feminists
Liberal feminists believed in inherent dignity and worth of every human individual by
virtue of capacity for reason. For them equal opportunity for all is important to reach
one’s own good life. Therefore, liberal feminists fought against discrimination in
education, jobs and sexual division of labour. Early liberal feminists were against
protective laws for women as they believed women and men are equal and they do not
need special laws. Later liberal feminists realised that social discrimination against
women are extremely pervasive and powerful. To address this we need protective laws
for women. Mary Wollstonecraft, J.S. Mill and Betty Friedan emphasised the importance
of economic independence for women. They believed by subjugating women, the society
as a whole is at loss as it is deprived of contribution of half of its population. Liberal
feminists claimed that values of liberty, equality and justice are equally important for
women, as it is for men, to lead a good life.
2.2.3 Women’s Movements based on Liberal Feminism: Suffrage Movements in
Great Britain and the United States of America
In Great Britain woman suffrage was first backed by Mary Wollstonecraft in her book ‘A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ (1792) and was later claimed by the Chartist
movement of the 1840s. The demand for woman suffrage was supported by John Stuart
Mill and his partner Harriet Taylor. The first woman suffrage committee was formed in
Manchester in 1865 and in 1867 Mill presented to Parliament this committee’s petition,

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which demanded the voting rights for women and contained about 1,550 signatures. The
Reform Bill of 1867 contained no provision for woman suffrage. However, woman
suffrage societies were mushrooming in major cities of Britain and by1870s these
organizations submitted to Parliament petitions demanding the franchise for women and
these petitions had three million signatures. The following years saw the defeat of every
major suffrage bill brought before Parliament. This was mainly because neither of the
leading politicians of the day, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, cared to
disrespect Queen Victoria’s ruthless opposition to the women’s movement. However, in
1869, Parliament did grant women taxpayers the right to vote in municipal elections, and
in the subsequent years women became eligible to sit on county and city councils. In
1897 the various suffragist societies came together and formed one National Union of
Women’s Suffrage. Societies thus brought a greater degree of unity and organization to
the movement. Out of frustration at the absence of governmental action, a section of the
woman suffrage movement became more militant under the leadership of Emmeline
Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel. These women militants, or suffragettes, as they
were known, were arrested but they continued their protests in jail by undertaking hunger
strikes. Meanwhile, public support of the woman suffrage movement grew in strength.
When World War I began, the woman suffrage organizations aided the war effort, and
this immensely increased public support to the cause of woman suffrage. The need for the
enfranchisement of women was finally recognized by most members of Parliament
belonging to both liberal and conservative parties. As a result the ‘Representation of the
People Act’ was passed by the House of Commons in June 1917 and by the House of
Lords in February 1918. Under this act, all women aged 30 or over were eligible for
voting rights. An act to allow women to sit in the House of Commons was enacted shortly
afterward. In 1928, the voting age for women was lowered to 21 to place women voters
on an equal footing with male voters.
The movement for woman suffrage in United States of America (USA) started in the
early 19th century during the agitation against slavery. Women leaders like Lucretia Mott
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton joined the antislavery forces and agreed that the rights of
women and slaves needed to be fought for. In Seneca Falls Convention (19-20 July 1848)
a declaration was passed that called for woman suffrage and for the right of women to
educational and employment opportunities. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony together led the American suffragist movement. First suffragettes adopted the
strategy of bringing amendments to the constitutions of the various states. The Territory
of Wyoming granted women the right to vote in all elections in 1869. But it soon became
apparent that an amendment of the federal Constitution would be a preferable plan. For
the same, the ‘National Woman Suffrage Association’, led by Stanton and Anthony, was
formed in 1869 with the declared objective of securing voting rights for women by an
amendment to the Constitution. In 1869, another organization, the ‘American Woman
Suffrage Association’, was founded and led by Lucy Stone with the aim of securing
woman voting rights by amending constitutions of the various states. In 1890, the two
organizations united under the name of ‘National American Woman Suffrage
Association’ and worked together for almost 30 years. When Wyoming entered the Union
in 1890, it became the first state whose constitution granted women the right to vote.
Later, vigorous campaigns were conducted for women’s voting rights at all levels – from
local to Presidential elections. In the next 25 years various individual states yielded to the

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movement’s demands and enfranchised their women. By 1918 women had acquired equal
suffrage with men in 15 states.
The contribution of suffragettes to the World War I made the opposition to women’s
voting rights weak. Amendments to the federal Constitution concerning woman suffrage
introduced in 1878 was overwhelmingly defeated but the amendment introduced in 1914
had narrowly failed to gain even a simple majority of the votes in the House of
Representatives and the Senate (a two-thirds majority vote in Congress was needed for
the amendment to be sent to the state legislatures for ratification). However, by 1918,
both Republicans and Democrats (two major political parties) were committed to woman
suffrage and the amendment was carried by the necessary two-thirds majorities in both
the House and Senate in January 1918 and June 1919, respectively. Strong campaigns
were then waged to secure ratification of the amendment by two-thirds of the state
legislatures, and on 18 August 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the
amendment. On 26 August 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was proclaimed by the
secretary of state as being part of the Constitution of the United States. Women in the
United States were enfranchised on an equal basis with men.
2.2.4 Limitations of Women’s Movement Inspired by Liberal Feminism
The women’s movements inspired by liberal feminism, like the suffrage movements of
Great Britain and the USA, failed to question larger levels of inequalities faced by
women in general. They were not critically engaging with sexual division of work both
inside and outside the home. These movements were largely limited to white women and
thus excluded the voices of women from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Again, these
movements believed in the ability of the state as a neutral agent in bringing political
rights to women, without questioning the public/private dichotomy. They were uncritical
of the liberal capitalist nature of the state and economy. They did not question the
hierarchy established between physical and mental labour. The whole logic of seeing
women as inferior was based on the assumption that they merely engage with physical
labour. Therefore, women as equal moral beings to men was acceptable but were not sure
about women as equal rational beings. Basically, liberal feminism inspired women’s
movements failed to understand that freedom is not mere absence of external obstacles.
A. Check Your Progress
1. Who initiated woman suffrage movement in Great Britain?
a) Harriet Taylor
b) Emmeline Pankhurst
c) Mary Wollstonecraft
d) Betty Friedan
2. ‘American Woman Suffrage Association’ was founded by
a) Elizabeth Cady Stanton
b) Susan B. Anthony
c) Virginia Woolf
d) Lucy Stone

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 3. Liberal feminism believed in
a) Abstract individualism
b) Biological Determinism
c) Historical Materialism
d) Race Theory
2.3 Marxist Feminist and Women’s Movements
2.3.1 Context
Marxism offers devastating critique of the capitalist system. Marxism was a response to
negative impacts of capitalism. For Marxists the notion of class is the key to understand
all social phenomena, including the phenomenon of women’s oppression. Their ideal
society wherein no form of exploitation will exist is a classless society. The term
Marxism is attributed to writings and ideas derived from Karl Marx. But the question is
which Marx as he has written a wide range of things over a long period of time. Some
ideas are contradictory and some ideas he collaborated with his dear friend Frederick
Engels. Alison Jaggar argued that in analysing Marxist ideas, the ideas of later Marx
should be the point of consideration as an individual’s thought mature over a period of
time.
The centrality of abstract individual based on rationality (mental capacity) has been
questioned by Marx. For Marx, human beings are essentially biological species and their
physicality imposes reliance upon other human beings and non-human world. This makes
human social, they are not self-sufficient in themselves. According to Marx, human
beings are different from animals as they know to utilize and transform the world. The
power of imagination and language gave upper hand to human beings in their evolution.
For human beings, the purpose of labour is clear and they learn from the past experiences.
The central idea that separates Marxism from liberalism is the emphasis on praxis –
conscious and purposeful labour to transform the world. Initially, praxis is directed
towards satisfying basic human needs like eating, drinking, habitation and clothing. But
once these basic needs are satisfied, then it leads to rise of new needs. This is a historical
act when human beings shift their needs, accordingly their praxis. In the process, changes
in human world and changes in human as producers occur. Therefore, biology and society
share a dialectical relationship wherein each partially constitutes the other. That is why
Engels emphasised the fact that hand is both organ of labour and product of labour. For
Marx, social being determines consciousness of human and therefore for him social
activity of praxis is more significant than isolated individual activity. Marxism
emphasises the fact that human nature is a historical product but always determined by
mode of production. In the evolution of mode of production, two primary classes were
formed, namely, haves (those who own the mode of production) and have-nots (those
who work for the haves). Thus Marx adopted historical materialism as a method to
understand history of humankind. Marxism highlighted the fact that it is the ideology of
the haves (ruling class) that permeates production and distribution of all ideas in a
society. It generates false consciousness of reality that is fixed and final as natural. It is
because of this false consciousness that working class stays away from revolution and
gradually they slip into a state of alienation where they are dehumanised from the product

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of their labour, from the environment of their labour, from fellow beings and most
importantly from the self. For Marx, to change the situation, the invisible hand of market
is to be replaced by many visible and self-consciously cooperative human hands. The
state, for Marxists, is not an impartial agent but agent of the ruling class. Therefore, the
ultimate aim of working class should be to join hands to bring in revolution to end both
ruling class and the state.
2.3.2 Features of Marxist Feminists
For Engels, marriage was an institution for achieving economic security rather than being
an institution based on love. According to Engels, marriage is a form of slavery for wife
wherein she sells her body and labour, once and for all, to a single man. The wife bears
with the injustices, even infidelity, committed by the husband in the name of economic
security of self and their children. The Marxist feminists value the physical labour put in
by a wife. They make a distinction between bourgeois (rich) women and proletariat
(working-class) women. They argued working class women who also participates in the
labour market of production in factories are having choice to walk away from an abusive
husband and marriage as for them economic security is not solely provided by the
husband. Marxist feminists have failed to explain the continued sex based violence and
exploitation of working class women both inside and outside the homes. For Engels,
under socialism, the care and education of children should become a public affair. These
services should not be paid services but need-based collective enterprises. Freed from
domestic responsibilities, women can enter public realm and can exit exploitative
marriages. For Marxist feminists, the ideal marriage was that of heterosexual couples and
homosexuality was seen as a bourgeois decadence. This marriage had to be based on
mutual affection and economic security. Women will not work for lesser wages under
capitalism as it will reduce the bargaining power of the working class and women will
fight with working class men to end exploitative capitalist mode of production.
Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai (1872-1952) was one of the most famous Marxist
feminists. She was the only woman in Lenin’s government and is one of the most famous
women in Russian history. She was not satisfied with the results of Bolshevik revolution
of 1917 and throughout her life passionately fought for establishing true ideals of
communism. She firmly believed that real social, economic and political change can
come only with a transformation in personal and family relationships. Her life, both
personally and politically, was controversial. She was born into aristocracy but left
comforts of life under influence of radical ideas of communism. Her lifelong
preoccupation with women empowerment began with her decision to leave her second
husband Pavel Dybenko and child in 1918. Kollontai wrote to Dybenko in 1922 – ‘I am
not the wife you need. I am a person before I am a woman.’ That puts it in a nutshell the
problem of sexual stereotypes reinforced even in heterosexual marriages between two
communists. Communist woman, once wife, had to spend energy creating havens of
peace and security for their men which severely limited the scope of their own political
activity. Kollontai also emphasised in her book ‘The Social Basis of the Woman
Question’ the fact that interests of a bourgeois woman and proletariat woman can never
converge in cooperation due to inherent conflicting interests and experience of a capitalist
society.

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2.3.3 Women’s Movement Inspired by Marxist Feminists: The International Wages
for Housework Campaign
The International Wages for Housework Campaign was a feminist movement that
emerged from the International Feminist Collective formed in Italy (1972). This
movement organized resistance and public debate on the social formations produced by
gendered labour and reproductive labour. They questioned domestic work such as
housework, childcare, gender discrimination. They highlighted male-biasness of the
socially reinforced performance of gender roles, gendered desire and leisure inequality.
The Campaign's platform encompassed the women's right to work outside of the home,
unemployment benefits, parental leave and equal pay. The Campaign took shape in
Padua, Italy and was led by Selma James, Brigitte Galtier, Mariarosa Dalla Costa, and
Silvia Federici. A major principle of the campaign was to bring to light that reproductive
labour is the foundation of industrial work. It has significant role in the maintenance and
care of gendered male workers. Yet in a patriarchal society, reproductive labour is not
recognized as productive enough to be wage labour. The demands for the Wages for
Housework used Marxist frameworks to think through the reliance of capitalist
economies on exploitative labour practices against women in general and working class
men. The Wages for Housework campaign, especially Mariarosa Dalla Costa, encouraged
workers to act in their direct interests and engage in factory strikes to demand better
conditions. The Wages for Housework campaign theorised about social factory whereby
the whole of society lives as a function of the factory and the factory extends its exclusive
domination to the whole of society.
2.3.4 Limitations of Marxist Feminists
The Marxist feminists’ effort to highlight the inevitable cooperation between the interests
of the proletariat men and proletariat women proved ineffective. It failed to understand
that proletariat men were equally patriarchal. They were not ready to give up their
privileges over women in the cause of revolution. The Marxist feminists suffered from
excessive economies where they spoke more about democratizing the sphere of
production but not about democratizing the sphere of procreation. Similarly, the demands
on the state to take the responsibility of childcare failed miserably. Not even socialist
state of erstwhile Soviet Union could take this responsibility as the demand is endless and
state itself is not having resources to run these childcare facilities. In spite of the Marxist
feminists’ effort, even today hierarchical sexual division of labour continues. Even the
hierarchy of wages between blue collared job, pink collared job and white collared job
continues. In an increasingly globalised capitalist economy, the state has retreated from
the welfare functions and demands of Marxist feminists are seen as outdated.
B. Check Your Progress
1. Book written by Alexandra Kollontai is
a) Vindication of women’s rights
b) The Social Basis of the Woman Question
c) A room of one’s own
d) The Second Sex

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2. The Wages for Housework Campaign began in
a) USA
b) France
c) Great Britain
d) Italy
2.4 Radical Feminism and Women’s Movements
2.4.1 Context
Radical feminists emerged in late 1960’s as a critical response to both liberal and Marxist
feminists. In the beginning, radical feminists were limited to white, middle class and
college-educated women belonging to USA and other industrialised European countries.
These women were earlier members of left leaning political parties or peace based
organisations or conservative women organisations. In spite of claiming to fight for
equality, peace and justice, these organisations were themselves non-democratic. This
pushed for seeking an alternative. Radical feminists committed themselves to uncover
and eradicate the systemic or root causes of women’s oppression. They emphasised the
fact that oppression of women was the reason for all other oppressions in the world.
2.4.2 Features of Radical Feminists
The primary argument of radical feminists was that the male gender privileges created
systemic oppression. This oppression had external impact in the forms of sexual
harassment and job discrimination. In the internal form it was reflected in the
indecisiveness and inability to enjoy sex by women. Radical feminists like Kate Millet
aimed for establishing an androgynous society wherein every individual will discard the
sex-roles given by society and the notions of femininity and masculinity will become
redundant. Radical feminists argued that in maintaining subjugation of women, men also
experience material gains. For radical feminists, biology is central. Biology is seen
through the prism of empowerment. They believed that sisterhood is powerful. Mary Jane
Sherfey argued that women’s oppression by men is done to suppress women’s
biologically determined inordinately high, cyclic sexual drive. Susan Brownmiller
highlighted the fact that human anatomy allows men the possibility of raping women.
Therefore, penis is used as a weapon to generate fear. With this all men keep all women
in a state of fear. Here like liberal feminists, radical feminists propose state to play a
significant role by making and implementing laws against rape. Shulamith Firestone puts
forth the idea that history of humankind is not to be seen through the lens of production
but through the lens of procreation. Firestone de-biologises Sigmund Freud and explains
that penis envy is not envy of a physical organ but rather the envy of the social power of
males. Firestone argues that biology can be altered with the help of technology like by
using contraceptives or by having test-tube babies. By this genital distinctions between
the sexes would no longer matter culturally. Some feminists had suspicion over
Firestone’s proposal of use of technology as a means to win over nature. Technology was
not seen as an impartial tool nor was winning over nature celebrated. Radical feminists
believed that men are aggressive due to their biology, that is, presence of hormones called
testosterone. They argued that the solution to this was that women should form their own

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societies from which men are excluded. For radical feminists motherhood was powerful.
They saw menstruation as a blessing of the goddess. They believed in celebrating
womanhood. Radical feminists like Sally Gearhart believed that the future is female. She
accepted women qualities as superior.
There was a strong group of French women who were radical feminists. This group
consisted Christine Delphy, Helene Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Monique Wittig. These
women believed biology is socially constructed. For Monique Wittig, in a patriarchal
society, childbirth is a forced production. She said, “Before being seen that way, they first
had to be made that way.” These radical feminists saw sexuality as a continuum rather
than as boxes of male and female. They believed in destruction of binary categories and
wanted to build a sexless society. Radical feminists gave the call ‘personal is political’
wherein it meant two things, (a) resisting sexual politics and resisting male dominance in
both public and private spheres and (b) need for a new version of politics based on
women’s experience that was against institutionalisation of any form of dominance.
Radical feminists raised voice against forced motherhood, sexual slavery and male
control of women’s bodies.
2.4.3 Women’s Movement Inspired by Radical Feminists: Beauty Standards, Sexual
Assault and Abortion
In 1968, radical feminists protested against the Miss America pageant in order to bring
"sexist beauty ideas and social expectations" to the forefront of women's social issues.
Even though there were not any bras burned on that day, this protest is famously known
as ‘bra-burner’. Radical feminists threw their bras into a ‘Freedom Trash Can’, but they
did not set it on fire. In 1970, more than one hundred radical feminists staged an eleven
hour sit-in at the Ladies’ Home Journal. These women demanded that the male editor be
removed and replaced by a woman editor. The Ladies Home Journal with their emphasis
on food, family, fashion and femininity played a vital role in maintaining women's
oppression through a capitalist-patriarchy lens. In addition to opposition to male
standards of beauty, radical feminists used a variety of tactics-demonstrations and speak
outs about topics such as rape and other forms of sexual assault. Through tirelessly
unifying among friends and co-workers, on street corners, in supermarkets and ladies’
rooms, these radical feminists were able to bring in lots of public attention and discussion
on women’s issues. On 6 June 1971 the title of the Stern (magazine) showed 28 German
actresses and journalists confessing “We Had an Abortion!” unleashing a campaign
against the abortion ban. Later in 1974, journalist Alice Schwarzer persuaded 329 doctors
to admit publicly to have performed abortions. The women’s centres managed by radical
feminists in Germany, France and Netherland did abortion counselling, compiled a list of
abortion clinics, visited them and organized bus trips to these abortion clinics. Police in
these countries took these actions as illegal but later allowed them. Thus, gradually right
to abortion by women gained state legitimacy and societal approval.
2.4.4 Limitations of Radical Feminism
As mentioned earlier, radical feminists had a very limited base of white, educated, middle
class women from USA and industrialised Europe. Therefore, the theory and practice of
radical feminists had limited appeal. For this reason, radical feminists are accused of
being racist and classist. Another problem raised against radical feminists was their over-

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emphasis on practice rather than on theory. It is argued that theory has its own
significance in exploring further why men behave the way they do. In order to end male
dominance, deeper analyses of diverse experiences are required and radical feminists
failed to do so. Radical feminists are also criticised for their assertion of women’s
choices. In a patriarchal society, how far a woman can make informed choice is a
questionable position. For example, abortion may be done by an unwed woman precisely
because of patriarchal society’s fixation with pregnancy and motherhood only within a
monogamous heterosexual marriage. In this situation, it is difficult to claim whose
choice. The biggest criticism against radical feminists is their propagation for separatism,
separate world exclusively for women. Critics argue that in real patriarchal world men
and women co-exist. Burdens and benefits of patriarchy are experienced by both men and
women within and outside the group differently. There are men who suffer in patriarchy
and there are women who enjoy privileges under patriarchy. Therefore, complete
separation of women and men to end patriarchy is neither possible nor advisable.
C. Check Your Progress
1. Christine Delphy, Helene Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Monique Wittig belong to
a) USA
b) Germany
c) France
d) Netherlands
2. Which magazine had a special issue on ‘We had an abortion!’
a) Vogue
b) Bella
c) New
d) Stern
3. Radical Feminists believed in
a) Abstract individualism
b) Biological Determinism
c) Historical Materialism
d) Race Theory
2.5 Socialist Feminists and Women’s Movements
2.5.1 Context
Socialist feminism emerged as a response to fill in gaps of both radical feminism and
Marxist feminism. As in any other school of feminism, socialist feminism also has its
own share of internal variations and debates. Socialist feminists agreed with radical
feminists that the central oppression in any society is based on oppression of women and
to fight against women’s oppression there is a need for separate political organisations by
women. With Marxist feminists there is an agreement by socialist feminists that mode of
production determines social equations in a society. However, socialist feminists

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expanded the meaning of production to include both material production and procreation.
Therefore to understand women’s oppression, socialist feminists prefer historical path
rather than biological. However, socialist feminists challenged trans-historical logic of
both Marxist feminists and radical feminists. They believed changing context is important
in defining interaction between human biology and environment. For instance, Wilhelm
Reich of Frankfurt School highlighted the fact that sexually repressive German family
created authoritarian character structure which easily accepted Nazism.
2.5.2 Features of Socialist Feminists
Like radical feminists, socialist feminists believed that sexual activity, child-bearing and
child-rearing practices are embedded in power relations and therefore are political. Zillah
Eisenstein highlighted the fact that motherhood is a social interpretation. As motherhood
within marriage is legitimate whereas motherhood outside marriage is illegitimate. The
same biological process is evaluated differently by a patriarchal society based on
monogamous heterosexual marriage. Similarly, Ann Foreman puts light on the fact that
lesbianism a recent development which presupposes urban society with the possibility of
economic independence for women. Socialist feminists acknowledge women as agents of
production and only by including women along with men can make political analysis
valid. Socialist feminists argue that the hierarchical and essentialised sexual division of
labour shape both procreative and material production. As this division is a product of
social construction, it can be changed. Rosalind Petcheskyemphasised the fact that the
distinction between production and reproduction defining public and private spheres is
irrelevant as power politics affect both the spheres. Joan Kelly also pointed out that there
is a systematic interconnectedness between social, economic, sexual and familial
structures. Thus, for socialist feminists ‘political economy’ together matters (economics
without politics is meaningless and politics without economy is incomplete). Socialist
feminists problematize the concept of alienation by Karl Marx. According to Linda
Phelps and Sandra Bartky, women experience alienation in a different way from men.
Due to coercive heterosexuality women are alienated as sexual beings. The guarantee for
economic security for women comes only by sale of sexuality in marriage. As a result,
wifehood and motherhood are not consensual. Women in this situation become alienated
from their children, their sexuality, other women and self. Through the process of
scientific parenting and isolation of mothers in nuclear family, this alienation aggravates.
Femininity itself is alienation. For socialist feminists abolition of both class and gender
are crucial. For this, reproductive freedom (child bearing and child rearing) of women
must increase. Transformation of social conditions must occur so that women can make
independent and informed choices. Equal involvement of men in infant care and childcare
to be promoted so that change in behaviour happens at unconscious level. Socialist
feminists also call forth abolition of sex-segregated job market. Enlargement of women’s
economic security and self-respect can happen with paid and secure maternity leaves on
one hand and establishment of publicly funded community driven childcare facilities on
the other hand. Socialist feminists wanted to establish a new form of wage system which
is away from ‘de-professionalised’ and ‘proletarianized’ work for women. Socialist
feminist emphasised the need for co-existence of separate women’s only as well as
collaborative (men and women) political organisations to end capitalist patriarchy.
Socialist feminists highlighted the fact how working class men can also perpetuate

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patriarchy and therefore women need various organisations to further their interests and
needs.
2.5.3 Women’s Movements Inspired by Socialist Feminism: The Chicago Women's
Liberation Union
The Chicago Women's Liberation Union, also known as CWLU, was established in 1969
after a founding conference in Palatine, Illinois. Naomi Weisstein, Vivian Rothstein,
Heather Booth and Ruth Surgal were among the founding members of it. The main aim of
the organization was to end gender inequality and sexism. The CWLU fought against the
systematic keeping down of women for the benefit of people in power. The purpose
statement of the organization articulated that changing women's position in society isn't
going to be easy. It's going to require changes in expectations, jobs, child care and
education. It's going to change the distribution of power wherein all people will be
sharing power and sharing in the decisions that affect our lives. The CWLU spent nearly
a decade organizing voices against both sexism and class oppression. The group
published a pamphlet in1972 named "Socialist Feminism: A Strategy for the Women's
Movement". Nationally distributed, the publication is believed to be the first to use the
term socialist feminism. The CWLU was organized as a unifying organization to bring
together a wide range of work groups and discussion groups. A representative from each
work group went to monthly meetings of the Steering Committee to decide on
organizational policy and strategy. They addressed a wide range of issues like women's
health, reproductive rights, education, economic rights, visual arts and music, sports and
lesbian liberation.
2.5.4 Limitations of Socialist Feminism
Socialist feminists’ aim is expansive. It seeks to change both procreative and material
production to end subjugation of women. However, democratizing of procreation is not
an easy task. If established, democratization of procreation may violate women’s right to
their own bodies. For example, when childcare activity is done in a collective manner, it
may force women to procreate more as others will claim to share the burden of childcare.
Socialist feminists called for decentralised, participatory and democratic organisations.
However, functioning of such organisations may be problematic. Most often, a very few
people are regular in meetings. This can lead to two things. Firstly, all decisions may be
taken by these limited people only and can be imposed on the larger group in the name of
democratic decision. Secondly, this small group can be overburdened with
responsibilities as others are not active. Another suggestion of socialist feminists to
merge personal and public has its own problems: how to do it and it can be a complex
web of endless changes. Socialist feminists lack interest in extending democracy to
children.
D. Check Your Progress
1. Linda Phelps and Sandra Bartkytheorised about
a) Historical materialism
b) Biological determinism
c) Alienation amongst women
d) Ideology

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2. Socialist feminists’ central aim is to abolish
a) Class discrimination
b) Gender discrimination
c) Class and gender discrimination
d) Individual discrimination
3. Democratization of procreation means
a) Co-parenting
b) Public funded childcare facilities
c) Benefit of maternity leave
d) All of the above
2.6 Alternative Feminist Schools and Women’s Movements
All the above mentioned feminist schools and women’s movements inspired by them–
liberal, Marxist, radical and socialist - were mega narratives wherein experience of USA
and European countries were given emphasis in theorizing and were projected as
universal experience of women. However, alternative feminist schools and women’s
movements have marked global politics. In this section we will be briefly discussing the
following schools of feminism – postcolonial feminists, postmodernist feminists, eco-
feminists, black feminists and dalit feminists.
2.6.1 Postcolonial Feminists
In the USA and Europe based lens, women in the ‘East’ are often seen as victims of
‘backward’ religious and patriarchal structures, helpless and unaware about the gravity of
their exploitation. Women of the ‘East’ are imagined to be in desperate need of the
supposed civilizing forces of equality, rights, and secularism embraced in liberal Euro-
American cultures. Postcolonial feminism originated as a response to colonialism,
imperialism and Euro-American feminist schools which led to Euro-American values
being imperialistically imposed on other cultures. The theory resists hegemonic Euro-
American feminists’ tendency to universalize the forms of oppression they experience in
their own lives. This leads to elimination of experience of women from various national,
ethnic and religious backgrounds. Postcolonial feminism highlights that equality looks
different for different women. Postcolonial feminism denies the idea of universal
oppressions. If women’s movements in USA and Europe focus on the gender pay gap,
unpaid domestic labour or the dehumanizing aspects of pornography then these forms of
oppressions and subsequent resistance is not necessarily useful for women outside of
USA and Europe. Therefore, postcolonial feminism emphasises significance of particular
historical contexts in exploring women’s experience. In this way, postcolonial feminism
is a branch of intersectional feminist thought. Postcolonial feminists points out the fact
that colonialism as an experience alters all power structures in a society. Therefore
vantage point of colonisers cannot successfully capture realities of postcolonial societies.
Postcolonial feminism provides a similar critique of ‘white saviour complex.’ This
complex plays dangerously into justifying the historical rationale for the colonization of
‘East’, that is, educating barbarians or Anglicizing native languages. Postcolonial

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feminists believe feminisms should emerge locally from regional knowledge instead of
being imposed by outside. The white saviour complex is used by USA and Europe to
attack and occupy territories in the East. One custom often used as a sensational symbol
of women’s oppression outside of USA and Europe is the veil. There is a need for
nuanced understanding about the patriarchal implications of mandatory veiling of women
in Saudi Arabia and Iran. It is problematic to frame the hijab as inherently oppressive or
incompatible with equality. Islamic feminists, for example, endeavour for an equality that
encompasses ritual modesty as a way to feel empowered and closer to God. The launch of
hijab for sportswomen by multinational company Nike in the year 2017 is an example
were plural understanding of ‘self’ is accepted by neo-liberal economy. Postcolonial
feminism embraces the potential for varied, organic feminisms that pursue to end the
ramifications of sexism, racism, capitalism and imperialism in their totality. It reminds us
the united front of “sisterhood” is less in the spirit of feminism than are solidarity and
awareness of the plurality of global experiences that comprise womanhood.
2.6.2 Postmodernist Feminists
The goal of postmodern feminism is to disrupt the patriarchal norms rooted in society that
have led to gender inequality. Postmodern feminists seek to achieve this goal through
rejecting essentialism, philosophy and universal truths in favour of embracing the
differences that exist amongst women to demonstrate that not all women are the same.
Universalizing ideologies are rejected by postmodern feminists because they believe if a
universal truth is applied to all woman of society, it minimizes individual experience.
Postmodernists warn women to be aware of ideas displayed as the norm in society since it
may stem from masculine notions of how women should be projected. Postmodernists
attempt to promote equality of gender through critiquing logo centrism, supporting
multiple discourses, deconstructing texts and seeking to promote subjectivity.
Postmodern feminists are accredited with drawing attention to dichotomies in society and
demonstrating how language influences the difference in treatment of genders.
Postmodern feminism's major difference from other branches of feminism is the
argument that sex is not purely biological and sex itself is constructed through language.
Judith Butler in her book Gender Trouble (1990)condemns the distinction drawn by
previous feminisms between (biological) sex and (socially constructed) gender. She
questions why we assume that material things, such as the body, are not subject to
processes of social construction themselves. Butler argues that this does not allow for a
sufficient criticism of essentialism. Judith Butler points out that sex is socially
constructed and in different contexts it is constructed differently. Her argument means
that women's subordination has no single cause or single solution. The social movements
of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersexed, Asexual and
others (LGBTQIA+) communities in different parts of the world supports the argument of
postmodernist feminists that sex is not natural and biological but socially constructed and
therefore fluid in existence. Major criticism against postmodernist is that too much of
plural narratives and contexts will make unified mobilisation of women impossible.
2.6.3 Eco-Feminists
In the 1970s, along with the rise of the anti-nuclear proliferation movement and the
beginnings of green political activism, the concept of ecofeminism equated

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environmental damage to women's exploitation and lack of empowerment. Ecofeminism
brings together elements of the feminist and green movements, while at the same time
offering a challenge to both. The prominent eco-feminists are Maria Mies and Vandana
Shiva. Eco-feminism is not as simple as just women going out to fight for ecological
issues. One form of ecofeminism takes it very literally, saying that women are regarded in
the same way as natural resources: as something to be taken, plundered or used. In the
view of radical ecofeminism, women and the environment are exploited in the same way
by the same patriarchal dominating forces. Here development is seen as creating order
and deriving value from chaotic things like women and forests. Cultural ecofeminism
makes out the link between nature and women to be empowering, imagining our gender
as uniquely connected to the environment and natural processes through things like
menstruation and childbirth. This perspective posits that when it comes to feeling the real
damage of environmental harm and doing something about it, women are better-placed to
take action. Beyond the theoretical debates, much ecofeminism points to the very real
interactions that women, particularly in developing countries, have with environment
degradation and how their disempowerment is related to serious ecological problems. For
example, women are often the gatherers of food and water, that is, women are natural
resource managers for their households, which means that women’s lives are heavily
interweaved with a healthy, flourishing landscape. Women in their capacity as natural
resource managers might have unique perceptions on how to help end environmental
damage, but if their voices are silenced, they can't help. The way women were mobilised
in Chipko movement and Narmada BachaoAndolan reflect innate faith in the capacity of
women to be closer and sensitive to the nature. The relationship between human beings
and the nature is a complex one. Eco-feminists are criticised for simplifying and
essentialising women’s relation with the state.
2.6.4 Black Feminists
Years before the rise of the modern women’s liberation movement, black women were
uniting against their systematic rape at the hands of white racist men. Women civil rights
activists, like Rosa Parks, were part of a vocal grassroots movement to protect black
women subject to racist sexual assaults—in an intersection of oppression unique to Black
women historically in the United States. Later Kimberlé Crenshaw argues that black
women are discriminated against in ways that often do not fit neatly within the legal
classifications of either racism or sexism—but as a combination of both racism and
sexism. Yet the legal system has generally defined sexism as based upon an unspoken
reference to the injustices met by all, including white, women, while defining racism to
refer to those faced by all, including male, blacks and other people of colour. This
framework frequently reduces black women to legally invisible and without legal
recourse. Crenshaw describes several employment discrimination-based lawsuits to
illustrate how black women’s complaints often goes unheard precisely because they are
discriminated against both as women and as blacks. The ruling in one such case,
DeGraffenreid V. General Motors, filed by five black women in 1976, proves this point
vividly. The General Motors Corporation had never employed a black woman for its
workforce before 1964—the year the Civil Rights Act passed through Congress. All of
the black women appointed after 1970 lost their jobs fairly quickly, however, in mass
layoffs during the 1973–75 recession. Such an extensive loss of jobs among black women

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led the plaintiffs to argue that seniority-based layoffs, guided by the principle of “last
hired-first fired,” discriminated against black women workers at General Motors,
encompassing past discriminatory practices by the company. Yet the court declined to
allow the plaintiffs to combine sex-based and race-based discrimination into a single
category of discrimination. Black feminists highlighted the inevitable alliance between
race, class and gender in subjugation of women.
2.6.5 Dalit Feminists
Dalit feminism emerged as voice against a masculinization of dalithood and a
savarnisation of womanhood which led to a classical exclusion of dalit womanhood. The
1970s and early ‘80s were times of the ‘reinvention of revolution’ and saw the rise of
several organizations and fronts – the Shramik Mukti Sanghatana, Satyashodhak
Communist Party, Shramik Mukti Dal, Yuvak Kranti Dal – all of which did not limit the
dalit women to a token inclusion; their revolutionary agenda, in different ways, bestowed
a central role to dalit women. This was, however, not the case with the two other
movements of the period – the Dalit Panthers and the women’s movement as constituted
mainly by the left party based women’s fronts and the newly emergent autonomous
women’s groups. The Dalit Panthers did make a significant contribution to the cultural
revolt of the 1970s, but both in their writings and their programme, dalit women remained
firmly captured in the roles of the ‘mother’ and the ‘victimized sexual being’. The left
party based women’s organizations highlighted economic and work related issues as also
helped develop a critique of the patriarchal capitalist state. The independent women’s
groups politicized and made public the issue of violence against women. Though this led
to serious debates on class versus patriarchy, these formations did not address the issue of
Brahmin supremacy. While for the former, ‘caste’ was contained in class, for the latter,
the notion of sisterhood was pivotal. All women came to be conceived as ‘victims’ and
therefore ‘dalit’, resulting in a classical exclusion. (All ‘dalits’ are assumed to be male
and all women ‘savarna’.) It may be argued that since the categories of experience and
personal politics were at the core of the epistemology and politics of the Dalit Panther
and the women’s movement, this lead to universalization of what in reality was the
middle class, upper caste women’s experience or alternatively the dalit male experience.
The autonomous women’s groups of the early 1980s continued to dependent on the left
framework even as they challenged it. As the women’s movement gathered momentum,
sharp critiques of mainstream conceptualizations of work, development, legal processes
and the state emerged leading to several theoretical and practical formulations. Debates
on class versus patriarchy were politically engaging for both parties to the debate. It must
be underscored that many of the feminist groups broadly agreed that in the Indian context
a materialistic framework was vital to the analysis of women’s oppression. However, in
keeping with their roots within the ‘class’ framework, they made greater effort to draw
similarities across class than caste or community. This is visible in the major campaigns
launched by the women’s movement during this period. The absence of an analytical
framework of Phule and Ambedkar (which saw the interlinkages between caste and
gender) is apparent in the in the anti-dowry, anti-rape and anti-violence struggles of the
women’s movement. An analysis of the practices of the caste basis of violence against
women exposes that while the incidence of dowry deaths and violent control and
regulation of their mobility and sexuality by the family is recurrent among the dominant

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upper castes, dalit women are more likely to face the collective and public threat of rape,
sexual assault and physical violence at the workplace and in public. In the 1990s, there
were several independent and autonomous assertions of dalit women’s identity. The
formation of the National Federation of Dalit Women, the All India Dalit Women’s
Forum, Maharashtra Dalit MahilaSanghatana, Vikas Vanchit Dalit Mahila Parishad, the
Bharatiya Republican Party and the Bahujan Mahila Sangh happened in 1990’s. The
major voice raised by dalit feminists is to highlight the difference in lived experience of
dalit women from upper and middle class women in the one hand and dalit men on the
other. Can only dalit women can speak for themselves is another question of significance.
2.7 Conclusion
By looking into various schools of feminism and the movements inspired by them, it is
clear that subjugation of women is a universal experience but has particularity of context
attached to it. Women are subjugated in patriarchal societies but the manner and reasons
for subjugation varies from place to place. The reasons for subjugation of women have
been justified as divine, as biological, as natural, as product of mode of production and as
psychological. Subjugation of women is traced in slave society, in feudal society, in
capitalist society, in socialist society. It has been part of industrialisedcapitalised societies
and agrarian developing and under-developed societies. There have been multiple
theories and movements to address subjugation of women but till now a dignified and
egalitarian society for women has been a dream to be fulfilled. Till that time, engagement
with women’s questions will be relevant.
2.8 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises
A: 1. c; 2. d; 3. a
B: 1. b; 2. d;
C: 1. c; 2. d; 3. b
D: 1. c; 2. c; 3. d
2.9 Self Assessment Questions
Short Questions
1. Discuss the contribution of liberal feminism to address subjugation of women.
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2. Write a short note on suffragette movement in Great Britain.
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3. Write short note on eco-feminism.
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4. Write short note on dalit feminism.
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Long Questions
1. Critically analyse the difference between radical feminists and Marxist feminists.
2. Discuss contemporary schools of feminism and their influence on women’s
movements.
2.10 Reference
 Geetha, V. (2002) Gender. Calcutta: Stree.
 Jagger, Alison. (1983) Feminist Politics and Human Nature. U.K: Harvester Press,
pp. 25-350.
 Rowbotham, Shiela. (1993) Women in Movements. New York and London:
Routledge.
 B. Hooks. (2010) ‘Feminism: A Movement to end Sexism’, in C McCann and S.
Kim (eds), The Feminist Reader: Local and Global Perspectives, New York:
Routledge.
 Engels, Fredrick (1884) (Reprinted in 2004) The Origin of the Family, Private
Property and the State. Trans. Pat Brewer, Australia: Resistance Books.
 Kollontai, A (1909), The Social Basis of the Woman Question, available at
http://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1909/social-basis.htm, accessed on
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 UNIT IV :LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT

1. NEO-REALIST TRENDS IN WORLD CINEMA

Sanchita Srivastava

Outline
1.0 Learning Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Italy
1.2.1 Check Your Progress
1.3 France
1.3.1 Check Your Progress
1.4 India
1.4.1 Check Your Progress
1.5 Summary
1.6 Glossary
1.7 Answer to Check Your Progress Exercises
1.8 Self-Assessment Questions
1.9 References
1.0 Learning Objectives
Upon the completion of this lesson, students will be able to:
● Understand the emergence and relevance of neo-realism as a film movement in
Italy.
● Explore the various ways in which Italian neo-realism was adapted by filmmakers
across the globe, especially with reference to France and India.
● Appreciate the role of cinema in the nation-building projects of various countries,
particularly in Italy, in the aftermath of the Second World War.

1.1 Introduction

In the years leading up to the Second World War, films, from historical romances to
comedy to musicals, infused with a sense of showmanship, largely catered to representing
desires, a means to escape from the realities of the world. The War, however, changed
cinema fundamentally. For, at the end of the Second World War, global cinema saw the
rise of two distinct trends, a desire to restore cinema to one of its essential functions, that
of entertainment, as well as a commitment to move beyond the dark days of the war,

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fascism-Nazim as well the Great Depression. Consequently, on the one hand, one can see
the growing popularity of Hollywood musicals, whereas in other regions of the world,
including the areas of Europe most deeply affected by the events of the decade, a
simultaneous “new hunger for reality” was palpable, and found its expression in what is
known as the neo-realist movement in cinema.
As Nowell-Smith (2017, pp. 62-63) puts it, neo-realism was a “revolt” against the
propagandist cinema of the Italian fascists as well as the supposed cultural imperialism of
Hollywood. Often shot in black and white and characterized by an emphasis on casting
amateur actors, the use of natural lighting, as well as on-location shoots instead of relying
upon studios for filming, the term ‘neo-realism’ was borrowed from literary theory by
Umberto Barbaro to describe French realist cinema of the 1930s (Giovacchini and Sklar
2012, p. 3). ‘Realism’ in cinema, as the term suggests, refers to a narrative means that is
designed to bring about a degree of ‘reality’ on the screen, and neo-realism adds the
dimension of “dispassionate observation” to the realistic depiction (Marcus cited in
Giovacchini and Sklar 2011, p. 5). While scholars are divided over a ‘definition’ of the
term, there is a consensus to view neo-realism in terms of an ethical-moral code, whose
purpose was to force the audience to move beyond the concerns of the individual and to
look at the reality of the ‘others’, to use art to create radical political change (Marcus
1986, pp. 21-26).
The neo-realist trend in cinema found its greatest expression in Italy and went on to
inspire a whole generation of filmmakers spread across the globe, from Martin Scorsese
in the US to Satyajit Ray in India. Given the vast geographical expanse of the film
movement, for the purposes of this lesson, we shall limit the study of this ‘unique’ post-
war cinematic aesthetic that centered upon depicting social realities onscreen to three
nation-states: the ‘birth-place’ of neo-realism, Italy, France, and its dialogue with neo-
realism in the form of the French New Wave cinema, as well as the impact of neo-realism
and its adaptations in India.

1.2 Italy

With its control over the National Institute of the Union of Cinematography and
Education in 1926, the fascist state of Italy monopolized cinematic information and drew
upon it to spread its propaganda. From patriotic/military films to those depicting Italy’s
African mission, to historical costume dramas, and anti-Bolshevik and anti-Soviet films,
the propaganda films of the state between 1930-’43 worked towards projecting an image
of a heroic, unified, and celebratory state, towards turning the attention away from the
harsher realities of everyday (Morandini 1996, pp. 353-355). However, as Morandini
(1996, pp. 356-357) further pointed out, the propaganda films in Italy, unlike Germany,
formed the superstructure rather than the base of national production, as these films
constituted about 5% of the total cinematic ventures; while anti-national ideas were

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discouraged and censored, it is important to note that government interventions in the
film industry were driven initially by economic factors, as the filmmakers were
encouraged to compete with Hollywood. Thus, the bulk of the films remained centered on
rejecting reality in favor of melodrama and comedy, where the protagonists would talk to
each other over shining white telephones, a trope so popular that the entire genre of these
films came to be known as that of ‘white telephones’!
However, with the fall of Mussolini and the subsequent end of fascist censorship, Italian
filmmakers were now able to combine cinematic realism, a trend which can be traced
back to the pre-war Italian cinema, with socio-political and economic themes that could
not be addressed under the dictatorial regime (Bondanella 2006, p. 31). Led by the likes
of Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Luchino Visconti, the Italian neo-realist
films centered upon offering a critique of Italian society, highlighting extant issues such
as the repercussions of the war, unemployment, and rampant poverty, with a detached,
“scientific” mode of narration. Central to their discourse was the construction of fascism
as the “antithesis of truth and authenticity”, and the neo-realists took to films to challenge
the ideological and cultural legacies of fascism (Monticelli 2000, p. 72). For the neo-
realist artist, argued Cesare Zavattini, one of the most prominent theorists of Italian neo-
realism, the task was not to bring the audience to “tears and indignation by means of
transference, but, on the contrary, it consists in bringing them to reflect (and then, if you
will, to stir up emotions and indignation) upon what they are doing and upon others what
they are doing; that is to think about reality precisely as it is” (Zavattini cited in Ruberto
and Wilson 2007, p. 7) and to induce a political consciousness in the viewer in the
process. Thus, the filmmakers turned to the streets to depict a society that was in
shambles after the War, struggling with a decaying moral order, to portray everyday
people and their problems, or ‘reality’, as they saw it. Before proceeding further, it would
be prudent to note that scholars have advised against looking at neo-realism in terms of a
well-defined school or with certain unchangeable characteristics at its core. As we shall
explore in the cases of both France and India, neo-realism in films took various forms.
Even with the neo-realist films produced within Italy, we can see the varied forms of the
genre, with the aesthetics of neo-realism being combined with social drama (Bitter Rice,
1949, dir. Giuseppe De Santis), with comedy (Beneath the Roman Sun, 1948, dir. Renato
Castellani), or with populism (Miracle in Milan, 1950, dir. De Sica). Nevertheless, some
of the techniques that were often used by these filmmakers include—on-location,
documentary-style shoots, the use of non-professional actors, and post-production (and
not on-location) sound synchronization. Thus, as Bondanella (2006, pp. 32-33) puts it,
rather than looking at the neo-realist movement in terms of a uniform coda that it
produced, one needs to understand it not so much as a cinematic style but as a “common
aspiration to view Italy without preconceptions and to employ a more honest, ethical but
no less poetic cinematic language in the process.”

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Some of the most notable works associated with this form of cinema include- Rossellini’s
Roma, cittaaperta (Rome, Open City, 1945), Paisà (Paisan 1946), and Germania Aand
Zero (Germany Year Zero, 1947), collectively forming his much acclaimed ‘war-trilogy’;
Visconti’s Ossessione (Obsession, 1942) and La terra trema (The Earth Trembles, 1948),
and De Sica’sSciuscià (Shoeshine, 1946) and Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief,
1948). If the depiction of the seemingly insignificant and ordinary Italian life, along with
an implicit critique of the ‘new’ man of Italian fascism in Obsession heralded a new era
in Italian filmmaking, Rome, Open City took it a step further and earned international
acclaim for its depiction of Italy under German occupation, and Paisan explored the
Allied invasion of Italy even further, augmenting its sufferings in the process,
culminating in an exploration of post-war Berlin in Germany Year Zero. Rather than
understanding this shift towards realism in films in terms of a somewhat magical ability
of Obsession to give birth to the neo-realist genre, it needs to be understood in the wider
context of the changes brought upon by the War: from the destruction of studios to the
bankruptcy of companies, prompting filmmakers to take to the streets to commemorate
the years between 1943-1945, marked by the Allied invasion of Sicily, the fall of
Mussolini, and the fight against the Germans (Nowell-Smith 2012, p. 151). While this
was certainly not novel, as street-shooting was commonplace during the era of silent
films, what was different this time was the turn toward the “aesthetic of the contingent,
the accidental” which, together with a growing disillusionment with the frivolous ‘white
telephone’ films, demanded that reality be depicted as it presented itself (Nowell-Smith
2012, pp. 151-154), and to contribute towards the “moral reconstruction” of the nation
(De Sica cited in Marcus 1986, xiv). Therefore, by planting the “camera in the midst of
real life, in the midst of all that struck our astonished eyes”, these filmmakers sought to
showcase Italy which was hidden for over two decades under Mussolini (De Sica cited in
Marcus 1986, xiv).
However, it was de Sica’sThe Bicycle Thief which came to define the genre. Based on
Luigi Bartolini’s novel of the same name, the film centers on the effects of the War on the
economy of the country, the story explores the trials of a father whose bicycle, upon
which he relies to make a living, was stolen. The search for the bicycle takes him through
the city of Rome, however, the focus is not so much on the picturesque landscape— a
common trope in fascist films to engender a sense of majesty, but on the interactions of
the protagonist Antonio, joined by his son, Bruno, with the police, the trade unionists, and
at a church, amongst others. The film ends with Antonio Ricci attempting to steal a
bicycle himself, caught, admonished, and eventually released for the crime (which is one
of the reasons why it is argued that a more suitable translation for the title of the film is
Bicycle Thieves and not The Bicycle Thief). As is evident from the plot summary, unlike
the subjects of Rossellini which were dramatic precisely on account of the history that
they captured, De Sica, in collaboration with the scriptwriter Zavattini, sought to find
drama in the everyday. On the one hand, the bicycle was important in establishing

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Antonio’s role as the provider of the family, a role in which he was reinstated after two
years of being unemployed, on the other, it was important also because it allowed Bruno,
forced into taking up a job as a gas station attendant during the years of his father’s
unemployment, to regain his childhood, with the downfall of the heroic adult protagonist
seen further as a microcosm of the defeated nation and the child as representing its
hopeful future and eventually, a breakdown of the traditional social/familial order. At the
same time, the film highlights the failure of the institutions of the law, the trade union,
and the church in alleviating the sufferings of the protagonist. The police are shown as
being more interested in quashing a political demonstration than in helping retrieve the
property of a civilian; for all its promise of worker welfare, the trade union fails to pay
heed to Antonio; and perhaps the most biting criticism of the film is reserved for the
activities of the church, where the thief’s contact procures a free lunch, such that the
charitable efforts of the church are deemed inadequate to help either the souls or the
bodies of a city ravaged by War, where access to free lunch is made conditional upon
one’s participation in what the film showcases as a dehumanizing “assembly chain
operation” of shaving and soul-searching by the church (Marcus 1986, pp. 64-65; Ruberto
and Wilson 2007, p. 16). The film also effectively establishes that the sufferings
undergone by the family were not unique but a part of universal impoverishment that had
engulfed Italy, thereby accounting for the actions of the thief who was also struggling
under similarly dire conditions that had precluded, of course, the bourgeoisie.
Fundamentally, the film explores the catch-22 of capitalism: the protagonist must be rich
enough to own a bicycle to perform a job that could make them enough money to be able
to afford the said bicycle, implying that one must already have a foot in the door of
capitalism to be able to aspire for a better, more affluent life (Marcus 1986, p. 67). At the
same time, for Bondanella (2006, p. 35), the film not only highlighted the ineptness of the
extant socio-economic system but also pointed out that even revolutions could not
alleviate “solitude, loneliness, and individual alienation”. Indeed, between the three years
that separate Rome, Open City, and The Bicycle Thief, the erstwhile optimism of the
former, an expectation of the reconciliation between Marxist and Catholic ideals as a
vision for the future, gave way to the “historic disappointment” expounded by De Sica
and Zavattini, where the heroism and solidarity of partisan struggle gave way to the anger
of a population that grappled with shortages, both material and spiritual (Marcus 1986,
pp. 72-75).
As one may imagine, the anti-establishment stance adopted by these films did not go over
well with the authorities who resorted to censorship as well as restricting the exports of
these films to foreign markets: while Paisan and The Earth Trembles were deemed ‘anti-
national’, The Bicycle Thief was attacked in the newspapers for its critique of Catholic
charities, and the grim depiction of the Roman prisons in Shoeshine ensured that filming
privileges at penitentiaries would be revoked for any future filmmaker (Marcus 1986, pp.
26-27). While several of these films went on to enjoy global recognition, between 1945-

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1954, during the heyday of the genre, only 10% of the films produced could be classified
as neo-realist, thereby attesting to the limited popularity of these films within Italy, and
with the economic stabilization in the following decades, the filmmakers turned to cater
to the demands of escapist, entertaining cinema instead. However, by focusing on groups
hitherto excluded from fascist interpretations of the nation- the poor and the working
classes, and with their depiction of systemic issues plaguing the country, the cultural,
regional, and class-based differences and discrimination that existed within the nation-
state, neo-realist films helped exposed the fallacies of Italian unity under the fascist state,
presenting a popular critique of its homogenizing vision, and offered a new vision for
national regeneration, defined by “class consciousness, cultural heterogeneity, and
regional complementation in a postwar environment characterized by the widespread
reconstruction of the nation’s politics, economy, and culture” (Piepergerdes 2007, p.
233). Moreover, Italian neo-realism had a significant impact on cinematic traditions
across the world, and we shall now turn our attention to how it was adapted and adopted
by two countries, namely France and India, where it helped herald a new era in cinema.

Box 1
● Roberto Rossellini (1906-1977): Rossellini started his career as an assistant director
and attained recognition for his various trilogies. While his ‘fascist trilogy’ served as
propaganda films for the government, with the fall of Mussolini, he could turn his
attention to his anti-fascist and neo-realist films, the first of which was Rome, Open
City, establishing him as one of the most prominent directors of the neo-realist film
movement.

● Vittorio De Sica (1901-1974): Starting his career as a child actor, De Sica went on to
emerge as the “top star of Italian sentimental comedy” films, starring in about 150
films in total, and directing around 30 films over the years. Morandini (1996, p. 366)
divided his career into four phases: in the preparatory phase (1940-1944), he began to
collaborate with the writer Zavattini; the creative phase (1946-1952), which saw the
production of films such as Shoeshine, The Bicycle Thief, and Umberto D (1952);
followed by a period of compromise (1953-65), and that of decline (1966-74).

1.2.1 Check Your Progress Exercise 1

1. Which one of the following directors is closely associated with Italian neo-
realism?
i) Steven Spielberg
ii) Raj Kapoor
iii) AndrèBazin
iv) Roberto Rossellini

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2. The scriptwriter of the film, The Bicycle Thief, was:
i) Luchino Visconti
ii) Mario Monicelli
iii) Cesare Zavattini
iv) Vittorio De Sica
3. The film, The Bicycle Thief, was based on the novel by:
i) Luigi Bartolini
ii) Umberto Eco
iii) Giovanni Verga
iv) Alberto Moravia

1.3 France
As Jill Forbes (2000) succinctly puts it, the history of cinema in France during the 1950s-
60s was marked by three crucial moments. The first was the Blum-Byrnes Agreement of
1946, which, as a means of war reparations, ensured that American films flooded the
French market. This led to widespread protests by the local filmmakers and technicians
who demanded that the wartime measures that were designed to protect domestic cinema
from foreign competition prevail and also demanded greater financial assistance from the
state to aid the works of local filmmakers. Additionally, a treaty was signed with Italy
wherein both countries were to pool their resources to co-produce films, benefitting
filmmakers such as Rossellini in Italy and Jean-Pierre Melville and Max Ophuls in
France. Simultaneously, post-war France also emerged as a space where popular interest
in films was confounded with nearly academic rigor. Together with the cinè-clubs that
soon mushroomed throughout France for film screenings, the film journal Cahier du
Cinèma, co-edited by AndrèBazin, and Henri Langlois’ French Cinematheque, it was
ensured that an atmosphere for serious film study could exist in the 1950s. Consequently,
the ‘tradition of quality’, seen as melodramatic, theatrical, and unimaginative adaptations
of literary works for celluloid, the hallmark of the films in the pre-war era, came to be
intensely criticized. Along with a critique of the older cinema, Italian neo-realism gained
popularity in the region,a significant role in which was played by André Bazin, a film
critic who also headed the film division of the Work and Culture bureau in Paris, which
involved organizing screenings of films and leading discussions on the same with the
audience. Bazin hailed neo-realism for its revolutionary language of cinema and working
as he did in the context of the French experience of the War, fascism, as well as the
ramifications of the Nazi Holocaust and the Cold War, he offered a more idealist
interpretation of neo-realism. For him, the purpose of cinema was to capture a “fragment

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of concrete reality” (Bazin 1971, p. 37, 21), ambiguous and layered as it may well be, and
the Italian neo-realist earned additional praise from him for their fundamental humanism.
He is further credited with formalizing some of the traits of neo-realist cinema, especially
in the context of the works of Rossellini whose works had a significant impact on the
French cinema of the 1960s, such that certain cinematic styles, viz. The use of long takes,
rejection of close-up shots, and elliptical narratives, came to be definitively associated
with neo-realist style (Monticelli 2000, p. 73). The aesthetics of neo-realism were thus
theorized, adopted, and modified in France through what was to become the New Wave
cinema, wherein directors such as François Truffaut called for a new style of filmmaking
which was to make room for the director’s personal expressions and preoccupations, who
was now to be deemed as the ‘author’ of the film.
The Novelle Vague, or the New Wave, as the movement came to be known, thus referred
to a group of directors, including Truffaut (Les 400 coups/The 400 Blows, 1959), Jean-
Luc Godard (A bout de souffle/Breathless, 1960), Claude Chabrol(Le beau
Serge/Handsome Serge, 1958; Le Cousins/The Cousins, 1959), Jacques Rivette (Paris
nous appartient/Paris is Ours, 1961), and Èric Rohmer (Le signe de lion/The Sign of Leo,
1962), all of whom had been closely associated with Bazin’sCahier. It followed on the
heels of Italian neo-realism and shared several of its characteristics, including, context
(both countries faced unprecedented socio-economic and political crises), style (defined
by their natural and realistic forms), technology (made use of portable cameras instead of
relying upon studios) and a plot that focused on marginalized characters (Eades 2012, p.
103). In terms of stylistic techniques too, the New Wave filmmakers borrowed from the
Italian neo-realist’s documentary-style filming, the use of non-professional actors, and
location shooting. Moreover, the filmmakers were unified further in their approach
toward filmmaking wherein the clear divisions between producer, director, actor, writer,
etc. became much fuzzier. However, if the Italian filmmakers chose to depict the crisis of
their world order through the eyes of the young and innocent (a la The Bicycle Thief), the
new generation of French filmmakers, themselves young professionals, “directly engaged
in the reassessment of values, structures, and institutions challenged by World War II,
decolonization, and the failure of the Fourth Republic” (Eades 2012, p. 107).
Additionally, rather than deriding Hollywood, the French New Wave auteurs looked up to
their concept of mise enscène (setting the ‘stage’) as key to expressing their personal
vision onscreen. Created by young filmmakers, the films of the New Wave were
extremely popular among the French youth who took to these films for their new stories
and lesser-known actors and ensured that the film industry could attain greater stability
and popularity over the next decade (Forbes 2000; Neupert 2007). Although these films
were heavily criticized for their lack of ‘political engagement’, a closer reading of the
films reveals a sustained engagement with the brutality of the War both directly and
tangentially. On the one hand, the transgenerational empathy and compassion of The
Bicycle Thief were now replaced with open rebellion against the older world order,

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exemplified in the figure of the family patriarch- a salient commentary on the
compromises made by the older generation in the course of the War, and on the other
hand, far more explicit criticism of the actions of the state was offered in films such as
Paul Carpita’sLerendez-vous des quais(The Appointment of the Quays, 1953), Godard’s
Le petit soldat(The Little Soldier, 1960), Jacques Rozier’s Adieu Philippine (1960), etc.
that abhorred the Algerian war (1954-62) as well as the subsequent restrictions on
freedom of expression; the depiction of ‘poverty’ in these films was seen symptomatic of
not so much a shortage of resources per se but that the youth could not access these
resources which remained controlled by the elders, and they challenged the values and
institutions that were held dear in pre-war France, along with a simultaneous assertion of
the agency of the young and their right to visualize and build a new society (Eades 2012,
pp. 106-107, 114, 118).
With the revolt of May 1968, the third defining moment in the cinematic history of this
period, a divergence between the “aesthetic iconoclasm” of the New Wave and the
political radicalism of the filmmakers could be made palpable (Forbes 2000, p. 80). Much
like their Italian counterparts, the narrative of these films centered on the male
protagonist, with women increasingly reduced to the identity of a ‘sex bomb’, a trope
which came to be criticized in the aftermath of the revolt and with the rise of the feminist
movement, gender and race became matters of political concern, and called for
fundamental changes in the films of the genre.

Box 2
Agnès Varda (1928-2019): One of the few women filmmakers in 1950s France, Varda
emerged as a significant precursor of the practices that were to become associated with the
New Wave. Her first film, La Point Courte (1955), tells the story of a young couple set in the
context of a small fishing village and was hailed for its parallels with Italian neo-realism, given
its on-location shoots, amateur actors, and the story itself which juxtaposed the marital crisis of
a couple from Paris with the lives and problems that faced the working-classes in the village.

1.3.1 Check Your Progress Exercise 2

1. The literary theorist chiefly associated with the French New Wave is:
i) AndrèBazin
ii) Rousseau
iii) Cesare Zavattini
iv) Jean-Paul Sartre

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2. One of the most notable women filmmakers of mid-20th C France was:
i) Ingrid Bergman
ii) Brigitte Bardot
iii) Marilyn Monroe
iv) Agnès Varda
3. A notable example of the French New Wave cinema, The 400 Blows, was a film
directed by:
i) Luchino Visconti
ii) François Truffaut
iii) AndrèBazin
iv) Èric Rohmer

1.4 India

Certain parallels can be drawn between the Italian neo-realist reconstruction of the nation
in the context of the War, as well as post-independence India as the political climate in
both nations prompted a shift towards humanist realism to help integrate disparate groups
and to infuse a sense of optimism through the nation, the zeal of which was to fade away
over the next couple of years. Moreover, if the Italians looked to novelists such as
Giovanni Verga to draw inspiration, Indian filmmakers looked at novels from the late
19th-early 20th C India for their films. Several Indian writers organized themselves as the
Progressive Writers’ Association to envision a socialist nation and with the formation of
the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) in 1943, a discernible shift could be seen
in films with a greater emphasis on a realist depiction of contemporary history. Defined
as the decade was with events such as the Quit India movement, the Bengal Famine of
1943, and the Partition, the rampant violence, suffering, and grief in the wake of these
events further necessitated a shift from the spectacle of commercial Bombay films to a
realist style. Thus, we have films such as Dhartike Lal (dir. K.A. Abbas, 1946) which
showcased the travails of a poor peasant family during the Bengal Famine, Chinnamul
(Uprooted, dir. Nemai Ghosh, 1950), which highlighted the experiences of peasants who,
in the aftermath of the Partition, move to Calcutta as refugees, which were shot
documentary style and anticipated the neorealist style of filmmaking (Biswas 2007, pp.
75 -82). By the time neo-realism arrived in India, the movement was already in crisis in
Italy. Nevertheless, films such as The Bicycle Thief, Rome, Open City, and Miracle in
Milan received an overwhelming response at their screenings at the Indian International
Film Festival in 1949, casting quite an impression on would-be filmmakers such as
RitwikGhatak, Mrinal Sen, and one who went on to become the most recognizable Indian

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name in international cinema, Satyajit Ray. Ray saw The Bicycle Thief as the template for
all works to be made in India and as we shall see in the next chapter, saw it as an
inspiration for his PatherPanchali (Song of the Road, 1955), complete with on-location
instead of studio shoots, the use of amateur actors, and a universal, humanist theme that
could transcend linguistic and geographical boundaries.
On the other hand, the interaction with neo-realism did not leave mainstream Bombay
cinema untouched, either. It attempted to navigate the demands of realism while retaining
its star-and-studio-based production system, exemplified in films like Footpath (dir. Zia
Sarhady, 1953) which represented this hybrid cinema: replete with song and dance
sequences, known actors such as Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari, as well as shot within
studio sets, the film was nevertheless publicized for its realism as the story dealt with the
transformation of a writer-journalist into a criminal as his former profession failed to
sustain himself. Apart from the subject itself, the film also incorporated certain visual
elements as well as sounds from the everyday to lend credibility to their claims of
realism, including sounds of men soaping themselves while taking a bath from the
common faucets in the street! (Majumdar 2012, pp. 187- 189). Additionally, the calls for
realistic cinema also pushed the limits of what could be shown on screen and allowed for
greater liberties that could be undertaken, particularly when it came to depicting the body
of a woman (viz. Awara, Footpath), such that realism and not necessarily morality could
be used as the benchmark against which films of this genre could be assessed (Majumdar
2012, pp. 188-189).
It is also important to note that the wartime crisis had affected Indian studios as well and
led to the rise of independent producers who could increasingly experiment with realist
styles, often blending realism with idealism. Thus, between the studio-backed Bombay
films and the state-sponsored films of Ray, we have the independent filmmaker Bimal
Roy’s Do Bigha Zamin (1953), which combined what had become the pre-requisite for
neo-realist films- on-location shoots along with the use of lesser-known actors, with folk
music-inspired songs. The film offered a grim insight into the rural agricultural landscape
which was ravaged by an exploitative feudal-capitalist nexus, where the protagonists
must move to the city to earn money to free their land from the village usurer, undergo
immense hardships of a ruthless, capitalist, exploitative city, only to return to their village
penniless and ousted from their literal do bigha zamin. For Majumdar (2012, p. 185), the
film echoes The Bicycle Thief even more than PatherPanchali, from the narrative
similarities wherein both the male leads lose money upon arriving in the city, to its
utilization of the urban soundscape (viz. sounds of cars honking, shouts of a hawker, etc.)
to highlight a sense of claustrophobia and confusion.
Thus, the adoption and adaptation of Italian neo-realism in other countries, including
India, does not need to be understood solely in terms of “influence”. As we have noted
above, cinematic, and socio-political trends in India had anticipated a shift towards a

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more realist style of filmmaking, without necessarily understanding the impact of neo-
realism in terms of its “influence”. While a few films such as The Bicycle Thief, became
synonymous with Italian neo-realism in India, and others such as Shoeshine directly
inspired films such as Boot Polish (dir. Prakash Arora, 1954), the hallmarks of neo-
realism, from the use of outdoor settings to non-professional actors to lend credibility to
their films, were adopted by both what were to become the progenitors of ‘art cinema’ in
India and adapted by more mainstream directors who combined neo-realism with
Hollywood, a trend exemplified in the works of Raj Kapoor (Majumdar 2012).
1.4.1 Check Your Progress Exercise 3
1. In India, Italian neo-realism is most closely associated with which of the
following directors?
i) Satyajit Ray
ii) ShyamBenegal
iii) Mehboob Khan
iv) Guru Dutt
2. Do Bigha Zamin, said to be one of the earliest examples of Indian adaptations of
neo-realism was directed by:
i) K.A. Abbas
ii) Bimal Roy
iii) Fatima Begum
iv) RitwikGhatak
3. Which of the following films became almost synonymous with Italian neo-realism
in India?
i) The Sign of Leo
ii) Towards the Light
iii) The 400 Blows
iv) The Bicycle Thief

1.5 Summary

Neo-realism in cinema emerged as a means of cultural expression of a particular

historical moment and served to address the socio-political, economic, moral, and
ideological repercussions of the War. Hailed as a response to the two decades of fascist
rule and to engineer national reconstruction after the War, neo-realism in Italy

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represented not so much a moment of rupture with the history of cinema in fascist Italy
but a return to a realism that predated post-war cinema, now combined with a focus on
the everyday and the mundane. It was political in the sense that it represented an
ideological reaction to fascism and censorship during prewar cinema; aesthetically, it saw
a resurgence of realist Italian literature, such as the works of Verga which centered on
social problems; and given the high costs of studio-based productions as well as the sheer
unavailability of studios in the post-war economy, it turned to a documentary-style shoot
undertaken outside the studios and in natural light for an economic solution (Cardullo
2011, p. 20). While Italian neo-realism was interpreted differently by different
filmmakers, as Piepergerdes (2007, pp. 245-246) argues, the greatest unifying symbol for
these films was the representation of poverty and destitution in the country, and it was the
endemic nature of poverty that was to serve as a means to break down the extant regional,
cultural, and social barriers and serve as the basis for a new concept of national unity.
Even though neo-realism enjoyed limited success in Italy, its exploration of rampant
unemployment, poverty, and a spiritual/moral crisis of society, along with its
documentary-style narration, was soon adopted and adapted across the globe, from Asia
to Africa to South America, using cinema to participate in and/or criticize the respective
nation-building projects.

1.6 Glossary
● Mise-en-scène: A French term borrowed from theatre, mise-en-scène translates
into “putting on stage”. In film production, it refers to all the elements- actors,
props, costumes, lighting, etc. that form a shot and is seen as integral to eliciting
an emotional response from the audience.
● Elliptical narrative: A form of storytelling where certain portions of the
sequence of an event are omitted, allowing the viewer to fill in the gaps.

1.7 Answer to Check Your Progress Exercises

Answer to Check Your Progress Exercises 1

Answers
1. (iv) Roberto Rossellini
2. (iii) Cesare Zavattini
3. (i) Luigi Bartolini
Answer to Check Your Progress Exercises 2
Answers
1. (i) AndrèBazin

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 2. (iv) Agnès Varda
3. (ii) François Truffaut
Answer to Check Your Progress Exercises 3
Answers
1. (i) Satyajit Ray
2. (ii) Bimal Roy
3. (iv) The Bicycle Thief

1.8 Self-Assessment Questions

A. Write a short note on:

i) The Bicycle Thief
ii) Neo-realism films in India
iii) French New Wave cinema
iv) Italian neo-realist films
Answers
i) See Section 1.2
ii) See Section 1.4
iii) See Section 1.3
iv) See Sections 1.2
B. Long-form Questions:
1. How did cinema aid the project of nation-building after the Second World
War? Explain with special reference to Italian neo-realist films.
2. Discuss the role of the neo-realist movement in film history with special
reference to The Bicycle Thief.
3. How did Italian neo-realism influence the language of cinema outside of
Italy?
4. Cinema in the mid-20th century emerged as a significant exemplar of
contemporary culture, society, and politics. Explain.

1.9 References
● Bazin, Andre. (1971). What is Cinema? Vol. II. (Hugh Gray, Trans.). USA:
University of California Press.

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● Biswas, Moinak. (2007). In the Mirror of an Alternative Globalism: The
Neorealist Encounter in India. In Laura E. Ruberto and Kristi M. Wilson (Eds.),
Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema, pp. 72- 90. USA: Wayne University
Press.
● Bondanella, Peter. (2006). Italian Neorealism. In Linda Badley, R. Barton Palmer,
and Steven Jay Schneider (Eds.), Traditions in World Cinema, pp. 29-40. USA:
Rutgers University Press.
● Cardullo, Bert (Ed.). (2011). André Bazin and Italian Neorealism. United
Kingdom: Bloomsbury Academic.
● Eades, Caroline. (2012). Neorealism: Another “Cinèma de Papa” for the French
New Wave? In Saverio Giovacchini and Robert Sklar (Eds.), Global Neorealism:
The Transnational History of a Film Style, pp. 103-124. USA: University Press of
Mississippi.
● Forbes, Jill. (2000). The French Nouvelle Vague. In John Hill and Pamela Church
Gibson (Eds.), World Cinema: Critical Approaches, pp. 77-81. New York:
Oxford University Press.
● Giovacchini, Saverio, andSklar, Robert. (Eds.). (2012). Global Neorealism: The
Transnational History of a Film Style. USA: University Press of Mississippi.
● Majumdar, Neepa. (2012). Importing Neorealism, Exporting Cinema. In Saverio
Giovacchini and Robert Sklar (Eds.), Global Neorealism: The Transnational
History of a Film Style, pp. 178-193. USA: University Press of Mississippi.
● Marcus, Millicent Joy. (1986). Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism. USA:
Princeton University Press.
● Monticelli, Simona. (2000). Italian Post-War Cinema and Neo-Realism. In John
Hill and Pamela Church Gibson (Eds.), World Cinema: Critical Approaches,
pp.71-76. New York: Oxford University Press.
● Morandini, Morando. (1996). Italy from Fascism to Neo-Realism. In Geoffrey
Nowell-Smith (Ed.), The Oxford History of World Cinema, pp. 353-360. United
Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
● Neupert, Richard. (2006). The French New Wave. In Linda Badley, R. Barton
Palmer, and Steven Jay Schneider (Eds.), Traditions in World Cinema, pp. 41-51.
USA: Rutgers University Press.
● Neupert, Richard. (2007). A History of the French New Wave. USA: University of
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● Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. (Ed.). (1996). The Oxford History of World Cinema.
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Chris Perriam, and Rajinder Dudrah (Eds.), Theorizing World Cinema, pp. 147-
160. London: I.B. Tauris.
● Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. (2017). The History of Cinema: A Very Short
Introduction. UK: Oxford University Press.
● Piepergerdes, Brent. J. (2007). Re-envisioning the Nation: Film Neorealism and
the Postwar Italian Condition. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical
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Global Cinema. USA: Wayne University Press.

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 2. CINEMATIC, CULTURAL, AND SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SATYAJIT
RAY FILMS
Sanchita Srivastava
Outline

2.0 Learning Objectives

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Early Life
2.3 The Aesthetics of Ray’s Cinema
2.3.1 Check Your Progress Exercise 1
2.4 Culture and Society in the Early Films of Ray
2.4.1 Check Your Progress Exercise 2
2.5 Culture and Society in the Later Films of Ray
2.5.1 Check Your Progress Exercise 3
2.6 Summary
2.7 Answers to Check your Progress
2.8 Self-Assessment Questions
2.9 References
2.10 Additional Resources
2.0 Learning Objectives
Upon the completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
● Develop an understanding of the cinematic aesthetics of Satyajit Ray.
● Appreciate the socio-cultural significance of his films.
2.1 Introduction
Through his career spanning over four decades, Satyajit Ray has cemented his reputation
as one of India’s most famous cinematic auteurs. Even though others such as Raj Kapoor
had made a mark on the international film circuit, Ray is widely held as the “first Indian
film-maker to make a profound impact internationally” (Gooptu 2011, 140). Indeed, the
Honorary Oscar awarded to him in 1991 recognized his “rare mastery of the art of motion
pictures, and of his profound humanitarian outlook, which has had an indelible influence
on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world” (Academy Awards Acceptance
Speech Database, 1991). Despite their international appeal, Ray’s films were firmly
rooted in the Indian/Bengali socio-cultural milieu and covered over a hundred years of
Indian history, from the 1830s to the British wartime famine of 1943 to a critique of
postcolonial India. While an in-depth analysis of the entire oeuvre of Ray, spread across
decades would be beyond the scope of this lesson, through a careful examination of his

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select works, we shall explore the extant culture and society, through the cinematic lens
of Ray.
2.2 Early Life
Born in Calcutta in 1921 to a liberal-reformist Brahmo Samaj family, Ray’s grandfather
was a noted writer and publisher, Upendra Kishore Ray Choudhury, who inter alia, had
created the fictional characters of Goopy and Bagha for the children’s magazine,
Sandesh, which were to become the protagonists of Ray’s acclaimed children’s film,
Goopy GyneBaghaByne (The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha, 1968). Ray’s father,
Sukumar, carried on the literary tradition and established himself as a popular satirist and
writer of limericks and nonsense rhymes. As Sanyal (2022, 3) surmised, “The bhadralok
class to which Ray belonged was a Western educated elite whose concerns were
primarily democracy, nationalism, social equality, and the emancipation of women, but
they were also brought up on world literature which favored realism and mimesis
(representing real life in art) over political rhetoric.”
His formative years were spent at the Presidency College where he was exposed to
Western and urban cultural traditions, post which, he went on to pursue art education at
Tagore’s Shantiniketan, wherein he would develop a greater understanding of Indian
literature and arts, and it was this amalgam of Indian as well as Western creative
expressions that were to form the hallmark of his films. After his stint at Shantiniketan,
Ray went back to Calcutta to work at a British advertising agency, where he drew
illustrations for books, including what was to be the subject of his first film,
Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s PatherPanchali. At the same time, his growing
interest in films, first articulated through writing reviews and essays for film publications,
prompted him to co-found the Calcutta Film Society which showcased notable works
from international cinema in India. The Society also served as a meeting place for several
filmmakers, including the French director, Jean Renoir who was often accompanied by
Ray for his location-hunting, allowing the latter to “help Ray discover Bengal” (Barnouw
1981, 74). Renoir encouraged Ray’s cinematic pursuits by urging filmmakers to focus on
Indian realities instead of drawing upon Hollywood. And the success of Vittorio de
Sica’sThe Bicycle Thief (1948), not only taught him the nuances of neo-realism but
offered Ray a model of filmmaking that was to bring him closer to his people, his
homeland and the world.
2.3 The Aesthetics of Ray’s Cinema
Given that Ray only ever directed one movie in Hindiand the films that he made in
Bengali focused upon the travails of the westernized Bengali middle class, his status as
one of the most famous filmmakers from India is quite intriguing, as his films did not
cater to the demands of the popular cinema and could not, therefore, win over the national
audience, and they remained firmly rooted in a local culture that was at best ‘exotic’ and
at worst ‘barbaric’ to the foreign eye. Moreover, his films were shot in black-and-white,
as opposed to the vibrant colors of the commercial Indian films and were picturized
without the song and dance sequences that remain integral to popular Indian cinema.
What then, explains the universal popularity of the works of Ray?

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As Omar Ahmed (2015, pp. 91-92) puts it, it was the combination of his humanist agenda
and a minimalist aesthetic approach that made him a favorite at international film
festivals. Simply put, ‘aesthetics’ refer to the look and style of a film. Ray himself
identified three elements that constituted the aesthetic of his movies: contrast, rhythm,
and pace. Contrast referred to the visual as well as emotional aspects of a film, while
rhythm and pace were said to help move the narrative organically, creating a harmonious
unit (Ray cited in Ahmed 2015, 91). Together, they contributed towards the ‘realist
aesthetics’ of his films, inspired, as mentioned previously, by the Italian neo-realist
filmmakers, and were marked by a “faithfulness to everyday life”, on-location shoots
instead of a heavy reliance upon studios, use of natural light, and non-professional actors
(Bazin 1971, pp. 25-29). Indeed, he considered The Bicycle Thief as the “ideal film for
the Indian filmmaker to study” as it was a return to the fundamentals of cinema, whose
simplicity, drama and universal appeal were derived from life itself (Ray cited in Bertocci
1984, 20). The portrayal of poverty, unemployment and injustice in the film, centered
upon a man, a father who was meant to be the provider for his family and failed
repeatedly to do so (a theme that Ray would revisit in his Apur Sansar), appealed to a
man who had imbibed the literary and historical traditions of the Bengali Renaissance, its
concern with the condition of the human and the pathos of their adversities, and its
humanism (Bertocci 1984, 20).
Thus, even though his films focus on crucial historical junctures, such as the Swadeshi
movement (GhareBaire, 1948), the end of the feudal society (Jalsaghar/The Music
Room, 1958), and the Naxalite movement (Pratidwandi, 1970), the themes that he
addressed: poverty, unemployment, gender, family and famine were relatable to people
across geographical boundaries. For, a “truthful portrait of any human group would
ultimately demonstrate the fundamental humanity of the subjects, a humanity that would
bear some meaning for all human beings, across national and cultural boundaries”
(Sengoopta 1993, 251). It is also prudent to note that his emphasis on humanism does not
necessarily translate into a romanticization of poverty nor does it imply that his films
were ‘apolitical’: charges that have often been levied against Ray. For SuranjanGanguly
(2000, 6), Ray’s films made between 1955 to till Nehru’s death in 1964, can be seen as an
endorsement of the Nehruvian vision for the nation, characterized by economic and social
reconfiguration. Even though the films depicted the authentic localism of Bengal, coming
as they did during the early decades of Indian independence, they simultaneously
addressed the citizens of the nation and explored what it meant to be modern. Although
the Apu Trilogy, comprising some of his most famous films, lacked the typical symbols
of Nehruvian modernity, such as dams, that were on display in another highly celebrated
film, Mother India (1957), the cosmopolitan liberalism associated with Nehru found a
way into Ray’s films, located as the films were in an India which was changed by
education, the railroads and rural to urban migrations. Thus, if education is upheld as a
value in Aparajito(The Unvanquished, 1956), the emancipation of women forms the
theme of Mahanagar (The Big City, 1963) and Charulata(The Lonely Wife, 1964), while
religious orthodoxy is criticized in Devi (The Goddess, 1960). Indeed, as Rajadhyaksha
(1996, pp. 682-683) pointed out, these films were an extension of the Nehruvian nation-
building project, as he reads Ray’s realism as a means to restructure the past to represent
the present, to celebrate the arrival of history in a newly independent India. Similarly,
Barnouw and Krishnaswamy (1980, pp. 234-235) draw attention to his Shatranj

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KeKhiladi (The Chess Players, 1977), his one and only Hindi film, set outside of Bengal,
to highlight Ray’s nuanced handling of the complex, hegemonic power relations that
govern the workings of society. The film was an adaptation of Premchand’s work which
was set against the background of feudal Lucknow of 1856 and focused on the power
tussle between the Nawab of Oudh and the British. True to his style, the film lacked any
heroes or villains, no action-packed climax, and coming as it did on the heels of the
Emergency, it offered a critique of not only colonialism but also the Indira Gandhi
government (Barnouw and Krishnaswamy 1980, 242). Moreover, even though Ray
provided ample space for his characters to articulate their views, a trait which Sengoopta
(2011, pp. 10-11) has identified as the reason behind his reputation as a ‘humanist’
wherein everyone has their reasons to act and think the way that they did, he further
points out that their articulations were contested within the narrative, such that even if his
films can be deemed as “all-embracing”, they were not “all-forgiving”.
Without discounting the impact of neo-realism on the works of Ray, SharmishtaGooptu
has emphasized the need to place his films within the Bengali film traditions, for, even if
Ray learned what to do and what not to do from Hollywood films, the Italian neo-realists,
and the works of his peers such as Renoir, he was nonetheless “moving along a
recognizable trajectory of the Bengali film” (Gooptu 2011, 150; Sengoopta 1993, 252).
Not only does she identifies Bimal Roy’s UdayerPathe as a significant precursor to Ray’s
PatherPanchali, in terms of its usage of amateur actors as well as realist ethos, but further
asserts that while Ray must certainly be credited for using a language of cinema that
ensured that his films, often adaptations of extant literary works, from that of
Bhibutibhushan Chattopadhyay to Rabindranath Tagore, could be accessed even by those
who were not familiar with the literature itself, the adaptations of literary works for the
celluloid, however, was a phenomenon that could be traced as far back as the New
Theatres. Thus, even though his cinema could transcend the cultural specificities of the
local, Bengaliness and the ‘Bengali-nation’, remained intrinsic to his films. For, certain
prominent signifiers of his films poignantly evoked the local, as seen in shots of trams or
the Dalhousie Square and carried special meanings for and catered to a chiefly Bengali
audience. For instance, even though Ray’s ParashPathar (1958), a fantastical film
centered on a poor Bengali clerk’s tryst with the Philosopher’s Stone, which could turn
metal to gold, does not necessarily tell a ‘unique’ story, its nuanced depiction of the city
life in Calcutta and its societal landscape could be best appreciated by a Bengali audience
(Gooptu 2011, 84; pp. 139-169). In a similar vein, Chapman (2003, pp. 341-343) cautions
against drawing too stringent a distinction between the Hindi melodrama films and those
of Ray’s, for not only were there thematic overlaps between the two, as both addressed
the tumultuous relationship between tradition and modernity, even if they adopted
different styles to get their point across, that is, the understated realism of Ray versus the
conventional trappings of the genre of melodrama.
Concerned with the intimate drama of the everyday, Ray’s films can, therefore, be rightly
described as understated and realistic, both aesthetically and psychologically. And it was
this ability to render the everyday as profound, and to depict the universality of
experience under capitalism that contributed to the widespread popularity of his works
(Ganguly 2010, 180; Chapman 2003, 340). While his films shared the pessimism of neo-

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realism, and tragedy remained a feature of his movies, as we shall see in the subsequent
sections, they did not all end in despair and hopelessness.
2.3.1 Check Your Progress Exercise 1
1. The works of which of the following filmmakers were said to have had a profound
impact on Satyajit Ray:
i) Vittorio de Sica
ii) Mehboob Khan
iii) Raj Kapoor
iv) Francis Coppola
2. Satyajit Ray’s films were greatly influenced by which of the following
movements?
i) Expressionism
ii) Neo-realism
iii) Surrealism
iv) Avant-garde
3. Which of the following aspects of Ray’s films ensured that they could cut across
regional and linguistic boundaries?
i) Nationalism
ii) Radicalism
iii) Humanism
iv) Socialism
2.4 Culture and Society in the Early Films of Ray
In typical neorealist tradition, Ray sought the usage of on-location shooting as well as
amateur actors, for his screen adaptation of PatherPanchali (1955). A film without an
entourage of stars, without the song and dance sequences that continue to characterize
Bombay films, a film that was written, directed, and photographed by ‘newcomers’,
unsurprisingly found it difficult to find producers and distributors. Eventually, the
government of West Bengal took the hitherto unprecedented decision of backing the
movie. While the film was successful within the contours of Bengal, it had limited pan-
India success, for the film was “so completely of Bengal” that any attempts to remake it
in other Indian languages were deemed futile (Barnouw and Krishnaswamy 1980, 227).
The film explored the trials and tribulations faced by a family, at the heart of which was a
young boy, Apu, their lives marked by everyday povertyand their humiliation at the
hands of their wealthy neighbors. While his replacement of the celebration of the land, a
theme integral to the source material, with the grim realities of the post-independence
Bengal was interpreted as him “peddling Indian poverty” instead of focusing on modern
India, it is possible to see his first cinematic venture as situated both within the Nehruvian

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ideal that held India as being “most truly national when it was international” and within
the Italian neo-realist cinema and its project of nationhood, as he utilized both to fashion
a language of cinema that could be used to express the reality of India (Gooptu 2011,
169; Sanyal 2022, pp. 7-8).For, the protagonist could be seen as emblematic of a new
nation, seen in his rejection of the old ways of life (that of priesthood) to pursue a college
education and to migrate to the city to build a new life for himself. Moreover, the film
shared another aspect of Italian neo-realism, by not simply representing poverty but also
analyzing it, particularly at the familial and individual levels, thereby infusing the
everyday with the dramatic (Majumdar 2005, pp. 519-521). For instance, the scenes
centered around the theft of guava from the orchard of their wealthy relatives by Apu’s
sister, Durga, double up as a commentary on the impoverished landed gentry in rural
India, as the orchard originally belonged to Durga’s family. The theme of wealth
continues to underpin societal analysis in the film, especially in scenes involving a train,
food, or the lack thereof, thereby invoking memories of the Bengal famine of 1943, and
the widowed, elderly aunt of the children, whose status in the family was deemed below
that of animals (Majumdar 2005, pp. 522-525). Given its grim depiction of poverty, it is
ironic that PatherPanchali received support from the Department of Roads, which legend
has it, thought that the film, whose title translates as the ‘Song of the Road’, was a film
about rural developmentand classified their loan to Ray as one meant for improving the
roads! Nevertheless, the film fell into the criterion identified by the government regarding
films of a “good standard”- those that espoused universal values and remained true to the
country where they were created (Rajadhyaksha 2016, pp. 83-88) and gained recognition
for highlighting the lives of people in Bengal/India, but also for delineating the
aspirations of the liberal middle class, or the chief participants of Nehru’s new India
(Sanyal 2022, 11). It received a tremendous response during its screening at the Cannes
Film Festival, which helped launch his career, providing Ray with recognition both
nationally and internationally and was followed by two sequels, Aparajito (1956) and
Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959), collectively forming the Apu Trilogy. The
trilogy follows the journey of Apu, as he moves from the Bengali hinterlands to Calcutta,
underpinned by loss, grief, love, and poverty. In her excellent analysis of the subject,
Gooptu (2011, pp. 163-164) has articulated so as to how the trilogy depicted the
“archetypal Bengali boy-turned man, who was inspired by noble thoughts and dreamt of
taking his place among the thinkers of the world… Apu/Soumitra was, in effect, the
antithesis of the middle-class hero that Uttam Kumar embodied – the one that was
ultimately marked out in terms of success, in both life and love. Apu was the contented
dreamer, never quite winning in life, but in that aspect of ‘non-arrival’ he touched the
affective vein of an aspiring Bengali youth.” Through his journey from the village to the
city, Ray highlighted the transition of India, from its colonial past to its present, with all
the hopes and uncertainties for the future. For, the evolution of the new was marked by
the harsher realities of city life as seen in Aparajito, the loss of wonderful, if archaic,
traditions, and a never-ending struggle towards a more hopeful future.
The first phase of his career also saw a sensitive and prolonged engagement with the
‘women’s question’. For Sanyal (2022, pp. 12-13), in addition to the literary influences as
well as the liberal thinking of his grandfather and father, seeing his mother Suprabha
work for hours on end, post the death of her husband, to sustain herself and her child,
influenced his approach when it came to the portrayal of women, as seen in Devi (1960),

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a film set in the 1860s that explored the anguishes of a couple when the wife is
proclaimed as an incarnation of the goddess Kali and the religious hysteria that engulfed
them, and Mahanagar (1963) which addressed the impact of urbanization on a traditional
household, which was disrupted when the protagonist, a young woman, took up a job
against the wishes of her family members (Gokulsing and Dissanayake 1998, 31),
culminating in what has been regarded as one of the finest works of Ray, Charulata
(1964). The film was based on Tagore’s Nastanirh and narrated the story of a housewife,
stifled by tradition in 19th c Bengal, her husband, Bhupati as the enlightened man who
sought to be the agent of his wife’s emancipation and Amal who represented the
emerging Bengal of the 1880s, such that all the characters in the film bear the historical
contradictions of the period that they represent (Misra 1992, 1053; Ganguly 2010, 84).
Described as the “archetypal Ray woman” (Ray quoted in Gupta 1982, 26), Charulata
represents the nabeena (new woman) who navigates the demands of modernity, the
idleness enforced by her upper-class status, the pursuit of her literary and creative
propensities, and a transgressive love, as she realizes that her husband cannot provide her
with the companionship that she needs, thereby drawing attention to the transformation of
the ‘inner sphere’ by modern notions of companionate marriages in arguably irreversible
ways (Ganguly 2010, pp. 84-87). Collectively, all these films addressed what has been
referred to as the ‘new patriarchy’ and explored the impact of modernity on the lives of
women, caught as they were between tradition and modernity, duties and independence.
Thus, in both Charulata and Mahanagar, women emerge as modern subjects, their
modernity highlighted through their education, employment and protest, while
simultaneously drawing attention to those who remained at the peripheries, as seen in
PatherPanchali and Aparajito (Majumdar 2021, pp. 213-214).
In the first ten years of his career, therefore, one can see India in transition, from feudal
decadence to agrarian economy to capitalist modernity. The slow rhythm and evocative
emotional quality of his films, as well as his faith in the human spirit, allowed him to
cement his reputation as one of the finest Indian filmmakers (Rajadhyaksha and
Willemen 1999, pp. 198-199). These films lack a conventional villain, as all humans are
seen as redeemable, and must put in the effort to better themselves and their
circumstances and mapped onto the bodies of the characters are histories of transition,
rationality, development, autonomy, as well as romantic love. In these films, Ray,
therefore, put forth a Nehruvian template for India’s transition from a colony into a
developing nation, wherein the present denoted the site of struggle for the transition into
modernization. While the films have been critiqued for the little attention that they
granted to catastrophic events such as the Partition, as well as the absence of social
markers such as that of caste, the significance of these films to chart historical,
societaland cultural transitions can hardly be contested. They were anticipating a new
democratic, socio-political order wherein the “unmarked citizen-subject” would be the
norm in a regenerated India (Majumdar 2021, 193).
2.4.1 Check Your Progress Exercise 2
1. The first film of the Apu Trilogy was:
i) Aparajito
ii) HirakRajarDeshe

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 iii) Apur Sansar
iv) PatherPanchali
2. The film PatherPanchali was based on the novel by which of the following
authors?
i) Premchand
ii) Sarat Chand Chattopadhyay
iii) Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
iv) Saadat Hasan Manto
3. Nastanirh, the literary work that was adapted into the film Charulata, was written
by:
i) Rabindranath Tagore
ii) Satyajit Ray
iii) Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
iv) Mahasweta Devi
2.5 Culture and Society in the Later Films of Ray
As SuranjanGanguly (2000, 7) remarked, from the end of the 1960s, the optimism and
faith reposed in the Nehruvian ideals made room for cynicism in his films, courtesy of the
rampant corruption and bureaucratic excesses of the Indira Gandhi-led government.
Moreover, the violent Naxal movements that gripped Bengal and the constitution of
Bangladesh only catalyzed the sense of crisis in the region and the nation. Thus, by the
late ‘60s, his films invoked a pointed critique of urban culture (Nayak/The Hero, 1966),
and highlighted an “increasingly irreconcilable split between the rootless urban and the
economically oppressed rural conditions”, as seen in Aranyer Din Ratri(Days and Nights
in the Forest, 1969) and AshaniSanket (Distant Thunder, 1973) (Rajadhyaksha and
Willemen 1999, 198), and shifted their focus to contemporary Calcutta, ravaged by
violence. Apu makes a return as an unemployed graduate Siddhartha, the protagonist of
Pratidwandi(The Adversary, 1970), a film that depicts Ray’s disillusionment with the
Indian nation-state, where majoritarian nationalism is rejected, as is communism, where
the “fruits of independence” had turned sour; while in Seemabaddha(Company Limited,
1971), he explores the corrupt world of the corporate to offer a critique of capitalism as
well as the newly emerging bourgeoisie; and in Jana Aranya (The Middle Man, 1975),
released at the heels of the Emergency, Ray once again, traces the journey of an
unemployed man, Somnath, and his descent into a postcolonial world marked by rampant
corruption and moral decay, represented by way of prostitution, given the protagonist’s
devolution into a literal dalal (middleman/pimp) (Rajadhyaksha 2016, 90; Chakravarty
1993, 270; Sengoopta 2011, pp. 17-20; Misra 1992, 1053). Collectively, these films form
his Calcutta trilogy and represent a break from his earlier films which centered on the
development of characters along a recognizable, hopeful journey into the future, into
modernity and capitalism. Significantly, the protagonist in Pratidwandi leaves the city for
a sleepy, mofussil town, reversing the pattern of migration set forth in the Apu Trilogy.

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Unlike the state sponsorship enjoyed by PatherPanchali, attempts were made to prevent
Seemabaddhafrom being released by the then chief minister of West Bengal, with scenes
that showed a corrupt Congress leader sitting under a portrait of Indira Gandhi and
multiple references to Mao, being deemed as “anti-government and pro-revolution”
(Majumdar 2021, 197). Thus, the Calcutta Trilogy marks a departure from the kind of
optimistic heroism, an inheritance from Gandhi-Nehru-Tagore, which was prevalent in
his earlier films, addressing instead, the anti-humanist, greedy nature of capitalism and a
complete disregard for morality.
All three films are marked by quotidian violence: throwing of bombs, strikes, and
lockdowns are pervasive, as are the crises in infrastructure, from shoddy healthcare to
littered streets to power cuts to overcrowded public transports, imageries, and sounds
come together to bring to life an increasingly claustrophobic city with a glaring class
divide. As Majumdar (2021, pp. 201-205) succinctly puts it, these infrastructural crises
reflected the state’s failure to address the concerns of civil society, busy as it was with
exercising its despotic powers. Indeed, all three films in the Calcutta trilogy contain
extensive job interview scenes, depicting the unrest and anxiety among the youth, the
mind-numbing bureaucratic framework that involves a multitude of paperwork, the
arduous waitand the uncertainties of a system where one must participate for sheer
survival. What is to be noted is that Ray does not attempt to offer causation or a solution
to the situation, confining himself to depicting contemporary culture and society, as it
were. His protagonists do not implode with anger at the injustices that they face every
day, unlike the world of Apu, they are no longer caught in a present that would transition
into a more hopeful future; instead, their present is an inescapable deadlock. Rather than
rebelling against the system, they devote their energies to developing skills to beat the
system at its own game, including, but not limited to pimping themselves out a la
Somnath (Majumdar 2021, pp. 205-207). Another crucial difference that could now be
seen in Ray’s films was the abandonment of the ‘women’s question’, to focus on men.
Majumdar (2021, pp. 213-217) interprets this change as a means to highlight the
deepening crisis of masculinity that engulfed the region in this period. For, the women in
the city trilogy lack the poignant engagement with questions of selfhood and modernity;
they simply serve as the means to highlight the complexities of men, their loss of control
over the family, and a breakdown of the social order. They are neither heroines nor
vamps, nor do they meekly exist within the familial setup and content with producing
children. Instead, they underline how women’s participation outside the confines of the
domestic did not necessarily provide them with the freedoms promised by modernity.
Thus, rather than continuing to focus on the varying definitions of modernity, Ray’s films
now highlighted an India that had failed to deliver on its promises. We, thus, see the
beginning of a new phase of Ray’s career, centered upon the “death of a whole cultural
ethos” (Sengoopta 2011, 17) in urban India. The two decades post-independence had
forayed into a tumultuous present from where it was difficult to figure out a way forward.
The developmental historicity of his earlier films found no place in contemporary society
which was marked by a mounting refugee crisis in the aftermath of the Bangladesh war,
unemployment, fissures within the Indian Left, and mounting Congressional
authoritarianism, the latter criticized in HirakRajarDeshe (The Kingdom of Diamonds,
1980).

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It was only in his last film, Agantuk(The Stranger, 1991), that Ray could put forth an
alternative vision for the future, one that questioned the very meaning of ‘civilization’,
‘science’, and ‘progress’ (Sengoopta 2011, pp. 24-25). Ray developed his short story,
‘Atithi’ written for Sandesh, the children’s magazine, into one dissecting the bourgeois.
While the basic premise of the story centered upon how the lives of an ordinary Bengali
family were upturned by the sudden return of a relative after years of absence, the story
offered a critique of the new Bengali middle class by portraying the so-called
‘primitives’, the members of the Santhal tribe, who had gained the least from the Indian
independence, as the ‘true patriots’, the true representatives of Tagorean values vis-a-vis
the ‘refined’ Bengalis, or the dalals of Delhi, as well as the corrupting nature of modern
civilization itself, the film argues for the need to simplify human needs and to return to
fundamental human values (Sengoopta 2011, pp. 24-25; Dasgupta 2001, Introduction, x).
Far from a celebration of traditional liberalism, as Sengoopta (2009, 22) pointed out, the
film rejects the entire discourse of the Indian nationalist movement. Thus, in a period
where Marxist ideologies were intertwined with the power of the state, his films worked
against the tenet of the end justifying the means, privileging the latter over the former,
and holding Tagore and not Marx as his mentor (Dasgupta 2001, Introduction, xiii-xiv).
2.5.1 Check Your Progress Exercise 3
1. The only Hindi film directed by Satyajit Ray was:
i) Pratidwandi
ii) Shatranj Ke Khiladi
iii) Ganashatru
iv) Agantuk
2. Which of the following films form a part of the Calcutta trilogy by Satyajit Ray?
i) PatherPanchali
ii) Charulata
iii) Jana Aranya
iv) Teen Kanya
3. The last film directed by Satyajit Ray was:
i) Pratidwandi
ii) Devi
iii) Seemabaddha
iv) Agantuk
2.6 Summary
Between Apu and Agantuk, Ray traced the development of the individual onto whom
were charted histories of a nation in transition and earned his position as a pioneering
filmmaker both within and without India. Building upon the neo-realist film movement,

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particularly that of Italian cinema, Ray’s films focused on realist aesthetics to render the
mundane as poignant and evocative, espousing humanist values that could transcend the
barriers of region, language, and culture. Nevertheless, these films remained firmly
rooted in Bengal/India and ensured that their universality drew precisely from their
particularism. While his early films are deemed an extension of the Nehruvian modernity,
one that aimed to bring out socio-economic reformation, and highlighted the possibility
of an emancipatory, progressive future, his films produced in the post-Nehruvian era, as
the above discussion has shown, depict a distinct rupture from the faith in modernities
and their institutions, a departure from the earlier buoyancy and engaged with the
contemporary and the ‘political’ even more intensely. Thus, by the ‘90s, even though the
anti-colonial spirit of his films was retained, the contemporary realities of the modern
nation-state were represented as a means to reconsider notions of modernity. Lastly, when
compared with the works of his peer, another acclaimed director, Mrinal Sen, it becomes
clear that while the latter’s films sought to understand and analyze the issues of poverty,
unemployment, and anger in the Indian youth by contextualizing them within the larger
histories of the left movements across the globe, focusing on an impersonal “system”
where moral choices became irrelevant, Ray’s films were concerned with living in the
milieu and the moral dilemmas faced by an individual (Sanyal 2022, 118; Majumdar
2021, 194), such that the director remained a “chronicler of the times” (Dasgupta 2001,
105).
2.7 Answers to Check your Progress Exercises
Answers to Check Your Progress Exercise 1
1. i) Vittorio de Sica
2. ii) Neo-realism
3. iii) Humanism
Answers to Check Your Progress Exercise 2
1. iv) PatherPanchali
2. iii) Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
3. i) Rabindranath Tagore
Answers to Check Your Progress Exercise 3
1. ii) Shatranj Ke Khiladi
2. iii) Jana Aranya
3. iv) Agantuk
2.8 Self-Assessment Questions
A. Write a short note on:
i) Realist Aesthetics of Satyajit Ray Films
ii) The Apu Trilogy
iii) The ‘Political’ in the films of Satyajit Ray
iv) Women in Satyajit Ray Films

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Answers
i) See Section 2.3
ii) See Section 2.4
iii) See Section 2.5
iv) See Sections 2.4 and 2.5
B. Long-form Questions
1. Discuss the varying notions of modernity and the Bengali/Indian nation in
Indian cinema with special reference to any two films by Satyajit Ray.
2. Discuss the representations of gender in the films of Satyajit Ray.
3. The films made by Satyajit Ray post the death of Nehru not only marked a
new phase in his career but were also increasingly ‘political’. Comment.
4. Elaborate on how the realist aesthetics of Satyajit Ray’s films set them
apart from the more mainstream, popular cinema of Bombay and Madras.
2.9 References
 Academy Awards Acceptance Speech Database.(1991). Academy of Motion
Picture Arts & Sciences. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from
http://aaspeechesdb.oscars.org/link/064-24/
 Ahmed, Omar. (2015). Studying Indian Cinema. UK: Auteur.
 Barnouw, Erik. (1981). Lives of a Bengal Filmmaker: Satyajit Ray of Calcutta.
The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, 38(2), pp. 60–77.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/29781890
 Barnouw, Erik, and Krishnaswamy, S. (1980). Indian Film. United Kingdom:
Columbia University Press.
 Bazin, Andre. (1971). What is Cinema? Vol. II. (Hugh Gray, Trans.). USA:
University of California Press.
 Bertocci, Peter J. (1984). Bengali Cultural Themes in Satyajit Ray’s “The World
of Apu”. Journal of South Asian Literature, 19(1), pp. 15–34.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40872633
 Chakravarty, Sumita S. (1993). National Identity in Indian Popular Cinema:
1947-1987. USA: University of Texas Press.
 Chapman, James. (2003). Cinemas of the World: Film and Society from 1985 to
the Present, pp. 322-353. UK: Reaktion Books.
 Dasgupta, Chidananda. (2001). The Cinema of Satyajit Ray. Delhi: National Book
Trust.
 Ganguly, Keya. (2010). Cinema, Emergence, and The Films of Satyajit Ray.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
 Ganguly, Suranjan. (2000). Satyajit Ray: In Search of the Modern. USA:
Scarecrow Press.

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  Gooptu, Sharmistha. (2011). Bengali Cinema: ‘An Other Nation’. Oxon:
Routledge
 Gokulsing, K. Moti, and Dissanayake, Wimal. (1998). Indian Popular Cinema: A
Narrative of Cultural Change. United Kingdom: Trentham.
 Gupta, Udayan, and Satyajit Ray. (1982). The Politics of Humanism: An
Interview With Satyajit Ray. Cinéaste, Vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 24–29.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41686766
 Majumdar, Neepa. (2005). PatherPanchali: From Neorealism to Melodrama. In
Jeffrey Geiger and R.L. Rutsky (Eds.) Film Analysis: A Norton Reader(pp. 510-
527). New York: Norton.
 Majumdar, Rochona. (2021). Art Cinema and India’s Forgotten Futures: Film
and History in the Postcolony. New York: Columbia University Press.
 Misra, Amaresh. (1992). Satyajit Ray’s Films: Precarious Social-Individual
Balance. Economic and Political Weekly, 27(20/21), pp. 1052–1054.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4397887
 Rajadhyaksha, Ashish. (1996). India: Filming the Nation. In Geoffrey Nowell-
Smith (Ed.), The Oxford History of World Cinema (pp. 678-689). United
Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
 Rajadhyaksha, Ashish. (2016). Indian Cinema: A Very Short Introduction. UK:
Oxford University Press.
 Rajadhyaksha, Ashish, and Paul Willemen. (1999). Encylopaedia of Indian
Cinema. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn.
 Sanyal, Devapriya. (2022). Gendered Modernity and Indian Cinema: The Women
in Satyajit Ray’s Films. Oxon: Routledge.
 Sengoopta, Chandak. (1993). Satyajit Ray: The Plight of the Third-World Artist.
The American Scholar, 62(2), pp. 247–254. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41212100
 Sengoopta, Chandak. (2009). Satyajit Ray: Liberalism and Its Vicissitudes.
Cinéaste, 34(4), 16–22. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41690818
 Sengoopta, Chandak. (2011). “The fruits of independence”: Satyajit Ray, Indian
Nationhood and The Spectre of Empire. South Asian History and Culture 2 (3),
pp. 374-396.
2.10 Additional References
 Seton, Marie. (1971). Portrait of a Director. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press.

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 3. SOCIO-POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JAMES BOND FILMS
Sanchita Srivastava

Outline
3.0 Lesson Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Bond Films and the Cold War
3.2.1 Check Your Progress
3.3 Gender and the Bond Films
3.3.1 Check Your Progress
3.4 Summary
3.5 Glossary
3.6 Self-Assessment Questions
3.7 References
3.0 Learning Objectives
Upon the completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
● Understand the social, political, and cultural significance of James Bond films,
particularly in the context of the Cold War.
● Acknowledge the power of cinema as a means of propaganda, especially in constructing
the political ‘Other’.
● Appreciate the relationship between gender, sexuality, and cinema in the Cold War era.

3.1 Introduction
Britain emerged from the Second World War victorious, albeit in the throes of an economic crisis
and with the threat of the disintegration of the Empire looming large. The 1950s further cemented
Britain’s decline as a world power, and also saw mounting tensions between the Western Bloc
(the UK and the USA) and Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union), along with the escalating threat of
communism. It was against this background that Ian Fleming, a former naval intelligence officer,
drew upon his experiences of the Second World War to create a series of spy novels, and ended
up with a “fictional character unrivalled in modern publishing industry” (Pan Books, cited in
Woollacott and Bennett 1987, 12), that of James Bond. While it was Fleming’s Casino Royale,
published in 1953, that first introduced Britain to Bond, the first of the novels to be translated
onscreen was his Dr. Noin 1962, starring Sean Connery. Since then, twenty-six Bond films have
been made, attaining record-breaking global popularity, amassing billions of dollars in revenue,
and have managed to establish the protagonist as a polysemic socio-cultural entity. Therefore, in
the pages that are to follow, we shall explore the Bond films, particularly in the context of the
Cold War to highlight their role as a means of propaganda, to understand how the ideological and
cultural concerns that were prevalent in Britain (and beyond) since the 1950s were portrayed in
the Bond films- be it in terms of the representations of the Eastern and the Western Blocs, their
constructions of heteronormative masculinity and femininity, and the representations of nation

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and nationalism in these films (Woollacott and Bennett 1987, 18), all within the larger umbrella
of understanding popular responses to a changing global politics.

3.2 Bond Films and the Cold War

In order to appreciate how popular films such as Bond represented the culture of the Cold War
era, it is imperative for us to understand the historical context of the war. Following the defeat of
Germany at the end of the Second World War, the seaminess of the alliance made between the
USA, Britain, and the Soviet Union was rendered palpable, particularly because of the communist
governments that were established across eastern Europe under the leadership of the Red Army of
the Soviets. To check the influence of the Soviets on western Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO) was formed in 1949, wherein the USA and parts of Europe came together
in a military alliance, such that any attack on the participating parties would be seen as an attack
on all, and would, therefore, invoke a collective defense. At the same time, a major source of
conflict among the allies was the control of Germany, with west Germany under the control of the
Western Bloc and east Germany being controlled by the Soviets. Between 1949-’62, the tensions
among these nations were heightened, from the Soviets successfully developing their own nuclear
weaponry, to the rise to power of the Communist Party of China, to the Korean War between
Soviet-supported North Korea and the USA-supported South Korea, to the Cuban missile crisis of
1962 that nearly brought the Soviets and the Americans to war, making way for an even more
complicated struggle for power among other nations that had witnessed rapid growth in this
period, notably, Japan in the ’70s-’80s, and eventually ending with the dissolution of the Soviet
Union in 1991. While military technology was crucial in this game of thrones, an important role
in projecting the image of oneself (USA, Britain, or the Soviet Union) as the mightiest of the lot
was played by way of cultural politics. It was crucial for all parties involved to win popular
support for their cause- democracy versus socialism, and capitalism versus communism, and
cinema served as a pivotal means to shape public opinion on the conflicts and tensions that went
on to characterize world history for over forty years. We have already noted in the previous
lessons so as to how films were used as an effective means of Nazi propaganda, and in the
decades that were to follow the Second World War, cinema not only acknowledged the political
realities in which it was created a la neo-realist films but through its politics of (stereotypical)
representation, it also gives us a glimpse into the concerns and anxieties of the people, the
sustenance of the ‘Other’, and the popular imaginations of a nation. The films about James Bond,
identified as the “second most successful films in history” (Burgess cited in Prorokova-Konrad
2022, 3) therefore, need to be understood as cultural texts that established and reproduced various
constructions of the war, acting as a mouthpiece for the ‘land of the free’ and extolling the
seductive powers of capitalism.
In his first and only cinematic appearance in the 1950s, Bond appeared in a television production
of Casino Royale, by the American broadcasting channel, CBS. The American interest in
Fleming’s work can be understood against the broader background of the “Red Scare” that had
taken over the American film and television industry by the fifties. The perceived menace of
Communism saw a proliferation of films that fictionalized the events of the Cold War, vilifying
the Soviets and glorifying the heroic and self-sacrificing Americans in the process. In the hour-
long telefilm, Bond was depicted, for the first and only time, as an American intelligence agent
working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and not the British MI 6. The plot of the film,
as the title suggests, centers around a casino, where Bond collaborates with both British and
French agents, mimicking the alliance among these three nations during the decade in question, in
order to defeat the local Soviet intelligence agent, Le Chiffre who has siphoned off state funds in
order to fuel his gambling. Needless to say, the defeat of the Soviet agent served as a stand-in for

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the defeat of communism not only in the Soviet Union but also in France, imitating the real-life
alliance between the USA, Britain, and France on the issue of the German rearmament which,
incidentally, took place only two days before the premiere of the show. Even though the issue of
German rearmament was not addressed in the show, it certainly helped soothe popular concerns
over the fissures within the capitalist allies, particularly over the wavering support of France over
the rearmament initiative put forth by the US government. Moreover, with the American Bond as
the protagonist, the film further established the USA (and not Britain) at the political and strategic
forefront (Mulvihill 2001, pp. 228-230). The show also foreshadowed certain elements that
continue to be closely identified with the Bond franchise, especially the ostentatious display of
luxury, including high-end hotels and expensive alcohol, along with an unmistakable
hypermasculinity that pits the charming, violent-only-when-necessary, hero against the
“Frankensteinian” communists who enjoy violence for the sake of it.
As far as Britain is concerned, given that the first few novels by Fleming saw a respectable but
limited return in terms of sales revenue, the author had decided that From Russia, With Love
would be the last installment in the Bond series. However, a British newspaper, the Daily Express
serialized the above book, which as the title indicates, was saturated with the tensions arising out
of the Cold War, and helped introduce the character to its readership, especially a more
comprehensive, lower-middle-class demographic, and made the character of Bond-the exemplar
of the triumph of Western capitalism over evil, Eastern communism, a household name
(Woollacott and Bennett 1987, pp. 24-25). Thus, since 1953, Fleming’s novels appeared annually
till the publication of the last novel, The Man with the Golden Gun in 1965, with Octopussy and
The Living Daylights being published posthumously. The increasing popularity of the Bond
books, along with relaxed censorship norms when it came to the depictions of sexual and violent
scenes, prompted the producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, to translate the novels to
celluloid. The success of their first Bond venture, Dr. No (1962), ensured that a series of films
were released over the next four years (From Russia, With Love, 1963; Goldfinger, 1964;
Thunderball, 1965), raking millions in revenues as well as capturing the attention of the audiences
both in Britain as well as the US. A question now arises as to what explains the massive
commercial and cultural popularity of Bond films. As we have seen in the previous lessons, the
post-Second World War period saw the rise of neo-realist trends in cinema, and had an impact on
British cinema as well, emerging in the British New Wave. The Bond films combined action,
adventure, and suspense, and emerged at a time when the audience interest in the neo-realist
cinema was already waning, and these films, with their conspicuous consumerism, exotic
locations, gratuitous sex, and violence, established Bond as the “essence of cool”, an agent who
saves the world without breaking into a sweat (Chapman 2003, pp. 288-289). Moreover, in the
films as in the novels, Bond is shown as being steadfastly loyal to the Queen and country, but, in
an important demarcation from the latter, the films use the figure of Bond to represent not so
much the glorious Britain of the past, but to exemplify Britain in transition, to depict and define a
new style and image of Englishness (Woollacott and Bennett 1987, 34). This ‘new’ Englishness
was defined, by way of fashion, through the suave suits that remain the hallmark of the Bond
series and represent ‘timeless’ elegance combined with modernity, through the use of modern
technology, fancy cars, and by casting Sean Connery in the lead role, which allowed the
producers to further project Bond as a “modern, classless hero”, and turned him into an
international cultural phenomenon (Chapman 2003, pp. 288; Germanà 2019). At the same time,
the cultural popularity of Bond was also strengthened by the ‘national humiliation’ suffered by
Britain during the Abadan Crisis of 1951, the 1956 Suez Crisis, and the overthrow of the pro-
British government in Iraq, which not only resulted in major economic repercussions for the
British, but also cemented the declining power of the country in the world, creating the ripe
conditions for the rise of a popular, patriotic, and sexual hero who could embody the “imaginary
possibility that England might once again be placed at the centre of world affairs during a period

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when its world power status was visibly and rapidly declining” (Woollacott and Bennett 1987, pp.
28-29; Black 2005, 4). In the books, Bond was firmly established as a product of the historical
and ideological conditions of the Cold War; he is a conservative hero who safeguards the
institutions of his country, the ‘free’ West, from the nefarious ideology of communism. Indeed,
with the exception ofDiamonds Are Forever, all the villains in Fleming’s novels in the 1950s are
either directly in the service of the Soviet Union, from Le Chiffre in Casino Royale to Red Grant
in From Russia, With Love, or they are indirectly employed by the Soviets as members of
SMERSH (SmiertSpionam, or ‘Death to Spies’), as seen in Dr. No. The villain conspires to
hamper the peace and security of the ‘Free World’, represented either by Britain or the USA, and
Bond, signifying freedom, individualism, and the virtues of Western capitalism must win over the
evil, totalitarian, and communist Soviet Union (Woollacott and Bennett 1987, pp. 24-28;
Chapman 2000, pp. 30-31).
Although in Fleming’s literary universe, Britain continued to be depicted at the height of its
power and the chief target of conspiracies against the nation, the films, as Woollacott and Bennett
(1987, 33) argue, detached the figure of Bond from the cultural and ideological currents of the
Cold War in order to make him more palatable (and appeal internationally) in the then prevalent
climate of detentè: the easing of tensions between the Soviets and the Americans. Nevertheless,
even though the Cold War was not central to the plot of Dr. No, its presence was certainly felt.
Not only does it depict a timeless and powerful Britain, but the latter’s support of America,
central to the British policy during the Cold War, was also duly represented in the film. For, the
narrative of the film rested upon a “politics of conviction”, a belief in the benign mission of MI 6,
which, in turn, grants legitimacy and a sense of moral authority to both Bond’s operations as well
as the Britain that he represents (Black 2005, pp. 97-102). For Chapman (2000, 93), however, it is
From Russia With Love that forms the most political of early James Bond films. Even the Anglo-
Soviet antagonism takes a backseat, through references to the Turkey-Soviet tensions- another
territorial conflict that occurred during the Cold War, and through scenes depicting Bond raiding
the Russian Embassy, the film explicitly draws upon Cold War tensions (Chapman 2000, 93).
However, the 1960s were largely the period when the threat of ‘Red China’ resurfaced as the
central theme of the Bond franchise and translated onscreen the stereotypical understanding of the
‘exotic Orient’, the ‘Yellow Peril’ trope that was popular in the 19th-20th c literature was now
transformed into a ‘red Chinese’ threat. Indeed, as the decades progressed, the Bond films
focused on the “PRC’s capability of building nuclear power stations, atomic bombs, and long-
range missiles, and Western fear at such prospects became thematic of the Cold War arms race in
the mid twentieth century” (Gehrig 2019, 17). For instance, in the novels, Dr. No is shown to be
working for the Soviets and is planning to foil US missile testing, in the film, however, Dr. No is
said to be part-German and part-Chinese, his accomplices are of Chinese origin, the women are
dressed in traditional Chinese attire, and most importantly, he is now shown to be working for an
international terrorist network called SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence,
Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion) instead of SMERSH, to amass personal wealth, an endeavor
in which he is aided by the communists. Similarly, while the book Goldfinger contains no
reference to the People’s Republic of China, the film once again introduces a Chinese antagonist,
Mr. Ling/Red Chinese agent, who dresses in a uniform similar to that of the People’s Liberation
Army, and schemes to create chaos in the American economy. On a related note, the film You
Only Live Twice, also adapts the source material in line with the existing and imagined political
fears and anxieties. Locating the plot in modern Japan, represented as an ally of the West, the
threat of Chinese domination is reiterated, as the latter is obliquely shown trying to fuel the
animosity between the Soviets and Americans by way of a nuclear war. The seemingly outlandish
plot attested to the paranoia and hysteria that was generated in Western media after Mao’s speech
in 1957 at Moscow, wherein his readiness to engage in a nuclear war to eliminate imperialism
further cemented the position of China as the most dominant threat, not only to the economic

147
interests of the West in Asia but also toward global political interests (Gehrig 2019, pp. 9-12).
Thus, as Gehrig (2019) pointed out, these films sought to establish China and not the Soviet
Union as the greatest threat to Cold War stability, particularly in the aftermath of the Cuban
missile crisis. Even in films such as The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), the villain, lacking any
political affiliations, is shown to plan an attack on both New York and Moscow, and while both
the East and the West are shown to be under grave danger, the victor is clearly established, albeit
by way of the sexual and professional subordination of East’s best agent, Anya, by Bond
(Woollacott and Bennett 1987, pp. 191-192).
It is only in films such as For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), and Never Say Never
Again (1983) that Bond is revived as a hero of the Cold War, and keeping in mind the changing
political climate of the 1980s-the resurgence of right-wing nationalism in Reagan’s USA and
Thatcher’s England, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the boycott of the Olympics in
1980 and 1984- the ‘nation’ resumed its significance in the films. In all three films mentioned
above, the villain, not unlike the Bond novels of the fifties, is either a Russian or amply aided by
the Soviet Union. As far as the PRC is concerned, by the 1990s, Bond films replaced the erstwhile
vilification of China and adopted a more ambivalent attitude towards the PRC, such that in
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), a woman Chinese secret service agent is shown helping Bond in
his mission to safeguard the interests of the PRC government!
Thus, as we have seen above, even though the films attempted to depoliticize Bond, the various
imageries of nation and nationalism, a belief that the future of Britain was secured, and the
imaginary of a ‘timeless’, triumphant Englishman, remained mapped onto the body of Bond.
The Cold War era was, unsurprisingly, also characterized by tensions around ‘masculinity’, aided
in no small measure by the prevalent military conscriptions that served as the rite of passage for
young boys to adulthood; on the one hand, one could trace the emergence of the ‘new family
man’ of the fifties, who was content with having a house and a family, whereas, on the other
hand, the wartime hero continued to rein supreme in the post-war era, a hero who would put
freedom over his life and loved ones (Germanà 2019, 25). In the following section, we shall
locate the figure of Bond in this context and attempt to reconstruct the gender and sexual politics
of the period under study. How were Bond’s Englishness and maleness defined in relation to
women? How did the films construct popular notions of masculinity and femininity? And, in light
of the criticisms made by the feminist movement, what changes, if any, did the films make when
it comes to the representation of women? It is to these questions that we shall now turn.
3.2.1 Check Your Progress
1. The author of the James Bond novels is:
i) Carolyn Keene
ii) Ian Fleming
iii) Agatha Christie
iv) Arthur Conan Doyle
2. The first film in the James Bond franchise was:
i) Casino Royale
ii) Octopussy
iii) From Russia, With Love
iv) Dr. No

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3. Casino Royale was first published in:
i) 1951
ii) 1952
iii) 1953
iv) 1954
Answers
1. Ian Fleming
2. Dr. No
3. 1953

3.3 Gender and the Bond Films

Articulating the intended readership of his novels, Fleming wrote that his writings are not so
political as they were meant for “warm-blooded heterosexuals in railway trains, aeroplanes, and
beds” (Fleming cited in Germanà 2019, 24), and aptly sets the tone for the gendered nature of the
stories. In her seminal analysis of the posters of Bond films produced during the Cold War,
TatiyanaProrokova-Konrad (2022) has drawn attention to the “sexual grammar” of the films as
well as the Cold War itself. The image of the spy, almost always dressed in a tuxedo,
(re)imagined the post-war man of the West, shown in the posters as flanked by women. Not only
does he display physical prowess- seen in props such as guns, but, in tune with his literary peers
such as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, he also exhibits powers of cerebral deductions.
While clothing, brute strength, and intellect collectively define his (hetero)normative masculinity,
there is an unmistakable emphasis on sexuality that remains dominant in these posters. For, his
potent sexuality is also constructed using the symbolism of the gun itself, a weapon that is
wielded to slay his enemies, such that the post-war man of the West was presented as an
adventurous, glamorous antidote to communist nations. However, his masculinity also relied upon
a subservient depiction of women in order to define itself. While the following remark by Terence
Young, the director of the first two Bond films may hold some merit, “They (Bond Girls) must
have innocence, but be able to kill a man without showing any guilt. They are women of the
nuclear age, freer and able to make love when they want to, without worrying about it afterwards”
(Young cited in Germanà 2019, 1), it is difficult to dispute that the ‘femme fatale’ in these films
largely exists as an object of conquest for the spy. The posters of several films, such as Dr. No,
From Russia with Love, Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the
Golden Gun, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill, carefully, and sometimes,
crassly conflate physical intimacy with violence against women (Prorokova-Konrad 2022, pp. 4-
6). As these posters suggest, the Bond women “function as a means to convey Bond’s sexuality;
they are there to please Bond and his warm-blooded, heterosexual male audiences – and, as such,
they are deliberately blinded to (indeed celebratory of) the gender inequality that existed (exists)
in the West” (Prorokova-Konrad 2022, 11). In addition, the films also erase the sexual
ambiguity/queerness that was implied in the books; the ‘Bond girl’ in the films was attractive and
largely meant for the voyeuristic pleasures of the male gaze.
For Prorokova-Konrad (2022), the overt depictions of (hetero)sexuality in these films need to be
understood within the larger parlance of Bond films as propaganda. The Bond franchise extolled
the virtues of capitalism and freedom in the West, freedom which also included sexual freedom,
in sharp contrast to the Soviet Union despite all its valourization of motherhood, apparently,
“there was no sex” (Prorokova-Konrad 2022, 8). As Thomas Barrett (2015, pp. 42-43) pointed

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out, the western media accounted for the appearance of Soviet women as “charmless” and “grey
asexual analogs of a soulless Communist system” who were “no pleasure to the eye”.
Nevertheless, they were deemed redeemable if only they could see the light and switch their
loyalties to Britain/America, often through their love of Western men. He further (Barrett 2015)
reads the character of Tatiana Romanova, the ‘Bond Girl’ in From Russia, with Love, to highlight
her position within the Western fantasy of Cold War triumph, wherein the Soviet woman is sent
to seduce and destroy Bond, eventually falls for him and is siphoned off to the West,
reconstructing her as an object fit for Western paternalism, consumption, and desires, implicitly
arguing that not just fears but desires too could emanate from the Soviet Union. Moreover, as
Jenkins (2005) puts it, the narrative of the film also links Bond’s sexual prowess to his national
potency, by luring Tatiana to the West, thereby establishing Bond’s/Britain’s strength to tame
even the most powerful nations of the world, highlighting the weakening of communism, and
bolstering British sovereignty and cultural superiority, all at the same time.
Drawing attention to the parallels between the Bond franchise and the Playboy magazines when it
comes to the representation of women, Chapman (2015, pp. 13-17) further argues that with the
partial exception of The Spy Who Loved Me, the books construct a “male fantasy world of
sexually available females and guilt-free sexual relationships” and the very names assigned to
women characters exemplify sexual double entendres, from Honeychile Rider to Kissy Suzuki to
Pussy Galore, and are reduced to an “erotic spectacle” of caricatured and uni-dimensional
characters. Moreover, he (Chapman 2015; 2000, pp. 105-106) also points out an important
distinction between the Bond novels and the films when it comes to representing women- while in
the case of the former, women were shown to have certain skillsets and knowledge that Bond did
not possess, even rescuing the hero on occasion, the films reduced women to commodities that
could simply be discarded at will. For instance, in Goldfinger the movie, the character of Pussy
Galore is said to be an excellent pilot, a woman who has made her mark in a traditionally male-
dominated field and even wants to encourage other women to learn to fly an aircraft, however, not
only her character vilified as a criminal aid who wants to drop bombs on innocent Americans, but
her competence in flying an aircraft is sent for a toss as in the film’s climax, she needs Bond to
take over as she panics when their plane began to lose altitude.
From the late seventies, however, with the demands exacted by the Women’s Liberation
movement, the gender relations in the films took a turn, and the films focused on ‘restoring’
women to their ‘rightful’ place. The ‘excessive’ independence of women and their presence in a
physically challenging profession such as that of espionage, was interpreted as a threat to
masculinity and the security of traditional gender relations, and the films ensured that the women
met their comeuppance in their encounters with Bond (Woollacott and Bennett 1987, 39). In the
film, For Your Eyes Only (1981), for instance, not only is the character of Margaret Thatcher the
object of a crude sexual joke but is also shown, at the end of the film, in the ‘rightful’ place for a
woman- in the kitchen (Woollacott and Bennett 1987, 40). And, in The Spy Who Loved Me, even
though the Soviet agent is a professional equal of Bond, she must be ‘put in her place’ for
thinking that she may be better at her job than Bond and must wait for the suited knight to rescue
her before she falls in love with him (Woollacott and Bennett 1987, pp. 195-196).
Therefore, moving beyond the constraints of gentlemanly chivalry and restrained sexuality, Bond
could now embody a sense of aspirational masculinity which was clearly defined in relation to the
‘Bond girl’, who could exist outside the confines of the domestic but was tailored to suit the male
lead’s needs, thereby representing both, the (selective) modernization of as well as contemporary
anxieties around sexuality (Woollacott and Bennett 1987, 35). Of course, this is not to suggest
that the discourses on gender and sexuality were ‘ideal’ in the West; instead, as seen above, the
blatant objectification and infantilization of women as ‘girls’ played a pivotal role in the
constructions of a “post-war emasculated yet heroic manhood” (Germanà 2019, 26).

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3.3.1 Check Your Progress
1. The first two Bond films were directed by:
i) Albert R. Broccoli
ii) Harry Saltzman
iii) Ian Fleming
iv) Terence Young
2. The constructions of sexuality in Bond films can be described as:
i) Heteronormative
ii) Queer
iii) Homoerotic
iv) Sapiosexual
3. A James Bond film set in the Thatcher era was:
i) Casino Royale
ii) From Russia, With Love
iii) The Spy Who Loved Me
iv) For Your Eyes Only
Answers
1. Terence Young
2. Heteronormative
3. For Your Eyes Only

3.4 Summary
In the twentieth century, cinema, along with the print media, television, and radio, worked to
frame the Cold War for millions of people, to define and shape ‘reality’ for the audiences for
whom the conflict was largely abstract and ‘virtual’. As Shaw and Youngblood (2010, pp. 3-4)
pointed out, between 1945-1990, the Cold War was a lucrative subject for filmmakers, not only in
the USA and Britain but also in Japan, Korea, and of course, the Soviet Union where directors
such as VsevolodPudovkin were instructed to make films that highlighted the “superiority of the
Soviet order over bourgeois democracy.” If cinematic propaganda measures, on the one hand,
highlighted how nuclear warfare would lead to mutual destruction, they also played a crucial role
in the process of ‘Othering’, of defining popular imaginaries of the ‘enemy’, whose nationality,
however, changed with the changing dynamics of the Cold War. And it is in this context that the
role of the Bond franchise assumes significance. Taken together, the Bond novels and films
capture the cultural, political, and ideological concerns at a particular moment in time, in different
ways, so much so that scholars such as Woollacott and Bennett (1987) have defined the 1960s as
the “moment of Bond” as the popularity enjoyed by the character not only remained unmatched
by any other cultural figure of the time but also led to spin-off shows, novels, and films and
emerged as a defining “popular cultural icon” of this period. The novels were adapted in tune
with the shifting politics of the period, providing us with a glimpse of the Anglo-American power
relations as they existed at the time, the cultural and sexual politics current in the period under

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study, and the anxieties prevalent in Britain at a time when the traditions associated with and the
meaning of Britishness itself were being challenged. Moreover, when viewed against the larger
context of the intensifying political, military, and economic tensions between the US and the
Soviet Union during the 1950s, one can easily trace how the Bond films, ostensibly ‘less political’
than the novels, nevertheless helped shape popular opinion regarding the ‘Other’- if the Soviet
men were evil, scheming masterminds, the ‘Red Chinese’ were no exception, and the women
were simply waiting to be rescued by the West. The cultural impact of the Bond films can be
further gauged by the fact that similar spy thrillers flooded the cinematic markets across the world
in the mid-1960s- from the French ‘Coplan’ series to ‘Agent 077’ in Italy, to ‘Matt Helm’ in the
USA, and the character continues to enjoy popularity even today.

3.5 Glossary
● Abadan Crisis: Said to mark the initial phase of the increasingly strained relations
between Britain and the Middle East, the crisis began with the nationalization of the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Abadan in 1951, a move that was seen by Britain as a
slight against its commercial and military interests in the region as well as a victory of the
Soviets, eventually ending with the ousting of the elected Iranian government from
power, through collaborative efforts of the MI 6 and the CIA.
● Yellow Peril: The expression refers to the anti-Chinese sentiment that had enveloped
Europe and the US in the late 19th-early 20th c. It was personified in the Fu Manchu
novels that became popular in Britain and the US, depicted the Chinese as evil, devious,
and cruel, and spoke to the prevalent racist, Sinophobic notions that were prevalent in the
times.

3.6 Self-Assessment Questions

A. Write a short note on:
i) Gender, Sexuality, and the James Bond films
ii) ‘Red China’ in James Bond films
iii) The Racial ‘Other’ in James Bond films
iv) Nation and Nationalism in James Bond films
Answers
i) See Section 1.3
ii) See Section 1.2
iii) See Section 1.2
iv) See Sections 1.2 and 1.3
B. Long-form Questions
1. Cinema was an important propaganda element in the Cold War. Comment.
2. How was the culture of the Cold War depicted in contemporary cinema? Discuss with
special reference to the James Bond franchise.
3. How did cinema help in shaping public opinion during the mid-20th century?

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4. With reference to James Bond films, discuss how cinema aided the constructions of
gender and sexuality in the Cold War era.

3.7 References
 Barrett, Thomas M. (2015). Desiring the Soviet Woman: Tatiana Romanova and From
Russia with Love. In Lisa Funnel (ed.), For His Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond,
pp. 41-50. USA: Columbia University Press.
 Black, Jeremy. (2005). The Politics of James Bond: From Fleming’s Novels to the Big
Screen. USA: University of Nebraska Press.
 Chapman, James. (2000). Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films.
USA: Columbia University Press.
 Chapman, James. (2003). Cinemas of the World: Film and Society from 1985 to the
Present. UK: Reaktion Books.
 Chapman, James. (2015). “Women were for recreation”: The Gender Politics of Ian
Fleming’s James Bond. In Lisa Funnel (ed.), For His Eyes Only: The Women of James
Bond, pp. 7-17. USA: Columbia University Press.
 Gehrig, Sebastian. (2019). A Second Evil Empire The James Bond Series, “Red China”,
and Cold War Cinema. International Journal of James Bond Studies, 2(1), pp. 1-22.
http://doi.org/10.24877/jbs.45
 Germanà, Monica. (2019). Bond Girls: Body, Fashion and Gender. United Kingdom:
Bloomsbury Publishing.
 Jenkins, Tricia. (2005). James Bond's “Pussy” and Anglo-American Cold War Sexuality.
The Journal of American Culture, 28(3), pp. 309-317. Retrieved from
https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/james-bonds-pussy-anglo-american-cold-
war/docview/200605610/se-2
 Mulvihill, Jason. (2001). James Bond’s Cold War Part I. International Journal of
Instructional Media, Vol. 28(3), pp. 225-236.
 Prorokova-Konrad, Tatiana. (2022). The Sexual Grammar of the Cold War: The James
Bond Film Posters. International Journal of James Bond Studies, 5(1). DOI:
http://doi.org/10.24877/jbs.78
 Shaw, Tony, and Youngblood, D. J. (2010). Cinematic Cold War: The American and
Soviet Struggle for Hearts and Minds. USA: University Press of Kansas.
 Sorlin, Pierre. (1998). The Cinema: American Weapon for the Cold War. Film History,
1998, Vol. 10, No. 3, The Cold War and the Movies (1998), pp. 375- 381.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3815230
 Woollacott, Janet, and Bennett, Tony. (1987). Bond and Beyond: The Political Career of
a Popular Hero. United Kingdom: Methuen.

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