Over this past weekend I keenly followed the goings on in India vis a vis the 'India Against Corruption' movement, led by Anna Hazare, seeking the introduction and subsequent passage of a Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's Ombudsman Bill) that will be stronger and more effective than the one Indian government (Congress led ruling coalition) had proposed. It was ofcourse a relief to learn that Anna finally decided to break the fast unto death that he had undertaken on the thirteenth day. It was certainly very satisfying too see the show of support by thousands of people across the country for this campaign against corruption, and for a strong Lokpal. It was also good to see the spirited discussion on the issue in both the houses of the parliament - there were some very good speeches made, especially by the leaders of the opposition.
But, when the speaker banged her gavel to adjourn the house just seconds after the minister had read the "resolution" adopted by the house affirming the government's agreement "in principle" with Anna Hazare and his team's position, I was left with a sinking feeling of not-much-achieved-after-all-this. It took an aged Gandhian's fast-unto-death that lasted almost a fortnight, tens of thousands if not a couple of million people coming out on the street all across India, and almost six months (since the beginning of this movement) for the government to even accept that the sort of measures to tackle corruption suggested under Jan Lokpal Bill were worth considering. And all that our elected representatives in the parliament could come up with was a lame resolution suggesting their agreement "in principle", which if the proceedings in both the houses that day were anything to go by, wasn't nearly as unanimously adopted as the ruling coalition was suggesting. I was also surprised to hear Anna say later that we had won only half the battle, when in my mind nothing substantial had been achieved and this parliamentary resolution was nothing more than political hogwash.
So, to temper the increasing feeling of discontentment and disenchantment that I was coming down with, I decided to learn more about how the mass movements usually evolve. One of the very informative resources I found was an article titled 'The Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements' by Bill Moyer. This actually is an abridged version of 'The Movement Action Plan (MAP)' laid out by Bill Moyer almost exactly twenty-five years ago. Upon going through MAP and the eight stages of a successful social movement I realized that maybe Anna was right in saying that we have won only half the battle. Now that I have a better understanding (than what I had a couple of days ago) of how any social movement of significance may unfold, it does seem that we have only been through stage four (Take Off!) yet, and there is still much that will have to be done vis a vis keeping this movement alive and kicking until the goal of instituting a strong Lokpal has been achieved.
So if you also wish to reaffirm your faith like I was able to do - right below you will find the 'The Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements'. There is also another graphic below that - this one lays out four different activist roles that any social movement has - very insightful stuff. A must read for everyone in my opinion, but especially for activists and wannabe activists.
The Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements
The Four Activist Roles
Here is hoping that stages five, six, seven, and eight are not very far off in this movement against corruption and for a strong Lokpal.
Viva la Revolution. Inquilab Zindabad. Jai Hind.
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