Abstract
Ashok Swain's book focuses on the rise and growth of social movements in post-independence India and he presents case studies on the states of Kerala and Orissa as examples. Within Kerala, Swain looks at several protest movements, such as the massive literacy campaigns run by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, established in 1962. Today, Kerala is considered to be the most literate state in India with a literacy rate of 90.92 per cent (p. 55). Similarly, as an important example of social movements in India, the author describes a protest movement in Plachimada, Kerala, against Coca-Cola, which involved tribal women staging sit-ins in front of the company's plant to protest against its using the groundwater, leading to a government shutdown of the plant.
In Orissa, Swain predominantly discusses increased Christian missionary and Maoist activities. Christian missionaries in India, especially Orissa, have been accused of converting local tribal populations to Christianity, which has led to large-scale communal violence instigated by Hindu extremists. By using and comparing first-hand data collected in 1997 and 2007, Swain shows that there has been an 8.6 per cent increase in the population of Christians in Orissa. Hindu groups have been reconverting the tribal population to Hinduism and the author argues that both conversion and re-conversion increase network capital among the tribal populations. With regard to Maoists, due to the prevalence of poverty and deprivation, Swain argues that Maoists are able to mobilise and raise tribal populations to fight for their rights, which, Swain argues, gives the tribal population a sense of community (pp. 101–2).
Overall, the book is a good addition to the literature on social movements in India. Its relevance cannot be missed in the wake of the protest by Gandhian Anna Hazare against corruption in India, which led the Indian government to agree to introduce a strict anti-corruption bill – with inputs from members of civil society – in the Indian parliament.
However, the book seems to lack theoretical grounding. It talks throughout about social movements and mobilising people for a cause, yet Robert Putnam's work on social capital is not mentioned at all. Nonetheless, in the age of Twitter and Facebook, Swain's book can be a starting point for further research on social networks through technology in India.