(a) Elucidate the main problems and challenges faced by the migrant labourers in the recent 'Lockdown period'. 20 (b) Explain…

Contemporary social transformations in India reveal profound structural realignments across the economic, political, and cultural spheres, highlighting the evolving and contested relationship between the state, market, and civil society.

Precarity and Challenges of Migrant Labourers during Lockdown

The nationwide lockdown during COVID-19 exposed the multi-dimensional precarity of India’s circular and informal migrant workforce. The immediate cessation of economic activity caused instant wage loss, rapid depletion of savings, and acute food and shelter insecurity. With the sudden collapse of public transport, millions were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres home, enduring severe physical exhaustion, psychological trauma, dehydration, and instances of police brutality at interstate borders.

Sociologically, this mass reverse migration exposed the structural failure of India’s exclusionary urbanisation model, which relies on Jan Breman’s concept of "footloose labour" while denying workers urban citizenship and social safety nets. State response gaps were evident in the initial disconnect between centralized relief packages and ground realities, as millions of unregistered workers lacking local ration cards were excluded from the Public Distribution System (PDS), highlighting the non-implementation of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979. This institutional failure eventually required the Supreme Court’s suo motu intervention in In Re Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers (2020), which mandated free transport, universal food distribution irrespective of ration cards, and the expedited registration of unorganised workers on the e-Shram portal.

Dialectical Relationship: Political Parties and Pressure Groups

Political parties and pressure groups operate in a dialectical relation characterized by mutual dependence, systemic tension, and reciprocal transformation. While political parties aggregate broad coalitions of interests to capture state power, pressure groups articulate specialized, sectoral demands without seeking direct office.

Parties require pressure groups to secure grassroots mobilization, ideological legitimacy, and dedicated vote bases. Conversely, pressure groups depend on parties and legislative elites to translate their demands into state policy and institutional concessions. This relationship oscillates between co-optation—where parties assimilate interest group leaders and dilute radical demands—and resistance, where groups maintain autonomy to hold parties accountable.

In India, this dialectic manifests in three major forms: trade unions functioning as industrial wings of political parties (e.g., CITU with CPI-M, INTUC with Congress) while pushing those parties toward pro-labour stances; caste associations transforming into political parties through sustained mobilization, such as the Vanniyar Sangam giving rise to the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) or BAMCEF birthing the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP); and agrarian pressure groups, notably the Samyukt Kisan Morcha during the 2020–21 farm law protests, which maintained strategic distance from political parties while fundamentally reshaping regional electoral realignments.

Religious Revivalism in the Present-Day Context

Religious revivalism represents a modern socio-political project aimed at restoring and asserting religious identity in public life. It is analytically distinct from individual religiosity (private devotion) and fundamentalism (inflexible doctrinal literalism), operating instead as an active renegotiation of collective identity against perceived social decay. Contemporary manifestations include Hindutva mobilization in India, Islamist political resurgence globally, and the rapid expansion of Pentecostal-Charismatic movements across Latin America and parts of Asia.

Revivalism is propelled by the structural anxieties of neoliberal globalization, where rapid marketization and cultural dislocation lead individuals to seek security in what Manuel Castells terms "resistance identities." These anxieties are further amplified by competitive electoral politics, majority-minority identity polarizations, and digital echo chambers that foster affective polarization. Nevertheless, the growth of religious revivalism is not absolute; it remains consistently checked by counter-tendencies of secular constitutionalism, subaltern rights assertions, and deeply rooted syncretic traditions.

In conclusion, the struggles of informal labour, the bargaining between parties and civic groups, and the rise of religious revivalism reflect the continuous friction between state institutions and social groups, underscoring the imperative of deepening constitutional protections and inclusive developmental democracy.