Why do the Korku not Protest: Perceptions and the Refractive Functions of Worldview

• In Event: 447 - Section on Social Psychology Roundtable Session (co-sponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 08. Organizational Dynamics

Abstract

Social movement studies emphasize a handful of factors that enable protests: primarily political opportunities, indigenous organizations, and cognitive liberation. The Korku, an oppressed and routinely humiliated indigenous community in central India, choose not to protest despite the presence of these factors. The Korku have embraced the hierarchical Hindu worldview of their oppressors and seek their improvement by adopting Hindu practices rather than protesting against oppression. This paper argues that the worldview of aggrieved communities matter in social movements. This case demonstrates that the Korku do not protest, because their perceptions about existent political opportunities and their organizational strengths are depoliticized. This ethnographic study shows how worldview actively shapes perceptions about not only political opportunities and mobilizing structures but also about efficacy. These perceptions are mediated through the prism of their current Hinduized worldview, which deflects their collective action away from protest and towards collective piety.

Author

• Aseem Hasnain, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill