Book excerpt: This book delves into the concept and definition of social movements from different perspectives with relevance to India. It offers critical insight into the fundamental and ongoing debates and treatises around the struggle for rights and welfare. The book covers discussions on a wide range of movements varying in locus and spatial spread – from movements that highlight environmental issues to those that articulate the voices of women, Dalits, the queer community, persons with disabilities, and farmers. It explores the origins of people’s movements, what a collective is and how communities mobilize and organize. The authors also provide a history of the key social movements in India, examining the social, political, and cultural contexts in which they were born and continue being relevant in contemporary India. This revised and updated edition is an essential volume for students and researchers of social movement studies, sociology, political science and history, protest movements, sociological theory, the history of sociological thought, contemporary social theory, social policy, and international and globalization studies.