D istinguishing S ocial C hange and S ocial M ovements It is important to distinguish between social change in general and social movements . Social change is continuous and ongoing. The broad historical processes of social change are the sum total of countless individual and collective actions gathered across time and space. Social movements are directed towards some specific goals.
It involves long and continuous social effort and action by people. To draw from our discussion in Chapter , we can view sanskritisation and westernisation as social changes and see the th century social reformers’ efforts to change the society as social movements.