Understanding social movements is a complex process. Social movements are more or less persistent, organized effort on the part of a relatively large number of people to bring about or resist social change. They are best understood through different theories such as Functionalism, Marxism, Theory of Collective Action, Relative Deprivation Theory, Strain Theory, Resource Mobilization Theory and New Social Movement Theories. Further understanding of social movements is done through the study of the type of movements. Sociologists and social scientists have studied social movements as revolutionary, reform, reactionary and religious movements. Different movements have different causes and outcomes. But all movements generally go through a life cycle marked by the progressive stages of emergence, coalescence, bureaucratization, and decline.