Pan-India Protests Prove Students Of India Are Secular

Mala Jay

The most famous student protests in history have colourful names - the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989, the White Rose movement in 1942 at the height of Hitler’s hold over Germany,  the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong in 2014, the Soweto Uprising in South Africa in 1976, the Tiananmen Square crackdown in China in 1989 and the Kent State killings in 1970 .   

India too had the Navnirman movement in Gujarat in 1974, which lit the spark for JP Narayan’s ‘Total Revolution’ and, ironically, provided the launching pad for Narendra Modi’s political career.  

The irony lies in the fact that the same Modi, who cut his teeth as an activist-pracharak in a student uprising, is today facing a potential threat to his tenure as prime minister from a student agitation that is spreading like wildfire in college campuses across the land with each passing day.  

The gathering storm of student-power may not have as yet acquired a distinctive character and cohesive identity, but judging by the sentiments and slogans propelling young scholars belonging to diverse disciplines in different institutions to express solidarity for each other, it is essentially a collective cry against the idea of a saffron India. 

No two student revolutions begin for the same reasons, nor do they culminate with predictable outcomes. Some transform into historic triumphs leading to seminal changes in society and government - such as the Soweto Uprising against Apartheid and the Velvet Revolution that impacted the future of Eastern Europe.   Others end in tragedy and bloodshed due to brutal State repression – such as the infamous Tiananmen massacre and the ghastly extermination of the White Rose Society under Nazi boots. 

It is far too early to foresee what fate befalls the current students stir in Modi’s India - whether the young protesters are lathi-charged and tear-gassed into submission or whether the movement gathers enough momentum to force the Modi-Shah regime to backtrack on the obnoxious new citizenship norms and to end the vicious targeting of students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Mislim University. 

However, there are a few elements of similarity with the Navnirman agitation in the sense that the uprising in Gujarat 45 years ago initially began as a protest against an exorbitant increase in canteen food rates (just as last month’s JNU uprising was against hostel fee hike), but snowballed into an outburst of public anger over worsening economic conditions and inept governance in the State. 

The wave of student unrest sweeping through campuses right now is also directed against broader issues of betrayal by a government hell-bent on curbing Freedoms instead of providing good governance. 

The younger generation is acutely aware of that the Indian economy is spiraling downwards on every front:   slump in consumer demand, fall in industrial growth and severe shrinkage in job opportunities.  The Modi-Shah government has rapidly acquired the image of being clueless about how to stem the rot and the perception is growing that it is obsessed with a dangerous and divisive communal agenda that would almost certainly aggravate the pain of common people.  

Undoubtedly, the spark-plug for the conflagration in the northeast and elsewhere is the new Citizenship Amendment Act that has aroused fears dividing society along communal lines.   At the same time, countrywide agitations are invariably provoked by a multiplicity of factors.  

For instance, the students of three IITs - Madras, Bombay and Kanpur – who have declared support for the anti-CAA agitation and voiced anger against police atrocities on peaceful protesters at Jamia Millia Islamia, are also expressing their own lurking sense of insecurity about their own livelihood options after graduating from such elite institutions.  Even the highest qualifications and skills count for nothing in a country torn apart by sectarian strife, especially when the economy is in ruins.

 The truth is that the Citizens of the Future – which is what students are – are becoming increasingly uneasy about what they are witnessing in the present.   The youth of the country, whether in urban areas or the rural countryside, have their own unique ways of judging the rulers of the day.  

Unlike the adult working population and the elderly members of society, younger citizens are far more impatient for tangible signs of measurable progress and far less reticent about expressing their disenchantment with the way things are going. 

It is quite clear that the Modi-Shah regime, despite having been in power for almost six years, is in denial about the state of the economy and the plight of the masses.  It is also very apparent that the government’s sights are set more on goals of religious hegemony for the majority Hindu community than on the basic needs of the youth of the country - education, health and livelihood opportunities.   For instance, on Monday, at the height of the student agitation, the Home Minister seemed to give greater emphasis on his assurance that the Hindu Temple in Ayodhya would be built within the next four months, than to reassure the student community that their demands would be considered expeditiously. 

Such instances might sound trivial, but for the younger generation straining at the leash with energy and ambitions, what matters more than anything else is a sense of being taken seriously.   That is not happening – which is why more and more students belonging to diverse religions, castes and economic status, are lending their voice of support to the Nagrikta Sanshodan Kanoon Virodhi cause.

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Frontier
Dec 18, 2019