The word “Politics” is derived from the Greek word “politica” which refers to a process of arriving at decisions in groups through peaceful discussions and negotiations. The groups can constitute a set of elected people’s representatives or a set of directors of a company or well-informed members of a civil society or even the elected members of a student community. All noble thinkers of the past like Plato, Aristotle, Confucius and Chanakya had written their treatises on how the political system should function for the greater good of all members constituting the community.

What is the purpose of setting up Universities? The main purpose is to empower individuals with knowledge, skills and values so that they can grow individually in their professions and also develop their society economically, aesthetically and ethically. So, while at the Universities, the students are expected to be the masters in their chosen subjects so that they can use their knowledge in making the society more peaceful and prosperous. The role of University students has been so since time immemorial. They had never been engaged in active politics of the state, although they had raised their voices apolitically, against inequality and injustice time and again. Nalanda University had been known to produce people with profound wisdom and intellectual brilliance. This University attracted students from all over the world. These students had brilliant minds while the people who preferred not to attend the University lacked intellectual power of that level. Even the Kings and their ministers had not been as erudite and wise as the Nalanda students. But even that did not prompt the Nalanda students to interfere with the activities of the state politics.

Understanding Politics is important, not active involvement in Party Politics

As has been mentioned in the preceding section, honing the decision-making skills through debates and discussions is important. But that should develop automatically while an individual strives to attain academic excellence at colleges and Universities. Of course, she can not remain insulated from the events taking place around her. She should form independent opinion on important events that are shaping the world order. That much of political consciousness should grow as an individual gets to interact with people known for their deep knowledge in the statecraft. But, for that to happen, she need not be an active member of a students’ union patronised by a political party.

The University students are expected to become leaders in their respective fields. If a few of them prefer to join party politics after University education, they are expected to become some of the best visionary political leaders of the nation, i.e. statesmen. But, all students need not join political parties. Moreover, they must learn to walk, before they try running. Most eminent politicians of India are experts in their own areas, e.g. science, technology, economics, law and medicine. Some have years of experience of working among the masses, doing social work.

We need quality scientists, social scientists, economists, engineers and doctors of character and integrity. India needs leadership in all walks of life, be it business or technology or arts and culture or even sports. India can not afford to have disruptions in the academic life of the students because of the almost full-time involvement of students and professors in active politics. It is not enough to get good grades at the Universities and then grab a good pay package post University life. Students need to acquire knowledge, skills and values that can address the problems of the Indian society and make the society a vibrant society it once had been, in the ancient times.

What then will be the functions of the students’ unions? There is a plethora of problems that students face in a University. Sometimes there are poor infrastructures. Libraries are not in possession of enough quality books. The classrooms are not equipped with modern teaching aids. Professors do not update themselves with what are happening in their own areas of “expertise”. Scholarships do not reach students in time. Auditoriums are malfunctioning. There are not enough Guest lectures on particular subjects. Examinations are sometimes not conducted in time. There is hardly any placement drive to offer students quality employment (beyond the disciplines of engineering and law) after their studies. There is no codified student safety policy with outstation students are subjected to ragging and other such medieval age harassments. In some universities, the open spaces within the campuses become the places of activities of the peddlers of liquor, drugs and cannabis after the class hours. There is enough opportunities of the students’ unions to make academic life for pleasurable and fruitful for the students. To do all such quality work within the campuses, the students need not hold the hands of political leaders. In fact, they should not allow the outsiders to enter the campuses except when they are invited to speak something that has educative values.

University students carrying political ideas that are no longer relevant today

Let’s go back to the pre-independence era. The Indian nationalists under the aegis of the Indian National Congress felt the need to involve the students in fighting British imperialism which was exploitative and oppressive. An association of 700 student activists gathered in 1931 in Karachi to form All India Students’ Federation (AISF). The first conference of AISF was held in Lucknow in 1936. Although Nehru advised inclusivity, the Federation was later splintered on religious and political lines. The students, as expected, took a militant stand against the British administration because the British rule had made Indians impoverished for the last two centuries and all sections of the society had been victims of British regime of ruthless oppression, including the students.

After independence, the student associations started to become further divided based on political ideologies. The Brish handed over a poor and underdeveloped India to the Indians, with people living below poverty line had been 70 to 80 percent of the population. The government found it extremely difficult to reduce the level of poverty in the next three decades or so. Refugees came from East and West Pakistan after being religiously persecuted there. This compounded the economic problems of the people. Students became restless as they were not sure about what had been in store for them after completion of university studies. Indeed, unemployment rate was high, average income was low and India was ridiculed as a country with “Hindu Rate of Growth”. The situation was fit for some political parties to fish in troubled waters of the universities. A narrative was set by left political parties which portrayed the root cause of all evils as capitalism and the political parties that supported the capitalists to grow and earn profits at the expense of poor Indians. They showed Maoism and Naxalism as the panacea of the economic woes of India. The students of many colleges and Universities believed in the Maoist philosophies and started fighting the administration in protest of various government policies.

Of course, there were other issues which caught the attention of the student community of India. Major Indian student movements in post-independence India were the Naxalbari movement of 60s and 70s, Anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 (predominantly by South Indian students), Navnirman Andolan (1974) for protesting against poor governance and corruption, Sampoorna Kranti (1975) against Emergency and Mandal Commission Agitation (1990) against reservation policy of the Government of India.

If we look at the cases of student unrest on a Pan India basis, we find that the movements were orchestrated by various political parties subscribing to similar left and ultra-left ideologies. Economic liberalisation policy of 1991 was a watershed moment of Indian history post-independence. The Indian students started getting better education and employment opportunities after the economy was opened up for more domestic and foreign companies. India’s real journey to prosperity began and Indian economy started growing at high rates. Now the students had no reason to believe that the government had only protected the interests of the crony capitalists. Only the students’ unions which were able to keep students sceptical about the prospect of the new economic policies, managed to survive. Needless to say, JNU, Hyderabad University, Jadavpur University and many others were so mesmerised with the left ideologies that they refused to accept that the good times had indeed arrived to the nation. Before their eyes, the Soviet bloc disintegrated and China started taking a pro market policy by discarding Maoism. There was no need to support armed struggle, to topple the government which has been doing fine under the rule of elected parties and the standard of living of all Indians has been improving dramatically in three decades following economic liberalisation. According to a reliable research, Maoist activities have reduced in India by 77% between 2009 and 2021. People hardly believe in carrying out armed insurrection, to seize state power. A few Universities still remained as pockets of student activism of a high order against whoever were in power at the centre and the states. 10 to 20 percent of students, known for doing active student politics, continue to hold the Universities to ransom on a regular basis. But everything should have a limit.

It is now more important for the students to rebuild the nation, using the opportunities available in the sphere of higher education, research and foreign collaborations in the academics. So, earlier concepts of bringing change in then society through violent means is a laughable alternative today. If the students continue to believe in class struggle and Naxalite type revolution, they are only ruining their one future while also ruining taxpayers’ hard-earned money. Political parties need not promote politics in campuses as they are expected to get talented politicians if they can cleanse the political system from criminals. If they can allow the educational institutions to function peacefully, the political parties can get better people as politicians.

A University is considered great for different reasons altogether

What is the indicator of success of a University? At this moment, the most important indicator seems to be Campus Placements at the end of the studies. How far are our Universities successful in making the students employment ready? Honestly speaking, except engineering students (mostly in the streams of Computer Science and IT), most other students are left in the lurch. These helpless students have to take up jobs that are in no way related to their subjects of specialisation. Unless this problem is properly addressed, the frustration among the students of humanities, commerce and science will only mount and that can result in students taking an anti-establishment position quite early in life. For example, at Jadavpur University, very few students of Humanities and Science get campus placements. The University does little to make them industry ready. In such a pathetic environment, the energy of the students gets channelled to active (sometimes militant) politics. In most cases of student unrest, the students of Humanities streams are found to be in the forefront.

As a corollary to the above-mentioned point, we can say that the university is not doing enough to keep in touch with various industries that could hire the students. The university-industry partnership is almost missing in most departments. Students throng to certain universities only because of their past reputation for creating talents. But past records do not guarantee present and future successes. What is important is information about the present activities of a University. Is there an academic environment in the campus? Is there regular contact with the industries? Are the students involved in research that improves the productivity of various industries? A degree has no value unless the students are more skilful in solving practical problems.

Worldwide, the worth of a University is also measured by how many winners of Nobel Prizes and Field Medals it has produced over the years. Indian Universities fare poorly on this count. A few students have received the award only after obtaining the citizenship of the US. But it can not be said that the University has been instrumental in getting their prestigious awards. At the same time, people all over the world look at how many quality research papers the university has produced and how many are indexed in citation databases.

A world class University should be able to attract foreign students in large numbers. Indian Universities lag behind many prestigious universities of the US, Canada and Europe on this criteria. Even China and Singapore are able to attract a large number of foreign students now. The Indian University which is known for student politics will never be then destination of the foreign students.

Are Indian universities measuring students' satisfaction scores? Can the students give feedback on the quality of teaching, campus safety and campus placements? The answer is a big No. One reason for this is that the students do not want to talk about the quality of teaching and campus placements. Instead, they are busy writing political posters vilifying the national leaders, shouting slogans against the Vice Chancellors and engaging in fisticuffs with fellow students belonging to a rival students’ union. The University does not have to collect detailed feedback from the students about the quality of teaching and other facilities. The Professors find no reasons to improve the quality and methodology of teaching. If this is University life, then God save such a University!

Where do we go from here?

Many of our Universities are grappling with the menace of active politics of students. The Universities that impart technical education only are somewhat better placed. Many such institutes are already known as Institutes of Eminence and therefore they are well known for Campus Placements. Most others are rudderless ships. It seems, students need some influencers to change their thought patterns. The students must be told by some influencers that India is ready to offer better life and employment opportunities to them. India is not a banana republic and is more respected by the world than ever before. They only have to focus more on academics and the role of their unions has to change. The unions have to continuously suggest the universities to make education more linked to industry and request the University administration to invite various top companies to source talents from Universities. Students’ Unions have to play a positive role for the student community. It is no longer fashionable to be a Maoist. Maoism was rejected in the country of its origin long ago. All students can have a bright future if they come out of active politics and utilise their university days more productively for themselves and the nation. We need a different kind of “Revolution” on the campuses that can catapult India to a vital “Soft Power” in the world.

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