Fifty Glorious Years Of SFI: Prakash Karat
Prakash Karat
The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) was formed at its first conference held in Trivandrum in December 1970. The formation of this new student organisation was necessitated by a number of factors. Firstly, the All India Students Federation (AISF), which was the premier organisation of students in the anti-imperialist freedom struggle, had declined and become a reformist organisation which did not firmly take on the Congress government and its policies.
The late 1960s was a period when internationally the student movement arose, radicalised by the US aggression and war on Vietnam. In the US, Europe, Japan and other countries, Left-wing student movements grew and militant protests were conducted. The May 1968 student revolt in Paris shook the French government especially when the working class joined the struggle.
Within India, there was growing discontent against the Congress government from the mid-1960s. Price rise, food shortages and corruption were problems which affected students too. Many militant struggles by students erupted in various places. It may be recalled that, for the first time, the Congress party lost in nine states during the general elections held in 1967.
It was, thus, an opportune time for the formation of the SFI which could lead the democratic students’ movement.
The period 1973 to 1975 saw widespread student struggles on a scale and intensity which was more than a similar outburst in 1965-66. These struggles had as their focus cheap and mass education to enable students to pursue their education; struggles to reform the educational system; and finally defence of democratic rights and fight against the government’s anti-people policies.
The seventies saw the expansion of the organised, democratic student movement. This was reflected in the growth of the SFI since its foundation conference in December 1970. The SFI led many mass movements in defence of the economic and educational demands of the students. The economic crisis deepened in the first half of the seventies-and the student movement had to struggle to ensure cheap text books note books and educational material for the students, for cheaper kerosene in the villages, for mid-day meals etc. All these were directed to make education accessible to the common people. Further the progressive student movement and the SFI in particular fought for educational reform and to make a mass democratic and scientific educational system a reality. It was also in the forefront in the defence of students’ rights in an atmosphere of growing authoritarianism.
Another major issue which confronted the student movement was the new orientation of government policy. With the deteriorating economic situation and growing educated unemployed, the Congress government at the Centre and in the states began resorting to hike institution fees, restriction of entry in educational institutions and halting the trend towards abolition of fees in the secondary school stage. The student movement had to fight against these anti-student measures and struggles took place on the broad issue of defending the right to education. Big struggles were led by the SFI in West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura, Andhra and Punjab in this period. This served to channelise the student discontent on democratic lines.
The SFI began with a membership of 1.24 lakhs in 1970 and by the Third Conference at Patna in 1979 its membership was 4,12 lakhs. This was an advance; behind this was steady organisational growth in many new states. The SFI was in the forefront in the struggle for democratic rights and defence of democracy. In West Bengal, the SFI played a heroic role in the reign of terror which was extended to the educational institutions in the period of semi-fascist terror. Hundreds of SFI activists had to leave the educational institutions. Teachers were murdered. Yet the SFI fought against the anarchy sought to be fostered by the Chhatra Parishad-Youth Congress hoodlums and the Naxalites. It was the most difficult but a glorious period in the history of the SFI. Because of its tenacious work, the SFI retained its links with the students and continued its mass activities.
The Emergency was preceded by growing militancy in student struggles. Because of the SFI’s prominent role in defence of democracy and students’ rights, the Emergency saw a severe attack on its leadership and cadre. Nine of the CEC members including the Secretaries of Kerala, Assam, Orissa and Presidents of Tripura and Orissa were jailed under MISA. 4 other CEC members were wanted. Over 60 cadres of the SFI all over the country were detained under MISA and hundreds had DIR cases against them. In Kerala alone over 600 cases of DIR were filed against SFI activists. Mustafa, a young SFI activist, died in jail as he could not get proper medical treatment. Along with this hundreds of SFI cadres were denied admission in educational institutions. The SFI despite all the attacks continued to organise activities and protest actions during the emergency.
The struggle of the students in JNU, under the SFI-led JNUSU, against the Emergency period (1975-77) attacks was a notable chapter of the student movement. The JNUSU president and another SFI activist were in jail under MISA in this period.
The SFI brought out as early as 1973 an alternative plan for the educational system – from the primary stage to the university stage. Since the third Conference in Patna in 1979, the SFI took important initiatives to unite with other student organisations on question of war and peace, national unity, employment for all etc.
The decade of the 1980s saw a consolidation of the expansion and activities of the SFI. The SFI made its presence felt in new areas such as Himachal Pradesh and attracted sections of university and professional students. More attention was paid to developing united struggles.
The decade of 1990s saw the rise of the Hindutva communal forces. From the outset, the SFI had been fighting for a secular educational syllabus and was firmly combating the ideology and politics of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). In the 1990s, after the rise of the Hindutva forces in a big way, the SFI had to devote considerable time and energy to counter the divisive communal propaganda of the ABVP in the campuses. Wherever BJP state governments were formed, they revised the syllabus and introduced communal content in the textbooks. The SFI was in the forefront in opposing such communalization of the educational system.
This was a struggle which had to be continued when the Vajpayee government was formed at the Centre and determined efforts were made to introduce Hindutva ideas into the textbooks and curriculum.
Currently, since the Modi government came to power in 2014, for the past six years, there has been a planned and systematic effort to revamp the educational system, both to accommodate the Hindutva ideology and neo-liberal values. At no time have the campuses in India faced such an authoritarian onslaught. The Central Universities have been particularly targeted for suppressing democratic student activities and to regiment them on authoritarian lines. The SFI is in the lead in fighting against these attacks in many universities and educational institutions.
The SFI, along with other democratic student and teachers organisations, is building a movement against the new education policy which is a blueprint for privatisation of the educational system, introduction of market values and eroding the secular basis of education. In conducting these struggles, the 50 years of glorious heritage of the SFI and its innumerable martyrs will stand the organisation in good stead to face these multiple challenges’.
Prakash Karat is a Politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was SFI’s All India President between 1974 and 1979. Karat was also the third JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) President.
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