Ideological Struggle Is Crucial For The Student Movement: Talking To Irfan Habib
Irfan Habib, Nitheesh Narayanan
Prof. Irfan Habib is one of the world’s greatest Marxist historians. He has been a leading voice of the country’s secular and democratic ethos. On the 13th of November 2022, at the age of 91, Prof. Habib inaugurated the Unit Conference of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Uttar Pradesh. The SFI has now concluded its 17th All India Conference, and Prof. Habib was the inaugurator of the SFI’s 4th All India Conference in Mumbai in 1981, and three decades ago, he was an active member of the organisation too. His legendary life, therefore, is also the story of India’s student movement. This write up arose out of Prof. Habib’s inaugural address at the SFI-AMU Unit Conference and a conversation that followed between him and Nitheesh Narayanan, the Editor of this journal.
My association with the Students’ Federation
My association with the Students’ Federation began 75 years ago in a curious way. When Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, there was a massive demonstration in Aligarh, in which almost all of AMU’s students participated. There were only about two thousand students or less at the time at the university, but they all took part. Along with the Congress, there was also the Communist Party’s demonstration, in which very assertive slogans were raised against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Hindu Mahasabha. There, I met students who belonged to the Students Federation, and my relation with the movement took birth there. I had just joined the university as a first-year student. Decades have passed since that day.
Role of the students’ movement
A major problem while being engaged with the students’ movement is that one would only stay in the organisation for about five-six years while a college or university student, unlike being in a trade union, as one remains in a profession one’s entire life. It is thus a transitory position. Nevertheless, it is very important for all cultural and political movements, because one’s main ideas are formed when one is a student. If you are in a casteist or communal organisation, that shapes one’s outlook towards life and political perceptions. For India’s future, therefore, if one wants people who think, rational people, or people not simply guided by religion or caste or other prejudices, then the phase in which one is a student is extremely crucial. For, as I said, that is exactly when one’s real political ‘education’ takes place.
The purpose of a strong students’ movement is not only to promote socialist values, but to rationalism – simple rationalism – and democratic values as well, ideas that are all under severe attack in India today. This does not mean that we must give up socialist values, but that we must expand our work among students and take up the issue of ideological struggle. We must be able to respond to everything that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and like-minded hate mongers raise in the form of propaganda in the country. The students’ movement can play a major role in this. The second purpose of the movement is to unite students, not for their privileges, but for their rights, and for scientific education. It must not be forgotten that one of the ideas or objectives of the student movement is to promote the spread of education. We must fight for an education system that is effective and also helps the large number of people who otherwise are unable to access India’s education system.
The objectives of student movements are important and sweeping, and this, we took for granted in the 1950s. Our Prime Minister himself was always talking about scientific spirit, and we were then more interested in students’ rights. We were not so interested in ‘simple’ democratic values or scientific spirit, because at the time, the whole country was talking about those things! Now, however, it is extremely crucial to take up campaigns against communalism, against casteism, against chauvinism and communalism, and in favour of social equality. All of this is much more necessary than they were ever before, and thus, today’s student movement must consciously take them up.
I remember that during my days as a student, a large section of students in our hall refused to dine with Dalit students. In fact, the majority felt that Dalit students had to be confined to a corner and eat there. Though not many people supported us, we took a strong position against it. We must realise that casteism or communalism is not just upheld by the RSS or the Hindu nationalists alone. It is a pervasive ideology, and we must, therefore, be engaged in a constant process of ideological education against it. This is a vital aspect in the building of a strong movement of and for India’s students.
New Education Policy 2020
India’s student movement arose out of the national struggle for freedom against British rule – so we have a strong tradition to look back upon. Today, practically every concept of the national movement – or any rational thought that originated as part of the Bengal renaissance, from great thinkers like Ram Mohan Roy and Rabindranath Tagore – is in danger because the country’s education system has been transformed. The new National Education Policy (2020) is fraudulent and is aimed at divesting all rational thought from the Indian educational system.
For instance, in the History syllabus now prescribed for Indian universities, there is a Nazi-like assertion in the superiority of the Aryan race, something which nobody believes in. All around the world, people are increasingly of the view that those who believe in Aryan supremacy must be sent to the lunatic asylum. However, in India, this is becoming the official doctrine. It incorrectly places Indian civilisation as the derivative of the Aryan race and at the centre of world civilisations. Two major sites of the Indus Valley civilization that exist in present-day Pakistan have clear similarity with Dravidian scriptures, but our official doctrine still overlooks it. We are not only distorting the Indus Valley civilization and calling it Aryan, but also making it Brahmanical.
In conclusion, not only rational, scientific, and socialist values, even common humanitarian values of the bourgeois civilization are under severe attack today. I am not going into its details now. The proposed centralisation of the school curriculum will have disastrous consequences on the rational and critical thinking of a whole generation currently being schooled in the country. This is a clear reversal of all our limited achievements, aspirations, and goals set by our national movement.
We felt very proud, but lonely too
In 1992, riots broke out in Aligarh, and many Muslims and Hindus were killed. Within this university, four Hindus, including a medical student, and three Muslims were killed. Some patients died at the Medical College. There was a feeling that they had been put away. I do not know the truth, but this was the kind of situation. The then BJP government had been dismissed, and the UP government announced one lakh rupees to the widows of those killed, and people had gone to collect it. One lakh rupees was a significant amount at the time. We, from the Employees’ Union, too were present there. Prof. B.L Bhadani was President, and I was a worker in the union, though I had been President too. A delegation of ours went to the District Magistrate (DM) to demand that all widows receive compensation, irrespective of their religion, as there were many bureaucratic obstacles such as police verification etc. The DM invited us in and we explained what had happened. I said, “Please, sir, expedite the police investigation.” So he said, “No, there won’t be a police investigation for the widows.” I got up and thanked him. He said, “I’m very glad that there is an organisation to speak for both Hindu and Muslim widows. Nobody else has come.” At that moment, we felt very proud, but lonely too. Nobody else had gone to the DM for people from both the communities. Today, our task is even harder than it was in 1992.
As we were organising a trade union, like the Employees’ Union, we often went to many large factories in Aligarh. However, they have all closed, so the unions have gone. Be it the electricity union, postal workers, insurance workers, banking unions and everywhere else – we were all fighting both communalism and casteism. Workers’ unity, just like students’ unity, will not emerge if you have these two diseases among us. We have to particularly fight the nexus of these two menaces, which is unique to India. At the same time, the student movement must also continue its struggle for the defence of students’ rights and for the promotion of secular scientific education.
If we have an excellent student movement, then we also have good recruits for the working class and trade union movements. I hope when you all pass out, you will also help other progressive-democratic organisations. You have your whole life in front of you, decades and decades. All good wishes for that. If there is a strong student movement, it will then contribute to the country’s larger democratic movement.
For all these reasons, I particularly greet this conference of the SFI. I hope that when you meet next, your number will be larger. The fact that you all have gathered here is a matter of great satisfaction for me in my old age.
AMU’s glorious history
The AMU provided English education to students which in turn fuelled the anti-colonial movement and a desire for democracy. English education meant you learned about democracy in England, and this could not be prevented. There was sympathy towards the Congress among students. Both Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Mahatma Gandhi were given a very enthusiastic reception in Aligarh during their tours across north India. However, Gandhi ruined the moment by speaking about ‘self help’, rather than about independence. Hasrat Mohani was a product of AMU. In 1903, Mohani was one of the first nationalists to be sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment. He was an important figure who always stood with the communist movement, but was never able to join it because of his membership in the Muslim League. He was an interesting figure too. He didn’t go to Pakistan, even though he was elected from the Muslim League’s ticket, and continued to move very radical amendments in the Indian Constitution, such as that India should be a union of socialist republics. This AMU alumnus thus kept the banner of Left aloft in the Constituent Assembly. Then there were other nationalist leaders who were important to the Left movement as well as Congress. Saleem Iqbal Shervani was actually the President of Uttar Pradesh-Congress, but he died early. In 1940, however, the Muslim League took over AMU, though there were many people on the Left as well.
Suddenly after I finished my Masters, I received a letter from the then Ministry of Education, containing a huge grant to conduct research on Mediaeval Indian History, saying that it was not given due importance in universities, where the focus was on Ancient and Modern Histories. The government considered AMU as a possible centre to build knowledge on mediaeval India, as it was even then an institution with experts in Persian and other mediaeval languages. As part of this, they created a professorship, readership and two lecturer posts here. At the time, these were critical initiatives. For research students, they introduced a big library grant which was really unimaginable at that time. I was appointed as a Lecturer. One has to give credit to the then government for all this. Tara Chand, the then Education Secretary, was a very secular historian. His Influence of Islam on Indian Culture, published in 1928, is still important. I do not know Arabic, but he knew Persian, Arabic, as well as Sanskrit. Thus, the national movement considered such people important, and they collectively transformed the general policy of education in important ways. The Education Commission’s first report which came around 1950, must be read carefully today, for it is totally against everything that the new NEP (2020) embodies. One can clearly see the emphasis on liberty, secularism, and rational thought in the 1950 report.
When I became a student in 1947, India was witnessing many massacres as part of Partition. Many around us were leaving for Pakistan. However, we did not miss a single class. If a teacher left for Pakistan, the university replaced them with a new one. The university student population reduced from about 5000 to 800, but classes continued. However, what is the scenario in India now? Online education has become a joke. Education has lost its meaning.
Memories with AK Gopalan (AKG)
AKG was a great leader. It was AKG who inaugurated AMU’s Employees’ Union office. When he came to the inauguration, I translated his speech from English to Hindi. We do not always get a leader like AKG.
Once, some areas of Aligarh were hit by communal riots and AKG decided to travel to the city as soon as he received the upsetting news. He sent me a letter, not even a telegram, to inform me that he was reaching here on a particular date. Fortunately, I received the letter that morning and I rushed to the railway station to receive him. He wanted to directly go to the riot-hit area. Dhyan Singh, an Aligarh-based communist leader, and I accompanied him there. That was AKG. The moment the people saw him, both Hindus and Muslims, gathered around to listen to what he had to say. AKG was of course not fluent in their language, but everyone loved him. His presence had the strength to melt down the atmosphere of hostility. He was that kind of a leader.
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