Linking Our Struggles With Larger Issues Is Crucial: Aisha Abdulkader

Aisha Abdulkader, Arjun Premkumar

Arjun Premkumar (AP): How have the protests inside the TISS campus in Mumbai shaped up over the past two months? Since this too one of the many campuses that protested against fee hike, and has been at the forefront of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in Mumbai, what processes go on within this campus that make possible organised protests under the Students’ Union’s banner?

Aisha Abdulkader (AA): The first protest to have seen huge mobilization in TISS’s Mumbai campus was the GOI-PMS protest, which happened about 3 years ago. It was a defining moment, for a lot of students had come together at the time for a single cause. This set the tone for the political discourse within campus, with respect to issues related to college-fees. This was not limited to the Mumbai campus, but was soon taken up with equal fervour in all the four campuses of the TISS across the country. Each campus had its own large mobilisation and unique forms of protests.

After this, the campus has always been quite politically active with an active culture of discussions and debates, which has continued across the years – be it on campus-specific issues or those of nation concern. Various forms of protests – from the issuance of statements to resistance art – have been adopted as means of protest within campus.

When I got elected a Union member, there was an issue regarding the payment of a huge sum of fee in a single go. The Union, with the support of other students, was able to pressurise the administration to ensure that no student had to leave campus due to their inability to pay this fees. Negotiations and discussions with the administration are still on in order to evolve a better system of fee payment and also to make the campus more accessible to students from the marginalised backgrounds – be it with regards to Dining Hall facilities, Hostel facilities, the timely distribution of scholarship money, or looking at new sources for scholarships. It is through these methods that the current demographic shift that is underway on campus, due to the high fee factor, will be able brought under control.

With respect to anti-CAA protests, students’ gatherings have been taking place inside the TISS-Mumbai campus since day one, when the Bill (now Act) was discussed in Parliament. This was way before the nationwide protests gathered steam, in fact. Gradually, these gatherings were able to generate an understanding within the student body about the dangers of the Act, and was at the same time able to mobilise larger parts of the student body. Then as protests started taking shape across Mumbai, the students of TISS actively went out and took part in all of those protests, lending strength to them as well as extending solidarity to larger struggles. On the 15th of December, when the attack on Jamia Millia Islamia happened, we had an immediate gathering of students within campus. It was decided in this gathering to take out a protest march in solidarity with Jamia the very next day. It was a student-driven protest, supported by the Students’ Union. A huge chunk of students, about 500 or so, boycotted their classes and fieldwork to join the protest march. Even a few of the faculty joined this march, which was from the campus to Ambedkar Garden. TISS students were also active participants in the national protest of the 19th of December, when we joined the August Kranti Maidan protest. From then on, we have joined a number of other protests in and around Mumbai city, and at the same time, discussions and debates continue to go on inside the campus till date.

AP: You mentioned that struggles and negotiations are still on within campus and will continue in the future. Where do you see these protests going from here? Also, what do you consider an effective way to achieve the aims of the anti-CAA protesters?

AA: As I’ve said, discussions and discourse is continuing. Meanwhile, we have been bearing the brunt of a coordinated attack by the BJP and other Hindutva forces. They have systematically targeted the Students Union, a few students within campus, and the image of the college in general. As you must be aware, sedition cases were recently charged against a few students here. While all of this happening on the one hand, we are also optimistic about the larger struggles against CAA happening in the country. We just have to look at the aftermath of some of these protests. Take a look at the number of states which have passed a resolution against this draconian Act. These states have also declared that they will not go ahead with the NPR process. Today, as we’re speaking, a Union Territory has passed a resolution against CAA-NRC-NPR.

We should also know that the BJP government is pretty shaken by all the protests happening across the country. The sheer number and intensity of these protests have to be taken cognisance of. Even now, two months since they began, none of these protests show a sign of dying down or even slowing down. Take a look at Shaheen Bagh – how strong the women there still are! A lot of ‘Shaheen Baghs’ are popping up every single day. Thousands continue to flow towards them daily. It is also a fact that the protests are not limited to any single community – participation is large and wide. All those who believe in the secular ethos and the constitutional values of our nation have come together for this fight.

Thinking about the way forward, I feel it is very important to streamline of the protest and link it with larger issues. Going beyond CAA-NRC, we should be able to link it up with the problems of the marginalised sections in our society like Dalits, women, workers, and farmers. When the call for a Workers’ Strike was given for the 8th of January, a similar call was given by students for a nationwide strike on the same day – maintaining this linkage, I feel, is significant. Current protests against CAA-NRC-NPR should lead to a larger struggle against the draconian rule of BJP itself and this should reflect in electoral politics as well. We should also be looking at alternatives simultaneously.

AP: How do you look at the various protests that have taken place and are continuing in various parts of the country in the context of CAA?

AA: There has been resistance against a lot of policies of the BJP government, but with CAA, this resistance has gotten more united. This has resulted in larger mobilisation of people across the country – people have come together simply to fight this Act. We should also notice who all have become the symbols or faces of the movement – women from minority sections have been leading the movement, be it in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh or at the many other ‘Shaheen Baghs’ that have come up elsewhere. Students have also taken to the streets, leading a great number of protests. Almost all the universities in the country have expressed their dissent, and precisely because of this, students are those who are made to face State-sponsored violence.

The RSS is trying to make this a Hindu v/s Muslim issue, but if we look at all these protests, the major symbols used have been the Indian flag as well as the Indian Constitution. This itself is an answer to the question of who are the ‘nationals’ and who the ‘anti-nationals’. Besides, all these protests have been peaceful and non-violent in nature, while members of the BJP have been the ones instigating violence, saying things like “goli maro” (shoot them down) etc.

This movement has also helped in changing the stereotypes held up in society regarding the Muslim community in general. The community has always been portrayed as violent or as terrorists and the like. Now, seeing them holding national symbols like the tricolour has helped rebuild the image of an Indian Muslim.

I also feel that this movement shouldn’t be restricted to just CAA, but in addition, should be brought in question with the neo-liberal policies of the BJP government. What their policies have done to our economy should also influence our struggles and the protests have to be made clearer and wider thereby.

AP: The government has unleashed a wave of fee hikes across public universities in the country. Is this a new policy shift of BJP-II or have attacks on public education always been their objective?

AA: No, this is not a new policy attributable to the current NDA regime alone. It comes as part and parcel of the neo-liberal framework. Similar policies were implemented by the UPA governments as well. It should never be simplified as just a BJP agenda and in the process give a clean chit to UPA, which has also done massive damage to our country’s public education. Fee hikes and fund cuts majorly affect the demography within campuses, and can have a negative impact especially on students from marginalised backgrounds. It is very difficult to get access into education spaces in the first place and with massive fee hikes, it becomes even more difficult. Education being treated as a commodity, rather than as a public good, should be resisted.

With the BJP, there’s a wholesale attack on education itself. They follow the system of replacing “facts with beliefs, history with mythology and science with superstition”. They have actively been trying to restrict educational spaces as they don’t want any voice of dissent from university spaces. Whenever a question is raised on their policies, they’re quick to silence those who question by labelling them as “left”, “radicals” or “anti-nationals”. Educational spaces are where students mould themselves and start thinking rationally, but the government doesn’t want to foster rational thought. They keep diluting university spaces by adding little mixtures of Hindutva, for example, the appointment of Right-leaning Vice Chancellors in universities. Besides, Hindutva and neo-liberalism go hand in hand really well. Both cater to the demands of the market in some way or the other. Their idea of an educational institute is meant to generate certain skill-sets that the market values highly. Therefore, students study to get placed, get out into the market, do their job and be satisfied with what they have. The very culture of questioning is antithetical to their idea of a space of learning.

I also want to just peek into the gender dimension of this issue. For women, it is a very big thing to simply get into these university spaces. In today’s world, it might be possible for a girl-child to get a primary education, but for them to do higher education, under graduation, and post graduation is still a far off dream. Yet, they negotiate with all of these hurdles and establish their own spaces within universities. But then, a fee hike is introduced, reducing the opportunities of these women – especially in most Muslim families, where parents are not ready to spend a lot of money for the higher education of their female children.

We also have to keep in mind the booking of private universities within the country and the quality of education within these institutes. There is a lot to problematize, lots to think about, and lots to do.

AP: Tell me more about your own politics. How did it evolve? Who were the key influences and was there a specific event which shaped your way of looking at the world?

AA: Of course, I can’t ignore the fact that I come from the state which passed the first resolution against the NRC-CAA in the country – Kerala. It is true that the politics within my state influenced me deeply while growing up. My father has associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), but has never tried to impose his politics on any of us, neither my mother, nor my siblings. We were always given a space of discussion with him, which has greatly helped me evolve my own politics. I also grew up seeing the work of the Communist Party within my state and within my locality, which I felt was way better than that done by other political parties in there.

Also, coming from a Muslim background – where women are not usually given the freedom to educate themselves or to work – the fact that I’m doing my post graduation in an institute like TISS has a lot to do with what my father has believed in. It was his politics which led him to think different from his family members, which gave me the opportunity to exercise my basic right of getting a fair chance at higher education. This has made me have a very personal and emotional connect with the Party. I have also been working with the Party in whatever way possible. During election campaigns, my house would be filled with Party workers discussing the intricacies of the campaign trail. I grew up seeing all this.

It was within TISS that I had the first real opportunity to closely work with a left-wing organisation as such, the Progressive Students’ Forum (PSF). Being a part of PSF gave me an opportunity to explore my politics and to mould myself as an organizer, leader, and a worker. It gave me space to read more about the Left in general and nuance my understanding of it. Contesting elections within the campus, experiencing campus politics was an experience quite different from what I had experienced in Kerala. It gave its own set of lessons, and seeing other streams of politics within the campus has only made me closer to the Left, and I strongly believe that this is the right way forward.

In India today, we see a lot of people coming up to uphold progressive and secular values, especially during recent protests. All those protesters, especially the women of Shaheen Bagh, I’m sure will have an everlasting effect on me. Slogans of progressiveness, secularism and constitutional values stand close to my ideology and I feel very comforted at the fact that these have become the hallmarks of the recent protests within the country. This only makes me even more certain to what is the way forward for me and my politics.

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Aisha Abdulkader is current General Secretary of the Students Union (2019-20) at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai.

Arjun Premkumar is a student at TISS-Mumbai and a member of the Progressive Students’ Forum (PSF).

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