SFI@50: Solidarity From Across The World
Student Struggle Editorial Team
The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) today completes fifty years of study and struggle. From across the world, the organisation has received messages of solidarity and support for their relentless fight for India’s student community. Below are two such messages:
Indo-European Solidarity for Human Rights and Democratic Values
Statement Celebrating 50 Years of Student Federation of India
The past year has been pivotal in Indian student history, with students in particular being targeted through physical violence by police and Hindutva attackers, and persecuted for their commitment to a progressive, democratic and egalitarian India. We, the undersigned, are students, professors, researchers and all individuals irrespective of nationalities concerned about human rights in India. In the past year, we have held solidarity marches across the world condemning the attacks on students on the JNU campus, Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University, and other universities. We therefore reach out to celebrate fifty years of the Student Federation of India (SFI), and stand in solidarity with its dedicated work. SFI has always been in the frontline to challenge the populist moments and dilution of educational policies in India, and we support SFI in its relentless stand for the pursuit of student rights in India without discrimination. As education is the most powerful resource against oppression, we encourage SFI to continue its non-violent fight, and address injustices wherever and to whomever they occur.
To cite Paulo Freire, we “cannot expect positive results from an educational or political action program which fails to respect the particular view of the world held by the people.” The work of SFI is becoming more important and urgently needed by the day as the Hindutva government increasingly dilutes the democratic content of secondary and higher education syllabi. We recall how the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) 2019 decided to remove the topics of challenges to democracy and movements fighting to preserve democracy from class 10 examinations, despite these being aspects that urgently need discussing. As Indian solidarity groups that formed in defence of the Indian constitution and minority rights, we agree with SFI’s ontological standpoint that sees modern manifestations of injustice as the result of the interplay between various harmful ideologies – neoliberalism just as much as fascism and colonialism.
We are heartbroken that SFI’s efforts evoke violent responses. That SFI must have a section on its website commemorating its “martyrs” in the first place makes our hearts heavy with grief, and we firmly hope that the struggle for education may one day no longer be an actual fight. As the attack in January 2020 on Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University nears its one-year mark, we recall how victims are blamed for the gruesome violence perpetrated against themselves. The SFI immediately stood up in support of the victims with protests not only in Delhi and NRC, but across India. Through these nation-wide protests, SFI makes the strong statement that it stands in solidarity with victims of violence, wherever they are, and that the struggle against communalism and fascism requires all of India’s youth to unite against injustice. We acknowledge that the SFI’s boycotting and disrupting of classes after the attack on JNU has reaped criticism, quite similar to youth around the world participating in Fridays for Future. As Indians abroad, we are aggrieved the state of the world is as precarious as it is, and that people feel they must make a choice between classes or justice.
With over forty lakh members, SFI is already India’s largest student association. We hope that SFI will continue on its mission towards inclusivity and as affirmed in SFI’s constitution welcome anyone dedicated to democratic values, as this is essential for overcoming societal divisions that unnaturally divide people.”
#SFI #CAVACH
Bangladesh Students’ Union Central Committee
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