Student movement has lost steam

Chennai: It is grim reminder of how far Tamil Nadu has drifted from its glorious past that the students of Presidency College should hold a dharna last week to revive the defunct students council. Students of yesteryear had left an indelible mark with the anti-Hindi agitations dating back to the late ’30s, the pro-Mandal protests of the early ’90s, the Black July protests against Sri Lanka in 1983 and, most recently, the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle protest in IIT-Madras.

TN has an illustrious history of students and student movements being in the forefront of social reform. Reservation, rights violation or fighting communalism, casteism, imposition of language or Emergency, you name it, students of the same Pachaiyappa’s college, Presidency college and Annamalai University among others had in the past fought for it all. And they did it with vigour.

A quick ride on Gandhi-Irwin Road in Egmore will bear testimony to their social commitment. The imposing multi-storeyed CMDA headquarters, better known as Thaalamuthu Natarajan Maaligai, was named by DMK president Karunanidhi, during one of his five stints as CM, as a tribute to two youths who died during anti-Hindi agitation in 1938. That Karunanidhi did it out of sheer respect is no exaggeration considering that students also led the anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 that catapulted his DMK to power in 1967.

A decade later, the students again led from the front during the Emergency and later during the anti-Lanka protests of 1980s is another episode of the student’s movement without which the state’s history would be incomplete. And that is it not all. When most of India went viral against Mandal Commission report, TN students put all their weight behind the then Prime Minister V.P. Singh to uphold social justice. And so they did again over a decade later when the UPA regime brought in 27 per cent reservation.

It is a tragic irony that the same Dravidian parties that made full political use of students has seen student movements deteriorate or rather lie virtually obliterated. It was Karunanidhi who shut down colleges and hostels to stifle pro-Eelam student protests that spread like wild fire after Muthukumar's self-immolation in 2009.

Things have come to such a pass that student protests, mostly by members of the Law College, have now been reduced to occasional squatting or hunger strike on the road for the cause of Lankan Tamils or poor quality food supplied in the college mess.

Is management addressing students’ needs or not?

S.P. Thyagarajan Former vice chancellor of the University of Madras
Q. Whether the Madras University had student unions and whether the college statutes provide for the formation of one?
“Madras University has had student councils, which is an informal association, with a student leader nominated by campus directors to take grievances to the management. Basically, the university students have never felt the need for a student union within the campus and that is why there has never been one in all these years.”

“The original Madras University Act document had a value-based approach and expected a higher standard of student involvement when it was conceptualised. In the subsequent years, because the student discipline levels deteriorated, and a necessity arose to make changes in the statutes and define student conduct rules. But that does not prevent students from forming an overall council, just that the federal system in the university because of our five different campuses, the students have never felt they needed a union.”

Q. Whether students have lost the political involvement from yesteryear of TN student movements?
“Everything requires a behavioural maturity. Student involvement in campus affairs, even the NAAC suggests that a student representative is made a part of the board of studies and in student welfare committees etc. Unfortunately, the other element of unionism, which brings about loss of conduct among students because the priority for them has to be mature into noble citizens. In that time, if they become emotional over issues, then it is not good for both the university and the student too.”

Q. So, what is needed?
“What we are seeing today is that the lot of the youngsters are impatient but moreover, there are people trying to play on that sensationalism. Student population must always be given the freedom to express but the role of the management is to channelise the student thought process and counsel them. The managerial level responsibility is to sort out their grievances immediately. Because that helps in diffusing issues in the bud.”

“The question should not be about whether or not colleges and management let students form unions rather it should be about whether the management is addressing the student
needs or not, and that too quickly.”