UoH: Triumph of Grand Alliance redefines the strength of social justice

It was a hard task for students of the Left as well as Ambedkarite organisations to come together and contest as allies — those who had otherwise fought elections in the University of Hyderabad against each other for the past several years using bitter slogans to score individual electoral points. A major reason behind the alliance, thus, was a strong sense of apprehension regarding a ‘Sangh Parivar onslaught’, which indeed turned out to be accurate since Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) emerged as the single largest political organisation in the recently concluded campus elections.

The oath for an ABVP-free UoH campus dates back to the days of Rohith Vemula’s struggle for social justice as students of Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) too had to go through the bitter agony of losing their fellow associate Rohith and thereafter a constant social boycott of other students by the University administration (which as is now well-known has a greater nexus with BJP-led central government). ASA, particularly, and Students Federation of India (SFI) too had lived through the intimidations of ABVP in the campus that has grown over the past couple of years with institutional impunity. And, the victory of Alliance for Social Justice reaffirms the fact that there is a growing need being felt among student communities to thwart any attempt of saffronisation of university spaces. And this can only happen through coming together of progressive forces and all marginalised communities including Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims.

The Grand Alliance has not taken place as an ideological compromise, but specifically, as a befitting counter-fascist reply to growing Hindutva forces inside the campus and outside too. The Alliance is more of a socio-political understanding against the fascist forces that almost all higher education campuses across the country are plagued with at the moment. The coalition, clearly, was against fascism, and against the communal rhetoric of ABVP and the likes.

Interestingly, it is perhaps the first time that Left students’ organisation such as SFI, decided to be part of the movement for social justice, unlike their counterparts in JNU.  UoH’s students of SFI made a very serious attempt to engage with the idea of social justice. Taking almost a backseat in the alliance, they fielded their general secretary candidate in the central panel, allowing ASA, Tribal Students Forum (TSF), Dalit Students Union (DSU) and Muslim Students Federation (MSF) to field their individual candidature resulting in  virtually the coming together of all marginalised communities including three Dalits, two Muslims and a tribal student — who claimed victory an unseen victory across the country. Hence, UoH has set a new precedence. There is no better time but this to find a synthesis in the Marxian thesis of Reconstruction of World and Dr Ambedkar’s concept of Social Overhaul. Bypassing this model of social justice and empowerment of the marginalised by progressive Leftist students in other university campuses would do greater damage in their greater fight against fascism.

Therefore, students of Ambedkarite and the Left organisations must find a niche for a substantive coalition at various levels. There needs to be the annihilation of ideological orthodoxy on both sides. Socio-political exceptionalism can create a larger space in combining both these forces. Everybody talks about accommodating differences but nobody really is comfortable with differences. Many differences are being floated ensuring the differences to grow. For that reason, reciprocal solutions may be worked out to advance the dialogue and negotiations in near future. The idea to espouse inclusive politics in the campuses will also send a clear message to the politics at large. This approach eventually may well take roots in reducing Hindutva’s rise as a mainstream dominant political ideology.

Students’ politics is always about a pledge to challenge the existing hegemonic narratives, specifically the frenzied ones created by BJP-RSS duo, be it chauvinistic forms of nationalism or cultural marginalisation of the minorities. The victory of Alliance for Social Justice is a victory over politics of exclusion and bullying. UoH has shown the way forward as to how to maintain a democratic, secular, pluralistic character of a university. It is for other institutions of higher learning to peruse and follow suit. The flurry and chaos that is there in the university spaces will remain unless a ‘rainbow coalition’ materialises. Else institutes of higher education will appear to be ‘intellectual wasteland’.