Student Participation In Politics


Dr.B.Kalyani, M.A, M.Phil, B.Ed, P.Hd, Senior Lecturer, RMK Engineering College

    Their was a general trend among the academicians in India. before independence to advise students not to participate in Politics.

    It was actually initiated by the British who did not want the young blood to enter politics. In those days politics meant opposition of the British. Most of the students who entered politics those days in Bengal, U.P., Bihar and Maharashtra turned revolutionaries.

    Although Congress was dominated by elderly or middle aged people yet a large number of students left their studies and joined the independence movements in 1921, 1930, 1936 and 1942. Mahatma Gandhi had exhorted school and college students to work in villages during holidays and vacation and to serve the nation. It was this young blood that made even the non-violent movements full of spirit and enthusiasm.

    But the elderly people and many teachers and academicians who were obliged by the British advised the students to concentrated upon their studies only. If the participation of students in politics was rather essential to bring independence to the country it is all the more necessary for the country to maintain the independence and the healthy trends of democracy. The world is changing fast. As there are changes in other fields there should be changes in the political norms too.

    The older generation and those who have to share the responsibility of upbringing of children and maintenance of the family generally stick to the old traditions. They are traditional and grow conservative. To bring changes or to have innovations in any field is generally beyond them.

    They gradually become self-centered too and want to avoid risks If the people are self-centered it goes against the interests of the nation. It is the young college and university students to think in new directions and can have a deep sense of sacrifice tool. It is rather a necessity that the old blood is replaced by the young in politics too right from the college stage.

    It is only the young who can meet the challenge of the dynamism in national and international politics. It is only the students who can stand, and have stood, against the tyranny of a government that turns undemocratic and autocratic. They can do it only when they enter politics.

    More than sixty per cent of the people who opposed the Emergency in 1977-78 after a spell of two years of cruelty, and filled the jails were students. Had the students not participated in this movement India might have been changed into an autocratic regime?

    In South Africa, those who oppose the apartheid, in Sri Lanka those Tamilians who are against the undemocratic moves of the Colombo government, in Sindh those who dare oppose a military dictator, in Bangladesh those who raise their voice against a continued military regime and in Assam those who organized political opposition were and are all college and university students.

    The youth who came to power in Assam in 1985 were all formerly student activists of assam students Union. The Chief Minister was a law student and was not yet married. Since 1980 the stream of politics, in India, has become more dirty.

    A full brigade of 100 young members in the Parliament would not allow one to speak freely in Pradesh, rather the whole of North has witnessed attacks on polling booths. The disease has already entered Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It was noticed even in Andhra Pradesh during perished elections in 1987.

    It is gradually penetrating the politics of the South too. It is only the college and university students who can stand against it and compel theses mafias either to leave politics or mend their ways. It is rather imperative on the part of young students to purify the stream of politics by entering it whole heartedly. Politics in India, Now-a-days, has taken a negative form. Most of the politicians criticize others — rather most of the people criticize others and the government.

    Different parties have no sense of tolerance which is the key-note of a healthy democracy. Patience is a quality among the young students. A politician should have patience to listen to the views of others patiently and to tolerate each other. If sober and sincere young men do not rise to the occasion the country will face humiliation at the hands of the youth wing of the ruling part whose members made the dirtiest scenes of goondaism, drunkenness and attempt at rape during international Youth Festival in Pyongyang in 1989.

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