Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Explained

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad
(ABVP)
Type:Student organisation
Status:Active
Headquarters:Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Region Served:India
Leader Title:National President
Leader Name:Rajsharan Shahi
Leader Title2:National General Secretary
Leader Name2:Yagywalkya Shukla
Leader Title3:National Organising Secretary
Leader Name3:Ashish Chauhan
Parent Organization:Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is a right-wing and a independent all India student organisation affiliated to the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).[1] [2] [3]

History

The ABVP, founded in 1948 with the initiative of the RSS activist Balraj Madhok, was formally registered on 9 July 1949.[4] Its purpose when founded was to counter communist influence on university campuses.[5] Yashwantrao Kelkar, a lecturer in Bombay, became its main organiser in 1958. According to the ABVP website, he built the organisation into what it is now and is considered to be 'the real architect of the ABVP'.[6]

Various branches of the ABVP have been involved in Hindu-Muslim communal riots since 1961.[7] [8] However, in the 1970s, the ABVP also increasingly took on issues concerning the lower middle classes like corruption and government inertia.[7] The ABVP played a leading role in the agitational politics of the 1970s during the Bihar Movement. This led to collaboration among student activists in Gujarat and Bihar. The ABVP gained significantly from such efforts after the Emergency and experienced a growth in membership.[9]

By 1974, the ABVP had 160,000 members across 790 campuses and had gained control over several prominent universities, including Delhi University via student elections. By 1983, the organisation had 250,000 members and 1,100 branches.[7] ABVP grew during the 1990s, receiving more support as a result of the Babri Masjid demolition and the economic liberalisation pursued by the P. V. Narasimha Rao government. It continued to grow after the United Progressive Alliance came to power in 2003, trebling in membership to 3.175 million members as of 2016.[10] It claims to be India's largest student organisation.[11]

Links to the BJP

The ABVP spokesmen insist that the ABVP is not affiliated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). They describe it the "student wing" of the RSS.[12] However, both the BJP and the ABVP are members of the Sangh Parivar, the RSS's "family of (affiliated) organisations".[13] The BJP is said to gain handsomely from the ABVP's support base and several politicians of the BJP, including the current Home Minister Amit Shah and former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, had their ideological foundation in the ABVP.[14] Several scholars make no distinction between the RSS and the BJP, and regard the ABVP as a student wing of both of them or either of them.[15] [16] [17] [18]

In 2017, the ABVP faced a string of losses in student body elections. They included not only Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University, but also the University of Allahabad and Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith in Uttar Pradesh, the Gujarat University and the Gauhati University. The loss in the Kashi Vidyapeeth was considered especially significant since it is in Varanasi, the prime minister Narendra Modi's home constituency. This is said to have caused alarm in the BJP, which set up a committee to study the issues causing the ABVP's decline.[14] [19] ABVP was able to resurge in the year 2018 by winning the key posts of president, vice-president and joint secretary of students polls of Delhi University.[20] ABVP won all the six seats in the Hyderabad Central University students union polls after eight years.[21]

Activities

The ABVP's manifesto includes agendas such as educational and university reforms.[22] It competes in student-body elections in colleges and universities. Students for Development (SFD) is an initiative by the ABVP to promote "right perspective towards the need of holistic and sustainable development" in students.[23] The official ABVP magazine is Rashtriya Chhatrashakti, which is published monthly in Hindi in New Delhi.[24]

ABVP conducts self-defense training program for girls titled "Mission Sahasi" all over India.[25] [26] [27]

ABVP conducted door-to-door screening in more than 100 slums of Delhi for Covid-19 symptoms and encouraged people to register for vaccination.[28] [29] [30]

Violence

ABVP has been accused to multiple violent incidents, including stone pelting,[31] [32] arson,[33] [34] vandalism[35] and physical assault,[36] on college[37] [38] and school campuses[39] and elsewhere,.[40] [41] [42] [43] Most notably, on 5 January 2020, according to the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union, masked ABVP members attacked JNU students, smashing cars and pelted stones, while ABVP accused left wing organisations. ABVP later confessed the same on national media[44] [45] and in a sting operation,[46] and the veracity of ABVP's involvement was also found out through investigative journalism which was later confirmed by Delhi Police.[47] [48] [49] A total of 28 people were injured, including students and teachers.

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. News: Bhowmick . Nilanjana . 21 June 2017 . India's crackdown at college campuses is a threat to democracy . . 24 March 2024.
  2. News: Protests by BJYM, ABVP mar ICET counselling . . 17 July 2007 . 24 March 2024.
  3. Dubey . Priyanka . October 2017 . The age of ABVP . . 30 December 2019.
  4. Book: Christophe Jaffrelot. Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. 2010. Primus Books. 978-93-80607-04-7. 193.
  5. Book: Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Christophe Jaffrelot. 1 January 2010. Primus Books. 9789380607047. 47. en.
  6. Web site: About. Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. 4 March 2016. 16 June 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170616223630/http://abvp.org/about. dead.
  7. Book: Mazumdar . Sucheta . Politics of religion and national origin . Antinomies of Modernity: Essays on Race, Orient, Nation . Vasant Kaiwar . Sucheta Mazumdar . 21 April 2003 . Duke University Press . 0822330466 . 239 . https://books.google.com/books?id=haJl-fvKqCcC&pg=PA239 .
  8. Book: Violette . Graff . Juliette . Galonnier . Hindu-Muslim Communal Riots in India I (1947-1986), Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence . . 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130824023819/http://www.massviolence.org/IMG/article_PDF/Hindu-Muslim-Communal-Riots-in,736.pdf . 24 August 2013.
  9. Book: Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Jaffrelot. Christophe. 1 January 2010. Primus Books. 9789380607047. 193. en.
  10. News: JNU row: Behind ABVP's confidence, govt and growth . Deeptiman . Tiwary . The Indian Express . 24 February 2016 . 28 June 2016.
  11. News: Controversial student activists turn India's universities into ideological battlegrounds . LA Times . 24 February 2016 . 28 June 2016.
  12. http://abvp.org/akhil-bhartiya-vidyarthi-parishad-not-students-wing-bjp-shreehari-borikar Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad is not the students' wing of BJP: Shreehari Borikar
  13. .
  14. Atul Chandra, A string of losses on campuses across India: Is the ABVP losing its appeal among students?, Catch News, 29 November 2017.
  15. Sonntag . Selma K. . The political saliency of language in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh . The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics . 34 . 2 . 1996 . 1–18 . 10.1080/14662049608447722.

    "Protests and lathi-charges continued throughout January, the former organised by a transitory student organisation...although the role of the BJP-affiliated ABVP student union seems to have been more conspicuous."

  16. Thapar . Romila . Banning Books . India Review . 13 . 3 . 2014 . 283–286 . 10.1080/14736489.2014.937277. 214654999 .

    "Thus, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), currently in power in India, demanded the removal of an essay by A. K. Ramanujan from the reading-list of the History syllabus for the BA Degree at Delhi University."

  17. Amaresh Misra, Growing Social Unrest, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 32, No. 12 (22–28 Mar 1997), pp. 571-573, : "To pre-empt this, the ABVP (the student wing of the RSS and the BJP) and allied forces let loose the spectre of violence which the administration, instead of controlling, instigated further."
  18. Navneet Sharma and Anamica, "Imbecility and Impudence: The Emergency and RSS", Mainstream Weekly, VOL LV, No 30, 16 July 2017: "The ideological parent of the BJP, the RSS, and its student wing, the ABVP, have their own crucial role in the BJP's anti-democratic-secular India agenda."
  19. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/abvp-loses-student-union-polls-on-pm-modi-turf/articleshow/61514187.cms ABVP loses student union polls on PM Modi turf
  20. News: ABVP wins president's, two other posts in DUSU polls, NSUI one. 14 September 2018. The Economic Times.
  21. News: ABVP sweeps Hyderabad University students' union polls after 8 years. Ist. India Today . 7 October 2018 . 14 February 2020.
  22. News: ABVP educational reforms . Thehindu.com . 11 September 2012 . 6 May 2013. The Hindu .
  23. Web site: SFD. Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. 4 March 2016.
  24. Web site: Обновление FLV Player . Abvp.org . 6 May 2013.
  25. Web site: Over 3,000 girls participate in ABVP's 'Mission Sahasi'. 20 May 2021. State Times. 30 October 2018 . en-GB.
  26. News: Vijayawada girls showcase skills post martial arts workshop. The New Indian Express. 16 April 2020.
  27. News: ABVP starts 'Mission Sahasi' for safety of girls. Tribuneindia News Service. en. 16 April 2020.
  28. Web site: 16 May 2021. ABVP plans drive to help slum residents . 20 May 2021. The Times of India. en.
  29. Web site: ABVP to start COVID-19 screening in 100 Delhi slums from May 16, asks 'neutral' students to join in. 20 May 2021. The New Indian Express. en.
  30. Web site: Delhi: ABVP to conduct mass screening to trace coronavirus cases in slum areas. 20 May 2021. The New Indian Express. 15 May 2021 .
  31. News: 15 May 2007. Stone throwing during protest by ABVP in Hubli; 20 arrested. en-IN. The Hindu. 10 November 2017. 0971-751X.
  32. News: 11 July 2003. ABVP activists turn violent at CET Cell. The Hindu. dead. 10 November 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20030902054828/http://www.thehindu.com/2003/07/11/stories/2003071104420600.htm. 2 September 2003.
  33. News: Banerjee. Tamaghna. 20 September 2019. ABVP supporters commit arson at Jadavpur University gate, ransack rooms on campus. The Times of India. 23 September 2019.
  34. News: Protesting ABVP Students Lathicharged Outside Amnesty Office. The Wire.
  35. News: 26 February 2008. ABVP activists vandalise DU History Department. en-IN. The Hindu. 10 November 2017. 0971-751X.
  36. News: Byatnal. Amruta. 24 August 2013. ABVP thrashes FTII student for not saying 'Jai Narendra Modi'. The Hindu. 4 March 2014.
  37. News: 3 November 2017. ABVP 'activists' ransack Narayana college. en-IN. The Hindu. 10 November 2017. 0971-751X.
  38. News: 25 May 2007. ABVP activists go on the rampage on college premises. en-IN. The Hindu. 10 November 2017. 0971-751X.
  39. News: 19 August 2011. Jharkhand: ABVP cadres ransack missionary school over Anna protest. India Today. 4 March 2014.
  40. News: As it happened: Masked goons strike terror in JNU, none arrested . 6 January 2020 . The Hindu . 5 January 2020.
  41. News: ABVP members barged into JNU hostels, attacked students with sticks, claims JNUSU . 6 January 2020 . India Today . 5 January 2020.
  42. News: Right wing activists target Kashmiri film fest in Hyderabad . https://web.archive.org/web/20130911164137/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/right-wing-activists-target-kashmiri-film-fest-in-hyderabad/420312-62-127.html . dead . 11 September 2013 . IBN-Live . 7 September 2013 . 4 March 2014.
  43. News: Right-wing hooligans and a complicit State . The Sunday Guardian . 24 August 2013 . 4 March 2014 . 4 March 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140304164450/http://www.sunday-guardian.com/artbeat/right-wing-hooligans-and-a-complicit-state . dead .
  44. News: Listen in: ABVP Delhi State Jt Secretary 'explains' the video of alleged ABVP violence in JNU. . 8 January 2020 . Times Now . Twitter . 6 January 2020.
  45. News: 'Asked to Step Out With Rods, Acid': ABVP Delhi Joint Secretary Admits Its Men Were Armed in JNU . 8 January 2020 . News18 . 7 January 2020 .
  46. News: Akshat Awasthi not our member, claims ABVP after India Today sting exposes JNU violence . 11 January 2020 . The India Today . 10 January 2020.
  47. News: Sharma . Pratik . Investigating the masked woman photographed during JNU violence . 11 January 2020 . . 10 January 2020.
  48. Web site: https://www.newslaundry.com/. Malik. Anukriti. 7 January 2020. Newslaundry. en-UK. 11 January 2020.
  49. News: JNU Attack: Delhi Police Confirm Masked Woman Is ABVP Member Komal Sharma. 2 February 2020 . The Wire . 15 January 2020.

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