All India Students' Federation
The All India Students' Federation (AISF) is the oldest student organisation in India, founded in 1936.
![]() AISF Flag | |
Abbreviation | AISF |
---|---|
Formation | 12 August 1936 , Lucknow, United Province, British Raj |
Type | Student organisation |
Purpose | Scientific socialism[1] |
Headquarters | 4/7, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi-110002, India [2] |
Location | |
President | Vicky Mahesari |
General Secretary | Dinesh Sreerangaraj |
Main organ | Student's Action[3] |
Affiliations | |
Website | aisf.org.in |
Pre-independence
AISF was founded on 12 August 1936, with guidance and cooperation from the Indian independence movement.[4][5] The foundation conference of the AISF was held at Ganga Prasad Memorial Hall in Lucknow, with 936 delegates from across India.[6] The conference was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru, and presided over by M.A. Jinnah. The conference resolved to establish an All India Students' Federation, and Prem Narayan Bhargava was elected as the first general secretary.[6]
The second conference of the AISF was held three months later, beginning on 22 November 1936 in Lahore. It mainly discussed and adopted the constitution of the AISF. The conference was attended by about 150 delegates under the presidency of Sarat Chandra Bose. The conference was also addressed by Govind Ballabh Pant. It passed a resolution condemning the intervention by Nazi Germany into the affairs of Republican Spain. The conference also agreed to affiliate the AISF with the World Students' Association.
Hemu Kalani, an AISF leader, was arrested by the British army in 1942 for leading the Quit India Movement, and publicly hanged in 1943 at the age of 19. AISF leader Kanaklata Barua was another student leader who died participating in the fight for independence.[7]
An AISF delegation visited the Bengal state during the famine of 1943 and engaged in relief activities.[8]
During the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay in February 1946, the AISF helped to mobilize students in support of the Naval Ratings.[7]
AISF in independent India
After independence, the AISF concentrated its activities mainly on educational issues, anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism, providing a platform for student unity against common threats. The AISF played a central role in the Telangana Rebellion against the Nizam of Hyderabad.[9]
The AISF continued to fight for Indian unity with the Goa Liberation Movement. Satyagrahis from across India entered Goa on 15 August 1955 and were fired upon. 23-year-old Karnail Singh Benipal was killed when he tried to save his leader V.D. Chitale.[10] The general secretary of the AISF, Sukhendu Mazumdar, was present with AISF leader C.K. Chandrappan on 15 August at the Goa border to help the student satyagrahis.[11]
The AISF participated in the Kothari Commission report, which provided the basis for broad educational reforms in India.[12]
In the 1980s, during the Khalistan movement, the AISF, under the leadership of General Secretary Satyapal Dang, received armed training to counter Khalistan militants.[13] Harpal Mohali, the AISF leader from Mohali, led movements in Punjab University. In response to his attempt to counter Khalistan, Mohali was shot by militants and left paralyzed. Many AISF activists were killed fighting against Khalistan separatism.[13]
State-level presence
The AISF has a strong presence in Kerala, Bihar, West Bengal, Tripura, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,Rajasthan, Assam, Odisha, Uttarpradesh, Maharashtra, New Delhi, and Punjab, and in most universities in the country.
Activities
Protest and demands
- The AISF protested against the National Education Policy in 2019,[14] and proposed increases in university fees.[15][16][17][18]
- AISF members were active in multiple Citizenship Amendment Act protests in 2019.[19][20][21][22]
- During the COVID-19 pandemic in India, AISF activists called for the distribution of essential products in various states.[23] The federation set up COVID-19 helpline numbers in various states to help students,[24] and also distributed facemasks and hand sanitiser.[25][26]
- The AISF held a hunger strike in August 2021, demanding a fresh job calendar in Andhra Pradesh.[27] The federation has also campaigned against the privatization of schools and colleges in the state.[28]
- AISF activists protested against alleged errors in results of the Railway Recruitment Board's Non-Technical Popular Categories (RRB NTPC) exam, during Bihar Bandh, in Patna on 28 January 2022.[29][30][31]
- The AISF organised a national convention, "Reject NEP 2020" against the National Education Policy (NEP) on 15 May 2022 in Chennai. The convention called for a united front of students and teachers of all educational institutions for the withdrawal of the NEP, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and the Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUET).[32][33]
Other social work
The AISF runs Sramajibi Canteen and is involved in various other social work.[34]
LGBT issues
The AISF actively supports LGBT rights. In 2022, AISF state committee member Nadira Mehrin became the first transgender person to contest in a student union election at Kerala University,[35][36] and also contested as the AISF candidate for chair of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit (SSUS), the first time a transgender person had led a candidates' panel for a university election in the state.[37][38][39]
Motto and organisational structure
The organisation's original motto, reflecting its focus on peace, progress and scientific socialism, was "Freedom, Peace and Progress". This was amended at the 1958 National Convention, and the motto since then has been "Study & Struggle".[40]
The administrative structure of the federation includes:
- National executive body
- State executive body
- State administrative body
- District administrative body
- Block level committee
- Institutions level unions
AISF National Conferences
National Conference | Year | Place | General Secretary | President |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 (Founder Conference) | 12–13 August 1936 | Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) | Prem Narayan Bhargava | |
2 | 22 November 1936 | Lahore | Prem Narayan Bhargava | |
3 | 1–3 January 1938 | Madras | Ansar Harvani | |
4 | 1–2 January 1939 | Calcutta | M.L.Shah | |
5 | 1–2 January 1940 | Delhi | M.L.Shah | |
6 | 25–26 December 1940 | Nagpur | M. Farooqui | |
7 | 31 December 1941 to 1 January 1942 | Patna | Perin Bharucha | |
Prashanta Sanyal | ||||
8 | 28–31 December 1944 | Calcutta | Satyapal Dang | |
9 | 20 January 1946 | Guntur | Satyapal Dang | |
10 | 3 January 1947 | Delhi | Annada Shankar Bhattacharya | |
11 | 29–31 December 1947 | Bombay | Annada Shankar Bhattacharya | Satyapal Dang |
12 | 23–27 July 1949 | Calcutta | Annada Shankar Bhattacharya | Susheela Madiman |
1950 | Calcutta | Sukhendu Mazumdar (Acting general secretary) | Susheela Madiman | |
1952 | Calcutta | Annada Shankar Bhattacharya | Susheela Madiman | |
13 | 1–5 January 1953 | Hyderabad | N.R. Dasari | Harish Chandra Tiwari |
14 | 5–8 January 1955 | Lucknow | Sukhendu Mazumdar | B. Narsingha Rao |
15 | 2–4 January 1959 | Udaipur | Hiren Dasgupta | Vidyasagar Nautiyal |
16 | 25–27 October 1961, but it could not be held due to natural disaster | Kanpur | ||
17 | 29 December 1965 – 2 January 1966 | Pondicherry | S. Sudhakar Reddy | Joginder Singh Dayal |
18 | 21–23 December 1969 | New Delhi | Ranjit Guha | Bant Singh Brar |
19 | 20 January 1974 | Cochin | Aziz Pasha | Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava |
20 | 1–9 February 1979 | Ludhiana | Amarjeet Kaur | Atul Kumar Anjan |
21 | 28–31 January 1983 | Trichy | Amarjeet Kaur | Atul Kumar Anjan |
22 | 13–16 December 1985 | Guntur | T. Laxminarayana | Ravindra Nath Rai |
23 | 15–18 February 1991 | Bokaro | Soni Thengamom | Ravindra Nath Rai |
24 | 7–9 February 1996 | Hyderabad | T. Srinivas | Rahul Bhaiji |
25 | 18–21 October 2000 | Jalandhar | Vijendra Kesari | T. Srinivas, Ramakrushna Panda |
26 | 3–6 January 2006 | Chennai | Vijendra Kesari | P. Muralidhar, Jinu Zakariya Oommen[41] |
27 | 13-15 February 2010 | Puducherry | Abhay Taksal | Paramjit Dhaban |
28 | 28–30 November 2013 | Hyderabad | Vishwajeet Kumar | Valli Ullah Khadri[41] |
29 | 27–30 September 2018 | Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh | Vicky Mahesari | Shuvam Banerjee[42] |
Present leadership
At the 29th AISF National Conference, held in September 2018 in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, Shuvam Banerjee from West Bengal was elected as National President and Vicky Mahesari from Punjab was elected as General Secretary.[43] Varinder Khurana an author[44] and a research scholar from Punjabi University Patiala is State Secretary Punjab and National Executive member of AISF.[45][46] In Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union 2019–20, Md. Danish was elected the joint secretary with a large majority.[47][48]
Notable leaders
- Inder Kumar Gujral - Former Prime Minister of India
- Karpoori Thakur - Former Chief Minister of Bihar
- P. K. Vasudevan Nair - Former Chief Minister of Kerala
- A. B. Bardhan - Former General secretary of the Communist Party of India
- C. K. Chandrappan - Parliamentarian
- Biswanath Mukherjee - Former leader of the Communist Party of India and one of the founder of AISF in Bengal.
- Aruna Asaf Ali- Indian educator
- Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy - Former General secretary of the Communist Party of India.
- D. Raja - Current General secretary of the Communist Party of India.
- Amarjeet Kaur - General Secretary of AITUC
- Hemu Kalani - Sindh independence activist and Student leader, hanged to death by British
- Satyapal Dang - Former minister in the government of Punjab
- Kanaklata Barua - Independence activist
- Atul Kumar Anjan - senior CPI leader and national secretary.
- Kanhaiya Kumar - Former President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union
- O. N. V. Kurup – Malayalam poet & former leader
- Malayattoor Ramakrishnan – Malayalam writer & former leader
- Biswanath Mukherjee - one of the founder of AISF in West Bengal and former MLA
- M. Vijayan - Indian structural biologist
- Binoy Viswam - National secretary of AISF and Former minister in the Government of Kerala
- Rajaji Mathew Thomas - Former Vice President of World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and Former MLA in Kerala
- V. S. Sunil Kumar - Former Minister of Agriculture in Kerala
- K. Rajan - Minister of Revenue in Kerala
- P. Prasad - Minister of Agriculture in Kerala
- Muhammed Muhsin - Member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly representing Pattambi constituency
See also
References
- "AISF fought heroically for freedom | Hyderabad News - Times of India". The Times of India. 17 September 2001. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- "AISF - Official". www.aisf.org.in. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
- Wilkinson, Tom (2019). "Student Politics in British India and Beyond: The Rise and Fragmentation of the All India Student Federation (AISF), 1936–1950". South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (22). doi:10.4000/samaj.6488. S2CID 226826101.
- "History". All India Students Federation. Archived from the original on 10 June 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
- Wilkinson, Tom (15 December 2019). "Student Politics in British India and Beyond: The Rise and Fragmentation of the All India Student Federation (AISF), 1936–1950". South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (22). doi:10.4000/samaj.6488. ISSN 1960-6060. S2CID 226826101.
- "AISF has it genesis in Lucknow University | Lucknow News - Times of India". The Times of India. 15 March 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- Lotha, Arhoni (2015). "Role of All India Students Federation In Freedom Struggle (1936-1947)" (PDF). Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- A. B. Bardhan (June 2013). "Satpal Dang: My Friend & Colleague, My Ideal". Tehelka. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
- Wilkinson, Tom (15 December 2019). "Student Politics in British India and Beyond: The Rise and Fragmentation of the All India Student Federation (AISF), 1936–1950". South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (22). doi:10.4000/samaj.6488. Retrieved 1 December 2020 – via journals.openedition.org.
- "Karnail Singh: The Unsung Young Hero of Goa Liberation (By: PRAJAL SAKHARDANDE, PANAJI)". Goa News. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
- Nair, C. Gouridasan (23 March 2012). "For him, personal was also political". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 December 2020 – via www.thehindu.com.
- Gupta, Susmita Sen (2009). Radical Politics in Meghalaya: Problems and Prospects. Gyan Publishing House. ISBN 9788178357423.
- Ramakrishnan, Venkatesh (12 July 2013). "Communist legend". Frontline. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
- "Seeking public feedback on draft education policy an eyewash, say experts". The New Indian Express. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "AISF protests against high fee in private schools". The Hindu. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "All India Student Federation opposes fee hike in engineering colleges". Hans India. 24 June 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- PTI (23 November 2019). "'Make education affordable to all': Hundreds protest in Delhi against fee hike". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "Punjabi University students raise voice against 10% semester fee hike". Tribune. 10 July 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- Baruah, Sukrita (25 December 2019). "Youth bodies, student unions join forces to oppose CAA in Delhi". The Indian Express. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "AISF holds protest march against CAA, NRC, NPR". The Times of India. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "Anti-CAA protest: AISF members stop train at Rajendra Nagar railway station in Patna". ANI News. 19 December 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "AISF meet against CAA-NPR in Hyderabad". The Siasat Daily. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- Excelsior, Daily (17 April 2020). "Distribution of ration, essential items continues". Daily Excelsior. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "Student wings of political parties join efforts to help the Covid-hit". Hindustan Times. 20 April 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "एआईएसएफ ने विद्यार्थियों के बीच मास्क बांटा". Hindustan (in Hindi). 8 April 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "जवानों व आमजनों को AIYF/AISF ने किया मास्क वितरण, सोशल डिस्टेंसिंग अपनाने की अपील". Khabar Bastar. 30 March 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ANI (28 July 2021). "Andhra Student Unions To Hold Hunger Strike Demanding Fresh Job Calendar". NDTV. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- Bandari, Pavan Kumar (8 November 2021). "Tension erupts in Anantapur as students protest against merger of aided college in govt". Hans India. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- PTI (4 February 2022). "Railways reaches out to 2 lakh aspirants over RRB exam protests". The Hindu. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "Bihar Bandh: Protests Over Incorrect Railway Exam Results". Outlook. 28 January 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "RRB-NTPC Protest: पटना में AISF छात्रों ने मैकडोनाल्ड में की तोड़फोड़, दरभंगा में RJD कार्यकर्ताओं ने रोकी रेल, JAP कार्यकर्ताओं की पुलिस से झड़प". TV9 (in Hindi). 28 January 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "AISF to hold 'Reject NEP 2020' convention on May 15". The Hindu. 11 May 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
- "Education Ministers from three States slam NEP". The Hindu. 15 May 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
- Chatterjee, Akash. "Assembly 2021: Can the Left become the proverbial dark horse in West Bengal?". The International Magz. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "Meet Nathira, the first trans person to stand for student elections at Kerala Uni". The News Minute. 9 October 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- Nair, Jaikrishnan (9 June 2019). "Kerala's CMS College opens its gate for transgender students". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- "Transwoman student to lead AISF candidates' panel in Kerala". The Times of India. 25 February 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
- Praveen, M. P. (25 February 2022). "Transwoman leads panel in Sanskrit varsity union polls". The Hindu. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
- "Nadira to create history; transwoman named chairperson candidate in Kalady University". Keralakaumudi Daily. February 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
- "AISF - Official". www.aisf.org.in. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
- "AISF Poised to Face New Challenges". Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- "All India Students Federation national convention on Sept 27". Hans India. 24 September 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- "29th National Conference of All India Students Federation". ਭਵਿੱਖ - ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀਆਂ ਅਤੇ ਨੌਜੁਆਨਾਂ ਦਾ ਬੁਲਾਰਾ. 6 November 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
- Khurana, Varinder (2023). Materialism, Doctrine and The Origin of Language. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass International. ISBN 978-81-19394-04-3.
- "Punjabi varsity grant cut: Protesters march towards health minister's residence". Hindustan Times. 23 March 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
- "JNU Clash: AISF नेता वरिंदर खुराना बोले- देश का संविधान में सबको अपने पंसद के खाने की आजादी". ABP News (in Hindi). 11 April 2022. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
- Chakorborty, Nabanita (16 September 2018). "JNUSU Election Results 2018: Left Unity bags four central panel posts, N Sai Balaji new president". News Nation. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
- Shobana, S (16 September 2018). "JNU Election Results Highlights: Left Unity Sweeps JNU Student Polls, Wins All Four Seats". NDTV.com. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
External links
External links
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