Post by vij on Jan 7, 2010 1:50:09 GMT 5.5
Since its inception, Meerut University has been completely dominated by Jat students. There are many instances where even university faculties were not spared and were pressurized through muscle power to act on the whims and fancies of the Jat students. Not only that, the anti-social elements from this community used to reside in the campus illegally.
Campus politics was completely dominated by the Jat students. However, outside the campus, the political scenario of the state was rapidly undergoing significant changes. Dalit politics was taking a new shape under the BSP and the society was witnessing the growing Dalit assertion.
In 1995, Mayawati became the Chief Minister of UP. Though, it was a brief rein, it had a huge impact on the overall situation in UP. In Meerut University also, Dalit students started to organize themselves. There was a rise in their political consciousness and they tried to bring students from other marginalized communities together on one platform, to fight the terror of the students from the dominant Jat section.
Despite ABVP’s support, not many caste-hindu students gave votes to Arvind. However, he won the election as large numbers of both Dalit and Backward students voted for him. For the first time, these students took great interest in students’ politics in the campus. They started organizing meetings and other programmes to raise their issues and to mobilize the students.
This entire political churning and efforts of Dalit student activists bore fruits as the number of admissions of Dalit students increased. The reserved seats started getting filled gradually. Before this, there have been no such efforts of bringing Dalit and Backward students together. Till then, both had tried to keep their caste identities hidden and had suffered from the Jat hegemony, without any resistance.
The overall Dalit assertion in the state ignited the spark and these students started asserting their identities. Apart from the Dalit students, there was a section of students belonging to the Gujjar community who were also aspiring for political space in the campus, which was otherwise denied to them due to the caste-hindu hegemony.
This election resulted in an alliance between the Dalit and the Gujjar community. The betrayal of the ABVP vote bank politics in this election provoked this alliance. Some senior students from both the Dalit and Gujjar communities created a joint platform called the Chhatra Kranti Morcha.
However, this had sharp reactions from the other students’ groups like the ABVP as well as the some left-leaning groups. The caste-hindu students started abusing ABVP, saying that it was they who showed the path of political autonomy to Dalit and the Backwards.
To counter this Gujjar- Dalit alliance, some senior Jat students formed the Progressive Students’ Front. Mostly, these students were the protégé of the former central minister and Jat caste leader Ajit Singh. With this new turn in campus politics, they felt the need of diluting their Jat identity.
However, within no time it became clear that this platform was again dominated by the same Jat and other caste-hindu students and that they were trying to dilute the growing Dalit and Backward caste students’ assertion in the name of left- ideology.
However, ABVP was still interested in having an alliance with the Dalit- Gujjar students. Student politics has some repercussions at the western UP level and ABVP was trying to break the hold of Jats in the entire region. The weakening of the Jat hegemony and the growing strength of Dalit- Gujjar alliance became apparent, when a Gujjar student Rupesh Verma became the President in 1998. This election gave much strength and direction to the Chhatra Kranti Morcha.
From then onwards, this student group moved from the identity struggle to social thoughts, actions and onsciousness level. It started articulating the problems of equality and social justice. It startedmobilizing students on the issues like fulfillment of the Reserved seats for Dalits and Backwards in students’ admission as well as in faculty recruitment, reservations in hostels and scholarships.
This was a never before situation for the entire campus. Such demands were never raised before by any students’ group. Till then, the student politicians used to talk only about ‘students’ welfare’ as a whole. They never allowed airing of the grievances of Dalit and Backward students.
There were some violent confrontations also against this group. However, unlike in the past, the group was able to counter such violence now. This group also faced huge resistance from the ‘upper’ caste faculty members who were earlier a little supportive, as they were also at the receiving end, due to Jat dominance in the university. Since this group had started articulating the real concerns of the Dalit and Backward students like filling the backlog in faculty positions, scholarships and other welfare schemes, these ‘upper’ caste faculty members resorted to threatening-tactics towards the leaders of this students’ group.
The Chhatra Kranti Morcha was being targeted by every student group on the campus, as they were not able to digest the growing assertive nature of Dalit and Backward students and their just demands. In the next students’ election in 1999, the group lost all the posts, as the various students’ groups ganged up and voted against it.
However, the face of the campus was slowly changing due to the gradual increase in the number of Dalit and Backward students. Reserved seats were getting filled due to the pressure exerted by the Morcha. Hence in the next election, in 2002, a Dalit candidate Ishwar Chand was elected, under the banner of Chhatra Kranti Morcha, for the post of General Secretary. He was the first Dalit to become the General Secretary and only the second Dalit to win any election within the campus.
In the year 2004, Morcha completely dominated the campus politics, having won all the four seats in the election with thumping majority. It was a spectacular victory for the Dalit and Backward students. Huge processions were taken out. A Gujjar, Somendra Tomar became the President, whereas a Dalit, Ravi Prakash became the General Secretary. The elected leaders started putting portraits of Babasaheb Ambedkar in each department and also in the Administrative Block.
Some of the ‘upper’ caste faculty members opposed this move but were not able to do much. Earlier, the Morcha had forced the university administration to name one of the newly-constructed hostels on the name of Dr. Ambedkar. The newly built campus community centre was named after Kotwal Dhan Singh Gujjar (who was one of the most prominent freedom fighters of 1857 revolt but his contribution has been completely ignored in Indian history).
Campus politics was completely dominated by the Jat students. However, outside the campus, the political scenario of the state was rapidly undergoing significant changes. Dalit politics was taking a new shape under the BSP and the society was witnessing the growing Dalit assertion.
In 1995, Mayawati became the Chief Minister of UP. Though, it was a brief rein, it had a huge impact on the overall situation in UP. In Meerut University also, Dalit students started to organize themselves. There was a rise in their political consciousness and they tried to bring students from other marginalized communities together on one platform, to fight the terror of the students from the dominant Jat section.
Despite ABVP’s support, not many caste-hindu students gave votes to Arvind. However, he won the election as large numbers of both Dalit and Backward students voted for him. For the first time, these students took great interest in students’ politics in the campus. They started organizing meetings and other programmes to raise their issues and to mobilize the students.
This entire political churning and efforts of Dalit student activists bore fruits as the number of admissions of Dalit students increased. The reserved seats started getting filled gradually. Before this, there have been no such efforts of bringing Dalit and Backward students together. Till then, both had tried to keep their caste identities hidden and had suffered from the Jat hegemony, without any resistance.
The overall Dalit assertion in the state ignited the spark and these students started asserting their identities. Apart from the Dalit students, there was a section of students belonging to the Gujjar community who were also aspiring for political space in the campus, which was otherwise denied to them due to the caste-hindu hegemony.
This election resulted in an alliance between the Dalit and the Gujjar community. The betrayal of the ABVP vote bank politics in this election provoked this alliance. Some senior students from both the Dalit and Gujjar communities created a joint platform called the Chhatra Kranti Morcha.
However, this had sharp reactions from the other students’ groups like the ABVP as well as the some left-leaning groups. The caste-hindu students started abusing ABVP, saying that it was they who showed the path of political autonomy to Dalit and the Backwards.
To counter this Gujjar- Dalit alliance, some senior Jat students formed the Progressive Students’ Front. Mostly, these students were the protégé of the former central minister and Jat caste leader Ajit Singh. With this new turn in campus politics, they felt the need of diluting their Jat identity.
However, within no time it became clear that this platform was again dominated by the same Jat and other caste-hindu students and that they were trying to dilute the growing Dalit and Backward caste students’ assertion in the name of left- ideology.
However, ABVP was still interested in having an alliance with the Dalit- Gujjar students. Student politics has some repercussions at the western UP level and ABVP was trying to break the hold of Jats in the entire region. The weakening of the Jat hegemony and the growing strength of Dalit- Gujjar alliance became apparent, when a Gujjar student Rupesh Verma became the President in 1998. This election gave much strength and direction to the Chhatra Kranti Morcha.
From then onwards, this student group moved from the identity struggle to social thoughts, actions and onsciousness level. It started articulating the problems of equality and social justice. It startedmobilizing students on the issues like fulfillment of the Reserved seats for Dalits and Backwards in students’ admission as well as in faculty recruitment, reservations in hostels and scholarships.
This was a never before situation for the entire campus. Such demands were never raised before by any students’ group. Till then, the student politicians used to talk only about ‘students’ welfare’ as a whole. They never allowed airing of the grievances of Dalit and Backward students.
There were some violent confrontations also against this group. However, unlike in the past, the group was able to counter such violence now. This group also faced huge resistance from the ‘upper’ caste faculty members who were earlier a little supportive, as they were also at the receiving end, due to Jat dominance in the university. Since this group had started articulating the real concerns of the Dalit and Backward students like filling the backlog in faculty positions, scholarships and other welfare schemes, these ‘upper’ caste faculty members resorted to threatening-tactics towards the leaders of this students’ group.
The Chhatra Kranti Morcha was being targeted by every student group on the campus, as they were not able to digest the growing assertive nature of Dalit and Backward students and their just demands. In the next students’ election in 1999, the group lost all the posts, as the various students’ groups ganged up and voted against it.
However, the face of the campus was slowly changing due to the gradual increase in the number of Dalit and Backward students. Reserved seats were getting filled due to the pressure exerted by the Morcha. Hence in the next election, in 2002, a Dalit candidate Ishwar Chand was elected, under the banner of Chhatra Kranti Morcha, for the post of General Secretary. He was the first Dalit to become the General Secretary and only the second Dalit to win any election within the campus.
In the year 2004, Morcha completely dominated the campus politics, having won all the four seats in the election with thumping majority. It was a spectacular victory for the Dalit and Backward students. Huge processions were taken out. A Gujjar, Somendra Tomar became the President, whereas a Dalit, Ravi Prakash became the General Secretary. The elected leaders started putting portraits of Babasaheb Ambedkar in each department and also in the Administrative Block.
Some of the ‘upper’ caste faculty members opposed this move but were not able to do much. Earlier, the Morcha had forced the university administration to name one of the newly-constructed hostels on the name of Dr. Ambedkar. The newly built campus community centre was named after Kotwal Dhan Singh Gujjar (who was one of the most prominent freedom fighters of 1857 revolt but his contribution has been completely ignored in Indian history).
