This story first appeared in The Rising Nepal
As Nepal is heading towards the national elections on 20th November 2022, the Nepali youth have been active in different ways. There was a South Asian Student Leaders’ virtual webinar which was conducted by the South Asian Peace Action Network (Sapan) on 29th October 2022. Although the webinar was to commence at 8:45 PM Nepal time, most Nepali student leaders opted out of it as their commitments lay to campaigning for their candidates and political parties. This commitment from students is prevalent all over South Asia (SA). However, looking at the situation of various forms of suppression of the student movement in SA it is time that during elections, student leaders from Nepal and elsewhere start strategising on how to elect governments that ensure their rights.
Students have become active as social and political force in many countries since the 19th century, and they have played crucial roles in bringing about social and political changes in the society by raising voices against several atrocities. History has records of the European nationalist movements of the 19th century where there was strong students’ involvement and support in the European revolutionary movements. This included the German revolutions of 1848. The Russian revolution similarly had students in instrumental roles. In the developing countries too, students have played important and crucial roles in staging revolutions in their countries. India, China, Myanmar, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and other countries in Asia have histories of nationalistic upsurges where the students have played very active roles.
Nationalistic movements
As an outcome of colonisation, many Asian nations organised nationalistic movements to oust the colonial rulers. Many of these colonised Asian nations have seen student and youth movements after achieving independence. In his article published by Cambridge University Press, Philip G Altbach writes that in nations like Turkey, South Korea, South Vietnam, and indirectly Indonesia, Pakistan, and Japan students have caused governments to fall or political crises to take place. Nepal was never colonised. However, although the British did not rule Nepal, they did annex some of the most fertile lands of Nepal into India and also took away some of the bravest human resources by forming the Gorkha Army.
Nepal’s students’ movements did not commence as an anti-colonisation process, therefore there was no revolt against the British to reclaim our lands. Nepal’s protest has been against the Rana and the Shah dynasty rulers. In India, after independence, almost all of the major political parties created their students wings to spread their popularity in universities and colleges. Many of these student union leaders led their parties and stirred up issues of national concerns. Although Nepal was not colonised, the education system of Nepal was conducted, then, by Indian universities including Patna, Allahabad and Banaras universities. Therefore, after high school many Nepali students, mainly from the elite families, were sent to India for their college education.
As a result, they too were inspired by the independence movement there and the student unionisation. They developed close ties with the political parties and the student leaders there. Because of the open border relation with India, it was convenient for Nepali student leaders to establish linkages and take refuge in India when they were facing death threats from Panchayat system. Nepali leaders both from Nepali Congress and the communist parties actually had close connection and camaraderie with their counterparts in India.
Later these student leaders became the political leaders of the multiparty system in this country. Being part of the Sapan webinar on 29th October, what leaped out starkly was that the students’ unions in the last two centuries and today face almost the same struggles in most of the South Asian countries. Then, they were fighting against the colonial rulers and now they are raising voices against the democratic, revolutionary and extremist parties who in the name of sovereignty of the nations, or religious and extremist beliefs still squash the basic rights of students and the citizens in general.
The major issues that emerged during the Sapan webinar where student leaders from Nepal, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka shared their current situations, included prohibition of girl education by Taliban, profiling of student leaders at campuses and hostels, prohibition of political activists and political study circle, constriction of higher studies especially for women and fascistic misrules, undemocratic circumstances imposed by government on education institutions, communal acts on education, imposing of national educational policies brought by “democratic rulers” which squashed student rights and imprisoned them for protesting against injustice even in the largest and oldest democratic countries like India.
Saffronisation drive
The saffronisation drive that India saw after the advent of Modi government has been camouflaging the overall democratic independence movement that the nation staged at one point. The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has planted seeds of revolution not only in India but countries like Nepal too. However, the squashing of the students protest in JNU and other universities in India is raising questions on what is the meaning of a republic state in today’s context. The Taliban ban of girls’ education and the fact that it is happening in today’s age with no international intervention raises question on the relevance of international bodies and treaties that have been created to protect human rights. The Human rights Charter itself can be seen as a failure.
Maybe it is time now for the South Asian students and their leaders in this digital age to start a SA campaign digitally to alert the current leaders in republic, democratic states or Islamic, militant states that suppression of students’ movement could lead to another revolution. In this new age with new media afloat the time is ripe for SA students to unite jointly for their rights by staging a new digital revolution that goes viral cross borders.