Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) (transl. All Indian Student Council) is a right-wing all India student organisation affiliated to the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).[2][3][4] It claims to be India's largest student organisation with more than three million members.[5]

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)
AbbreviationABVP
Formation9 July 1949 (1949-07-09)
TypeStudent wing
Legal statusActive
HeadquartersMumbai, Maharashtra, India
Region served
India
Membership (2014-2015)
3.2 million[1]
National Organising Secretary
Ashish Chauhan (Social Activist)
National President
Dr. S.Subbiah
National General Secretary
Nidhi Tripathi
Parent organization
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Websitewww.abvp.org

History

The ABVP, founded in 1948 with the initiative of the RSS activist Balraj Madhok, was formally registered on 9 July 1949.[6] Its primary purpose was to counter communist influences on university campuses.[7] Professor Yeshwantrao 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'.[8]

Various branches of the ABVP have been involved in Hindu-Muslim communal riots since 1961.[9][10] However, in the 1970s, the ABVP also increasingly took on issues concerning the lower middle classes like corruption and government inertia that were also being taken on by communist student groups.[9] The ABVP played a leading role in the agitational politics of the 1970s during the JP 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.[11]

By 1974, the ABVP had 160,000 members across 790 campuses and had gained control over several prominent universities, including University of Delhi via student elections. By 1983, the organisation had 250,000 members and 1,100 branches.[9] 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. Narasimharao 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.[12] It claims to be India's largest student organisation.[5]

ABVP holds National Conferences every year in which National President and Secretary are announced. The first conference was held in 1949. During 1975 and 1976 conferences were not held for two years due to Emergency. Prof. Om Prakash Behl and Keshav Deo Verma were first National President & National General Secretary respectively. Prof Ved Prakash Nanda was National President, Naresh Jouhri and Nakul Bhargav were National General Secretaries during these years.

S.No. Year Place Chief Guest President General Secretary
1 1959 Mumbai Pujya Shri Shankaracharya Prof Vedprakash Nanda Madhav Paralkar
2 1960 Jabalpur Prof Kunji Lal Dubey ­Prof Harivanshlal Oberoi Madhav Paralkar
3 1961 Prayag Bal Krishna Rao Prof Harivanshlal Oberoi Vijay Mandlekar
4 1962 Delhi Dr. Harekrishna Mehtab Prof. V.Nagarajan Vijay Mandlekar
5 1963 Gwalior Shri S. S. Bhandarkar Dr. M.V. Krishnarao Shri. Ramkrishna Mishra
6 1964 Nagpur Swami Chinmayananda Prof. Dattaji Didolkar Shri. Ramkrishna Mishra
7 1965 Mumbai Jaitan Ibrahim Prof. (Acharya) Giriraj Kishor Ramkrishna Mishra
8 1966 Kanpur Gen. K.M.Kariappa Prof. Giriraj Kishor Bholanath Vij
9 1967 Indore Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Prof. Yeshwantrao Kelkar Vikas Bhattacharya
10 1968 Hyderabad Justice Shri. Koka Subbrao Prof. Narayanbhai Bhandari S. Reddy
11 1969 Kolkata Mohan Ranade Prof. Padmanabh Acharya V. Ravikumar
12 1970 Thiruvanantapuram George Jacob Prof. Dattaji Didolkar Raj Kumar Bhatia
13 1971 Delhi Justice Mohammed C. Chagla Prof. Dattaji Didolkar Raj Kumar Bhatia
14 1972 Patna Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ Prof. Dattaji Didolkar Rajkumar Bhatia
15 1973 Ahmadabad Acharya J.B. Kriplani Prof. Natvarlal Rajguru Rajkumar Bhatia
16 1974 Mumbai Nani Palkhivala Prof. Bal Apte P. Venkateshwaralu
17 1977 Varanasi D.R. Manakekar Prof. Bal Apte Mahesh Sharma
18 1978 Bangalore Dr. V.K.R.V. Rao Prof. Bal Apte Mahesh Sharma
19 1979 Jaipur Justice V.M.Tarkunde Prof. P.V. Krishnabhat Mahesh Sharma
20 1980 Raipur Jainendra Kumar Jain Prof. P.V. Krishnabhat Mahesh Sharma
21 1981 Hubli Cho Ramaswamy Prof. P.V. Krishnabhat Mahesh Sharma
22 1982 Nagpur Prof. V.M.Dandekar & Balasaheb Deoras Prof. Omprakash Kohli Shri. Dattatreya Hosabale
23 1983 Rajkot J.D.Sethi Prof. Omprakash Kohli Sushikumar Modi
24 1984 Patna Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh Prof. Omprakash Kohli Sushikumar Modi
25 1985 Delhi Atal Bihari Vajpayee Prof. Ashok Modak Sushikumar Modi
26 1986 Chennai Dr. Ramkrishna Rao Dr. Ashok Modak Harendra Kumar
27 1987 Agra Arun Shourie Dr. Ashok Modak Harendra Kumar
28 1988 Mumbai A.P. Venkateshwarn Dr. Ashok Modak Harendra Kumar
29 1989 Patna Bhaurao Deoras Prof. Ram Snehi Gupta Harendra Kumar
30 1990 Hyderabad Ashok Singhai Prof. Rajkumar Bhatia Chandrakant Patil
31 1991 Jaipur Jagmohan Prof. Rajkumar Bhatia Chandrakant Patil
32 1992 Kanpur H.H. Dalal Lama Prof. Rajkumar Bhatia Chandrakant Patil
33 1993 Bhubaneshwar Nanaji Deshmukh Prof. Rajkumar Bhatia Vinod Tawde
34 1994 Indore Dhamrmapal Prof. Rajkumar Bhatia V. Muraleedharan
35 1995 Nagpur Madan Das Dr. D.Manohar Rao V. Muraleedharan
36 1996 Bangalore Dr. G.Padmanabhan Dr. D.Manohar Rao Mahendra Kumar
37 1997 Chennai J.N. Dixit Prof. Dineshanand Goswami Mahendra Kumar
38 1998 Mumbai George Fernandes Prof. Dineshanand Goswami Atul Kothari
39 1999 Lucknow Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar Prof. Dineshanand Goswami Atul Kothari
40 2000 Raipur N. Vittal Prof. Dineshanand Goswami Atul Kothari
41 2001 Guwahati Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi Dr. Kailash Sharma Ramesh Pappa
42 2002 Kozhikode Dr. J.S. Raiput Dr. Kailash Sharma Ramesh Pappa
43 2003 Ahmedabad Dr K Kasturirangan Dr. Kailash Sharma K.N. Raghunandan
44 2004 Jaipur Sri Sri Ravishankar Dr. Kailash Sharma K.N. Raghunandan
45 2005 Bhopal Dr. Mohan Bhagwat Dr. Kailash Sharma K.N. Raghunandan
46 2006 Hyderabad B N Sharma Dr. Ramnaresh Singh Suresh Bhatt
47 2007 Kanpur Ashok Singhal Dr. Ramnaresh Singh Suresh Bhatt
48 2009 Jalgoan Narendra Modi Prof. Milind Marathe Vishnu Dutt Sharma
49 2009 Una (HP) Suresh Soni Prof. Milind Marathe Vishnu Dutt Sharma
50 2010 Bangalore Justice Dr Rama Jois Prof. Milind Marathe Umesh Dutt
51 2012 Delhi Justice R.C Lahoti Prof. Milind Marathe Umesh Dutt
52 2013 Patna JC Sharma Prof. Milind Marathe Umesh Dutt
53 2014 Varanasi (Kashi) Prof. Kapil Kapoor Prof. Milind Marathe Umesh Dutt
54 2015 Amritsar Kuldip Singh Chandpuri Prof. Nagesh Thakur Shreehari Borikar
55 2016 Indore Manohar Parrikar Nagesh Thakur Vinay Bidre
56 2017 Ranchi Suresh Raina S.Subaiah Ashish Chauhan
58 2018 Karnavati Venkaiah Naidu S.Subaiah Ashish Chauhan
59 2019 Agra L Narasimha Reddy S.Subaiah Nidhi Tripathi

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.[13] However, both the BJP and the ABVP are members of the Sangh Parivar, the RSS's "family of (affiliated) organisations".[14] The BJP is said to gain handsomely from the ABVP's support base and several politicians of the BJP, including the former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, had their ideological foundation in the ABVP.[15] 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.[16][17][18][19]

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 Allahabad University and Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth 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.[15][20] 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.[21] ABVP won all the six seats in the Hyderabad Central University students union polls after eight years[22]

Activities

The ABVP's manifesto includes agendas such as educational and university reforms.[23] 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.[24] The official ABVP magazine is Rashtriya Chhatrashakti, which is published monthly in Hindi in New Delhi.[25]

Mission Sahasi

ABVP conducts self-defense training program for girls titled "Mission Sahasi" all around the year at different parts of the country in educational campuses.[26][27]

Incidents

ABVP has been attributed to multiple violent incidents on university and college campuses, like the 2020 Jawaharlal Nehru University attack.[28][29] In some cases, members of the ABVP have been behind property destruction,[30][31][32][33][34][35] while they were involved in violence in other cases,[36][37][38][39][40] even leading to the victims' deaths in some cases.[41][42]

References
  1. "Enrolled 10 lakh new members in last one year: ABVP". The Indian Express. 3 June 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  2. Nilanjana Bhowmick, India’s crackdown at college campuses is a threat to democracy, The Washington Post, 21 June 2017.
  3. "Protests by BJYM, ABVP mar ICET counselling". The Hindu. 17 July 2007.
  4. Dubey, Priyanka (October 2017). "The age of ABVP". The Caravan. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  5. "Controversial student activists turn India's universities into ideological battlegrounds". LA Times. 24 February 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  6. Christophe Jaffrelot (2010). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Primus Books. p. 193. ISBN 978-93-80607-04-7.
  7. Jaffrelot, Christophe (1 January 2010). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Primus Books. p. 47. ISBN 9789380607047.
  8. "About". Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  9. Mazumdar, Sucheta (21 April 2003). "Politics of religion and national origin". In Vasant Kaiwar; Sucheta Mazumdar (eds.). Antinomies of Modernity: Essays on Race, Orient, Nation. Duke University Press. p. 239. ISBN 0822330466.
  10. Graff, Violette; Galonnier, Juliette (2013). Hindu-Muslim Communal Riots in India I (1947-1986), Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence (PDF). Sciences Po. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 August 2013.
  11. Jaffrelot, Christophe (1 January 2010). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Primus Books. p. 193. ISBN 9789380607047.
  12. "JNU row: Behind ABVP's confidence, govt and growth". The Indian Express. 24 February 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  13. Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad is not the students' wing of BJP: Shreehari Borikar, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad web site, retrieved 22 April 2018.
  14. Spitz, Douglas (1993), "Cultural Pluralism, Revivalism, and Modernity in South Asia: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh", in Crawford Young (ed.), The Rising Tide of Cultural Pluralism: The Nation-state at Bay?, Univ of Wisconsin Press, pp. 242–264, ISBN 978-0-299-13884-4
  15. Atul Chandra, A string of losses on campuses across India: Is the ABVP losing its appeal among students?, Catch News, 29 November 2017.
  16. Sonntag, Selma K. (1996). "The political saliency of language in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh". The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics. 34 (2): 1–18. doi: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."
  17. Thapar, Romila (2014). "Banning Books". India Review. 13 (3): 283–286. doi:10.1080/14736489.2014.937277.: "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."
  18. Amaresh Misra, Growing Social Unrest, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 32, No. 12 ( 22–28 Mar 1997), pp. 571-573, JSTOR 4405193: "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."
  19. 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."
  20. ABVP loses student union polls on PM Modi turf, The Times of India, 5 November 2017.
  21. "ABVP wins president's, two other posts in DUSU polls, NSUI one". The Economic Times. 14 September 2018.
  22. "ABVP sweeps Hyderabad University students' union polls after 8 years". India Today. Ist. 7 October 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  23. "ABVP educational reforms". The Hindu. Thehindu.com. 11 September 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  24. "SFD". Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  25. "Обновление FLV Player". Abvp.org. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  26. "Vijayawada girls showcase skills post martial arts workshop". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  27. Service, Tribune News. "ABVP starts 'Mission Sahasi' for safety of girls". Tribuneindia News Service. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  28. "As it happened: Masked goons strike terror in JNU, none arrested". The Hindu. 5 January 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  29. "ABVP members barged into JNU hostels, attacked students with sticks, claims JNUSU". India Today. 5 January 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  30. "ABVP activists go on the rampage on college premises". The Hindu. 25 May 2007. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  31. "ABVP activists vandalise DU History Department". The Hindu. 26 February 2008. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  32. "Jharkhand: ABVP cadres ransack missionary school over Anna protest". India Today. 19 August 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  33. "Right wing activists target Kashmiri film fest in Hyderabad". IBN-Live. 7 September 2013. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  34. "ABVP 'activists' ransack Narayana college". The Hindu. Special Correspondent. 3 November 2017. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 10 November 2017.CS1 maint: others (link)
  35. Banerjee, Tamaghna (20 September 2019). "ABVP supporters commit arson at Jadavpur University gate, ransack rooms on campus". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  36. "The Hindu : ABVP activists turn violent at CET Cell". The Hindu. 11 July 2003. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  37. "Stone throwing during protest by ABVP in Hubli; 20 arrested". The Hindu. 15 May 2007. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  38. Byatnal, Amruta (24 August 2013). "ABVP thrashes FTII student for not saying 'Jai Narendra Modi'". The Hindu. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  39. "Right-wing hooligans and a complicit State". The Sunday Guardian. 24 August 2013. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  40. "Protesting ABVP Students Lathicharged Outside Amnesty Office". The Wire.
  41. "Prof murder: two ABVP men arrested". Times of India. 1 September 2006. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  42. "Khandwa prof dies after ABVP assault". Hindustan Times. 12 March 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  43. "Listen in: ABVP Delhi State Jt Secretary 'explains' the video of alleged ABVP violence in JNU". Times Now. Twitter. 6 January 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  44. "'Asked to Step Out With Rods, Acid': ABVP Delhi Joint Secretary Admits Its Men Were Armed in JNU". News18. 7 January 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  45. "Akshat Awasthi not our member, claims ABVP after India Today sting exposes JNU violence". The India Today. 10 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  46. Sharma, Pratik (10 January 2020). "Investigating the masked woman photographed during JNU violence". AltNews.in. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  47. Malik, Anukriti (7 January 2020). "JNU violence: Masked girl in viral picture of mob attack is Delhi University student Komal Sharma?". Newslaundry. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  48. "JNU Attack: Delhi Police Confirm Masked Woman Is ABVP Member Komal Sharma". The Wire. 15 January 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.

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