{"id":76354,"date":"2026-08-23T15:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T15:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/?p=76354"},"modified":"2026-08-23T15:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T15:53:07","slug":"jadavpur-and-the-attack-on-education-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/jadavpur-and-the-attack-on-education-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Jadavpur and the attack on education in India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the 19th<\/sup> of August, the General Body meeting of FETSU (Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students Union) was attacked by the thugs of the BJP aligned students\u2019 union ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad), who claimed that this meeting was illegitimate. Thereafter, on the midnight of the 20th<\/sup> August, the thugs of the right wing \u2018students union\u2019 ABVP. They targeted leftist students, locking them up at administrative building of the college, and vandalized the campus. While these attacks went on, the police stood by as mute spectators, the Vice Chancelor did nothing. It was left to the leftist student\u2019s unions like the SFI to defend against these attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following day, the ABVP conducted a march on the university, where they were resisted by a United Front of leftist student\u2019s organizations. The police finally deployed in an attempt to ensure a clash does not take place. Yet, the ABVP thugs still managed to get up to one of the main entrances of the college and destroyed the university\u2019s logo. It was only after protests that the Vice Chancelor finally took action, opening criminal investigations at the Jadavpur police station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BJP MLA of Jadavpur constituency stood openly on the side of the attacking goons, claiming that there is no permission for a General Body meeting in Jadavpur, deeming the FETSU meeting illegitimate and thereby legitimizing the actions of the ABVP. The fact is, there was no such bar on a general body meeting, the ABVP conducted a brazen act of unprovoked violence over the student\u2019s body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It must be understood that these attacks are not new, for long Jadavpur University has been a thorn in the eyes of the BJP and the Hindutva movement. Campuses like Jadavpur and JNU (Jawahar Lal Nehru) are both bastions of progressive politics, leftist politics, and student activism. For the BJP and its Hindutva project, these represent a major challenge to their reactionary vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caste is at the core of Hindutva ideology, to defend casteism requires ensuring the monopoly over education in the hands of the upper caste. Illiteracy isn\u2019t a mere failure of policy, but the consequence of a casteist system. An informed and educated youth is an existential threat to the Hindutva, especially one that is conscious of caste oppression and the Hindutva agenda for India. The destruction of higher education, the political crackdowns on student\u2019s activism, all aim at controlling a population into submission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A byproduct of this strategy has been the rise of private schooling and colleges. Gutting public education has created a demand for profit driven private schools and colleges, where only the rich can afford education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BJP and higher education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The BJP is the parliamentary instrument of the Hindutva movement, and whatever it does follows the broader strategy of the RSS, the core Hindutva organization. Attacking education and reforming it to the RSS\u2019 reactionary agenda is a core part of the program. This cannot be completed until it has control over higher education, here campuses and in particular public universities, become a battleground, not just of ideas but organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since coming to power, the BJP have implemented the National Education policy, which has all but destroyed scope for critical learning in schooling, opening the doors for Hindutva propaganda to make its way into school textbooks. To make matters worse, they have also destroyed public schooling infrastructure, such that school buildings are literally falling apart on students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their track record in higher education is not much better. Since coming to power, the BJP have withdrawn scholarships for dalit students, they have restricted campus organization, they have gutted free public infrastructure and reduced funding for key universities across the board. The worst attack however, was on the space for political activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The infamous midnight attack on Aligarh Muslim University has not been forgotten, neither has the persecution of student activists like Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid. The message is clear, standing against the government will come with costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BJP and especially its students wing the ABVP, threatened to attack Jadavpur university in the past. Even during the mobilizations of the doctor\u2019s protests, the ABVP came out threatening \u2018surgical strikes\u2019 on Jadavpur University, a clear reference to military operations of the Indian military over suspected terror sites in Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BJP could only watch from a distance as Jadavpur emerged as a nerve center of progressive students politics in India, but now that they have secured power over West Bengal, they have the chance to fulfill their long held wish of curbing the left in one of their traditional bastions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jadavpur against the state:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This latest attack on Jadavpur is not new, nor did attacks on Jadavpur begin with the BJP\u2019s victory over Bengal. In 2014, during the rule of the TMC, peaceful protests by students demanding accountability for the molestation of a female student were attacked by the police and TMC aligned thugs. This in turn provoked larger protests at the campus under the banner of \u2018Hok Kolorob\u2019 (lit. “let there be clamour” in Bengali). The unrest spread throughout major universities across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, protesting students at Jadavpur were attacked by the former Education Minister Bratya Basu, during the Doctor\u2019s movement in March 2025. One student was run over and murdered by the Minister, attempting to break through the picket of protesting students. The University administration promulgated a slew of restrictive measures on the right to organize, from night time curfews to denying events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current Vice Chancellor had attempted to restrict organizing within campus, restrict political activity and curbed students movements. The fact that he stood by and watched the attacks by the ABVP unfold is nothing surprising given his record. Seen in context, the current attack by the ABVP fits a pattern of attacks which had been picking up pace since at least a decade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defend Jadavpur !<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We stand by Jadavpur University and its students in this critical time, declaring our unconditional and full support. The attacks by the Hindutva reactionaries can only be stopped by united front of workers, youth and students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students of Jadavpur have been steadfast in standing in solidarity with progressive causes the world over. They showed solidarity against hawker evictions, and suffered attacks by the state. Now that Jadavpur itself is under attack, we must stand with the students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It must be understood, that the attack on Jadavpur isn\u2019t an isolated incident. It is one front in a larger fight against the Hindutva movement and its sick reactionary agenda of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra. The academic sphere is one of the most contested and heavily targeted by the movement, conscious of the threat that emerges from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First published here<\/a> by New Wave<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 19th of August, the General Body meeting of FETSU (Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students Union) was attacked by the thugs of the BJP aligned students\u2019 union ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad), who claimed that this meeting was illegitimate. <\/p>\n

It must be understood that these attacks are not new, for long Jadavpur University has been a thorn in the eyes of the BJP and the Hindutva movement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":76356,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"litci_post_political_author":"Mazdoor Inquilab","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[495,1],"tags":[6965,6803,6743,5421,6966,6646,6968,6148,496,6964,6967,6801],"class_list":["post-76354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","category-uncategorized","tag-abvp","tag-bengal","tag-bjp-2","tag-education","tag-fetsu","tag-higher","tag-higher-education","tag-hindutva","tag-india-2","tag-jadavpur","tag-sfi","tag-west-bengal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/counter-protest-Jadavpur.avif","fimg_url":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/counter-protest-Jadavpur.avif","categories_names":["India","Uncategorized"],"author_info":{"name":"Carlos S.","pic":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fdf3a2076204dbf848fa7838fc9e2787f3317262207b35e333f31316e39fce9c?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"political_author":"Mazdoor Inquilab","tagline":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76354"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76358,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76354\/revisions\/76358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}