Violence has been part of Kerala’s political culture. Despite the bloody lessons of the past, political parties in the state have consistently refused to mend ways, often provoking violence and egging on cadres to meet brutality with more brutality. What is more worrying though is the manifestation of this culture in the state’s educational campuses.
While the highly literate state is known for its educational milestones and has the stated aim of becoming a ‘knowledge society’ and ‘international educational hub’, volatility on campuses is what is holding it back from achieving the academic superiority that it is capable of. Kochi’s iconic Maharaja’s College was recently closed for nearly a week after back-to-back bloody clashes among student organisations on January 17. The same day a differently-abled teacher was stabbed in the college by a member of the student outfit Fraternity Movement. It was on the same campus in 2018 that a student, an SFI member, was killed by a gang of Campus Front, SDPI and PFI activists.
The reality is that incidents of violence—even murders—are a regular occurrence in colleges across the state and most campuses are under the control of student units of political parties. These outfits, with active support and encouragement from parent organisations, resort to violence to assert dominance and deal with any challenge to their hegemony. The situation prompted the judiciary to prescribe curbs on campus politics on a number of occasions. In 2003, the Kerala High Court said college managements have the right to ban politics on campus.
While some private colleges imposed the ban, politics stayed put on most campuses. In 2017, the court held that politics has no place on an educational campus and any student found indulging in such activities can be expelled. This triggered protests and parties across the political spectrum came out against any move to rid campuses of politics. In 2020, the high court banned agitation on campuses. None of these orders, however, affected either campus politics or the related violence.
Campus politics in Kerala is a reflection of the strong political polarisation in its society. What makes it worse is the occasional intrusion of communal factors. This is not a healthy trend. It not only vitiates the academic atmosphere but also violates the rights of students to receive quality education. Parties must stop sacrificing students and their future in an attempt to further their politics.