THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The culture of political violence on campuses emerged after the Students' Federation of India (SFI) started gaining ground in colleges that were hitherto dominated by KSU. To keep its dominance on campuses intact, the Kerala Students Union (KSU), in the 1970s, began taking to violence. Several SFI members lost their lives. We list a timeline of major incidents of violence on campuses in the state.
Mar 1974 - The first recorded murder on a campus was in 1974. Ashraf, an SFI worker and a student of Brennan College, Thalassery, was killed by KSU workers
Dec 1977 - G Bhuvaneswaran, an SFI worker and a student of NSS College, Pandalam, was murdered by a group of KSU workers. Bhuvaneswaran is the younger brother of CPM leader and former minister G Sudhakaran
Dec 1982 - C V Jose, SFI worker and student of Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, was murdered by KSU workers soon after he was elected the college union general secretary
Oct 1983 - SFI’s Simon Britto, 27, a student of Ernakulam Law College, was paralysed in an attack by KSU activists at the Ernakulam General Hospital junction
Feb 1992 - K R Kochanian, an SFI worker from Thrissur, was killed at the venue of the University Union Arts Festival
July 1992 - Jobby Andrews, SFI Thamarassery area secretary, died allegedly from injuries he suffered after KSU-MSF workers threw stones while he was addressing a campaign meeting outside a school in Thamarassery
Sept 1996 - ABVP activists Anu P S, Sujith and Kim Karunakaran, who were students of DB College, Parumala, were attacked by SFI activists, prompting them to jump into the Pampa. They drowned as the mob threw stones at them
Mar 2012 - Aneesh Rajan, who was Idukki district vice-president of SFI, was murdered by INTUC activists
July 2012 - Vishal Kumar, a 19-year-old student of NSS College, Konni, and ABVP leader, was hacked to death in front of Christian College, Chengannur, by members of the now defunct Campus Front and the Popular Front of India
Jan 2017 - A group of SFI men allegedly entered Maharaja’s College principal’s chamber and burnt her chair
Jul 2018 - Abhimanyu, an SFI worker and a second-year BSc student of Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, was murdered by members of Campus Front and Popular Front of India
Sept 2018 - Activists of the Fraternity Movement and the MSF, including women, were attacked allegedly by SFI workers on September 19, 2018, in front of Government College, Madappally
Jan 2022 - Dheeraj Rajendran, an SFI member and a student of the Government Engineering College at Painavu in Idukki, was killed by Youth Congress and KSU members during college polls
Dec 2022 - Aparna Gouri, SFI Wayanad district joint secretary, was attacked allegedly by KSU-MSF workers at the Government Polytechnic College at Meppadi in Wayanad
Jan 17, 2024 - A differently abled teacher was stabbed and wounded allegedly by a Fraternity Movement member following an argument over the suspension of another student at Maharaja’s College
Jan 17, 2024 - An SFI leader was admitted to hospital with stab wounds following violent clashes at Maharaja’s College
In and Out
Maharaja’s College principals
K N Krishnakumar 2018-19
K Jayakumar 2019-20
Mathew George 2020-21
Mercy Joseph 2021-22
V Anil 2022
V S Joy 2022-23
(In the intervenient periods, there were many in-charges)
Maharaja’s College: A Brief History
The college started out as an Elementary English School founded way back in 1845 in the former princely state of Cochin. The elementary school slowly metamorphosed into a high school in 1868 and then into a college in 1875, responding to the rising demand for higher education within Cochin and the nearby states of Travancore and British Malabar. The college, originally named ‘The Ernakulam College’ and affiliated to the University of Madras, offered First Arts courses. It soon became one of the leading educational institutions in the Madras Presidency. In the Golden Jubilee Year (1925), the college was permanently rechristened as Maharaja’s College.
