There was a general trend among the academicians in India before independence to advise students not to participate in politics. It was actually initiated by the Britishers who did not want the young blood to enter politics. In those days politics meant opposition to the Britishers.

Most of the students who entered politics those days in Bengal, U.P., Bihar and Maharashtra turned revolutionaries. Although Congress was dominated by elderly or middle aged people yet a large number of students left their studies and joined the independence movements in 1921, 1930, 1932, 1934 and 1942.

Mahatma Gandhi had exhorted school and college students to work in villages during holidays and vacation and to serve the nation. It was this young blood that made even the nonviolent movements full of spirit and enthusiasm. But the elderly people and many teachers and academicians who were obliged by the Britishers advised the students to concentrate upon their studies only.

If the participation of students in politics was rather essential to bring independence to the country it is all the more necessary to make the country strong to maintain the independence and the healthy trends of democracy. The world is changing fast. As there are changes in other fields there should be changes in the political norms too.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The older generation and those who have to share the responsibility of upbringing of children and maintenance of the family generally stick to the old traditions. They are traditional and grow conservative. To bring changes or to have innovations in any field is generally beyond them. They gradually become self-centred too and want to avoid risks. If the people are self-centred it goes against the interests of the nation.

It is the college and university students who are young, who can think in new directions and can have a deep sense of sacrifice too. It is rather a necessity that the old blood is replaced by the young in politics too right from the college stage.

It has hardly been realized that it is the young students of colleges and universities who have a sense of amity. Although their blood is hot yet it is they who have the capacity to adjust. The younger they are the greater is the friendship among them. A Charan Singh or a Morarji, would not and did not move even an inch from his stand.

Politics and statesmanship require adjustments. Political equations throughout the world have become dynamic. The old guards (although they were very useful in their days) and even the middle age groups gradually become stubborn as their joints harden. It is only the young who can meet the challenge of the dynamism in national and international politics.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

It is only the students who can stand, and have stood, against the tyranny of a government that turns undemocratic and autocratic. They can do it only when they enter politics. More than sixty per cent of the people who opposed the Emergency in 1977-78 after a spell of two years of cruelty, and filled the jails were students. Had the students not participated in this movement India, might have been changed into an autocratic regime.

In South Africa, those who opposed the apartheid, in Sri Lanka those Tamilians who are against the undemocratic moves of the Colombo government, in Sindh those who dared to oppose an autocratic government, in Bangladesh those who raised their voice against a continued military regime and in Assam those who organized political opposition were and are all college and university students. The youth who came to power in Assam in 1985 were all formerly student activists of Assam Students Union. The Chief Minister was a law student and was not yet married.

Since 1980 the stream of politics, in India, has become more dirty. A full brigade of 100 young members in the parliament would not allow one to speak freely in the house. Mafiaism has entered politics throughout the country. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, rather the whole of North has witnessed attacks on polling booths. The disease has already entered Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It was noticed even in Andhra Pradesh during Parishad elections. It is gradually penetrating the politics of the South too. These mafias too are young. Who is capable of checking these mafias to make the politics clean and honourable ? It is beyond the reach of the old and the middle aged. It is only the college, university students who can stand against it and compel these mafias either to leave politics or mend their ways. It is rather imperative on the part of young students to purify the stream of politics by entering it whole heartedly. Reduction of voting age to 18 is rather symbolic in this respect.

Politics in India, nowadays has taken a negative form. Most of the politicians criticize others—rather most of the people criticize others and the governments. Different parties have no sense of tolerance which is the keynote of a healthy democracy. Patience is a quality among the young students.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

A politician should have patience to listen to the views of others and to tolerate one another. The old generally lose temperament. Let the young students practise tolerance and think in a positive way. If they enter politics they will leave destructive trends as was visible in the Assam agitation. It is only young students who can change politics from a career to a sacrifice for the nation and their own region. If sober and sincere young men do not rise to the occasion the country will face humiliation at the hands of the youth wing of the ruling party whose members made the dirtiest scenes of goondaism, drunkenness and attempt at rape during International Youth Festival in Pyongyang.