The political activism of students is not alien to Goa. Prominent Goans of today, whether they are doctors, lawyers, academicians, journalists and even respected members of the lower and higher judiciary, have all dabbled in student activism and campus politics in their days two, three and even four decades ago.
Yet, last week's exuberant invasion of the campus of the prestigious St Xavier's College at Mapusa by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarti Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which is the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) ideological mentor, has evoked strong reactions of shock, perhaps due to the brazenness of the action and the crass execution by just a dozen of folks.
Central to the argument of the protesting ABVP students is the alleged failure of the college management to install the Students Council which was democratically elected and one of its members had earned the prestigious post of General Secretary.
The St Xavier's College management, on its part, has refrained from publicly commenting on the issue raised by the protesting ABVP students even as it has denounced their actions including the fact that non-students were involved in the ruckus on their campus.
The issue in question relates to student welfare on campuses and the episode perse ignores the larger issue of the student community's role on the societal canvas of Goa as a whole in social, cultural and even political fields.
Fall of student activism
In the past, students and their movements in Goa have played critical roles be it in resolving student welfare issues as with the 50% bus ticket agitation of the 1970s and the anti-capitation fee and marks scandal agitations of the 1980s where governments of the day gave in to the demands.
While most past student leaders have cited a decline in the relevance and potency of Goa's student community to impact social issues or the larger political canvass of the State, many academicians we spoke to have admitted a marked shift in the type of issues that find resonance in today's generation of students.
"Perhaps with the growing impact of the internet and social media, students today are more attuned to issues of global relevance either to life or career paths," a student counsellor at one top undergraduate college, revealed.
"They identify more with a global topic of Climate Change such as the fight against fossil fuel raised by a Greta Thurnberg or the threat to the Amazon rain forests, rather than the #Mhadei issue closer home raised by Rajendra Kerkar," the counsellor said.
The exceptions
There are exceptions though. For instance, the movement in Goa against the three linear projects in protected forests had a significant component driven by the State's young and student community who were at the forefront.
The 'Save Mollem' campaign which peaked during the Covid pandemic-induced lockdowns, was largely carried forward by college and postgraduate students, besides researchers through scientific, cultural and literary modes of protest.
A new spark?
Nonetheless, the visibility of student activism and movements may have been on the decline over the decades in Goa and as many past student activists and leaders claim, virtually non-existent.
And, the ABVP protest on the campus of St Xavier's College in Mapusa last week has, in a way, sparked off student activism in the State again. Whether good or bad, is something that the conduct of the authorities in government and our academicians besides the students themselves, in the days and years to come, will decide.
