TheAkhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is a student organisation in India, which was established in 1949. It's a significant student body with over 5 million members, making it one of the largest student organisations in the world. ABVP is a student wing ofRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), aright-wingHindutva andnationalist organisation.[2][3][4]
The ABVP, founded in 1948 with the initiative of theRSS activistBalraj Madhok, was formally registered on 9 July 1949.[5][6] Its purpose when founded was to counter communist influence on university campuses.[7]Yashwantrao Kelkar, a lecturer inBombay, became its main organiser in 1958. According to the ABVP website, he built the organisation into what it is now and is considered to be 'the real architect of the ABVP'.[5]
Various branches of the ABVP have been involved in Hindu-Muslim communal riots since 1961.[8][9] However, in the 1970s, the ABVP also increasingly took on issues concerning the lower middle classes like corruption and government inertia.[8] The ABVP played a leading role in the agitational politics of the 1970s during theBihar Movement. Many leaders like,Yashwantrao Kelkar,Dattopant Thengadi,Manmohan G. Vaidya,Sunil Ambekar, played an instrumental role in expanding ABVP's presence in campuses across India.This led to collaboration among student activists in Gujarat and Bihar. The ABVP gained significantly from such efforts afterthe Emergency and experienced a growth in membership.[10]
By 1974, the ABVP had 160,000 members across 790 campuses and had gained control over several prominent universities, includingDelhi University via student elections. By 1983, the organisation had 250,000 members and 1,100 branches.[8] ABVP grew during the 1990s, receiving more support as a result of theBabri Masjid demolition and the economic liberalisation pursued by theP. V. Narasimha Rao government. It continued to grow after theUnited Progressive Alliance came to power in 2003, trebling in membership to 3.175 million members as of 2016.[11]
The ABVP spokespersons insist that the ABVP is not affiliated to theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is described as the "student wing" of the RSS.[12] However, both the BJP and the ABVP are members of theSangh Parivar.[13] The BJP is said to gain handsomely from the ABVP's support base and several politicians of the BJP, including the current Home MinisterAmit Shah and former Finance MinisterArun Jaitley, had their ideological foundation in the ABVP.[14] Several scholars make no distinction between the RSS and theBJP, and regard the ABVP as a student wing of both of them or either of them.[15][16][17][18]
In 2017, the ABVP faced a string of losses in student body elections. They included not only Delhi'sJawaharlal Nehru University andDelhi University, but also theUniversity of Allahabad andMahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith in Uttar Pradesh, theGujarat University and theGauhati University. The loss in the Kashi Vidyapeeth was considered significant since it is inVaranasi, prime ministerNarendra Modi's home constituency. This is said to have caused alarm in the BJP, which set up a committee to study the issues causing the ABVP's decline.[14][19]ABVP bounced back in 2018 by winning the key posts of president, vice-president and joint secretary of students polls ofDelhi University.[20] ABVP won all six seats in the Hyderabad Central University students union polls after eight years in 2018.[21]
The ABVP's manifesto includes agendas such as educational and university reforms.[22] It competes in student-body elections in colleges and universities. Students for Development (SFD) is an initiative by the ABVP to promote "right perspective towards the need of holistic and sustainable development" in students.[23] The official ABVP magazine isRashtriya Chhatrashakti, which is published monthly inHindi inNew Delhi.[24]
ABVP conducts self-defense training program for girls titled "Mission Sahasi" all over India.[25][26][27]
ABVP conducted door-to-door screening in more than 100 slums of Delhi for Covid-19 symptoms and encouraged people to register for vaccination.[28][29][30]
ABVP has been accused of multiple violent incidents, including stone pelting,[31][32] arson,[33][34] vandalism[35] and physical assault,[36] on college[37][38] and school campuses[39] and elsewhere.[40][41][42][43] Most notably, on 5 January 2020, according to theJawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union, masked ABVP members attacked JNU students, smashing cars and pelting stones, while ABVP accused left wing organisations. ABVP later confessed the same on national media[44][45] and in asting operation,[46] and the veracity of ABVP's involvement was also found out throughinvestigative journalism which was later confirmed byDelhi Police.[47][48][49] A total of 28 people were injured, including students and teachers.[40][41]
^Sonntag, Selma K. (1996). "The political saliency of language in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh".The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics.34 (2):1–18.doi:10.1080/14662049608447722.: "Protests andlathi-charges continued throughout January, the former organised by a transitory student organisation...although the role of the BJP-affiliated ABVP student union seems to have been more conspicuous."
^Thapar, Romila (2014). "Banning Books".India Review.13 (3):283–286.doi:10.1080/14736489.2014.937277.S2CID214654999.: "Thus, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), currently in power in India, demanded the removal of an essay by A. K. Ramanujan from the reading-list of the History syllabus for the BA Degree at Delhi University."
^Amaresh Misra, Growing Social Unrest,Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 32, No. 12 ( 22–28 Mar 1997), pp. 571-573,JSTOR4405193: "To pre-empt this, the ABVP (the student wing of the RSS and the BJP) and allied forces let loose the spectre of violence which the administration, instead of controlling, instigated further."
^Navneet Sharma and Anamica, "Imbecility and Impudence: The Emergency and RSS", Mainstream Weekly, VOL LV, No 30, 16 July 2017: "The ideological parent of the BJP, the RSS, and its student wing, the ABVP, have their own crucial role in the BJP's anti-democratic-secular India agenda."
