Hyderabad: Cries of Jai Bheem, Lal Salaam, Intifada Inquilab reached a roaring crescendo in the University of Hyderabad (UoH) on Saturday evening, September 14, as a Muslim-Ambedkarite-Marxist-Leninist coalition was announced ahead of the student union elections for the first time in campus history.
The coalition, comprising the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA), the All India Students’ Association (AISA), the Muslim Students’ Front (MSF), and the Fraternity Movement, marks a strong move against the growing Hindutva forces on the campus that coalesced in the premature dissolution of the Students’ Union earlier this month.
The Muslim-majority panel, a first in the history of the student union in HCU, is headed by Presidential candidate Mohd Umar (PhD Hindi), an ASA cadre from the lower caste Pasmanda community. Others in the panel include the MSF’s Mohammed Shadil, the Fraternity Movement’s Abdus Salaam (MA Sociology); and Shenza Mariyam (IMA), a Malabari Muslim fielded by the Fraternity Movement.
Speaking to Siasat.com, Umar said, “Our alliance is for the Dalits, for the Adivasis, for the Muslims, for those who have so long been repressed under the weight of our campus’ machinery. We stand against the Brahminical nexus of the administration and its enquiries against the voiceless who dare to raise their voice.”
The PhD Hindi scholar began the campaign, quoting poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz:
Yun hi hamesha ulajhti rahi hai zulm se khalk
Na unki rasm nayi hai, na apni reet nayi
Yun hi hamesha khilaye hain hamne aag mein phool
Na unki haar nayi hai na apni jeet nayi
Change in coalitions
The newly announced alliance was met with accusations of religious fundamentalist ideology, with rivals dubbing it the “extreme left sitting in the lap of the extreme right.”
Condemning such statements, the ASA released a Parcha leading the main front and addressing the change in alignment, stating that the centring of marginalised voices is essential in the fight against fascist forces on campus.
ASA representatives articulated an effective breakdown of dialogue between the larger group of leftist organisations and its former ally, SFI.
Students alleged that SFI’s political ambitions weakened the united front against ABVP, as seen during the 400 acres movement, when it refused to work with groups like AISA and the Fraternity Movement, which SFI cadres often label as religious fundamentalists.
This divisive strand within the larger movement against right-wing pressure on the campus was heavily derided by organisations across the board, with the SFI failing to support its proclaimed ideal of left solidarity and the creation of a united front in the face of Hindutva oppression.
ABVP-Admin nexus in campus
The coalition believes that the administration, in cahoots with the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), has been advancing its Brahminical agenda through bureaucratic means against the wishes of the student body. Even the dissolution of the union, originally agreed upon for a later date at an all-party meeting with the administration, was pushed up. This gives a strategic edge to ABVP, which has all its candidates fielded and ready to campaign.
Recent campus recruitment drives by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have also raised eyebrows – the communal organisation known for its violence against marginalised communities across the country has been making strides in HCU since the 2024 session.
Tensions reached a burning peak last year when a pro-RSS poster was found pasted in a urinal in Men’s Hostel-H, leading to a massive squad of ABVP cadre descending onto hostel residents, reportedly pulling students out of their rooms at midnight and threatening violent action.
The administration has continuously refused to address the activities of the RSS shakha within the campus. Students have repeatedly questioned the role of an organisation with a history like that of the RSS within the academic environment of the campus grounds.
The 2024-2025 Students’ Union, an alliance comprising ASA, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the Bahujan Students’ Front (BSF), and the Dalit Students’ Union (DSU), was dissolved unilaterally by the administration via a university-wide email last week.
Addressing division
The ASA-SFI alliance, which had been holding strong within the Gachibowli campus for the last six years, did not pan out this election cycle owing to rumoured strife between the two organisations.
Campus rumours suggest SFI’s unwillingness to collaborate with the Fraternity Movement and MSF, citing them as fundamentalist organisations, and their obstinate stance against bringing marginalised Muslim voices to the forefront was at the root cause of the split.
ASA statements have since pointed to a ‘growing stagnancy’ within the coalition, seeing subaltern perspectives gradually get decentered as the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s student wing engaged in power struggles with its allies over seats in the election.
SFI reflects the political logic of its parent organisation, the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Earlier in August, SFI was accused of running an Islamophobic campaign in Kerala. The controversy started with the SFI state president saying that uttering the full form of MSF is enough to counter the organisation, which puts an emphasis on the word “Muslim.” MSF hit back by accusing the SFI of running a communal agenda and showing its Islamophobic traits.
Speaking to Siasat.com, the outgoing union vice president and the current convener of ASA, Akash Kumar, detailed the reasons behind the split and the fight for a larger progressive unity within the campus. “ASA has broken its alliance with SFI this time in order to secure a broader and stronger coalition which actually stands a fighting chance against the ABVP and actually stands to win and makes sure that fascist forces are not able to enter the University of Hyderabad,” he said.
Calling the campus one of the last truly democratic spaces within the country, he added, “This campus is still the last bastion of social justice politics, anti-caste politics, and egalitarian and emancipatory politics.”
Addressing the rumours surrounding SFI’s hesitation in building the larger progressive movement, the ASA convener further said, “We have broken the alliance because the SFI was unwilling to accommodate more progressive voices from the margins into the coalition to secure a certain victory against the ABVP’s growing influence. That is why we needed to take that decision and make sure that campus politics is still secure, that the democratic fabric here is still secure.”
Their manifesto
The Ambedkarite-Muslim-Marxist coalition’s new manifesto points to growing surveillance within the campus as an example of Hindutva overreach into academic spaces of discourse. Police vans rush onto the UoH campus each time pro-Palestine protests take place. Sloganeering students’ faces are also recorded and photographed by guards to be kept under watch.
The manifesto also projects the alliance as a direct result of and response to the decade-long rule of the sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the central government. Hindu extremism has been a rising force in the country, and the HCU campus has been no stranger to the developments plaguing the nation. It is the site where the Dalits and Bahujans are brutalised and dehumanised by the administration.
It is the site of the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula. ASA continues to fight in the name of Rohith Vemula, for whom justice is still denied to this day. As one of the most policed campuses in the country, the coalition intends to emphasise its stance against the status quo, holding up violence in the academic space.
Critics who brand the coalition as religiously fundamentalist find sufficient reply in its manifesto, which outlines measures to make the campus queer-friendly and to expand access for minority gender students. Among the accessibility infrastructure initiatives proposed by the alliance are curb cuts and ramps to make the entire campus wheelchair-friendly, as well as the introduction of gender neutral washrooms to ensure the comfort of all students.
Rohith Vemula’s legacy
The site of Rohith Vemula’s institutional murder at the hands of the ABVP-BJP nexus and its collusion with campus administration, HCU has been a stronghold of the ASA in its fight for justice for Rohith Vemula, whose death ignited a nationwide movement against rampant casteism in the higher educational institutes countrywide.
The institutional ambivalence to the causes of exclusion is another key point to address for the coalition. The fulfilment of vacant positions for SC/ST candidates (both in student intake and faculty) is a top priority for ASA, a result of the administration’s oversight in the application of its high and mighty ideals. This artificial lack of community for marginalised students (held up by the administration’s bureaucracy) has been a driving force behind the Dalit scholar suicides that have taken place on the campus over the years.
Another key point emphasised by the coalition has been its fight to make the Rohith Act a reality. This move intends to create widespread awareness and an effective system to combat caste – based discrimination within campuses to ensure that no student is forced into the decision taken by the Dalit scholar, affectionately referred to as Rohith Anna by ASA leaders.
400 Acres Land Movement
The most recent instance of police action against students occurred in April this year, when the Congress-led Telangana government forced its way into campus grounds in support of its wrongful claim to 400 acres of the University campus.
The Revanth Reddy regime used a fleet of more than a hundred JCBs to cut down more than 100 acres of forested green cover (“the lungs of Hyderabad” as articles later termed them), home to deer, peacocks, porcupines, and other diverse protected wildlife. Students protesting against the campus invasion were met with brutal repression in the form of lathi charges, and more than 50 students were detained by police.
The East Campus, where the rampant and reckless deforestation drive took place, has since been witness to constant police presence in the form of patrols and night guards, with reports of arbitrary harassment of students and restrictions on movement within campus grounds emerging regularly.
Amid the ongoing turmoil, the coalition positions itself as an attempt to unite a divided student body.
With students fearing a turn of events similar to those witnessed at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, where a divided progressive front ceded a panel seat to the ABVP earlier this year, the Muslim-Ambedkarite-Marxist alliance is presenting itself as a united alternative in the University of Hyderabad.
The student union election in UoH will take place on September 19, with results being declared on the next day.
