Independents' Consolidation (IC) is a student organization based in Presidency University, Kolkata. It was formed in the erstwhile Presidency College and has won all but five student union elections since its formation in 1989. It describes itself as a "non-partisan independent political platform" that is not affiliated to any established political party. [1] [2]
| Abbreviation | IC |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1989 |
| Founded at | Presidency University |
| Type | Student organisation |
| Legal status | Active |
The student body of Presidency University has traditionally voted for non-partisan outfits except for 1982, 2002–03, 2008-09 [3] and 2019. [4] The origin of non-affiliated organizations in Presidency go back to the 1960s, with the pro-naxal Presidency College Students' Consolidation. Thereafter, the Presidency College Students' Steering Committee followed a politically middle course from 1975 to the early 1980s. The Presidency College Students’ Association (PCSA), with no stated or clear links to the earlier group, came into the picture in the early 1980s.
The events at Tiananmen Square (1989) and the disintegration of the Soviet Union (1991) had a tremendous impact on the PCSA. Differences cropped up, leading to the formation of the IC in 1989. The announced agenda of the IC was to restore campus democracy and to resist campus violence. The IC broke away from radical left politics and reflected the disillusionment over left politics felt worldwide. Initially a centrist organization, IC’s policies saw a leftward shift after the Left Front government veered towards capitalist camps from 2002. Post Singur and Nandigram violence orchestrated by the Left front, the IC became an alternative for those with leftist tendencies. The IC claims to draw its ideological foundations from mass uprisings like the May 68 protests in France, the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement, the Hok Kolorob Movement, [5] the Anti-CAA protests, and the Anti Farm Law protests - movements "led entirely by people's forces and not political parties". [1] Sunandan Roy Chowdhury has identified The Free Thinkers of JNU (in the late 1970s and the 1980s) and the Independents' Consolidation as two important examples where student politics had moved away from the fold of established parties. [2]
The Independents' Consolidation has been active through both the Left regime (1989-2011) and the Trinamool Congress (2011–present) rule in West Bengal. Except for 1982, 2002–03 and 2008–09, the IC has been able to keep the ruling party at bay from the Presidency College Students' Union. [6] Consequently, the IC has been at the receiving end of violence orchestrated by both the SFI (student wing of the CPIM) and the TMC. On 21 February 2010, a first year IC supporter had to be hospitalized after being allegedly beaten up by members of SFI when winning candidates of the two organizations assembled for the formation of the college union. [7] On 21 January 2012, a second-year political science student and an IC supporter survived after slashing his wrist when he was thrown out of the Eden Hindu Hostel following weeks of abuse and torture by SFI cadres. [8]
On 18 March 2014, the Independents' Consolidation organized a referendum on whether the then TMC Member of Parliament Sugata Bose should continue as chairperson of the Presidency Mentor Group. Bose lost 1208 to 316. [9] This was following the 2013 TMC attack on Presidency University, where TMC activists had attacked students and rampaged the historical Baker Laboratory with knives, sticks and javelins. [10] Years following the BJP's rise to power in the Centre, Independents' Consolidation has been active in the Anti-CAA protests and the Anti Farm Law protests.[ citation needed ]
Independents' Consolidation had been part of the Hindu Hostel movement [11] that ensured the reopening of the hostel after three years in 2019. [12]
In May 2021, Independents' Consolidation demanded that the university authority allow the use of the campus as a safe home for non-critical patients to ease the pressure on hospital beds during the COVID-19 pandemic in West Bengal. [13] Although permissions were secured from the State Health Department, the university did not allow the project to go on. [14]
Independents' Consolidation campaigned for the revival of admission tests in 2021, after the university shifted to admissions based on +2 marks during the pandemic. [15]
Subhas Chandra Bose was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, and military failure. The honorific 'Netaji' was first applied to Bose in Germany in early 1942—by the Indian soldiers of the Indische Legion and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin. It is now used throughout India.
Presidency University, Kolkata is a public state university located in College Street, Kolkata. It was among the best colleges in the country when the institute was affiliated to University of Calcutta. The institution was elevated to university status in 2010 after functioning as a constituent college of the University of Calcutta for about 193 years. Currently, it continues to rank among the top universities in India. The University boasts an illustrious list of extraordinary alumni over the last two centuries, including several pioneers of the Bengal Renaissance, leaders of the Indian Independence Movement, heads of state, noble laureates, Academy Award winner etc.
The Students' Federation of India (SFI) is an Indian left-wing student organisation that claims to be politically aligned to the ideologies of freedom, democracy, anti-hindu and socialism. Currently, V. P. Sanu and Mayukh Biswas are elected as the All India President and General Secretary, respectively. It is the students wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Mamata Banerjee is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal since 20 May 2011, the first woman to hold the office. Having served multiple times as a Union Cabinet Minister, Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the first time in 2011. She founded the All India Trinamool Congress in 1998 after separating from the Indian National Congress, and became its second chairperson later in 2001. She is often referred to as Didi.
Sugata Bose is an Indian historian and politician who has taught and worked in the United States since the mid-1980s. His fields of study are South Asian and Indian Ocean history. Bose taught at Tufts University until 2001, when he accepted the Gardiner Chair of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University. Bose is also the director of the Netaji Research Bureau in Kolkata, India, a research center and archives devoted to the life and work of Bose's great uncle, the Indian nationalist, Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose is the author most recently of His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle against Empire (2011) and A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire (2006).
The All India Students' Federation (AISF) is the oldest student organisation in India, founded in 1936.
Bhupendra Kumar Dutta was an Indian freedom fighter and a revolutionary who fought for Indian independence from British rule. In addition to his other specific contributions as a Jugantar leader, he holds the record of a hunger strike for 78 days in Bilaspur Jail in December 1917.
Sarat Chandra Bose was an Indian barrister and independence activist.
Barun De was an Indian historian. He served as the first professor of social and economic history of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, founder-director of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta and the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata and as the honorary state editor for the West Bengal District Gazetteers. He was chairman of the West Bengal Heritage Commission.
Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research and Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital, colloquially known as P.G. Hospital, is a public medical college and hospital located in Kolkata, India. It is a national research institute.
Dilip Ghosh is an Indian politician from West Bengal. He is the incumbent Member of Parliament representing the Medinipur constituency in Lok Sabha. He also served as one of the national vice presidents of Bharatiya Janata Party from 2021 to 2023. He served as the 9th president of the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election was the 17th quinquennial legislative election held in West Bengal, to elect all 294 members of West Bengal Legislative Assembly. This electoral process of 292 seats unfolded between 27 March to 29 April 2021, taking place in eight phases. Voting for the two remaining constituencies was delayed to 30 September 2021.
The Shaheen Bagh protest was a peaceful sit-in protest in Delhi, India, that began on 15 December 2019 and lasted until 24 March 2020. The protest was led by women who blocked a major road at Shaheen Bagh using non-violent resistance 24×7. Mainly consisting of Muslim women, the protest began in response to the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) on 11 December 2019 and the ensuing police intervention against students at Jamia Millia Islamia who were opposing the Amendment. Protesters agitated against the citizenship issues of the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), in addition to police brutality, unemployment, and poverty, and for women's safety. The Delhi Police barricaded major roads in and around the area, affecting more than 100,000 vehicles a day and adding hours to some journeys. Following the North East Delhi riots, police presence in the area temporarily increased with over 1000 personnel being assigned to Shaheen Bagh. After the COVID-19 outbreak in India and subsequent government-enforced restrictions the protest continued for several days in a more controlled manner. Following the complete lockdown imposed in Delhi on 23 March 2020, the remaining protesters were arrested or forcefully removed from the site by the Delhi Police.
No NRC movement was originated in West Bengal, after NRC Assam Draft List was published in 2018. It predated the anti-CAA protests and created the conditions for protests against the CAA to grow, especially in West Bengal. The NRC Assam Final Draft List, published on 30 July 2018, has excluded four million residents. The initial protests against NRC were organised by the Matua (Namashudra) community in West Bengal. On 1 August 2018, the members of the Matua community protested across the state, in places such as Dumdum, Sodepur, Titagarh, Palta, Halisahar, New Barrackpore, Madhyamgram, Barasat, Thakurnagar and Bhaybla in North 24 Parganas district and Chakdah, Bagula, Badkulla in Nadia district. They blocked the national highway-6 connecting Kolkata and Mumbai at Chandrapur in Howrah district. Sarva Bharatiya Namashudra Vikash Parishad promised to continue protests against NRC. They also blocked Railway traffic in various places in Bengal. Matua Mahasangha contended that NRC Assam would exclude millions of Matuas. The rail blockade by Matuas disrupted rail traffic in Sealdah division.
Dipsita Dhar is an Indian politician and student activist. She is the All India Joint Secretary of Students' Federation of India. She was the CPI(M) candidate from Bally constituency for 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election. She is contesting the 2024 Indian General Election as a CPI(M) candidate from the Serampore.
M. Vijin is an Indian politician from Kerala state. He has been serving as the MLA of Kalliaseri Constituency since May 2021. He is the state vice president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), Kerala unit. He was the former All India Joint Secretary of Students' Federation of India.
Aishe Ghosh is an Indian politician and student activist. She is a former President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union and is a Member of the Students' Federation of India. She was also the CPI(M) candidate from Jamuria constituency for 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election and lost to Hareram Singh.
Shatarup Ghosh is an Indian politician from West Bengal belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM). He had formerly served as the All India Joint Secretary of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), the students wing of CPIM and was member of its central secretariat. Then he became a member of the state committee secretariat of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), which is the youth wing of CPIM. He has been inducted into the West Bengal State Committee of Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the 23rd Party conference of state in March 2022 and currently remains a member of it.
The protest against the death of Anish Khan, also known as the justice for Anish Khan protest, began on 18 February 2022 after the death of All India Students' Federation (AISF) leader Anish Khan. The AISF, Students' Federation of India, All India Students Association and other organizations organised protests, including rallies, human chains and demonstrations. The protests began in Jadavpur and Park Circus, initiated by students at Aliah University, then rapidly spread across the state of West Bengal and throughout India.
Srijan Bhattacharyya is an Indian political leader who served as the West Bengal State Secretary of the Students' Federation of India (SFI). He is also a Member of the West Bengal State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He is contesting the 2024 Indian General Election as a CPI(M) candidate from the Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)