Classrooms to streets: A short history of student movements

France | May 1968

Maybe this is the most storied student revolution — because it was as much a cultural and sexual one as a political one. Even more remarkably, it tied up with a blue-collar workers’ revolt. Two-thirds of the labour force took to the streets, demanding better working conditions. The de Gaulle govt survived but France itself was forever changed. Conservative Gaullism made way for an open, tolerant and secular society – with much better wages. And the 68 story continues to inspire rebellious spirits today. As one of the slogans on one of the Paris walls then said, “Be realistic, demand the impossible.”

China | Tiananmen Square 1989

These were famously repressed protests. And yet, the very intenseness with which their mention continues to be censored in China says that the events haven’t faded in significance. What were the student protesters demanding? More intellectual freedom, more market freedom, more democracy. Decades on, it remains an open question whether the spirit for a repeat protest has been crushed out by Xi. But doesn’t the iconic image of a solitary figure in white shirt, black trousers and halting a column of tanks, continue to relay the possibility of resistance to communist repression?

Iran | 1979

University students were key participants in the Islamic revolution that overthrew the Shah. More recent years have seen students protest for the very secularisation and closer ties with the US that five decades ago they were agitating against. The new status quo can end up being as oppressive as the old, except in a new way. The Ayatollah’s iron-fisted is exactly the kind of provocation that, with the help of a sudden triggering event, can precipitate a student movement.

Latin America

The 2011-13 Chilean Winter of students protesting against educational inequality and neoliberal policies, the brutally crushed 1968 Mexican student movement against authoritarianism ahead of the Mexico City Olympics, the 1960s and 70s Argentinian resistance to military dictatorships, the challenge to Ortega regime in Nicaragua…the list of Latin American student movements is long and growing. They are often engaged in very sophisticated political analyses, often drawn from Marxist theories, connecting education issues to broader conversations about economic and social justice.

USA

The world’s most powerful democracy has historically boasted some of the world’s most activist student bodies, which also gives hope that the Trumpian attacks on its freedom of speech will finally fail. In the 1960s and 70s students pushed back on both segregation and the Vietnam war, and the most important ground they won was the opinion of America. But perhaps in no other country are student movements so non-parochial. The 1980s saw the anti-apartheid movement that would eventually reform far South Africa. Today, of course US universities look hopelessly torn up over the Palestine-Israel conflict. But it’s possible that even on this, they will evolve a consensus opinion over time.

India

The world’s largest democracy has seen both spontaneous and well-organised student movements impact its polity again and again. While the largest recent case of anti-CAA protests is still being prosecuted, many regional and linguistic movements, including the demand for a separate Telangana state, owe a big debt to student protesters. On reservations, many communities of students are seen demanding quotas today, but the Mandal commission recommendations themselves saw notable anti-Mandal protests, which contributed to the fall of the VP Singh govt. Students also played a central role in the anti-Emergency protests and the student-backed JP movement contributed to the defeat of Indira Gandhi in the 1977 elections. A large number of students also joined the Naxal movement that started in the late ’60s. Going even further back, India’s Independence was won as much by student participation as any other factor.