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The Scholars' Rebellion: Educational Interests and Agitational Politics in Gujarat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Dawn E. Jones  and
Rodney W. Jones
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Extract

Severe urban rioting, the accompaniment of an organized political agitation known as the Nav Nirman (Reconstruction) movement, gripped the Indian state of Gujarat in early 1974, bringing to a violent climax social and political discontents from beneath a surface tranquility. Costly in lives and property and damaging to the political fabric of Gujarat, the ten-week-long agitation subsided only after winning two political objectives: first, the expulsion of the Chief Minister and imposition of President's Rule; and second, dissolution of the Gujarat legislative assembly. Resisted by the central government, the overthrow in Gujarat was an embarrassment to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and was a factor leading to the declaration of national emergency in June 1975. Gujarat's recent troubles have a background in the 1969 national split of the Congress party, but the immediate issues of Nav Nirman were food scarcity, rising prices, corruption in governing circles, and grievances in the educational system. These issues were seized upon by college students, who sparked the riots and who thereafter provided the most visible leadership of the movement.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , May 1977 , pp. 457 - 476
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1977

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References

1 This article is based on fieldwork carried out in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Delhi, between Sept 1974 and Jan 1975. We wish to express our gratitude to the American Institute of Indian Studies for financial support; to Dr. Amrik Singh of Delhi University for his thoughtful guidance; to Shri K. C. Parikh, Registrar, and Professor Devavrut N. Pathak, Director of the School of Social Science at Gujarat University for their hospitality and support; and to Dr. Rajni Kothari and D. L. Sheth at the Centre for Developing Societies, Delhi, and Professor John R. Wood of the University of British Columbia, for comments on an early draft. We assume sole responsibility, however, for the views expressed and any errors that may remain in this article.

2 See Shah, Ghanshyam, “The Upsurge in Guja-rat,” Economic and Political Weekly, Special Number (August 1974), pp. 1429—54.Google Scholar

3 For elaboration, see our companion article, “Urban Upheaval in India: The 1974 Nav Nirman Riots in Gujarat,” Asian Survey, XVI (1976), pp. 1012–33.Google Scholar

4 Weiner, Myron, The Politics of Scarcity (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1962), pp. 216ff.Google Scholar

5 For background on Gujarat politics, see John R. Wood, “The Political Integration of British and Princely Gujarat,” Ph.D. diss., Columbia, 1972; Pathak, Devavrut N. et al., Three General Electionsin Gujarat, Ahmedabad: Gujarat Univ., 1965Google Scholar; Weiner, Myron, Party Building in a New Nation (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1967)Google Scholar, Part II; and Erdman, Howard L., The Swatantra Party and Indian Conservatism, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1967Google Scholar and Politics and Economic Development in India: The Gujarat State Fertilizer Company, Delhi: D. K. Publishing, 1973.Google Scholar

6 Founded in 1950, Gujarat University was until 1967 the only affiliating university for Gujarat as a whole. Even after the Saurashtra and South Gujarat universities were created by splitting regional clusters of colleges from Gujarat University in 1967, the latter retained about 60 percent of the state's affiliated colleges, those concentrated in central and north Gujarat. The picture is complicated by the existence of local universities: M.S. University of Baroda, a unitary institution in Baroda city; Sardar Patel Vidyapith, which affiliates colleges near Vallabh Vidyanager in Kaira district; and the Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahmedabad, a small unitary institution founded by Mahatma Gandhi.

7 , Susanne H. and Rudolph, Lloyd I. (eds.), Education and Politics in India [hereafter E&P], Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972Google Scholar; Altbach, Philip G. and Singh, Amrik (eds.), The Higher Learn inginlndia, Delhi: Vikas, 1974Google Scholar; Ilchman, Warren F. and Dhar, Trilok N., “Optimal Ignorance and Excessive Education: Educational Inflation in India,” Asian Survey, XI (1971) pp. 523–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 See Universities Handbook, India, 1973 (Delhi: Inter-University Board of India, 1973)Google Scholar foruniversi-ties in Gujarat. In 1971–72, enrollments in affiliated colleges and postgraduate departments of Guja-rat University totaled 80,203; Saurashtra University, 32,500; South Gujarat University, 20,083; M.S. University, 16,590; Sardar Patel Vidyapith, 13,226.

9 The 235 affiliating colleges in 1971–72 broke down as follows: G.U., 136; S.U., 53; S.G.U., 29; S.P.V., 17. Ibid.

10 This pattern is not confined to Gujarat, as Am-rik Singh points out in “Higher Education in the Seventies,” Quest, LXXIII (Nov/Dec 1971), pp. 5–6Google Scholar. For an analysis of Gujarat data compiled by the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research, Ahmedabad, see Ladakwala, D. T. and Shah, K. R., “Cost, Size and Location of Colleges in Guja-rat,” Anvesak (June 1974), pp. 23–41Google Scholar.

11 “For example, of the 147 colleges affiliated to Gujarat University in 1974, only 9 were “government colleges,” the rest “privately managed.”

12 Forastudy of the political incentives in starting schools, see Harold Gould, “Educational Structures and Political Processes in Faizabad District, Uttar Pradesh” in E&P, pp. 94–120.

13 “This includes the districts of Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Panchmahals, Banaskantha, Kutch, Gandhinagar, and most of Kaira and Baroda, the area covered by Gujarat University since 1967.

14 Gangadhar, V., “Gujarat: 'Sick' University,” Illustrated Weekly of India, 24 Nov 1974, p. 17.Google Scholar

15 See Govt of Gujarat, Education and Labour Dept, Report of the Committee on College Finances, 1971 (Gandhinagar, 1972) [commonly known as the Shelat Committee Report], pp. 30–31.

16 Ladakwala and Shah (n. 10 above), p. 37.

17 The Gujarat University Act, 1949 (Bombay), Chap. IV, Sec. 16.

18 Govt of Gujarat, Education and Labour Dept, Report of the Commission on Modernization of University Acts, 1970–71 (Gandhinagar, n.d.) [known as the Dongerkery Commission Report], pp. 8–12.

19 See Gangadhar (n. 14 above).

20 The core of colleges at Chimanbhai's disposal were integrated into three consortia: Chimanbhai's own “Sardar Vallabhbhai complex,” Manishanker Pandya's “Vivekanand complex,” and Rasikhlal Shah's “Ahmedabad complex,” together totaling 17 colleges in Ahmedabad. In addition, Rasikhlal Shah's family reportedly held indirect control of 10 other colleges in the districts.

21 By 1974, college and university students in Gujarat numbered about 160,000; their teachers, about 8,000. For details, see ref. in n. 3 above,

22 Baroda University Teachers Association (BUTA), founded in Dec 1962 and more active from its inception, provided GUATA with external inspiration and a model of organizational experience. BUTA figures in the Rudolphs' study “Parochialism and Cosmopolitanism in University Government: The Environments of Baroda University,” in E&P, pp. 207–72.

23 K. K. Shastri, President 1966–68; his successor, Ramesh Bhatt; and A. T. Desai and U. K. Kapadia, both Secretaries at various times. The Guja rat Vidhya Sabha was sponsored by the industrialist family that owns the Ambica Textile Mills (currently headed by Jaikrishna Harivallabhdas).

24 Shelat Committee Report (n. 15 above), pp. 19–20.

25 SUATA in Saurashtra, and SGUATA in South Gujarat—the leaders of which had been in GUATA until their regional universities were founded in 1967.

26 Ishwarbhai Patel had been Vice-Chancellor of Sardar Patel Vidyapith( 1963–70), and earlier Principal of a teachers' training college under the Charotar Education Society of Anand, in Kairadistrict. His highest degree is an M.A. (Philosophy, Bombay University, 1939), and he started out as a teacher in the Dadabhai Naoroji High School, Anand. Ishwarbhai was proposed for the Vice-Chancellorship of M. S. University at Baroda in 1970 by “influential members of the Syndicate with close ties to city and state publics,” but his name was dropped because of teachers' objections. See Rudolphs, “Parochialism and Cosmopolitanism” (n. 22 above), p. 243. Most teachers of Gujarat University were similarly unenthusiastic in this case.

27 Shah, Ghanshyam, “Anatomy of Urban Riots: Ahmedabad 1973,” Economic and Political Weekly (Annual Number, Feb 1974), pp. 233–34Google Scholar; and his “Upsurge in Gujarat” (n. 2 above), p. 1436.

28 The number could vary slightly, with former Vice-Chancellors of the university eligible to sit as ex-officio members.

29 Friction exists between GUATA and the university professors from postgraduate departments; though few in numbers, the latter have a separate association, the Gujarat University Teachers' Association (GUTA). The university professors tend to be sympathetic to the interests of private managements. But GUTA is nevertheless allied with GUATA in the federation, GSFUCTA. Government college teachers also have a separate association; though it usually cooperates informally with GUATA, its members, as government servants, are naturally sensitive to official pressures.

30 “Urban Upheaval” (n. 3 above).

31 Gujaratis are rather creative in the way they link private managerial talent with public financing, as shown by the Gujarat State Fertilizer Company, a joint industrial enterprise; see Howard L. Erdman, Politics (n. 5 above).