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Student Movements in Historical Perspective: The Asian Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Philip G. Altbach
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Extract

While student movements have only recently become internationally prominent, they have been active political and social forces in many nations for a fairly long period of time. The European nationalist movements of the 19th century had strong student support, and European revolutionary movements, including the German revolutions of 1848 and the Russian revolutionary movements, saw students in instrumental roles. In the developing areas as well students have played an important and sometimes crucial political role. Asian students have a particularly long and active history of political involvement. India, China, Burma, Indonesia, Pakistan, and other nations have all seen nationalist upsurges in the 19th and 20th centuries in which university students and Western-oriented intellectuals have been active. Many Asian nations, after achieving independence, have seen student and youth movements in opposition or as politically volatile elements in their societies. In a few nations, such as Turkey, South Korea, South Vietnam, and indirectly Indonesia, Pakistan, and Japan, students have caused governments to fall or political crises to take place.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 1970 , pp. 74 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1970

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References

1 A few more general analyses of student activism have been attempted, although none seems to deal with all of the variables involved in a satisfactory manner. For some of these analyses, see Lipset, Seymour Martin, “University Students and Politics in Underdeveloped Countries,” in Lipset, S. M., ed., Student Politics, (New York: Basic Books, 1967), pp. 3–53Google Scholar, E. W. Bakke, “Roots and Soil of Student Activism,” in S. M. Lipset, op. cit., pp. 54–73, Philip G. Altbach, “Students and Politics,” in S. M. Lipset, op. cit., pp. 74–96, Feuer, Lewis, The Conflict of Generations, (New York: Basic Books, 1969)Google Scholar, among others.

2 The amount of research on student activism has grown substantially in the past few years, although broad areas are as yet undescribed. For two of the most useful recent collections, see Lipset, Seymour Martin and Altbach, Philip G., eds., Students in Revolt, (Boston: Houghton Miffin, 1969)Google Scholar, and Emmerson, Donald, ed., Students and Politics in Developing Countries, (New York: Praeger, 1968)Google Scholar. For a bibliographical source, see Altbach, Philip G., A Select Bibliography on Students, Politics and Higher Education, (Cambridge: Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 1967)Google Scholar.

3 Lewis Feuer, op. cit., has concentrated on generational revolt in his recent analysis to an extent which seems, to the observer, to be an overemphasis. Feuer argues that virtually all student unrest has a very strong component of generational conflict.

4 The best analysis of the transfer of academic institutions from the metropolitan to the colonial nations in Ashby, Eric, Universities: British, Indian, African, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966)Google Scholar. There has unfortunately been relatively little written to date on this very important topic.

5 An expanded discussion of the role of the Indian student movement can be found in Altbach, Philip G., “Student Politics and Higher Education in India,” in Altbach, P. G., ed., Turmoil and Transition, (New York: Basic Books, 1969) pp. 17–73Google Scholar.

6 Harsja W. Bachtiar, “Indonesia,” in D. Emmerson, ed., op. cit., p. 181.

7 Israel, John, “The Modern Chinese Student Movement,” Daedalus, 97 (Winter, 1968), p. 230Google Scholar. See also Israel, John, Student Nationalism in China 1927–1937, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966)Google Scholar, for one of the best analyses of the Chinese student movement.

8 Wang, Y. C., Chinese Intellectuals and the West, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966), p. 182Google Scholar.

9 For an analysis of the ramifications of the crucial May 4 Movement, see Chow, Tse-Tung, The May Fourth Movement, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Silverstein, Josef, “Burmese Student Politics in a Changing Society,” Daedalus, 97 (Winter, 1968), p. 276Google Scholar.

11 The historical aspect of the Vietnamese student movement is almost entirely unknown. See Sacks, I. Milton, “Marxism in Vietnam,” in Trager, Frank, ed., Marxism in Southeast Asia, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959), pp. 102–170Google Scholar for some historical analysis. See also David Marr, “South Vietnam,” in D. Emmerson, ed., op. cit., pp. 215–248 for more current material.

12 For further analysis of the early period of the Muslim student movement in India, see Altbach, Philip G., Student Politics in Bombay, (Bombay and New York: Asia Publishing House, 1968), pp. 176–180Google Scholar.

13 See Philip G. Altbach, “Student Politics and Higher Education in India,” in P.G. Altbach, (Ed.), Turmoil and Transition, op. cit., especially pp. 35–51.

14 For data concerning the early history of the student movement in Japan, see Battistini, L. H., Postwar Student Struggle in Japan, (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1956)Google Scholar.

15 The best analyses in English on the modern Japanese student movement have been written by Michiya Shimbori. See his “Sociology of a Student Movement — A Japanese Case Study,” Daedalus, 97 (Winter, 1968), pp. 204–228Google Scholar, “Comparison of Pre- and Post-war Student Movements in Japan,” Sociology of Education, 37 (Fall, 1963), pp. 60–70Google Scholar, and “Zengakuren: A Japanese Case Study of a Student Political Movement,” Sociology of Education, 37 (Spring, 1964), pp. 229–253CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Suzuki, Hiroo, “Theory, Spirit of Student Movement — What They Seek, Why They Act,” Yomiuri, (08 8, 1968), p. 5Google Scholar.

17 The Korean student movement has been neglected by scholars. For two of the most adequate analyses of recent events, see Kim, C. I. E., and Kim, Ke-so, “April 1960 Korean Student Movement,” Western Political Quarterly, 18 (03, 1964), pp. 83–92Google Scholar, and Douglas, William, “Korean Students and Politics” Asian Survey, 3 (12, 1963), pp. 584–595CrossRefGoogle Scholar.