14 August,2011 08:58 AM IST | | Dhamini Ratnam
This year, Mumbai's college students won't spend August 15 soaking in a waterfall. Plans include gathering at Azad Maidan to protest against terrorism, giving speeches on self-governance at Malhar, and turning off lights at home to signal the 'dark times' we're facingu00a0
Sitting in a coffee shop close to Azad Maidan, four college-goers are sharing two cups of coffee on the Thursday ahead of Independence Day. The students of Kohinoor College of Hotel and Tourism Management Studies, Dadar, look like any other bunch of students grabbing a few free moments before class. Every now and then, words like 'Facebook page' and 'supporters' escape from their table, and on leaning in you'd realise they are talking about 'Protest Against Terrorism' a page on the popular social networking website that they too,
are part of.u00a0
On August 15, Mugdha Shah, Omkar Shiwarkar, Rishikesh Tawade and Swarali Ranade will head to Azad Maidan with at least 150 other supporters by conservative estimates, to register their protest against terrorism, even as the page states that 1,848 are 'attending the event'.
Like them, au00a0 large number of college-goers in the city will not be treating August 15, 2011 as just another holiday. While Shah and company will congregate at Azad Maidan at noon to protest against the state's security failures, a group of 10 college student volunteers will use the platform of St Xavier's College's famous festival Malhar, to spread awareness among attendees on the importance of local self governance, and social activism.
Several others will switch off the lights in their homes between 8 and 9 pm on Monday, paying heed to Anna Hazare's call to observe an hour of darkness on India's Independence Day, as a form of protest against the government's version of the Lokpal Bill.
Manaan Gandhi, a 21 year-old third year student at Dr DY Patil College of Ayurveda and Research Institute, Nerul, is going to drown his Vile Parle residence in darkness. "Democracy has failed, Indians are surrounded by darkness. This is clearly evident when people have to put their lives at stake just so that the government hears their voice," said Gandhi, referring to Hazare's declaration of an indefinite fast starting August 16.
This is not a form of token activism on the part of the Mumbai's collegians, either. On August 6, a large group of students took part in a peace rally to mark the 56th anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by an atom bomb during World War II. On August 16, Hazare supporters will be out on the streets urging people not to go to work and join them instead at Azad Maidan, for a protest gathering.
Last month, Gandhi, who has been actively involved in the activities of India Against Corruption, an umbrella organisation working to spread awareness about the Lokpal Bill, helped organise an inter-college debate in which over 40 Mumbai colleges participated. The idea, he said, was to get the youth actively involved in talking about the bill, issues of corruption and civil society's involvement in governance.
To ensure that, they even did away with judges in the early rounds of the debates. Instead, the audience members were given electronic voting machines, and winners were decided on the basis of which way they swung before and after a debate.
The protest against terrorism at Azad Maidan isn't a knee jerk reaction. Shah, a 21 year-old with a keen interest in Human Resources, had organised a rally from Churchgate to Nariman Point on July 30, in the aftermath of the recent bomb blasts in Mumbai. Over 400 college and Facebook friends had signed up to attend the rally, which was cancelled since the police refused to grant Shah permission. A few days later, Shah saw the Facebook group started by advocate and BJP party worker Vivekanand Gupta, and all her friends joined the group.
"We expect several hundred students to be part of the August 15 rally," said Gupta, who asserts that the rally has nothing to do with his work for the political party.u00a0"We will meet the police commissioner and request him to hold classes on how to respond to such attacks. We also plan to create a database of names of people who attend the event, and keep it ready as emergency contacts," said Shah.
"Last year, we didn't do much on Independence Day. This year, it's different," Shah added. Political Science post graduate student Aditya Paul can't say the same about last year's Independence Dayu00a0-- he had met with members of his locality's ALM and after a short flag hoisting ceremony, had spoken with them on issues of self governance.
"The whole thing lasted 20 minutes," said Paul, who will be volunteering with a team of 10 college students at the Malhar festival this year, from 10 am to 7 pm. A member of citizen's group Jagrut Nagrik Manch, Paul joined Indian Against Corruption when it was created earlier this year, and volunteers in student outreach programmes. This is the first time that IAC will approach students through a college festival.u00a0
"Malhar is a great way to reach college-goers. We'll answer their queries on the Lokpal Bill, and request them to join our peace rallies and hunger strikes," said Paul, who will be present with his team of volunteers on all three days of the festival, that started on August 13. "All my college friends are tired of the way things are. I think more college goers need to recognise the importance of expressing that discontent," said Gandhi.
