Resist the onslaught by ABVP on democratic rights!
Academic institutions should stand up and resist fascist attacks!
St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai has canceled its annual ‘Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture’, which was to be held on 9 August 2025, in response to protests by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the fascist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). This act is yet another example of how fascist forces are trying to suppress every democratic voice on campus. Father Stan Swamy was imprisoned under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and died in judicial custody without ever being convicted. It is the democratic right of any institution, including St. Xavier’s College, to hold a program in his memory. Forcing the cancellation of such a lecture is a direct attack on academic freedom and on the right of students and faculty to engage critically with contemporary socio-political events.
The ABVP has claimed that this “…is an attempt to glorify urban Naxalism on campus.” The term “Urban Naxal” is a political label coined by the fascist BJP-RSS to suppress every dissenting voice against the ruling establishment. The fascist state and its propaganda machinery use the tactic of first criminalizing a person with unproven charges, and then declaring any solidarity with them to be a wrongful act. This essentially means that if you are not with the ABVP, RSS, or BJP, then that itself is treated as a crime.
This is not an isolated incident but part of a broader political project led by the Sangh Parivar to convert spaces of learning into arenas of ideological indoctrination and turn campuses into RSS ‘Shakhas’. We have witnessed similar actions earlier too — the attack on Dr. Himanshu Pandya in Rajasthan, the ban on the screening of the documentary India: The Modi Question, and other such actions carried out by the fascist ABVP in recent years. The entire history of ABVP proves that it exists essentially to repress voices for democratic rights and to defend the RSS.
One must not forget that these assaults will intensify after the introduction of the Maharashtra Special Public Security Act 2025, which gives the state unlimited powers to curb all voices of dissent.
The ruling class, in alliance with Hindutva fascists, seeks to crush even the limited democratic space existing in society. What we are witnessing is not only censorship but also the remoulding of the very purpose of education — from nurturing informed, critical citizens to producing obedient subjects loyal to the status quo.
Disha Students’ Organization strongly protests the attack by ABVP on democratic spaces. We appeal to all academic institutions not to bow down before fascists and to resist this onslaught. We call upon students, teachers, and progressive citizens to organize to defend academic freedom, to resist the fascisation of education, and to oppose all attempts to suppress democratic rights on campuses.
#xavierscollege #abvp #fascism #stanswamy #student
