Gujarat students ‘showed the light', then it became a beacon

Indian Express

27-06-2025

A year before the country witnessed the imposition of the Emergency and the fight against it under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan (universally known as JP), Morarji Desai and others, Gujarat witnessed a massive student-led movement – the Navnirman Andolan – against inflation and corruption in 1973-74.
The movement, which eventually resulted in the resignation of then Congress Chief Minister Chimanbhai Patel and the dissolution of the Gujarat Assembly, proved an inspiration for the JP Movement and his call of 'Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution)'.
Like the JP Movement did in Bihar, the Navnirman Andolan also saw the emergence of a new generation of leaders in Gujarat.
Manishi Jani, a student leader who became one the prominent faces of the movement, recalls how price rise and scarcity of essential commodities had left the general public angry. 'Amidst this, in December 1973, the authorities increased the monthly mess fare of students at government colleges from Rs 70 to Rs 90. Students of Lalbhai Dalpatbhai College of Engineering in Ahmedabad objected. On December 20, they set the canteen on fire. A newspaper article highlighted how many students were eating only once a day to save money. Many ran into debt.'
Ten days after the canteen was attacked at the Ahmedabad college, Jani says, 'There was a similar incident in Morbi (at Lukhdhirji Engineering College), where students protesting against poor food quality and price rise vandalised a laboratory.'
Despite the protests, however, the authorities further hiked the mess charges. This led to a call by students of the Ahmedabad engineering college for a massive protest on January 2, 1974, where they clashed with police. 'Police entered the hostel and lathicharged them. About 200-225 students were taken into custody.'
An informal forum of students called the Yuvak Lagni Samiti met at Gujarat University to plan what to do next. 'We decided to hold a big march to the Navrangpura Police Station, where the students were held. Eventually, they were released,' Jani says, adding that this was when the agitation began building up as a protest against the state government. 'We held various protests under the banner of the Yuvak Lagni Samiti. Our point was: The inflation was not natural, but manmade, the result of a nexus between traders, hoarders and big farmers.'
Students accosted ministers in public, held gheraos of political leaders, gave shutdown calls for colleges and schools. Trade unions joined them, followed by non-Congress parties. A bandh held in Ahmedabad on January 10, 1974, proved so successful, Jani says, that 'even newspapers were not distributed' that day.
CM Patel bore the brunt of the ire because of his own financial interests in the education sector and involvement in university politics. The influential Adhyapak Mandal, a university-level association of professors, also came out against the government. Soon, the agitation had spread across the state, getting spontaneous support from the public.
The leaders of the agitation then decided that it was time to give it a formal structure, to ensure better coordination of events planned. This led to the formation of the Navnirman Yuvak Samiti, with office-bearers. The name 'Navnirman' was reportedly given by a journalist. Jani was named president of the Samiti's Executive Committee.
Among the innovative protests rolled out by the Navnirman Samiti was the call for 'sarkar no mrutyughant (the death knell of the government)'. 'The idea was given by one of our supporters and leader of the Adhyapak Mandal, K S Shastri. We demanded that the Chimanbhai Patel government be removed and the Assembly be dissolved. We asked people to clank rolling pins on steel plates at night,' Jani says.
Just over a year after that canteen protest over fare hike, the Navnirman Yuvak Samiti called for a Gujarat Bandh on January 25, 1974. Days to go, the Congress government began arresting the leaders and supporters of the movement en masse under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), among other provisions.
Jani says this was another miscalculation by the Patel government. 'After that, the agitation got out of the government's control… On January 25, all of Gujarat remained shut except for Bhuj and some villages of Kutch. People formed Navnirman Samitis in every district on their own. We started the agitation, but now it became a 'lok andolan (people's movement)'.'
Narhari Amin, one of the office-bearers of the Navnirman Yuvak Samiti and now a BJP Rajya Sabha MP, says that by early 1974, 'students had started holding meetings at the district level'. 'The government used excessive force in reply, resorting to lathicharge and police firing… More than 100 people died and public properties were set on fire. Thousands of people blocked railway tracks. The Army was called in to control the situation.'
Alarmed at the rumblings in Gujarat which were already echoing across the country in Bihar – JP was called to address the protesters in Gujarat – the Congress high command sent then Union Law Minister H R Gokhale to hold discussions with the protesters. Eventually, Patel resigned as CM on February 9, 1974, following which President's Rule was imposed in Gujarat.
However, the Navnirman Yuvak Samiti continued its agitation, maintaining their original demand that the Assembly be dissolved. On March 16, 1974, the Indira Gandhi government at the Centre finally agreed to the same, and fresh elections were announced in June that year. A coalition Janata Morcha government came to power after the polls, with Morarji Desai playing a crucial role in this.
Amin says that, notwithstanding the role of national leaders like Desai and JP, the Navnirman Movement remained essentially an agitation of students and 'not about Desai or Narayan'. 'They strengthened us by giving (moral) support… Desai once sat on an indefinite hunger strike in support of student demands.'
The meeting JP addressed as part of the Navnirman Andolan was at H L Commerce College in Ahmedabad, says Ashok Panjabi, who headed the CPI's Gujarat student wing then and was part of the agitation. 'JP also held a meeting with agitating students at the Senate Hall of Gujarat University,' Panjabi says, adding that JP did not return after that as he wanted the Gujarat agitation to remain essentially a student protest.
Now a Gujarat Congress vice-president, Panjabi says: 'JP took inspiration from Navnirman Andolan and gave a call for dissolution of the Bihar Assembly when he launched the Bihar andolan.' That agitation would build into a nation-wide protest, leading to the declaration of the Emergency by the Indira Gandhi government that saw itself as besieged.
Jani recalls JP once saying: 'Gujarat ke chhatron ne mujhe prakash dikhaya (the students of Gujarat showed me the light).'