Student clashes and frequent incidents of violence are affecting the reputation of one of the best colleges in Kerala.
An SFI banner condemning Prime Minister Narendra Modi covers the entrance of Maharashtra College in Kochi. The wordings in Malayalam say the country is not prental property of Modi. Photo: Supplied
Just over a week ago, a differently-abled faculty member of Kochi’s Maharaja’s College sustained stab injuries in an attack by a final-year degree student following an argument over the suspension of another student on campus.
KM Nizamudheen, an assistant professor in the Arabic Department, is partially hearing-impaired.
Nizamudheen said the student, Muhammad Rashid, stabbed him twice between his left arm and neck, and also threatened to kill him in two days. He then fled the campus via the back gate.
The attacker is reportedly on the run since the 18 January incident, despite the police registering a case against him and launching an investigation.
The same night, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) college unit president PA Abdul Nasar sustained stab injuries in an attack by over 19 students — presumably political rivals. He is now recuperating in a Kochi hospital.
Clearly, the iconic Maharaja’s college — government-run, but autonomous — is back in the news. But not in a good way.
The two incidents have created a situation in which the SFI — the student wing of Kerala’s ruling CPI(M) — is accusing the Congress-affiliated Kerala Students Union (KSU) and the Fraternity Movement promoted by the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind’s Kerala unit of protecting and promoting criminals who indulge in campus violence.
The two organisations have, however, said they have no connection with the attackers and that the incidents involved no politics.
They accused the SFI of seeking to establish a near-total monopoly over the campus of the famed college, which was once the symbol of academic excellence and currently enjoys autonomous status — allowing it to set its own syllabi for different subjects and conduct examinations on its own despite being affiliated with the Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam.
The college was briefly closed following the two incidents in the light of daily protests by student groups, with each accusing rivals of denying them functional freedom. Teachers feel insecure, and the students appear to have scant regard for academic excellence.
In the last six months, the principal and senior administrative staff of the college were kept locked in their rooms for several hours by SFI cadres, alleging discrimination against them.
On its part, the state government transferred Principal VS Joy to a junior college against the backdrop of the latest incident of violence in which the SFI unit secretary was stabbed.
In June last year, the college witnessed violent incidents after reports said the mark list of SFI state secretary PM Arsho, a student of the college, wrongly declared he passed an exam that he did not write.
Though it was later clarified as a technical error caused during tabulation, the police registered cases based on a complaint by Arsho against five persons, including the principal and the reporter of a prominent Malayalam TV news channel.
In the face of protests by journalist organisations and lack of evidence, Asianet News reporter Akhila Nandakumar’s name was dropped as the fifth accused in the case.
In July 2018, the college’s SFI leader Abhimanyu was stabbed to death by activists of the Campus Front, the student wing of the Popular Front of India (PFI), which was banned in 2022.
Though the incident evoked widespread condemnation and harsh police action against the Campus Front, the SFI continued its own violence, targeting opponents.
KM Shefrin, state president of the Fraternity Movement, claimed the fundamental issue at Maharaja’s college was the refusal of the SFI to allow rival organisations — including the CPI-affiliated All-India Students Federation (AISF) — to function on campus.
He said his outfit does not believe in violence, and none of its workers was involved in the attack on the SFI unit secretary.
“Nobody knows who attacked the SFI leader. But the SFI attacked our cadre Bilal using weapons in the presence of faculty members and the police. He was attacked again in the ambulance before being taken to Ernakulam General Hospital, and then there as well,” said Shefrin.
Meanwhile, Arsho said his organisation would resist communal organisations like the Fraternity Movement and the Campus Front striking roots on campus.
He refused to answer when asked why his organisation did not allow the KSU and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — the student organisation affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — to function.
KSU Ernakulam district president KM Krishnalal in turn alleged that the SFI has been targeting student leaders who challenge its dominance in the college.
“Our Ernakulam block committee president, Amal Tomy, was admitted to the hospital after SFI workers hacked him last Monday. It was not the first time he was attacked. There was an attempt on his life in January 2022, and a probe is still underway in the incident,” he said.
What started in 1845 as the English Elementary School became the Ernakulam College before becoming Maharaja’s College (a first-grade college) in 1925.
The college, which has nourished generations of brilliant minds, is also a living witness to Kochi’s history and evolution.
Started by the then princely state of Kochi for English education, Maharaja’s College has a long history of illustrious alumni and faculty who enriched the country’s socio-political and cultural ethos.
But now, the recurring instances of political violence on the campus have cast a shadow over the Maharaja’s College amid the government’s efforts to transform the state into a “knowledge society” and an “international educational hub”.
Academics have cautioned that student outfits holding campuses to ransom would not only vitiate the state’s overall academic atmosphere but also violate the rights of lakhs of students to receive quality education.
In the meantime, many former college students have started expressing anguish over the degradation of the campus.
“The intellectual degradation of the college has evolved over the years, and it happened because the college administration and faculty acted as per the whims and fancies of student leaders with limited vision. Now what we are witnessing is a degenerated campus where creativity and academic brilliance have taken a back seat,” said noted Malayalam scholar and critic M Leelavathy, a former student and faculty member of the college.
Leelavathy told South First that the excellent academic ambience in the college shaped a set of brilliant minds who contributed immensely to Kerala, and they include — among many others — the likes of poet Changampuzha Krishnapillai, critic PK Balakrshnan, historian A Sreedhara Menon, and writer MN Vijayan.
Writer and social critic Sunil P Elayidam, an alumni of the college, said Maharaja’s used to be the launching pad of progressive politics in Kerala, with the library and independent debates prompting the students to delve deep into political philosophy.
He also favoured a constructive campus atmosphere where violence would not have any space.
He also expressed anguish over attempts by student organisations backed by religious and fundamentalist outfits to target progressive student movements that have the potential to bring about unity and amity.
Admitting that the situation on the college campus had deteriorated over the years, many former faculty members said student organisations were very active even when they were working, but there was no overall degeneration in the campus culture at that time.
In 1983, SFI leader Simon Britto was paralysed after he was stabbed by KSU members at Maharaja’s College, although he was not a student of the college. But Britto bore no hatred, even for those who crippled him for life, and warned against the criminalisation of student politics until his death six years ago. He was a nominated member of the Kerala legislative Assembly for long.
Interestingly, the college is going to celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2025.
In a special commemorative volume recently brought out by the college alumni, former Union minister AK Antony recalled how he and his KSU colleague Vayalar Ravi maintained a harmonious relationship with rival student leaders KM Roy and Vaikom Viswan.
“Despite our differences, we were friends to the core,” noted Antony, Union defence minister and chief minister of Kerala twice. While Roy later became an eminent journalist, Viswan became a Central Committee member of the CPI(M) and a powerful convener of the LDF.
Meanwhile, Alumni of Maharaja’s College (AMC) and the Association of Maharaja’s Fraternity (AMF), which represent old students, has blamed the college authorities for the recurring clashes. According to them, the authorities are giving one student’s body — a reference to the ruling CPI(M)’s SFI — undue freedom at the cost of the organisational freedom of others.
They said further democratisation of the campus was the lone solution to the present situation.
Until the 1970s, Maharajah’s College was a fortress of the KSU and produced leaders like Antony and Vayalar Ravi.
In the 1980s, the SFI took control of the campus and its leaders, including TM Thomas Issac, also made it big in state politics. The violence that erupted happened only much later.
NM Pearson, a left-wing critic and an alumni of the college, called for an overhaul of the systems in the college.
“Merit was the sole criteria for student admissions in the past. While private colleges went after rich students who could give huge donations, poor, bright students came to Maharaja’s for a better education, and they gave new dimensions to campus politics. Now mediocre students are ruling the roost,” he said.
He also blamed the partisan and discriminatory attitude of teachers who act as per the dictates of those who rule the state from time to time.
“Clashes may happen in a college known for hectic political activities. But stabbing even teachers must be treated as a matter of grave concern,” he told South First.
The irony is that the former students of the college include the late KR Gouri, the iconoclastic Left leader who introduced the landmark land reform legislation as minister in the state’s first government led by EMS Namboodiripad.
Gouri was a bright and disciplined student of the college despite her active involvement in struggles, according to her biographers.
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