Why the Aligarh Activists' Society is formed?

Taking a leaf from the glorious traditions of student activism at the Aligarh Muslim University campus, the Aligarh Activists’ Society was incepted in August 2011 with an aim of providing active students’ participation and sensitizing them on the pertinent socio-political issues of our times.  During the past few decades, the educational institutes of our country have witnessed radical changes. Students’ politics, hitherto seen as a tool for realising students’ rights and preparing them for taking up the onus of nation-building in future, today has become synonymous with flagrant exercise of money and muscle power, nepotism and debauchery.

The AMU has had its own set of issues and problems. Issues like regionalism, naked exercise of money and muscle power among a plethora of others, have time and again plagued the healthy development of students’ politics and activism in this campus. Politics deprived of ideas and ideals have repeatedly lead to violent clashes amongst the students thereby jeopardising the prospects of growth and development of our University. Following the nightmarish events of student violence in 2007 which lead to the sine-die closure of the University, an urgency was felt among the AMU student fraternity for bringing about a change in the state of affairs.

The biggest change that we need to see in our campus is the development of a platform which would be a congenial medium for vibrant discourses on the socio-political issues that affect us. The lack of discourse over the years has lead to an intellectual stagnation which, we believe, is the root cause of all the problems that plague the Aligarh Muslim University today. We organise seminars, conferences, panel discussions, and workshops to develop awareness, and shape our opinion about the contemporary happenings. In future, we also seek to promote our ideas and ideals through more innovative mediums such as street plays, cartoons, wall magazines, etc.

We appeal to all the stakeholders of our University in joining us in building a better AMU which can realise the dreams and aspirations of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, an apostle of pluralism and educational empowerment. The writing on the wall is quite clear, “We can, We will”. Come, let us realise it together.