AIDSO HCU UNIT

Long Live Student Solidarity! Down with Imperialism! Long Live Socialism!

"...It is 1924. Now when I remember Amir Chand, Abadhbehari, Basanta Kumar, Balmukunda, Pingle, Kartar Singh, Mathur Singh, Bhagat Singh, Nidhan Singh and others, I cannot but weep bitterly. Why do I behave so? They are not my relatives. Then do I cry for them? They are more than my relatives, they are my dear brethren. So I pine for them. Their memory aches me severely. The communities cannot realise the deep-rooted love in the heart of the revolutionaries for each of them. This love is greater than that for their own fathers, mothers, brothers and friends. Without this love, none can be a revolutionary and achieve any revolutionary task."

Rasbehari Bose

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"...यह 1924 का साल है। आज जब मैं अमीर चंद, अवधबिहारी, बसंत कुमार, बालमुकुंद, पिंगले, करतार सिंह, मथुरा सिंह, भगत सिंह, निधान सिंह और अन्य साथियों को याद करता हूँ, तो मैं अपने आँसू नहीं रोक पाता।
मैं ऐसा क्यों करता हूँ? वे मेरे रिश्तेदार तो नहीं हैं। फिर मैं उनके लिए क्यों रोता हूँ?
वे मेरे लिए रिश्तेदारों से बढ़कर हैं, वे मेरे प्रिय भाई हैं। इसलिए मैं उनकी याद में तड़पता हूँ। इनकी यादें मुझे गहरा दर्द देती हैं।
आम समाज उस गहरे प्यार को नहीं समझ सकता जो क्रांतिकारियों के दिल में एक-दूसरे के लिए होता है। यह प्यार अपने माता-पिता, भाइयों और दोस्तों के प्रति प्यार से भी कहीं बढ़कर है। इस निस्वार्थ प्रेम के बिना, कोई भी क्रांतिकारी नहीं बन सकता और न ही किसी क्रांतिकारी काम को पूरा कर सकता है।"

-रासबिहारी बोस

Today, 27/01
Discussion on Great Freedom Fighter Rasbehari Bose.
Main Speaker - Comrade Mukesh Semwal, Former Vice President of AIDSO
At 6 PM.. live on the page of AIDSO Central Council

"In an age not so far past, the world was a still pond where wisdom was thought to be the sole domain of the old. Politics, a guarded, sacred grove, was a place where students dared not tread. Their youthful spirit was considered meddlesome, their very presence a condemned offense. The world believed their path was narrow and straight: from the schoolroom to the college hall, a life of diligent study and immaculate behavior. They were meant to be nothing more than "goody-goody" boys, their only ambition to excel and fill their parents with pride. It was a truth as solid as stone, and the thought of a crack in its surface was beyond all dreams.

Then, a sudden wind—a tempest of change—blew from an unexpected quarter. It ripped this old principle from its moorings and cast it into the abyss of forgotten ideas. In a flash, like lightning splitting the deepest night, the burning flames of our own frustration and agony revealed a hidden strength within. Now, in the heart of India, there is no longer a shred of doubt that the long-held belief was a baseless lie.

A clarion call has sounded, reaching into every school and college, every city and village, and every home, summoning the young to their destiny.
Students, even in the midst of their studies, have the sacred right to give their hands and hearts to the country's work. They have the right to ponder the chains of bo***ge and the wings of freedom, and to proclaim this right with a voice that thunders. To pass an exam is a necessity, yes, but this new imperative is a far grander calling.
Do not be deceived by the whispered lie that truth will distract your mind, disrupt your studies, or tarnish the absolute sanctity of your exams. They use this shadow of a fear to veil your eyes, and you may not even know it.

To serve your country is not a mere juggling of words. It is the most arduous and profound practice for a soul unburdened by the desire for fame. The true patriot is one without a trace of self-interest, who does not even fear for his own life. On one side stands the patriot, and on the other, the country, with nothing but an empty space between them. Only the one who can cast aside everything—fame, wealth, joy and sorrow, sin and piety, good and evil—can truly serve their nation."

- Appeal of Great Litterateur Saratchandra Chatterjee to Students of the country

The Mother Who Carried Both Fire and Flowers
Remembering Savitribai Phule (3 Jan 1831 – 10 Mar 1897)

When we think of Savitribai Phule, we often picture a quiet teacher in a sari. But to remember her only as a teacher is to forget that she was a warrior. She did not just open a school; she waged a war against thousands of years of oppression, armed with nothing but a book and a heart full of courage.

The Flowers for Stones

Every day, as she walked to the Bhide Wada school in Pune, men would wait for her. They threw mud, cow dung, and stones at her. She would reach the school, her sari stained and smelling of filth. Most people would have quit in humiliation. Savitribai just carried an extra sari. When asked why she didn't fight back, she gave a response that defines her saint-like endurance. She famously told her abusers:
"My brothers, I am doing the noble job of educating your sisters. The cow dung and stones that you are pelting on me are not a deterrent but rather an inspiration. It is as if you are showering flowers on me."

The Fire in Her Pen

But do not mistake her patience for weakness. In her letters to her husband, Jyotirao Phule, we see her fiery intellect. When her own brother abused her for teaching "untouchables," claiming it was against religion, she didn't bow down. She wrote to Jyotirao about her reply to him:
"I told him: Brother, your mind is narrow... Animals like goats and cows are not untouchable for you, you lovingly touch them. But you consider Mahars and Mangs, who are as human as you and I, untouchables. Can you give me any reason for this?"

She was rational, logical, and fearless in calling out hypocrisy, even in her own family.

The Protector of Lovers

She was also the first refuge for those who had nowhere else to go. In another heart-stopping letter from 1868, she recounts how a mob was preparing to kill a young Brahmin boy and a Dalit girl who had fallen in love. While others watched, Savitribai rushed physically into the mob. She stood between the bloodthirsty crowd and the trembling couple, terrifying the mob with the threat of British law, and whisked the couple to safety. She wrote: "I rushed to the spot and scared them away."

Her Final Call

Savitribai didn't just want us to remember her; she wanted us to act. Her poetry remains a rallying cry for every generation. As she wrote in her poem "Go, Get Education":

"Sit idle no more, go, get education,
End misery of the oppressed and forsaken,
You’ve got a golden chance to learn,
So learn and break the chains of caste."

Today, on her birth anniversary, we don't just owe her our gratitude for the schools we study in. We owe her our courage. She taught us that when society throws stones at you for doing the right thing, you must have the grace to treat them as flowers, but the strength to keep walking forward.

Her glorious struggle is our inspiration in our fight to Save Public Education!

“I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave. But winds of history will, sooner or later, sweep it away without mercy.”

- Joseph Stalin

Tributes to Great Stalin on his Birth Anniversary!

3rd December Birth Anniversary of Great Revolutionary Kshudiram Bose!

Kshudiram Bose, a young revolutionary, was put on trial on May 21, 1908, under Judge Mr. Corndoff. His defense was handled by patriotic lawyers who worked for free. Initially, Kshudiram denied involvement in the bombing, but on June 13, despite his lawyers' hopes that his youth might save him, Judge Corndoff sentenced him to death. Kshudiram responded with a smile and even offered to teach the judge how to make bombs.

Though he initially refused to appeal, he was convinced by his lawyers that a life sentence would allow him to continue serving his country. His case went to the High Court on July 8, where his lawyer, Narendrakumar Basu, highlighted several legal errors in the lower court's proceedings. However, on July 13, the High Court upheld the death sentence in what many considered a predetermined verdict. An appeal to the Governor-General was also rejected.
On August 11, 1908, Kshudiram Bose was executed. The news of his hanging led to widespread protests, and a large crowd gathered outside the prison to pay their respects. Newspapers reported that he went to the gallows "firmly and cheerfully and even smiled when the cap was drawn over his head," cementing his legacy as a martyr.

Mahatma Jyotiba Phule: The Pioneer of the Social Reform in India!

"Education must be universal, and no matter the numbers, it must reach everyone," strongly asserted Mahatma Jyotiba Phule. He raised his voice against the foreign British government, which collected taxes from the poor of this country, demanding that they provide education in return. To drive away the darkness of ignorance, he started schools to bestow the light of knowledge upon women and Dalits. Jyotiba strongly argued that it is only through education that humans can possess a critical attitude and self-respect. Two centuries after his birth, what is the attitude of our governments?
"I may leave the house, but I will not close the school!"

When Jyotiba opened the first school, the vested interests and the priestly class of the time lashed out at him in fury. They created a ruckus, claiming, "It is a disaster that Goddess Saraswati (Knowledge) has entered the home of a Shudra!" The harassment by proponents of superstition and blind faith crossed all limits and ruined the peace of Jyotiba’s family. Pressure mounted daily on his father, Govinda Rao, to knock some sense into his "wayward" son and daughter-in-law. Yielding to this pressure, his father took a harsh stand: unless the school was closed, there was no place for either of them in the house. An undeterred Jyotiba declared, "I may leave the house, but I will not close the school!" and left his father’s home with his wife, Savitribai. Due to the financial crisis that followed, the first school had to be closed within six months of starting. Jyotiba had to engage in trade for a livelihood.
Unbowed by hardships and disregarding his own life's struggles, Jyotiba opened the doors of education to the untouchables—the most oppressed among the oppressed—for the first time in this land.

The Brave Call for Education

The Satya Shodhaka Samaja (Truth Seekers' Society), established by Jyotirao Phule with the aim of ending the caste system and liberating Dalits from Brahminical exploitation, gave special importance to the propagation of education. A school was opened in a village called Hadapasar. The Samaj also provided special scholarships to selected students. In 1870, primary education was made free and compulsory in England through an Education Act. Jyotiba, who wrote articles on various subjects in the Deen Bandhu newspaper, wrote about free and compulsory primary education in 1879-80 and demanded its implementation without delay.

Demand for Public Education

Speaking before the Hunter Commission, he sharply criticized the government, stating it had no noble intention of providing education to the lower classes. He argued that the country's progress is impossible without providing high moral standards and social responsibility to millions of people. The government, which collects taxes and duties from farmers, is not providing education to the children of the poor; instead, education is being provided only to the children of a few elites in universities. He demanded that emphasis be placed on mass education instead. Expressing his opinion on the situation at the time, he noted that 9 out of 10 villages in the Bombay Presidency had no access to education, and the existence of only one school for a population of 5,000 demonstrated the government's lack of concern!

Governments Closing Schools Nationwide

Similarly, today governments across India are setting out to close thousands of government schools under the guise of "School Mergers," "Rationalization," and the "School Complex" system proposed in the National Education Policy (NEP). Village schools, which were opened to ensure mass education, are being closed and merged into distant major schools or "Cluster Schools."
Across various states, citing "low enrollment" or "efficiency" as reasons, small neighborhood schools in rural hamlets are being shut down. This move forces young children to travel long distances to access education, effectively pushing them out of the school system. Instead of strengthening the existing government schools in every village and habitation, policies are being implemented to consolidate them, which threatens to dismantle the public education infrastructure built over decades. The vision of a school in every neighborhood is being erased in favor of centralized complexes that are inaccessible to the poorest sections of society.

A Question of Duty

Is it not the primary duty of the governments that have ascended to power after independence to provide education to the children of the oppressed? Governments running on people's taxes are standing ready to sell education. Even though it has been 135 years since Mahatma Jyotiba left us, education remains an impossible dream for the children of the poor in this land! Isn't raising a voice against the nationwide policy of closing thousands of government schools the true tribute to Jyotiba?

Tribute to the Great Anti Imperialist fighter Fidel Castro on his Memorial day!!

"There is often talk of human rights, but it is also necessary to talk of the rights of humanity. Why should some people walk around barefoot so that others can travel in luxurious automobiles? Why should some live for 35 years so that others can live for 70? Why should some be miserably poor so that others can be overly rich? I speak in the name of the children in the world who do not have a piece of bread. I speak in the name of the sick who do not have medicine. I speak on behalf of those whose right to life and human dignity has been denied."

Remembering the Historic November Revolution!

7 - 17 November, 1917

Across the world, working people, women, students and youth look at this month with pride and hope, revisiting the lessons of history. And within November, those ten days from the 7th to the 17th are enough to fill our hearts with an indescribable spirit. Yes — we speak here of the Great November Revolution of Russia, the first successful attempt in human history to end the exploitation of man by man and to sow the seeds of a new future for all humankind. It has been 108 years since that extraordinary transformation of 1917.

But why should we, living in faraway India, remember a revolution that occurred in Russia? Why should the people of the world revisit it even today? These questions naturally arise in minds that have been distanced from the roots of human history and from our own long revolutionary traditions.

Yet, the socialist revolution in Russia lit a torch of hope not just for the workers and peasants of that land, but for all the oppressed people of the world. Under the leadership of the great Lenin, the revolution achieved heights never before seen in human civilization. Hunger was eradicated for the first time. Employment was guaranteed for all. The state took responsibility for every child born, ensuring security in education, healthcare and livelihood. Scientific and technological progress flourished on the soil of what was once Europe’s most backward and disease-ridden agrarian country. Giant industries arose; humankind ventured into space; countless scientific inventions reduced human drudgery; and Soviet doctors developed vaccines and cures for widespread diseases.

For the millions who languished in chains under oppressive rulers across the globe, the November Revolution became a spring of inspiration. For those who longed for change anywhere in the world, Lenin became a symbol of that aspiration. Naturally, the winds of socialism also reached India. Many freedom fighters — especially the revolutionaries — were deeply influenced by socialist ideals. The great martyr Bhagat Singh declared that only a socialist revolution could bring true freedom, and in the final minutes before his ex*****on, the book in his hands was on the life of Lenin. Subhas Chandra Bose, leader of the uncompromising stream of the freedom movement, too held that the establishment of socialism must be the ultimate goal of India’s independence.

During the Second World War, it was the Red Army of the Soviet Union under Great Stalin that defeated Hitler’s fascist onslaught and saved human civilization. The sacrifice of the Soviet people was unparalleled: of the 50 million lives lost worldwide, more than 20 million were Soviet citizens. As Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda wrote, “If the blood of the children of the great Soviet land could be gathered in one place, another ocean would have formed upon the earth.” Such was the magnitude of their sacrifice. Even as he lay on his deathbed, the poet Rabindranath Tagore anxiously asked each day, “How is Russia? How is Stalin?”

Great Indian thinkers and writers — Saratchandra Chattopadhyay, Premchand, Subramania Bharati and many others — regarded the Soviet experiment with profound hope. After the war, liberation struggles across Asia, Africa and Europe drew inspiration from the Soviet Union. Nations oppressed by American, British, Japanese and other imperialist powers received crucial support from socialist Russia. When rumours and propaganda about the Soviet system spread across Western countries, many of their greatest intellectuals — including Einstein, Romain Rolland, Bertrand Russell and H.G. Wells — visited the USSR and testified that a new world, almost heaven-like, was being created there.

Today in our own country, when jobs are vanishing at rocket speed, when hunger haunts millions, when education has become the privilege of a few wealthy families, when unemployed youth stare at a bleak future, when farmers burdened by debt end their lives, when the dignity of women and children is auctioned on the streets — is it not essential to remember that the Great November Revolution had already offered answers to these very problems over a hundred years ago?

Those who shout that the fall of socialism in Russia proves Marxism wrong must be reminded of a simple truth: if someone fails to solve a mathematical or scientific problem, it does not mean that mathematics or science as a whole has failed.

Today, on 17 November — the 108th anniversary of the historic November Revolution — let us remember that the dreams of 1917 were not dreams of one nation alone, but of all humanity. They remain alive wherever people fight for dignity, equality and freedom from exploitation. The relevance of the Revolution grows sharper each time injustice deepens around us. To commemorate November is not merely to look back at history; it is to reaffirm our commitment to a future where human life, human dignity and human welfare stand at the very centre of society.

गैर समझौतावादी धारा के महान क्रांतिकारी
व शहीद-ए-आजम भगतसिंह के आदर्श
शहीद करतार सिंह सराभा के
शहादत दिवस सम्मानपूर्वक मनाएँ।

16 नवंबर 1915

कठिन है देशभक्ति का मार्ग, सरल है भाषण देना। मातृभूमि की सेवा के मार्ग पर चलने वालों को अनगिनत यातनाएँ सहनी पड़ती हैं।
— करतार सिंह सराभा

Ashfaqullah Khan: The Revolutionary Who Dreamed of a Socialist India

In the early decades of the twentieth century, when India groaned under the weight of British rule and communal divisions, there rose a young man from Shahjahanpur whose courage and vision transcended religion and class. Ashfaqullah Khan, born on 22 October 1900 into a well-to-do Pathan family, would go on to become one of the brightest and most beloved martyrs of India’s revolutionary movement — a poet, thinker, and dreamer who understood that the struggle for freedom meant far more than the departure of the British.

From his boyhood, Ashfaqullah’s heart burned with a deep restlessness for justice. As a student, he had been shaken by the Mainpuri Conspiracy Case in which his friend Rajaram Bhartiya was arrested for revolutionary activity. That single event changed his life. He began reading passionately — works like Horatius by Macaulay and Patriots of the World — and came to believe that “only those who die for their country become immortal.” By his late teens, he was already writing verses in Urdu and Hindi under the pen names Hasrat and Warsi, weaving together the fire of rebellion and the tenderness of poetry.

In the early 1920s, his path crossed with Ram Prasad Bismil, the idealistic leader of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA). Their friendship — between a devout Muslim and an equally devout Hindu — became one of the finest symbols of communal harmony in India’s freedom struggle. Together they sought not only political freedom but a new social order based on equality, dignity, and labour.

The Kakori train action of 9 August 1925 was a daring attempt by these young revolutionaries to seize government funds and use them for the cause of liberation. The act electrified the nation — and drew the wrath of the British. While many were caught quickly, Ashfaqullah managed to evade arrest for several months. He travelled under false names, even working briefly as a draftsman in Daltonganj. But betrayal by an acquaintance led to his capture in 1926.

In prison, Ashfaqullah’s mind and pen did not rest. He poured his thoughts into letters and an unfinished autobiography that reveal the depth of his political and moral convictions. Unlike many who sought only political change, Ashfaqullah’s dream of freedom was inseparable from the idea of justice for the oppressed. In one of his letters written around 1921-22, he confessed:

“My heart always weeps for the poor peasants and helpless workers. While on the run I stayed with them and after seeing their condition I often wept… Our cities shine because of them, our factories are working because of them, every work in the entire world is because of them. Whatever they grow or produce, they have no share; they always remain sad and in bad shape. The wealth of landlords is based on the exploitation of peasants, and capitalists are like leeches who suck the blood out of workers.”

These are not the words of a mere revolutionary, but of a thinker who had grasped the roots of oppression — the class system that chained India’s poor even more cruelly than the colonial yoke.

In another passage from his brief autobiography, written shortly before his ex*****on, he articulated a remarkably clear social vision:

“I consider every form of foreign rule as illegitimate, and along with that any republican form of government in India which does not recognise the rights of the marginalised, which reflects only the interests of capitalists and landlords, which is not based on the equal participation of workers and peasants, and whose laws are made to maintain existing privileges and differences.”

For Ashfaqullah, therefore, freedom was hollow unless it brought equality. The independence he envisioned was not to replace one set of rulers with another, but to end the domination of wealth, caste, and religious pride.

He was also deeply disturbed by the rising communal politics of his time. Watching the bitterness grow between Hindus and Muslims, he lamented:

“Oh! How can we appreciate the present-day life when our political leadership is going through internal strife? If one is fond of Tableegh, the other believes that dying for shuddhi only will lead to emancipation. It is impossible that seven crore Muslims can be converted to Hinduism and twenty-two crore Hindus can be turned into Muslims.”

His words cut to the heart of the issue — that the colonial rulers thrived on dividing Indians along lines of faith, and that a free India must rise above such hatred.

On 19 December 1927, at just twenty-seven years of age, Ashfaqullah Khan walked calmly to the gallows in Faizabad Jail. Those who witnessed it said he smiled as the noose was placed around his neck. His final message, smuggled from prison, captured the essence of his dream:

“I want that kind of freedom for Hindustan where the poor should live happily and with ease — that day should come when Abdullah mechanic of the loco workshop, Dhaniya cobbler and the common peasants are seen sitting on chairs in front of the wealthy and the powerful, as equals.”

That vision — of dignity for the labouring poor, of equality beyond caste and creed, of courage rooted in compassion — remains the living legacy of Ashfaqullah Khan.

He was more than a martyr of Kakori; he was a poet of revolution and a philosopher of freedom. His life stands as a reminder that the true struggle for independence was never only against the British, but against every form of oppression that denies the humanity of another. In his poems, his letters, and his final calm smile before death, Ashfaqullah Khan lives on — a beacon for all who believe that justice, love, and equality are the soul of freedom.