Now Reading: Chennai college students joined freedom struggle through boycotts and protests
-
01
Chennai college students joined freedom struggle through boycotts and protests
Chennai college students joined freedom struggle through boycotts and protests
Students from Chennai colleges played an active role in the freedom struggle from the 1920s, organising boycotts, processions, meetings and picketing, according to archival accounts cited by The New Indian Express. Around…
The Story in Brief
Students from Chennai colleges played an active role in the freedom struggle from the 1920s, organising boycotts, processions, meetings and picketing, according to archival accounts cited by The New Indian Express. Around 2,500 students had left educational institutions by March 1921, against a student population of 1,69,200 when the Non-Cooperation Movement began.
Pachaiyappa’s College students joined Swadeshi and Quit India protests, while students at Presidency College debated and defied strike warnings. Madras Christian College hosted nationalist activity and sheltered students expelled elsewhere during the 1942 movement. Women students also participated, with Queen Mary’s College recording the contribution of alumnae including Captain Lakshmi Sahgal.
The Indian Opinion
The easy story is that student politics was either purely heroic or simply disruptive. The record is more mixed. Colleges became places for debate, boycott and shelter, but some protests also involved stone-pelting, attacks on communications and damage to government records. That distinction matters when judging political action in any era. A useful measure is the documented scale of participation: 2,500 students had left institutions by March 1921, not an undefined mass movement.
Source: newindianexpress.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
