Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad
(ABVP)
FormationJuly 9, 1949; 77 years ago (1949-07-09)
TypeStudent organisation
Legal statusActive
HeadquartersMumbai, Maharashtra, India
Region served
India
Members76,98,448 (2025-26)
National President
Raghuraj Kishore Tiwari
National General Secretary
Virendra Singh Solanki
National Organising Secretary
Ashish Chauhan
Parent organization
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
Websitewww.abvp.org

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is a student organisation in India, which was established in 1949. One of the largest student organisations in the world, the ABVP is a student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary organisation.

History

The ABVP, founded in 1948 with the initiative of the RSS activist Balraj Madhok, was formally registered on 9 July 1949. Its purpose when founded was to counter communist influence on university campuses. Yashwantrao Kelkar, a lecturer in Bombay, became its main organiser in 1958. According to the ABVP website, he built the organisation into what it is now and is considered to be 'the real architect of the ABVP'.

Various branches of the ABVP have been involved in Hindu-Muslim communal riots since 1961. However, in the 1970s, the ABVP also increasingly took on issues concerning the lower middle classes like corruption and government inertia. The ABVP played a leading role in the agitational politics of the 1970s during the Bihar Movement. Many leaders like, Yashwantrao Kelkar, Dattopant Thengadi, Manmohan G. Vaidya, Sunil Ambekar, played an instrumental role in expanding ABVP's presence in campuses across India. This led to collaboration among student activists in Gujarat and Bihar. The ABVP gained significantly from such efforts after the Emergency and experienced a growth in membership.

By 1974, the ABVP had 160,000 members across 790 campuses and had gained control over several prominent universities, including Delhi University via student elections. By 1983, the organisation had 250,000 members and 1,100 branches. ABVP grew during the 1990s, receiving more support as a result of the Babri Masjid demolition and the economic liberalisation pursued by the P. V. Narasimha Rao government. It continued to grow after the United Progressive Alliance came to power in 2003, trebling in membership to 3.175 million members as of 2016.

The ABVP spokespersons insist that the ABVP is not affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is described as the "student wing" of the RSS. However, both the BJP and the ABVP are members of the Sangh Parivar. The BJP is said to gain from the ABVP's support base and several politicians of the BJP, including the current Home Minister Amit Shah and former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, had their ideological foundation in the ABVP. Several scholars make no distinction between the RSS and the BJP, and regard the ABVP as a student wing of both of them or either of them.

In 2017, the ABVP faced a string of losses in student body elections. They included Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University, but also the University of Allahabad and Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith in Uttar Pradesh, the Gujarat University and the Gauhati University. The loss in the Kashi Vidyapeeth was considered significant since it is in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home constituency. This is said to have caused alarm in the BJP, which set up a committee to study the issues causing the ABVP's decline. ABVP bounced back in 2018 by winning the key posts of president, vice-president and joint secretary of students polls of Delhi University. ABVP won all six seats in the Hyderabad Central University students union polls after eight years in 2018.

Activities

The ABVP's manifesto includes agendas such as educational and university reforms. ABVP conducts self-defense training program for girls titled "Mission Sahasi" all over India.

Violence

ABVP has been accused of multiple violent incidents, including stone pelting, arson, vandalism and physical assault, on college and school campuses and elsewhere. On 5 January 2020, according to the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union, masked ABVP members attacked JNU students, smashing cars and pelting stones, while ABVP accused left wing organisations. ABVP later confessed the same on national media. In a sting operation, and the veracity of ABVP's involvement was also found out through investigative journalism which was later confirmed by Delhi Police. A total of 28 people were injured, including students and teachers. On 17 April 2026, clashes broke out during student council elections at Delhi University's Gargi College, an all-women's college, after Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) president Aryan Maan and other ABVP members were accused of forcibly entering the campus after being denied entry under the college's rules on male visitors. Police intervened and escorted Maan and others out of the premises.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "ABVP's national meet inaugurated in Doon, membership reaches 76.9L". The Times of India. PTI. 29 November 2025. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
  2. ↑ "Raghuraj Kishore Tiwari elected abvp national president, Virender Singh Solanki re-elected national general secretary". The Economic Times. PTI. 12 November 2025. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
  3. ↑ Bhowmick, Nilanjana (21 June 2017). "India's crackdown at college campuses is a threat to democracy". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
  4. ↑ "Protests by BJYM, ABVP mar ICET counselling". The Hindu. 17 July 2007. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
  5. ↑ Dubey, Priyanka (October 2017). "The age of ABVP". The Caravan. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  6. 1 2 "About". Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Archived from the original on 16 June 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Christophe Jaffrelot (2010). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Primus Books. p. 193. ISBN 978-93-80607-04-7.
  8. ↑ Christophe Jaffrelot (1 January 2010). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Primus Books. p. 47. ISBN 9789380607047.
  9. 1 2 3 Mazumdar, Sucheta (21 April 2003). "Politics of religion and national origin". In Vasant Kaiwar; Sucheta Mazumdar (eds.). Antinomies of Modernity: Essays on Race, Orient, Nation. Duke University Press. p. 239. ISBN 0822330466.
  10. ↑ Graff, Violette; Galonnier, Juliette (2013). Hindu-Muslim Communal Riots in India I (1947-1986), Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence (PDF). Sciences Po. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 August 2013.
  11. ↑ Jaffrelot, Christophe (1 January 2010). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Primus Books. p. 193. ISBN 9789380607047.
  12. ↑ Tiwary, Deeptiman (24 February 2016). "JNU row: Behind ABVP's confidence, govt and growth". The Indian Express. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  13. ↑ Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad is not the students' wing of BJP: Shreehari Borikar, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad web site, retrieved 22 April 2018.
  14. ↑ Spitz, Douglas (1993), "Cultural Pluralism, Revivalism, and Modernity in South Asia: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh", in Crawford Young (ed.), The Rising Tide of Cultural Pluralism: The Nation-state at Bay?, Univ of Wisconsin Press, pp. 242–264, ISBN 978-0-299-13884-4.
  15. 1 2 Atul Chandra, A string of losses on campuses across India: Is the ABVP losing its appeal among students?, Catch News, 29 November 2017.
  16. ↑ Sonntag, Selma K. (1996). "The political saliency of language in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh". The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics. 34 (2): 1–18. doi:10.1080/14662049608447722.: "Protests and lathi-charges continued throughout January, the former organised by a transitory student organisation...although the role of the BJP-affiliated ABVP student union seems to have been more conspicuous."
  17. ↑ Thapar, Romila (2014). "Banning Books". India Review. 13 (3): 283–286. doi:10.1080/14736489.2014.937277. S2CID 214654999.: "Thus, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), currently in power in India, demanded the removal of an essay by A. K. Ramanujan from the reading-list of the History syllabus for the BA Degree at Delhi University."
  18. ↑ Amaresh Misra, Growing Social Unrest, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 32, No. 12 ( 22–28 Mar 1997), pp. 571-573, JSTOR 4405193: "To pre-empt this, the ABVP (the student wing of the RSS and the BJP) and allied forces let loose the spectre of violence which the administration, instead of controlling, instigated further."
  19. ↑ Navneet Sharma and Anamica, "Imbecility and Impudence: The Emergency and RSS", Mainstream Weekly, VOL LV, No 30, 16 July 2017: "The ideological parent of the BJP, the RSS, and its student wing, the ABVP, have their own crucial role in the BJP's anti-democratic-secular India agenda."
  20. ↑ ABVP loses student union polls on PM Modi turf, The Times of India, 5 November 2017.
  21. ↑ "ABVP wins president's, two other posts in DUSU polls, NSUI one". The Economic Times. 14 September 2018.
  22. ↑ "ABVP sweeps Hyderabad University students' union polls after 8 years". India Today. Ist. 7 October 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  23. ↑ "ABVP educational reforms". The Hindu. Thehindu.com. 11 September 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  24. ↑ "Over 3,000 girls participate in ABVP's 'Mission Sahasi'". State Times. 30 October 2018. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  25. ↑ "Vijayawada girls showcase skills post martial arts workshop". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  26. ↑ "ABVP starts 'Mission Sahasi' for safety of girls". Tribuneindia News Service. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  27. ↑ "Stone throwing during protest by ABVP in Hubli; 20 arrested". The Hindu. 15 May 2007. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  28. ↑ "ABVP activists turn violent at CET Cell". The Hindu. 11 July 2003. Archived from the original on 2 September 2003. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  29. ↑ Banerjee, Tamaghna (20 September 2019). "ABVP supporters commit arson at Jadavpur University gate, ransack rooms on campus". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  30. ↑ "Protesting ABVP Students Lathicharged Outside Amnesty Office". The Wire.
  31. ↑ "ABVP activists vandalise DU History Department". The Hindu. 26 February 2008. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 29 June 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  32. ↑ Byatnal, Amruta (24 August 2013). "ABVP thrashes FTII student for not saying 'Jai Narendra Modi'". The Hindu. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  33. ↑ "ABVP 'activists' ransack Narayana college". The Hindu. 3 November 2017. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  34. ↑ "ABVP activists go on the rampage on college premises". The Hindu. 25 May 2007. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 7 June 2021. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  35. ↑ "Jharkhand: ABVP cadres ransack missionary school over Anna protest". India Today. 19 August 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  36. 1 2 "As it happened: Masked goons strike terror in JNU, none arrested". The Hindu. 5 January 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  37. 1 2 "ABVP members barged into JNU hostels, attacked students with sticks, claims JNUSU". India Today. 5 January 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  38. ↑ "Right wing activists target Kashmiri film fest in Hyderabad". IBN-Live. 7 September 2013. Archived from the original on 11 September 2013. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  39. ↑ "Right-wing hooligans and a complicit State". The Sunday Guardian. 24 August 2013. Archived from the original on 4 March 2014. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  40. ↑ "Listen in: ABVP Delhi State Jt Secretary 'explains' the video of alleged ABVP violence in JNU". Times Now. Twitter. 6 January 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  41. ↑ "'Asked to Step Out With Rods, Acid': ABVP Delhi Joint Secretary Admits Its Men Were Armed in JNU". News18. 7 January 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  42. ↑ "Akshat Awasthi not our member, claims ABVP after India Today sting exposes JNU violence". The India Today. 10 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  43. ↑ Sharma, Pratik (10 January 2020). "Investigating the masked woman photographed during JNU violence". AltNews.in. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  44. ↑ Malik, Anukriti (7 January 2020). "JNU violence: Masked girl in viral picture of mob attack is Delhi University student Komal Sharma?". Newslaundry. Retrieved 22 December 2024.
  45. ↑ "JNU Attack: Delhi Police Confirm Masked Woman Is ABVP Member Komal Sharma". The Wire. 15 January 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  46. 1 2 "DUSU chief Aryan Maan, ABVP workers forcibly enter DU's Gargi College; AAP questions 'sanskaar'". Hindustan Times. 19 April 2026. Retrieved 21 April 2026.
  47. ↑ "Clashes mar Gargi College student polls; ABVP, SFI trade charges". The Hindu. 19 April 2026.
  48. ↑ "DUSU chief, ABVP members create chaos at Gargi College; AAP questions BJP's 'sanskaar'". News18. 19 April 2026.

Further reading