avtoris stili daculia Title of PhD Program: International, English language PhD program in Gender Studies Thesis title: Deciphering Dissent and Resistance: Student Activism and Gender in Georgia and India Name of Student: Maia Barkaia Name, degree and positions of Academic Supervisor(s): Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi, PhD, Assistant Professor, SAS, Rutgers Date: 01.09.2014 Institution: Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Faculty of Social and Political Sciences PhD program in Gender Studies is administered by the Center for Social Sciences at TSU. Table of Contents Abstract..................................................................................................................................5 Acknowledgment …………………………………………………………………………..6 List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………7 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms ……………………………………………………..8 Chapter One: Introduction………………………………………………………………..9 An Outline of the Ph.D. Thesis………………………………………………………14 Chapter Two: Theoretical Framework and Literature Review………………………..16 Chapter Three: Methodology…………………………………………………………….32 Chapter Four: Inception – Student Organizations……………………………………..41 Introduction………………………………………………………………………...41 Introduction to Student Activism at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, India………………………………………………………………………………..42 All India Students’ Association (AISA)…………………………………...47 Indian Students’ Association – Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)………………………………………………………….56 Student Activism in Tbilisi, Georgia………………………………………………60 Laboratory 1918…………………………………………………………..60 National Front……………………………………………………………...67 Summary…………………………………………………………………………...71 Chapter Five: Encounter – “Making an Activist”……………………………………...72 Introduction………………………………………………………………………...72 2 Mobilization Strategies and Forms of Protest at JNU, Delhi, India……………….72 Mobilization Strategies and Forms of Protest in Tbilisi, Georgia…………………85 Summary…………………………………………………………………………...89 Chapter Six: Transcending vs. Preserving – “Becoming an Activist”………………...91 Introduction………………………………………………………………………...91 The Case of Student Activists at JNU, Delhi, India……………………………….92 The Case of Student Activists in Tbilisi, Georgia…………………………………102 Summary…………………………………………………………………………..114 Chapter Seven: Gender Battleground – Student Organizations’ Feminist Stance and Activism…………………………………………………………………………………..119 Introduction……………………………………………………………………….119 For Half the Sky and Half the Earth: Gender and Student Activism……………..120 Love Jihad: Gender as Strategic Political Maneuvering………………………….129 Marriage of Marxism and Feminism……………………………………………...133 Summary…………………………………………………………………………..141 Chapter Eight: Conclusion………………………………………………………………...143 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………….147 Annexes……………………………………………………………………………………158 Annex 1: List of Interviews…………………………………………………….....158 Annex 2: Consent Form…………………………………………………………..161 Annex 3: Interview Guide………………………………………………………...162 3 Abstract This Ph.D. thesis explores the nature and significance of student activism in Georgia and India. This research focuses on the political activism of students, with a particular emphasis on student-based organizations, which at times contribute to larger social movements. The aim of this thesis is threefold: to explore the nature of student activism and how students embark on a journey into activism; to investigate the ways gendered structure is embedded in student activism; to identify where student organizations and its members position themselves within a particular oppression or ideology or within systems of multiple oppressions simultaneously; and to analyze the ways in which these systems impact their feminist stance and activism. The study predominantly focuses on left-wing student activism, as well as on complementary cases of right-wing organizations in Tbilisi, Georgia and at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, India. These student organizations share several fundamental structures related to their ideological stance, enabling the organizations to be compared. This research examines the ways in which these elementary structures or ideologies change and become increasingly complex after they have been established in a local context. Theoretical components of very different origins have been adopted for this research. The fundamental premise of the framework is based on feminist theory, postcolonial criticism, and social movements theory. First, I elucidate the process of engagment of students into activism through the elements of the «transcending pyramid» that entails social networks, rationale, and 4 action. Second, based on Klatch’s (2001) theoretical model, I develop a trichotomy of the constitutive elements of the feminist stance: declaration, rationale and action. The broad methodological framework for this qualitative study is feminist. The research consists of several research types, namely, participant and non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and material (books, social media, articles, pamphlets, posters, and visuals). For examination of data I predominantly employed Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which aims to reveal the relationships between language, power, ideology, and politics. 5 Acknowledgement This Ph.D. thesis would not have been written without the encouragement and help of many people. I would like to thank my supervisor, Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi, for his enormous support. Writing is never a solitary process and I am grateful to my professors, my family, my friends, my respondents, and colleagues who have supported me at different junctures. 6 List of Figures Figure 1: Transcending pyramid: social networks, rationale, and action………………………….20 Figure 2: Some of the Laboratory 1918 activists reading the manifesto…………………………...61 Figure 3: Wall painting at Jawaharlal Nehru University…………………………………………...74 7 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms All India Students’ Association (AISA) All India Students’ Federation (AISF) All India Backward Students’ Forum (AIBSF) Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Crime Investigation Department (CID) Democratic Students Union (DSU) Democratic Students Federation (DSF) Gender Sensitization Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) Students’ Federation of India (SFI) Students for Resistance (SFR) United Dalit Students’ Forum (UDSF) Youth for Equality (YFE) 8 Chapter One: Introduction “One of the greatest obstacles to the achievement of liberation is that oppressive reality absorbs those within it and thereby acts to submerge human beings’ consciousness.” (Freire, 2005, p. 51) Student activism is a multi-faceted phenomenon, and this Ph. D. thesis intends to unravel some of its essential characteristics in Georgia and India. This study investigates how student activism is conceptualized overtly in relation to gender and attempts to consider ways in which gender becomes articulated tacitly in this activism. The aim of this thesis is threefold: to explore the nature of student activism and how students embark on a journey into activism; to investigate the ways gendered structure is embedded in student activism; to identify where student organizations and its members position themselves within a particular oppression or ideology or within systems of multiple oppressions simultaneously; and to analyze the ways in which these systems impact their feminist stance and activism. I predominantly focus on left-wing student activism, as I endeavor to explore the possibility of feminist activism within the progressive left-wing politics. The relationship between Marxism and feminism has been described as “the marriage of husband and wife depicted in English common law: Marxism and feminism are one, and that one is Marxism” (Hartman, 1981, p. 2). Feminists criticized Marxists for subsuming the feminist struggle into the struggle against capital, whereas many Marxists and neo-marxists view feminism as “mental” and therefore less important than class conflict, which is “material” and therefore “primary and determining” (Bernstein, 2005). In this 9 thesis, I aim to investigate left-wing student organizations’ strategies apropos of feminist issues such as gender inequality and sexuality. Student organizations can be considered terrains of struggle and transformation, which are engendered with far-reaching consequences depending on their ideological affiliation. Student political activism did not start in the 1960s, though new social movements were sweeping the globe at that time. The earliest student movements in both Georgia and India were related to nationalism. The nationalist ideology was a powerful force in the independence movements, and students played a key role in its articulation. Historically, student political involvement was sporadic, which is one of the key characteristics of student movements worldwide. Student movements are generally short- lived, though they may be based on more sustained student political activism. This research aims to focus mainly on the student political activism, particularly to explore student-based organizations, which at times happen to be part of larger social movements. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Georgia as well as other post-soviet countries quickly embraced neoliberal economic reform agendas. In the new millennium, neoliberalism has become a hegemonic mode of discourse in Georgia. In India, after it gained its independence,