Click to play videoAs Uttar Pradesh goes to polls, CNN-IBN examines the lives and expectations of a group that has the most at stake from the future of the state - the youth. In a special series, we meet the Young And Restless In Uttar Pradesh.
Aligarh (UP): Politics has always been a subject of keen interest for all who belong to UP, especially students.
At the Aligarh Muslim University, it’s no different and students here are known for their strong political views, be it on the minority status for the university or the dress code.
Abdul Hafiz Gandhi is one such motivated student leader trying to get his politics right.
Three years ago Gandhi, now 28, was just another law student, going about his college years with the usual abandon and occasional seriousness.
But a foray into politics meant carving out a new identity. He now looks the part, the Muslim part that is, with his sherwani and Azad topi in place.
Even his reading has become nationalist and he believes that if a student in Uttar Pradesh wants a political career, he needs to become a hardliner.
“Your dress should be proper. Not something that provokes people to sexually harass you or pass sexual comments,'' says Gandhi.
Another case in point at t he AMU is 28-year-old Huma Hasan. A PhD student, Huma's idea of India is different from that of the AMU founder Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.
While Syed believed in the progressive mainstream muslim, Huma's environment is sometimes too hostile for a soft approach.
“I am very afraid that Gujarat was a laboratory. Coming elections we don’t want a BJP government,” says Huma.
Both Abdul and Huma believe that AMU must be declared a minority institution, almost as if it is a metaphor for their own identity that is threatened, an identity that is the target of suspicion, and thus an identity that must be protected.
“The minority status of Aligarh sticks in their eyes like a sore wound,” says Gandhi.
“When you're demanding reservations for women, for example, that's not fundamentalist, that's very progressive. But for a minority that is lagging behind, when you asking reservations for them then that is very fundamentalist that's very conservative. Why these double standards?” asks Huma.
But what about Sir Syed Ahmed Khan's dream? What about the Aligarh movement that was supposed to be an engine of Muslim liberalism and confidence? It’s barely alive.
“AMU was never intended to be a minority institution not even by Sir Syed. Actually this institution was just a concretisation of an entire concept and that was promoting scientific temperament among Muslims. And nobody, even at AMU seems to be working in that direction,” says AMY Reader, Madi Sherwani.
Gandhi and Huma are young and are working hard for a future. All he wants is to be a politician, and all she wants is to be an academician.
But in Uttar Pradesh, they are forced to be Muslims first.
(With Prarthna Gahliote
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.