Alongside

I won’t be surprised if you are wondering what on earth Jallikattu has got to do with “student leadership and movements”. Well, the recent Jallikattu agitation in Tamil Nadu has a lot to do with it. ( Jallikattu is a traditional bull taming sport culturally intertwined with the ethos of Tamil Nadu, it is deeply and fiercely connected to agrarian culture of the people, their age old tradition of celebrating harvest festival ) This drew thousands of people from all across the state comprising of all age group but the primary group and the most dominant group that led the movement were college students . They were at the forefront of it, leading it, spreading the word, mobilizing the crowds, being the spokesperson, chanting slogans; literally making something that started out as a tiny spark into a wild fire of a massive people movement which brought the entire government machinery to its knees so that they had to take it to the highest authority and get the bill passed. A spontaneou...

Many so called spiritual movements that started out forty to fifty years back with much passion and fervour, have ceased to be movements today, I am not going to name them, but you might definitely know some of them. Many are on the verge of becoming fossilised relics with nothing to show other than their past glory and their dilapidated buildings and properties for which the present members are shamelessly bickering and fighting lawsuits for the spoils.  Many have died painful slow death with the passing away of their original founders and leaders. Some of them are on life support, struggling to keep afloat with the changing times and few of them are hurtling towards the black hole of no return blissfully unaware of their condition or seeming to be not aware? But some of them like the sons of Issachar, "men who understood the times" have been careful to reinvent, revive and replenish their movements to come back with even greater passion and vision to remain on the cu...