Kanhaiya Kumar, born in January 1987
He is an Indian political activist. He previously served as the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union and was a leader of the All India Students Federation (AISF). Kumar was also a member of the National Executive Council of the Communist Party of India. On September 28, 2021, he joined the Indian National Congress and was appointed as the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of the National Students’ Union of India.
Earlier:
Kanhaiya Kumar, born in January 1987, was raised in the village of Bihat near Barauni in the Begusarai district of Bihar. Bihat is part of the Teghra constituency, which has traditionally been a stronghold of the Communist Party of India (CPI). His father, Jaishankar Singh, is paralyzed, while his mother, Meena Devi, works as an Anganwadi worker. Kumar has an elder brother, Manikant, who is employed as a supervisor with a company in Assam. The Kumar family has a long history of supporting the CPI.
Kanhaiya Kumar completed his early education at Madhya Vidyalaya, Masnadpur, before moving to R. K. C. High School in Barauni. During his school years, he participated in plays and activities organized by the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), a left-leaning cultural group with roots in India’s freedom struggle. He passed his Class X board exams in 2002 with a first division. Following school, Kumar pursued science at Ram Ratan Singh College in Mokama for his Class XI and XII studies. He later graduated with a first-class degree in geography from the College of Commerce, Arts, and Science in Patna in 2007.
Politics:
While studying at the College of Commerce, Arts and Science in Patna, Kanhaiya Kumar became actively involved in student politics. He joined the All India Students Federation (AISF) and, within a year, was selected as a delegate at its conference in Patna. After completing his postgraduate studies with an MA in Sociology from Nalanda Open University in Patna—where he achieved first-class honors Kumar moved to Delhi. There, he excelled in the entrance exam and secured the top rank in 2011, leading him to join Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to pursue a PhD in African Studies at the School of International Studies. He completed his PhD in February 2019 with a thesis titled “The Process of Decolonisation and Social Transformation in South Africa, 1994–2015.”
In September 2015, Kumar was elected president of the JNU Students’ Union, representing the AISF.
In a March 2016 interview, Kumar cited Bhagat Singh as his initial inspiration to enter politics, followed by influences from Ambedkar, Gandhi, Marx, Birsa Munda, and Jyotirao Phule.
His autobiography, Bihar to Tihar: My Political Journey, was published in October 2016, chronicling his life from childhood through his political engagement in Delhi.
On April 29, 2018, Kumar was elected to the national council of the Communist Party of India (CPI), and later in 2019, he was inducted into the CPI’s national executive council.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Kanhaiya Kumar ran as the candidate of the Communist Party of India (CPI) from Begusarai. He received 269,976 votes, which amounted to 22.03% of the vote share. Kumar finished in second place, trailing behind Giriraj Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who won by a margin of 422,217 votes.
Activities:
Kanhaiya Kumar gained widespread attention for his speeches and slogans calling for “Azadi” (freedom) at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). These slogans, chanted during student protests against government policies and educational issues between 2019 and 2020, demanded freedom from starvation, cronyism, casteism, communalism, and Sangh Parivar influence, while invoking figures like Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar, Phule, and Birsa Munda, and ending with “Inquilab Zindabad.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its affiliated student union, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), labeled the slogans as anti-national and seditious. Media outlets aired altered versions of the slogans, including the controversial phrase “Bharat tere tukde tukde honge,” which fueled national outrage and led to the term “tukde tukde gang” being used by the BJP.
Forensic experts later revealed that the videos of the slogans had been doctored with misleading voice-overs, but these videos were not admitted as evidence in court.
In February 2016, Kumar was arrested on sedition charges related to a JNU event marking the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Kumar denied participating in any anti-national slogans, and his arrest prompted widespread protests. He was assaulted during court appearances, and a Supreme Court panel later identified security lapses by the police.
On March 2, 2016, Kumar was granted interim bail by the Delhi High Court, which noted that there was no evidence of him participating in anti-national activities. Despite facing threats, including a reward for harming him, Kumar was later acquitted when it was shown he wasn’t present when the alleged slogans were chanted.
On March 3, 2016, Kumar delivered a notable speech at JNU, asserting his desire for freedom within India rather than from it. He criticized the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and called for continued activism, gaining praise from non-BJP leaders and commentators, though some criticized him for not addressing the alleged anti-national slogans directly.