Formation

Formation of the AIYF, 1959 

                                 Image :   Com. Balraj sahni ,Bollywood Actor and First AIYF president with his wife 


It was being more and more felt that without a national youth organisation and a national perspective it was not possible to build countrywide movements and to respond to the needs of the youth on an all India scale. The movement would remain isolated confined to the states
With this end in view the first conference of the All India Youth Federation was held from April 28 to May 3, 1959 in Delhi. 250 delegates and observers representing youth organisations of eleven (11) states attended this six-day session.
Fraternal delegates also attended the conference from Bharat Yuvak Samaj, All India Students Federation, Federation of Indian Youth, All India Rural Youth Federation and the Students Union of the Calcutta University
Among the delegates from abroad, the general secretary of the WFDY and the first secretary of People’s Youth of Indonesia also attended.
The importance of the conference can be understood from the fact that it received messages of greetings from Vice-President of India Dr. Radhakrishnan, Mayor of Bombay, and several other Indian and foreign important personalities and organisations.
Mayor of Delhi Smt Aruna Asaf Ali in her speech inspired tremendous confidence among the delegates. Dr Gyanchand, the honored guest inaugurated the Conference. On the second day, the Central Law Minister A.K. Sen, Prof. Hiren Mukherjee and others, addressed the conference. They also addressed a symposium on “Youth and the Nation”.
The delegates from different states presented their reports. They related their experiences of mass movements and organisations and problems. The reports of West Bengal and Andhra were particularly valuable.
The deliberations convinced the delegates that the conference did not intend to create an all India organisation without a base. In fact, movements existed in the various states and flowed towards a common goal of all India nature. Therefore, the formation of an all India youth center was necessary and natural. This would make a decisive contribution to the unity of the youth movements including the unorganized ones. A united all India platform and co-ordination center would give a decisive impetus to the movement.
A good debate on the objectives and character of the all India organisation took place. The draft Policy Statement and the Constitution evoked lively discussions in which 55 delegates took part. These documents were adopted after intense debate for three days.
Sharp discussion took place on two main points of the Policy Statement.
1. Whether the AIYF should propagate socialism as one of its main aims:
2. The attitude to general political questions and the political parties.
On the first point, at least it was agreed that though the broad ideas of socialism were becoming popular among youth, there also existed sharp differences on this question. Some believed in scientific socialism, others in democratic socialism and so on. Except Andhra Youth Federation, no other constituent organisation had accepted socialism as organizational aim. Even then, it was unanimously accepted that some of the basic ideas of socialism were clear to the youth. Therefore, it was finally decided that propagation of the ideas like the equality of rights and an end to class divisions should be incorporated among the aims of the AIYF.
On the second point, it was made clear by the discussion that the AIYF would not simply confine itself to sports and culture alone. These activities were important. But the AIYF would also participate in, organize and lead struggles and activities on unemployment, illiteracy, sovereignty, national independence, democracy, lack of facilities for training and health, etc as a responsible organisation. Besides, it would participate actively in politics and political activities. Therefore it was also a political organisaiton.
The All India Youth Federation made it clear that ‘it will not have any allegiance to any political party. The AIYF would be an independent organisation of the youth on the basis of the programme molded by the youth. Its policies would correspond to the interests of the youth of the country. At the same time, there would be no discrimination against the members and followers of any political parties as long as they abided by the aims and constitution of the organisation. There was no claim to a monopoly of youth movement. Other organisations and movements were recognized as a force. The AIYF decided to bring about co-operation among youths belonging to all the youth organisations on common issues, not only the members of particular parties, but more so the vast majority of masses following them.
Besides these two important documents, the conference adopted a Programme of Action for the ensuing months, such as observance of May 16, 1959 as anti US-Pak Pact Day, and campaigns in solidarity with the Algerian youth, etc.
Through several resolutions, the AIYF conference demanded of the government of India to liberate Goa, expressed solidarity with the colonial peoples, and wished success for the Geneva conference and asked for urgent attention to the problem of unemployment in preparation of the third five-year plan.
The AIYF conference decided to affiliate itself to the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and thus to be a part of world youth movement. In its opinion, the WFDY was the only worldwide organisation with an understanding of world situation, being consistent in the fight against colonialism. The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) was founded in London in 1945 in the wake of the victory over world fascism led by Hitler. Youth had played a great in the Second World War to defeat the forces of Germany, Japan and Italy. The WFDY was the result of this young optimism after Second World War.
The conference elected a council of 121 members, which in turn elected a 37 member executive committee and office bearers.
The famous film personality Balraj Sahani was elected president of the AIYF and Sarada Mitra the general secretary. Among the vice-presidents were P.K. Vasudevan Nair, Chintamani Panigrahi, Krishna Chandra Chaudhary, Sukumar Gupta and Satyanarayan. Vasudevan Nair also acted as the chairman of the Executive Committee. The secretaries were Sushil Chakravarty, Ganesh Vidyarthi and Desraj Goel, two seats remaining vacant.
At that time, the AIYF represented more than two lakh youths of the country, who were the members of the constituent units; it was poised to become a bigger organisation.