The Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF) is a left-wing socialist student organization founded in 1966, emerging from the intersection of local political struggles and the wider wave of anti-imperialist and revolutionary movements sweeping across the world. Our foundation was rooted in the political and socioeconomic conditions of Jammu Kashmir, where questions of national liberation, colonial subordination, political representation, and socioeconomic inequality shaped the consciousness of a new generation of students. At the same time, this generation was deeply influenced by international revolutionary developments, including the Chinese Revolution, the Vietnamese struggle against American imperialism, and the growing influence of revolutionary Marxism and socialist thought.
Among its founding generation were young people who rejected the notion that the question of Jammu Kashmir’s liberation had been concluded through the prevailing territorial arrangements. They regarded the liberation of the territory under the “Azad” government as only one part of the wider struggle for the liberation of the entire territory of the former princely state. Their political consciousness also developed in response to socioeconomic inequalities, institutional discrimination, and the colonial subordination of Jammu Kashmir by Pakistan, which continues to maintain political, economic, and administrative control over the territory.
These historical experiences and ideological influences continue to inform our political outlook. Rooted in revolutionary Marxism and internationalist solidarity, we have consistently opposed all forms of imperialist domination, including Indian military occupation and Pakistani control over parts of Jammu Kashmir. We also affirm the right to self-determination of all nationalities directly linked to the Jammu Kashmir issue, including their right to secession. We uphold the right of all nationalities to preserve, develop, and freely express their distinct cultural, linguistic, and social identities without subordination or forced assimilation. Therefore, we advocate a free, secular, and socialist Jammu Kashmir founded on the free coexistence and development of all its nationalities and as part of a broader socialist confederation of South Asia.
This commitment to national liberation is inseparable from our struggle for social and economic emancipation. Within Jammu Kashmir, we have consistently advocated for the restoration of student unions, free education, grassroots democratic rights, and solidarity with the international working class. We remain committed to mass mobilization and maintain that only through united class struggle can we overthrow systems of oppression, exploitation, and colonial division.