46 SOCIAL SCIENTIST TABLE I AGE DISTRIBUTION OF STUDENT LEADERS Year Number Percentage 18—20 22 10.5 20 — 22 63 28.6 22—24 56 25.1 24 — 26 44 20.0 26 — 28 20 9.0 28—30 6 2.7 30 and above / 9 4.1 Total 220 100.0 turned out to be older than the non-leaders, a fact which contrasts, for example, with Artonio Rivera-Arroyo's finding that at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, student leaders were younger than non-leaders.4 It is also interesting to note that 15 leaders were above 28 years of age, though this is a feature which is by no means confined to Lucknow. Religion and Caste The religious composition of student leadership roughly conformed to the general population and leadership picture of the country; the overwhelming majority of the leaders, 85.5 per cent, were Hindus, and 10 per cent were Muslims. Significantly, four per cent leaders simply refused to give their religion, perhaps because of their strong Marxist leanings. Also noteworthy is the fact that there was not a single leader belonging to the Christian faith. The reasons for this are, however, not far to seek. Firstly, the very number of Christian students is so small that it carries no weight in students5 electoral politics tinged with communal and caste considerations. (This is also true of Muslim students, but to a much smaller extent). Secondly, Christian students are poorly integrated with the wider student community, perhaps because of their snobbery or elitist mentality born of their English-medium public schooling. And thirdly, as the Christian students are less politicized than their non-Christian counterparts, they are more interested in extra-curricular activities (chiefly of a cultural character) and in career than in student politics. TABLE II RELIGIOUS COMPOSITION OF STUDENT LEADERS Religion Number Percentage Hindu 188 85.5 Muslim 23 10.4 Sikh 2 0.9 Declined to state __7__ 3.2 Total 220 100.0