The University as a Site of Resistance

The University as a Site of Resistance analyses massive protests that emerged in the aftermath of Rohith Vemula's death in Hyderabad Central University as well as the Azadi Campaign started by Jawaharlal Nehru University students in Delhi in 2016. Taking Osmania University in Hyderabad as a case study, the book provides an ethnographic account of the emergence of one of India's longest student movements - the movement for Telangana statehood. Since its inception in
the 1960s to its culmination in the formation of Telangana state in 2014, students at Osmania University played a decisive role. The book discusses protest strategies, methods, and networks among
students. It also examines the role played by various caste and sub-caste groups and civil society in making the movement a success. The author argues that contemporary identity based student movements are primarily cultural movements as the traditional caste and class analysis becomes redundant to explain such contemporary collective action. The book establishes these unique resistances as New Social Movements and claim that these movements contribute to the democratization of institutional
spaces. In this context, the volume provides a conceptual debate on contemporary cultural politics among university students.