The University as a Site of Resistance: Identity and Student Politics by Gaurav J. Pathania

Author:Gaurav J. Pathania [Pathania, Gaurav J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: N/A
ISBN: 9780199093694
Publisher: OUP India
Published: 2018-08-17T07:00:00+00:00

The researcher befriended a student named Srinivas, who later introduced him to one of the main student (JAC) leaders, Rajiv. After dinner in the mess hall, he took the researcher to meet Rajiv in his room. The scene was as follows:

There were five men in the room and only two of them were OU students. Rajiv was on the phone, talking loud in Telugu. Ramu, lanky and long haired, was uploading pictures to update Rajiv’s Facebook. Another was a student leader around 38 years of age, while the others were in their late 40s. In the small single room, there were two beds. Three men were sleeping on the floor, one of whom was a mess worker who provides food to Rajiv and his friends. One wall was dominated by a big framed picture showing Rajiv addressing a student rally during the main agitation of 2010 at Arts College. There were also pictures of Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram, and Mayawati adorning the other walls. Ramu, started showing all the newspaper cuttings and pictures of agitations where Rajiv’s name was mentioned. It was a thick file of more than 100 pages and each page contained a minimum of 3 news clippings.

Pointing to his picture, Rajiv explains in broken Hindi:

This was the most important part of the student movement. When we started Padayatra and reached the villages, women greeted us by washing our feet with milk. This news was widely circulated in the media. It was the best moment of our life; when we felt that the common masses trusted us more than politicians.

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