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The past year has brought forth widespread state violence for all eyes to see, right in the centre of the national capital. Batons to the bodies of students, pellets in the flesh of those seeking justice, and bodies dragged across the streets with utter apathy. The conventional, Weberian definition of the state grants it a “monopoly over legitimate use of physical force.” Who, then, is permitted to exert legitimate violence in the India that we see today, and who has this mon

This summer, I spent some time in Indonesia, finishing a course at a university in Yogyakarta. On the evening of June 11, as I was on a walk with a friend, I encountered a group of students in the square in front of the university. It was a demonstration, a black-feathered chicken was kept in the middle of the pavement as a part of a ceremonial gear

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) student protest erupted in June 2026 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi driven by widespread outrage over massive paper leaks and structural irregularities in the NEET-UG examination. For around thirty-seven days, student activists maintained a continuous demonstration demanding systemic testing reforms and accountability from top officials. Most significantly, they demanded the resignation of former Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. The C

Sanjana Shankar (UG '28) examines the allure of insisting the Jantar Mantar protests remain "apolitical", pointing out the inherently political nature of protests — evident in who participates, who is challenged, and who is heard the loudest.

By the end of my second week at Ashoka, I had learned two things: where my classes were and that my batch was already being judged for not showing up. The lack of participation in the Workers’ Protests early in Monsoon ‘25—and in other politically charged issues, including the Main Gate Infraction (MGI) policies and related campus debates—was read as indifference towards the broader Ashokan political sphere. But before attributing silence to apathy, it is necessary to examine

When governments choose to treat their youth as expendable, they unwittingly create the opposition they fear the most. In Sri Lanka , it was the young protestors who camped outside the president’s office for months, forcing a government to resign. In Pakistan , the decades-old ban on student unions is being challenged, breathing new life into the country’s political discourse. Over the past decade, a pattern has emerged across South Asia: policies and practices that shut yout

On September 23rd, 2025, there was a protest at O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), Sonipat, regarding persistent threats to women’s...

As of Saturday, 6th September 2025, Ashoka University housekeeping staff’s protest continued, moving into its ninth day. As part of a series of student-organised public talks, celebrated human rights lawyer and Supreme Court advocate Colin Gonsalves spoke at 4:30 p.m., followed by a session at 5:00 p.m. by constitutional lawyer, law scholar, and author of The Transformative Constitution Gautam Bhatia.

Tanush Guha (UG '26) and Nysa Sanghvi (UG '27) report on the ninth day of the housekeeping workers' protest.

On Thursday, 4th September, classes at Ashoka University moved out of air-conditioned rooms and into lawns, corridors, and open-air amphitheatres as students and faculty expressed solidarity with housekeeping staff who have been on strike for over a week. The faculty also released a new petition to demand withheld salaries of protesting workers.