The P Words: Placement and Protest Cultures at Ashoka

Ashoka’s student body is divided, and not by choice. What goes on to shape these choices lies within the institution, putting students at multiple ends — physically and figuratively — of this university. 

Take, for example, the first weekend of the Workers’ Protest on the 30th and 31st August. Two striking scenes lay bare inside and outside the university space. While protesting students and workers sat outside, waiting for the administration’s response on the demands set, a mandatory Placement Bootcamp occurred inside. 

The script of these scenes is remarkably different. A different set of P words seem to be isolated in different spaces amongst different sets of people; one cannot be inside Takshila and outside Gate 1 at the same time. While students may traverse through both worlds, possible consequences attached to protesting threaten to disrupt the end goal of placement. A fear of protest in favour of placement emerges from policy changes and shifting student preferences  and is instrumental in creating these P words and worlds. 

The choice of attending, of uttering ‘protest’ or ‘placement’ is in many ways regulated by the university bodies that enforce your presence in certain times and spaces. The Bootcamp was mandatory to attend for anyone sitting for placements this year. The  Residence Life policy, 2025 states that protests or sit-ins can not occur inside without prior permission from the administration, that too in pre-determined spaces. In a concern for securing their futures (inclusive of many C words such as ‘CTC’ (cost to company) and ‘consulting’), hordes of students were shuttled into a large, air-conditioned classroom while outside, the fight for fairer and far lesser wages continued in the heat with a much smaller group of people. While sitting for placements is a voluntary student choice, their compulsory presence at the Bootcamp to actually continue the process made them stay in. 

The preference for placements over protest may not necessarily occur out of a disregard for causes in and out of campus, but simply because of the fear of consequences that can risk the possibility of getting a job and ensuring a survival after graduating. The strengthened No Objection Certificate (NOC) Policy now requires clearance from the administration to allow students into leadership positions in university bodies. These positions form a crucial role allowing for experiences and skills to develop. Engaging in protest against the administration that can arbitrarily decide to grant or revoke an NOC is too much of a risk when weighed against the security of one’s future.

The strength of people who choose to occupy these spaces can also be explained by institutional efforts that guide changing preferences. As per The Edict’s analysis of the Major-Minor Report, exponential increases in the strength of majors such as Economics and Psychology have occurred over the years. These majors alone account for 61.41% of all placed undergraduates, according to the Career Development Office’s data from 2021 to 2024. As the strength of these majors and of the undergraduate student body has grown, the number of people sitting for placements has also increased. Ashoka’s marketing through its website and promotional material highlights placement statistics and success, drawing in people who may already come into the university keen on securing high-paying jobs. As more people enter with placements in mind, the presence of dissuading policies may quash any sparks of dissent they may carry, instead igniting a fear that preserves conduct in hopes of job security. 

Beyond policies, the emphasis on placements also fuels a self-driven and serving approach towards the university experience. Efforts are focused on curating a list of activities and positions that reflect well on resumes and applications. Unfortunately, protesting does not translate into the quantifiable experience that recruiters are looking for, and cannot be marked as a ‘lucrative’ experience — the same ones that require NOCs to take up. An inability to justify what partaking in a protest does for one also makes it easier to attend a Bootcamp, along with the many other hurdles posed by policy.  

What do these P words — protest, placement, policy — spell for Ashoka? If students refrain from participating in activities that do not align with the final goal or roadmap of being placed, out of fear or otherwise, it risks Ashoka’s ethos built on holistic development, and borrowing from the website, “recognising that every avenue or venture in life has a human context apart from a technical or financial one”. The coinciding of the protest and the Placement Bootcamp and their respective turnouts speak volumes about the extent of fear regarding consequences, job security, and often both. This fear can potentially and dangerously dispel further engagement even with other aspects of campus life that may distract or not add meaningfully towards a placement roadmap.

These demarcations and worlds only mimic what is to be continued in the workplace. In the handover from institution to institution, from admission to placement, we must not forget that Ashoka is a place to think critically and engage with the world — one that does not begin very far from this campus and does not end when you enter its gates.  

(Edited by Avika Mantri and Madiha Tariq)