 Summary of this article
- The rustication of the Students’ Union and ‘out-of-bounds’ orders led students to organise encampments and class boycotts in defence of due process and democratic rights.
- Through Out of Bounds – Classroom teach-ins, students and faculty reimagined protest as public pedagogy, linking learning with resistance and constitutional praxis.
- Peaceful marches were met with violence, police action, and arrests, exposing the role of state power and counter-resistance in curbing student dissent.
Jawaharlal Nehru University’s student community has faced severe repression, marked by the suspension of UGC Equity Guidelines, the rustication of the entire Students’ Union office bearers, and casteist remarks allegedly made by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit.
In an order dated February 2, the JNU administration rusticated the Students’ Union office bearers along with other students and declared them ‘out of bounds’. When students attempted to submit a representation, the Vice-Chancellor reportedly refused to meet them. Subsequently, she appeared on a podcast and made derogatory casteist remarks. These actions triggered protests across the campus.
In protest against the rustication and ‘out-of-bounds’ order, the student community, led by its duly elected Students’ Union, called for an encampment and a boycott of classes until the order was revoked. This act of civil disobedience reaffirmed students’ commitment to democratic values and due process. The administration, however, violated these principles by rusticating a duly elected Union and declaring it ‘out of bounds’. Through pamphlets and leaflets, students raised a clear question: how can a Union elected through a fair and transparent process be rusticated and barred from campus?
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Continuing its commitment to constitutional practice, JNU students, through their ‘out-of-bounds’ Students’ Union, organised a series of initiatives titled Out of Bounds – Classroom: Open University Teach-Ins Outside the Formal Boundaries of Classrooms. These unique efforts can be described as forms of pedagogical resistance. The initiative invited academics and public intellectuals to deliver lectures on key issues shaping Indian society and politics.
14 JNU Students Arrested After Protest March, Sent To Judicial Custody Pending Verification
BY Ashlin Mathew |
