Politics Against (De)politicization: The Basis and Crisis of Contemporary Student Movements in India

Abstract

In the context of worldwide student protests against neoliberal economic agenda and depoliticizing market rationality, the essay seeks to understand the basis of ongoing student protests in India. On the basis of a case study of a radical left student organization from the state of West Bengal, India, the essay demonstrates that the dynamics of student protests in India is rooted in resistances against a state-sponsored depoliticization. The resistance is also against a structure of domination, legal and extra-legal that sustains such depoliticization in campuses as well as in the society at large. Borrowing framework from the studies in subjectivity, the essay argues that the basis of Indian student protests is anchored in a historically grounded subjectivity where students have often been called upon as a young citizen, responsible to the nation and people. At the same time, the crisis of these protests is born out of the lack of having a contemporary form of the said political subjectivity, enabling a re-articulation of the historical relationship between student, people and state-nation.