Student Protest and Indian Media

• In Event: Global Media and Student Protests

Abstract

Most India universities have student unions. Eyebrows are hardly raised when students join routine, or even radical, politics. Even by that yardstick, recent events at three different campuses created shock-waves. In each one, the students battled against actions or policies of the ruling Hindu nationalists and were handled with a variety of repressive tactics. In all this, the Indian media played a questionable role, sometimes inventing events and doctoring footage. Protests also erupted in Kashmir. At the elite Film and Television Institute (FTII) in Pune, Western India, passions rose with the appointment of the Chairman who, according to students, lacked credentials. At Hyderabad University in the South, a clampdown led to a suicide by a student from the ‘untouchable’ lower caste, after a spat with right-wing students. At Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) a routine squabble became a raging ideological fight for (and against) nationalism and neo-liberalism. This paper will examine the way the media portrayed each of these campus events.

Author

• Vipul Mudgal, Common Cause, India