‘We were never seen as a mind, only as a vote’: Neha Bora on India’s student resistance and the fight for democracy

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All India Students Association national president Neha Bora with former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Sai Balaji at the 15th Annual Hasan Memorial Lecture titled ‘Young India Speaks: Jantar Mantar and the Way Forward’ at Lamakaan in Hyderabad on Sunday. | Photo Credit: SIDDHANT THAKUR

“Youngsters in India were never seen as having a mind. They were always seen only as a vote,” said All India Students’ Association (AISA) national president Neha Bora in Hyderabad on Sunday (August 16), arguing that the growing student movements across the country were challenging a political system that treated young people primarily as electoral constituencies rather than citizens with independent ideas.

Speaking at the 15th Annual Hasan Memorial Lecture, ‘Young India Speaks: Jantar Mantar and the Way Forward’, at Lamakaan, Ms. Bora said her generation had entered student activism after witnessing the movement around University of Hyderabad (UoH) scholar Rohith Vemula and that his struggle continued to shape student politics.

The lecture came after protests at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi that led to the resignation of former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Several protesters were also subjected to police action on July 20. “When we were being beaten up in Delhi, you were protesting against our beatings on the streets of Hyderabad,” she said.

Ms. Bora also invoked recent struggles at several universities in Telangana, including the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), the University of Hyderabad and Osmania University, describing them as part of a larger student movement defending democratic dissent.

Ms. Bora linked the current student movements to a broader understanding of patriotism, arguing that loving the country required citizens to acknowledge its failures and injustices. “To be truly in love with this country and its revolutionary history is to know how broken this country is,” she said.

She also spoke about activists and academics who had faced imprisonment and prosecution, referring to Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and others whom she described as political prisoners. She also mentioned Stan Swamy, who died in custody after his arrest in the Elgar Parishad case.

Ms. Bora recalled being asked how the Jantar Mantar movement should be remembered in the years ahead. She said she wanted it to be remembered as the beginning of the end of what she described as fascist power. “We want history to remember us as the generation that put an end to the politics of hate in this country,” she said.

Former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Sai Balaji, who also addressed the gathering, said resistance movements often began with a small group but expanded as more people experienced or understood oppression. The initial group involved in the Jantar Mantar protests had grown because the oppression faced by students had also grown, he said.

Mr.