During the writing of my PhD thesis, every time I grappled with self-doubt, I reminded myself that no one, apart from my supervisor and external examiners, was ever going to read it. That it was important that I simply submit it before the final deadline.

Eight years since its submission, six of which I have spent in prison, its publication as a book fills me with more dread than excitement, for I was anything but satisfied with what I wrote.

But readers should keep in mind that this thesis was written in extraordinary times. A decade ago, in February 2016, three of us — Anirban, Kanhaiya, and I — were arrested in the infamous JNU sedition case and branded “anti-national” overnight. Not in any court of law, but in emotionally charged TV news debates. A decade later, the trial in the case has still not begun.

But back in that winter, frothing news anchors, playing judge, jury, and executioner, would leave their viewers with one question: Should hardworking taxpayers’ money be spent on funding universities such as JNU where “anti-nationals” like us gathered?

In JNU, one learnt as much in the classrooms as at its dhabas, protest gatherings and nocturnal public meetings. We could spend nights at the barricades, as we did in 2015 during the #OccupyUGC movement, demanding........

© Indian Express