Student protests,media and the university in India

Over the past several years there have been widespread student protests across universities in India. These protests have received considerable mainstream media coverage. This article focuses on media reportage of student protests in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, looking specifically at charges of sedition brought against a few students. The article considers the ways in which the media created narratives of the ‘anti-national’ student (and teacher) that helped to consolidate a particular sense of Indian identity. These narratives are linked to the corporatisation of Indian higher education, whereby the spaces for public debate are reduced and the idea of the university as a public good is threatened.