Recording the sequence of events and observations on the current events unfolding in TISS, Mumbai, from students’ perspective

What is the price of political engagement and learning in a higher educational institute in India? It seems that young people who seek to read, talk to each other and understand any issue slapped with FIRs before they can fully make up their minds on what stance to take.

On Sunday, 12 October 2025, students at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai gathered to read a few poems written by Professor GN Saibaba to mark his death anniversary. They gathered in a peaceful manner, read the poems, placed a few candles around a photograph of Professor Saibaba and dispersed—all in about ten minutes. For many of the students, this year has been the first time they have learnt of the scholar and activist’s life, work, and death. The gathering came as a spontaneous response to discovering his poems.

The event then drew attention online when a group of students opposed to the idea—allegedly part of a group called Democratic Secular Students Forum—tweeted photographs that they took of the gathered students without consent and tagged the Maharashtra CM and police. This brought the police into campus premises around 10pm on Sunday night itself, questioning both students and admin officials at the late hour.

The TISS administration has been reported to have quickly registered a complaint against the gathering, without the slightest attempt to first resolve the matter internally. The students, many of whom are young Dalit and queer, have been reportedly booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to “causing prejudice to the nation”, “causing enmity between various groups”, and unlawful assembly, among other charges.

On the night of 13 October, Trombay police questioned a student for hours and detained him on campus premises, not allowing him to return to his hostel room till the early hours of Tuesday. Students allege that his laptop and phone have been confiscated and done without any warrant or explanation. Others who were with the student at the time of being detained were also intimidated and stopped from having any conversation with the detained student, even if they had nothing to do with Sunday’s gathering. Others gathered too have been called by authorities to provide their home addresses and appear for questioning by the police, all of it amounting to great mental and physical distress for the students.

Emerging reports on the incident cite the police and others claiming that the gathered students raised slogans unrelated to G.N. Saibaba. There is no proof brought forth on the same. The students deny engaging in any kind of sloganeering and are steadfast that these are false claims. Reports are also varied, unverified, and misleading, claiming that several students have been detained. The lack of clear communication from the institute is causing panic and divides among the students.

Professor Saibaba was a writer and human rights activist. He was imprisoned for a decade for allegedly having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) but was acquitted first in October 2022 by the Bombay High Court. The order that overturned the life imprisonment sentence of 2017, pointed to procedural lapses in securing appropriate sanctions and in the seizure of the alleged electronic evidence from the accused person(s). After a Supreme Court stay that was brought on the order, and presented before the court once again, he was re-acquitted of all charges in March 2024 by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court.

However, Professor Saibaba, with 90% disability and wheelchair bound had suffered various illnesses in the prison, and his fragile health gave way only a few months after his release. Many scholars, writers, social workers, human rights advocates, and students across the country mourned his death. University spaces around the world held talks and discussions in his honour.

Academic debate and learning
At the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, scholars have often held gatherings to commemorate events of cultural and political importance, birth and death anniversaries of thinkers and writers. Student groups have called for attention to students and youth concerns, providing a space for younger students to hear and evaluate information. In the last year or so, these gatherings and discussions have reduced to nearly zero, with no information about the protocol to be followed to hold any event on campus premises.

In January 2024, students received a circular by email that restricted all student activities until further notice. Over the course of the year, several events have been held by schools and student groups alike, some being reprimanded by the administration and others being encouraged. However, official protocols to seek permission for student led events are still unclear and elusive to most students. In fact, a former official had once allegedly sought to unofficially stop a gathering from reading the works of Annabhau Sathe on his birth anniversary, questioning the poet’s credentials and relevance. Such incidents have left us, the student community, feeling afraid of any kind of engagement with the realities of the world both past and present.

Educational institutions are spaces that ought to nurture healthy debate, allow for students to search and re search on all matters that surround them, the mirco and macro processes that make up their everyday lives. TISS too has a long legacy of standing up for what is right and speaking truth to power. In 2011, students boycotted their own convocation, protesting the then proposed Jaitapur nuclear power point, as the chief guest was the then Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. The protesting students were not penalized for their efforts, rather had a conversation with. Such engagements are the reason that TISS alumni have been able to contribute to the professional world, enrich advocacy and governance efforts, work alongside the state and even enter formal politics.

For the last few years, this spirit of debate and discussions has waned due to bureaucratic and external pressures that have threatened the security that students are promised in spaces of learning.

TISS has always, until 2024, had a democratically elected student union to represent and address the needs of the larger student body. However, for the last two academic years, the process of elections has all but been forgotten by the administration. The students navigate academic demands and challenges that living in a large city can bring – from hostel, library and dining hall irregularities to personal struggles – through informal, non-elected class representatives or hastily put together Whatsapp groups for crisis management. Events and talks held by student groups have been routinely penalized in the last few months, the latest occurrence of which has been the gathering in honour of GN Saibaba.

This drastic step by the TISS administration against its own students needs to give pause for anyone who is interested in the growth and development of young minds in the country. The administration ought to reconsider its role in the lives of students, and begin a meaningful conversation with the student community, rather than close its doors on them, especially those from already marginalized communities by putting their careers at stake. The students, many of whom have little to no support from family and are in fact the only support for their families.

The poems they read on Sunday evening have inspired many a student to question their own biases and prejudices and seek justice where it is routinely denied. This act should not be punished but understood as their seeking to understand the world. When punishment is what reading is met with, we must ask what Professor GN Saibaba asked:

Why Do You Fear My Way So Much?
O Pundit,
O Mulla,

I’m not an atheist
for I don’t preach ungodliness
as my profession.

I’m not an agnostic
for I don’t carry a basketful
of doubts on my head.

I’m not your secularist
for I don’t stand
at the crossroads of all religions.

I’m not a rationalist
for I don’t use
the logic of pure reason.

I’m not a heretic
for my business isn’t
to chase after your orthodox ways
to worship and life.

Kabir says,
He’s a messenger of love for people
Why do you fear my way so much?

(*The identity of the author of this report is withheld to protect them.)

Courtesy: Free Speech Collective

The post When a spontaneous gathering of students is criminalised – A report of the TISS students’ meeting to commemorate Prof GN Saibaba appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The militancy on display and the support garnered is largely due to the justness of the issues being raised by the students – issues affecting the most marginalised sections of the students – the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Caste (SC, ST and OBC) students and those from poorer backgrounds who are unable to afford the constantly rising fees of this elite institution. (Another article in this issue in Print by Ajmal Khan details the policies and practices of the Central and State governments and the TISS administration that have led to the demands of the present agitation)

 
Demands of the Students
The demands of the strike placed before the TISS administration in a letter of TISS-Students Union (TISS-SU) dated 25^th February 2018 are:

1. Immediate retraction of the notification of the administration that all GOI-PMS (Government of India – Post Matric Scholarship) 2016-18 and 2017-19 should pay Fees (Tuition, Dining Hall and Hostel fees)
2. Immediate rollback of the notification for payment of fees by GOI-PMS 2018-20 batch students from the website
3. Scholarship/Waiver applicable to GOI-PMS SC and GOI-PMS ST students should be applied to GOI-PMS OBC students also
4. Deal with the concerns of students with disability
5. Exemption of Dining Hall and Hostel fees for students of the BA MA integrated programme of the Off Campuses from 2015 onwards
6. Symbolic representation of the Office of Dean SPO (Student Protection Office) from SC ST OBC category
7. No punitive action be taken against students, individually or collectively

During the course of the strike, a memorandum from the TISS-SU was presented on 28^th February 2018 to Thawar Chand Gehlot, the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, which raised the following demands:

1. Increase the amount of the GOI-PMS Scholarship to the SC/ST and OBC NC ( for B.A./M.A./M.Phil and Ph.D.) as per the expenses made by institute on each student and disburse it in advance
2. Write a letter to the head of the institute, TISS Mumbai requesting to continue the support to all GOI-PMS students and support the institute across all campuses (Mumbai, Tuljapur, Hyderabad and Guwahati) for all the courses with reference to the students from SC/ST and OBC NC ( B.A./M.A./M.Phil and PhD).
3. Issue guidelines to all the universities including TISS to set up an SC, ST, and OBC Cell/Student Protection Office with the appointment of licensing officer/Dean who must belong to SC/ST/OBC category to prevent discrimination against SC/ST or OBC students at the University/Institute.
4. Uniform income ceiling should be implemented throughout the states for the scholarship, as the prescribed Rs. 2.5 Lakhs ceiling by Union Government is not followed by every state.
5. All the OBC NC students get 100% scholarship.
6. Special attention of the ministry to the lives of the students particularly belonging to the SC/ST and OBC.
7. Fellowship notifications for the RJNF (SC/ST/OBC) and Maulana Azad fellowships for the M.Phil and PhD students from SC/ST/OBC and Minorities should be issued on time and  the fellowships should be disbursed on time.
8.  

Students’ Unity and Struggle
As is amply clear from the above demands, the focus of the demands concerned the rights of the most marginalised student sections. However all the students spread over all four campuses came out in united action. What was initially a call by the TISS Students Union (SU) for a one day University Strike Across TISS campuses on 21^st February, 2018 swiftly built up into an indefinite struggle for the implementation of the above demands.
These demands had been under discussion over some years with various committees of the SU, but were merely dragging on without any solution in sight. Once the call for agitation was given, the mass of students quickly swung into action with the determination not to retreat unless the demands were conceded.

Tactics of TISS Administration
In the face of such determination from the students, the TISS administration started using several means direct, as well as devious, to derail the students movement. The former Director, S. Parasuraman, came out on the first night itself to address the students with the sole intent of forcing them into submission. Without making the slightest attempt at dialogue with the students, he announced that a favour had been done to them for the last fourteen years. He warned of ‘serious trouble’ and threatened the students with withholding of degrees and denial of jobs. His efforts bore no fruit and only earned him the jeers and boos of the students.

Meanwhile a systematic misinformation campaign was kept up by the administration. The genuine problems of the students were presented as baseless claims. The spontaneous upsurge of the student body was attempted to be shown to be the creation of a motivated elements with ulterior political ambitions. These tactics too proved of no consequence before the unity of the students.

Opportunism and Betrayal by a section of Student Union leadership

The next move was to create a division among the students by co-opting an opportunist section of the SU leadership. It appears as if some of the union office bearers had, from the start of the agitation, maintained a covert alliance with the administration, with the aim of keeping the doors open for some kind of compromise. This was resisted by the General Body of the students, who refused to accept closed door negotiations with a select few, and demanded that the administration state their position before the General Body.

When the administration was unable to convince the General Body in any way, they started overtly using other channels (read agents) in the student body to spread confusion and divisions and breakdown the students resistance. The betrayers even went to the extent of signing an ‘agreement’, which was used by the administration to declare that the strike had been ‘called off’ by them.

These betrayers landed themselves in the unenviable position of being rejected outright, not only by the students of TISS-Mumbai, but also by those of the other campuses. The extent of their pure arrogance and opportunism could be seen in the fact that they had attempted to ‘sign’ away the strike without consulting either the students they were supposed to be representing or the representatives of the other campuses whom they had called on strike in the first place.

Fig leaf of Social Justice phraseology

“Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Student’s Union 2017-18
 Mumbai ·
Dear all,
This is regarding the mass circulation of a post titled “CHALO TISS” proposed to be taking place on 5th March 2018 at TISS Main Campus Gate. We, the Students’ Union 2017-18, want to *clarify that this message is in no way endorsed by the union*. A highly politicized narrative of TISS Strike has been circulated by some people to mislead the issues of demands. It’s our humble request to anyone concerned to not attend the said event. In case of any conflict, TISS Students’ Union will not be responsible for the same. We as Students’ Union 2017-18, condemn the event and the act. It must be further noted that we are happy to see the kind of support the Students’ body has given and also, appreciate and acknowledge, the historic win achieved during the protest.
– TISS Students’Union 2017-18”

 This step has been strongly condemned in sharp words by different ideological factions on the campus upholding left and Ambedkarite politics (especially students who emphasised that they weren’t associated with ASA) and by students belonging to different sections such as SCs, STs, OBCs, Religious, Ethnic and other minorities belonging to various oppressed classes.

 While the students of all campuses are determined to march ahead to achieving their demands, the fifth columnists in their ranks are plotting to break the back of the movement. Movements are our own road to self discovery and emancipation, movements bring people together, movements suggest a way into the future. The success of a movement is not easy to judge, it is not a cricket match.

What matters is the willingness of the people to take it through to the end. And this time, the students have clearly said, “The Fight is not Over until it’s Over!”

This article was first published on Aaghaaz
 

The post The Fight isn’t Over: TISS strike enters 14th day despite Admin apathy and manipulations appeared first on SabrangIndia.