An ordinary person stood up to protect the university as a space of free expression. By Sourav Roy Barman

Anti-nationals, urban naxals — these epithets are recent additions to our public discourse, but the tendency to pigeonhole voices of dissent and resistance as “leftists” or “Maoists” predates the Narendra Modi government. Much before Babul Supriyo heaped scorn on the vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University, Mamata Banerjee had called my friend, a student of Presidency College, a “Maoist” on national television, for questioning her government’s track record on women’s safety.

The disdain for critical thinking coming out of our universities aside, such statements advance the notion of a society besieged by inimical forces, in desperate need of a decisive and strong leader to tackle the imagined adversary. The project to demonise students of public universities as rootless elites falters on one count though. It fails to factor in the capacity of seemingly ordinary individuals, an intrinsic part of those ecosystems, to pull off extraordinary acts. Like one Pramod Sain did, nearly eight years ago. This is his story.

Having been elevated to university status in 2010, Kolkata’s Presidency College, founded in 1818, was then struggling to deal with the pangs of transition. The institution’s students’ union was dissolved during the upgradation, and the Trinamool government was in no hurry to hold fresh elections.... read more:

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