A brief history of student protests in Indiapublished at 07:51 BST
Image source, Getty ImagesStudents protesting additional affirmative action in 1990
Student protests have played a pivotal role in India’s political history.
In the freedom movement, students joined campaigns led by Mahatma Gandhi and others against British rule.
After independence, student-led demonstrations helped shape major political shifts, including the 1974 Bihar movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan, which challenged corruption and fuelled opposition to Indira Gandhi before the Emergency.
The 1979-85 Assam movement, driven largely by students, demanded action against illegal immigration.
Since the 1990s, protests have centred on caste-based reservations, university autonomy, corruption, citizenship laws and campus freedoms.
Students were at the forefront of demonstrations after the 2012 Delhi gang rape, against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019-20, and over exam leaks and recruitment delays in recent years.
While many movements have sparked national debate and policy changes, they have also frequently been met with police crackdowns and political confrontation.