EVEN some time back, it would be unthinkable to imagine that free speech needed to be defended. The Indian freedom struggle, which fought back the draconian laws of the British rule, had discarded obnoxious attempts to snuff out freedom of speech and expression. The provisions of the UN Human Rights Charter to which India was a signatory, and the Indian Constitution itself, enshrined iron clad safeguards. Those were different times; critical thought was indisputable.

A EUPHORIC narrative about India’s strong growth performance started getting constructed as soon as the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) put out the estimates of GDP for Q1 or the first quarter (April-June) of 2026-27 on August 31, 2026.

THE BJP-ABVP-led attack on Jadavpur University on August 19-20 has developed into a wider confrontation over democratic space in educational institutions across West Bengal. What began with a general body meeting of engineering students on the evening of August 19 turned into a night of violence inside the university, followed by a large mobilization the next day, damage to the university’s historic emblem, and continuing protests by students, teachers, and alumni.

FOLLOWING decolonization, the newly liberated third world countries had sought to follow a development trajectory that consciously broke away from the colonial pattern of international division of labour. Towards this end they had pursued a policy of import-substituting industrialization and their ex-colonial masters, though disliking it, could do little about it.

ON 12 August 2026, India marks 90 years of the organised student movement. This is not merely the 90th anniversary of the formation of a student organisation; it is an occasion to recall the nine-decade-long journey of organised student consciousness and struggle in India. The foundation of the organised student movement was laid on 12 August 1936, when the first two-day All-India Conference of an organised student body began.