Protests in Panjab College, which began in summer season 2025, lastly ended on November 27. The vice chancellor has introduced the dates for the subsequent senate election – one of many key calls for of the protesters. The motion, which started when 5 younger ladies college students of the political science division rose towards an affidavit imposed by the college on all new college students, expanded quickly and shortly captured the consciousness of the whole state.

All through, this pupil protest raised important questions – concerning the college’s Punjabi identification, Punjab’s declare over Chandigarh and rather more. However, basically, the thought of a democratic house for college kids, and which speaks to the scholars, held the guts of the motion.

The various pupil organisations united underneath the Panjab College Bachao Morcha (PUBM) banner demanded accountability from the college administration, they usually have succeeded in being heard. Their month-long protest was lastly lifted from exterior the VC’s workplace yesterday (December 2, 2025) with protesters cleansing up the world earlier than handing it again to the administration.

The affidavit

A compulsory affidavit, issued by Panjab College to its incoming batch of scholars in June, set in movement the battle that ultimately restored and reclaimed democratic areas on the campus and will assist change how pupil politics will likely be performed at different campuses within the state.

The affidavit that circulated with the brand new admissions kind in June mentioned college students would want “prior permissions from the college to [hold a] protest, rally or dharna, and many others.” The and many others. was the essential phrase right here, for it was seen as a blanket time period to cowl any act of dissent by the scholars. The affidavit mentioned that the administration would resolve any “real or justifiable grievances” of the scholars. Moreover, the affidavit mentioned an area “exterior gate no. 2” can be designated the protest website.

“The affidavit was very undemocratic and unconstitutional,” says Manpreet Kaur, second-year pupil of political science and one of many preliminary 5 who mobilised towards the affidavit.

However then, in July 2025, second-year college students in the identical topic had been additionally requested to fill this affidavit. “We felt that it was selectively focused in direction of departments that the college felt may present resistance,” provides Manpreet.

The second-year political science division college students determined to collectively boycott the affidavit.

The college tried to barter with the scholars but it surely didn’t go wherever. The then vice chairman of the scholars union, Archit Garg, filed a petition within the Punjab and Haryana excessive courtroom towards the affidavit. However as pupil union elections had been drawing nearer (in September), the events bought busy with canvassing and the difficulty went a bit dry.

In the meantime, the college started threatening college students, saying they might not be allotted their IDs and library playing cards, and their paperwork wouldn’t be accepted if the affidavit was not signed and accepted by them.

“Then 4 of us bought collectively and determined to jot down about it. The article was revealed within the Indian Categorical,” says Manpreet. The political science college students started reaching out to different departments, who started writing to their respective division chairpersons, saying they’re boycotting the affidavit.

“We mobilised and shaped an anti-affidavit entrance,” says Manpreet. The brand new entrance approached the newly elected pupil’s union on September 25, and it agreed to jot down a decision to the vice chancellor, asking the affidavit be withdrawn.

Subsequently, all events from the college, no matter their leanings (barring the RSS-affiliated ABVP) gathered to satisfy and determined to carry a protest exterior the vice chancellor’s workplace on September 30.

That’s when a wave of protests and mass mobilisations adopted.

The senate

The college withdrew the affidavit on November 4, however the college students stood their floor, concurrently elevating the senate situation. For 2 years, the college had not introduced a date for the senate elections, leaving the scholars with out an official governing physique.

“A 100-day protest was held in November 2024 towards the delays in senate election, which is when the affidavit surfaced for the primary time for protesting college students,” says Harpuneet Kaur, president of Punjab Feminist Union of College students (PFUS), the one such organisation within the college.

On October 27, whereas the scholars had been protesting towards the affidavit, a brand new notification arrived that mentioned: ‘the Senate is dissolved’. And it mentioned the variety of seats within the senate can be diminished from 91 to 49, and it will comprise of members nominated by the administration and never elected representatives.

College students started garnering assist, and shortly politicians had been talking of the affidavit as an assault on Punjab and its statehood. “The central authorities is within the technique of implementing the Nationwide Training Coverage, 2022, underneath which no democratic construction just like the senate will likely be allowed to exist. It’s the solely such construction in the whole nation. To us, it was clear as day that this needed to be opposed,” says Sandeep Kumar of College students for Society or SFS, a left-leaning pupil physique.

The senate oversees the general functioning of the college. All pupil our bodies mobilised behind this situation and the Punjab College Bachao Morcha was born in early November.

Although college students admit that the senate is in dire want of reform, they are saying the physique can’t be utterly undone. They are saying no consultant from Punjab state was ever current at senate conferences – neither the chief minister, nor the training minister, who’s on the physique as an ex officio member.

Moreover, the senate has no reservation for ladies or another marginalised group. “It’s like males getting collectively, and they’re all politicians, and politicians don’t care about college students however solely about energy, cash and limelight,” says Harpuneet.

Although the notification dissolving the senate was instantly taken again by the administration, the scholars continued to protest exterior the VC’s workplace, demanding a date for subsequent senate election.

The November 10 protest

The difficulty gained steam when a protest name given on November 10 noticed a large turnout by folks from all walks of life, together with kisan unions, trainer organisations, civil society teams and pupil our bodies of different universities. All of them reached Chandigarh by buses amid large police deployment and highway blockages. The college gates broke as thronging crowds tried to enter the college.

The brand new notification concerning the senate – although it was taken again as shortly it was launched – was seen as an assault on Punjab’s statehood, a notion exacerbated by the political events. “We see this situation as linked to Punjab’s federal rights. To us, Punjab’s declare over Chandigarh is connected to Punjabi nationality (identification) and it’s undoubtedly linked to the centre-state framework,” says Sandeep Singh, additionally with SFS.

College students argue that since 1947, the Indian state has persistently tried to centralise powers on the subject of Punjab. “And, this time, it meant that they [the state] desires to take over the senate and thus our rights,” says Noblejeet, a second-year pupil within the political science division.

Sandeep Singh argues that the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, whereby Punjab was divided into three states (Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh), additionally says that the functioning of Panjab College may be overseen by an inter-state physique, however it’s the Union that continues to run it up to now.

“On November 10, many individuals from completely different sections of Punjabi society, like farmers and labour organisations, got here to the protest. The message went out that the college is being taken away from us (Punjab), and people feelings led to deep political assertions,” Sandeep says. “At present in Punjab any effort in direction of centralisation is seen as an assault on folks’s identification.”

Whereas some pupil our bodies felt that the college was not the precise house to lift points pertaining to Punjab’s statehood, others went with the stream. “We felt the discussions that day ought to have centered on college and it was an opportunity to teach folks about what the senate is and concentrate on problems with the scholars. Moreover, there was no prior dialogue between the coed our bodies that these points will likely be voiced,” says Harpuneet.

The politics of campus

The senate protests have proved historic, even in India’s long gone of college protests. It has proven how student-led actions, when united on frequent floor, could make themselves heard. College students complain that, these days, election scenes on campus are just like political events’ campaigns throughout different elections.

Events on campus brazenly supply bribes in trade for votes, just like what mainstream political events are accused of doing throughout elections. Elections, even on campuses, have grow to be about cash and muscle energy, leaving little house for debate and reflection.

“The system appears to have grow to be corrupt over time, and particularly post-Covid, now we have felt that activism is lifeless within the college,” says Manpreet. “Earlier than the affidavit protest, we had been always instructed by all events that it’s not simple to mobilise college students. However ultimately, all of them got here collectively to battle this matter, no matter their leanings and banners,” she mentioned.

Manpreet feels this might occur as a result of just a few of them – these main the affidavit motion –had been non-political or ‘impartial’ college students who didn’t belong to any political social gathering. Due to this fact, they had been in a position to mobilise all college students underneath a standard trigger.

When the affidavit protest reached the VC’s workplace on September 30, with a mass signature marketing campaign and their memorandum of calls for, 300 college students confirmed up. The political science college students who started the protests, regardless of no background in activism, felt that this needed to be accomplished as a result of it was utterly in contradiction with what they had been being taught on the time – Article 19.

“Article 19 offers us freedom of speech and expression, which incorporates the precise to protest,” says Manpreet. “And the affidavit was in whole violation of it.” Underneath the Indian Structure, Article 19 lists “freedom of speech and expression, the precise to assemble peacefully, to kind associations, to maneuver freely, to reside and settle in any a part of India, and to apply any occupation or enterprise”.

“To protest or to not protest is secondary however are we prepared to give up this proper on the outset? That is what we weren’t snug with,” says Manpreet.

In Panjab College, many vital selections, such because the discount within the price hike in 2017 and the battle for a women’ hostel, had been all achieved via protests. At present it’s the solely college the place the feminine residence is open 24×7, and all due to student-led protests. Depsite all this, the college politics doesn’t present a lot house to ladies activists.

“From the grassroots to mainstream voices, ladies are trolled. I work quite a bit, however I understand how a lot respect I’ve throughout the activist circle and the way they – even ladies, for that matter – take a look at me,” says Harpuneet. She feels ladies activists don’t get the identical respect that males give one another.

“It’s not about illustration alone, but additionally liberation. And it’s about how ladies are handled in political circles,” she says.

[Novita Singh is an independent filmmaker who also filmed the farmer’s protests on the borders of Delhi. Courtesy: The Wire, an Indian nonprofit news and opinion website. It was founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M. K. Venu.]