Jamia Millia Islamia students have accused the university administration of clamping down on peaceful protests on campus after 14 students were detained by the police on February 13. The students were agitating against the administration over show-cause notices issued to four of them for organising a demonstration on December 15, 2024, the fifth anniversary of police violence against students. The university has suspended 17 students.
“This is an experiment to clamp down on the voice of reason, the voice of anti-fascism, the voice of democracy,” said Callistine, a master’s student at Jamia Millia Islamia. “If they could completely erase Jamia’s history of dissent, they would. But that’s not easy. So they’re doing everything else; they’re taking over the institution.”, reported the Frontline.
Jamia Millia Islamia has a long legacy of student activism. Established in 1920 as part of the Non-cooperation Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, the university was born out of the anti-colonial struggle against British-controlled education. Its commitment to social justice and resistance has continued through the decades, from the anti-Emergency protests of the 1970s to the “Pinjra Tod [Break the Cage]” movement in 2015, where female students challenged restrictive hostel curfews and policies. In recent years, Jamia was also at the forefront of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in 2019. The brutal police crackdown on students on December 15, 2019—in which students were assaulted inside their campus and library—is a defining moment in its contemporary history.
Since then, students have observed December 15 as “Remembrance Day” each year, gathering in groups to express solidarity through speeches and poetry—until now. In December 2024, for the first time, the administration denied students permission to hold the event, shutting down the campus under the pretext of maintenance work. When students proceeded with the protest the following day, four of them received show-cause notices.
In response, the students submitted a 16-page reply to the administration on December 20, which was deemed “unsatisfactory.” A disciplinary committee was then formed on February 3 to take action against Saurabh, a PhD scholar of the Hindi department. On February 9, another PhD student, Jyoti, along with two other students, received notices informing them that a disciplinary committee had been formed against them. “We called for a sit-in protest demanding that no disciplinary committee should be there, as we had done nothing wrong,” said Sajahan, a first-year master’s student of sociology and one of the 17 students suspended.
“Just before the sit-in, on February 9, Jyoti received a notice. So, the sit-in became even more necessary.” The protest began on February 10 in front of Jamia’s central canteen, demanding that the disciplinary action against students targeted for organising the Remembrance Day event be revoked.
Callistine explained how the administration used recent office memorandums to justify the crackdown. “There are administrative rules banning protests, postering, and graffiti, even explicitly stating that slogans against constitutional authorities are not allowed. These quasi-legal documents, issued just three months ago, are now being used to target students. What does ‘no slogans against constitutional authorities’ even mean in a university space? It’s so vague–it essentially criminalises dissent.”
A memorandum dated November 26, 2024, stated that “no protests, dharnas, raising slogans against any constitutional dignitaries shall be allowed in any part of the university campus, otherwise disciplinary action against such erring students shall be initiated.” Another notice released by the Property Department of the university on December 20, 2024, prohibited writing slogans or posting posters on campus without permission, introducing a fine of Rs.20,000 and legal action on anyone doing so. The notice also mentioned that “the University is increasing vigilance across the campus with additional monitoring by security personnel and CCTV cameras.”
As the sit-in continued, a notice dated February 11 accused students of disrupting academics and forcing the closure of the canteen. “But it was the administration that shut the canteen and nearby washrooms, not us,” Callistine pointed out. “It was a strategic move to make other students turn against the protest.”
On February 12, the second day of the protest, students’ families began receiving calls from the police. “My father got calls from the Jamia Nagar police station,” said Sajahan. “They told him that if I didn’t leave campus, my degree would be cancelled, an FIR would be filed against me, and I’d be in serious trouble.” Similar calls were made to the parents of other students, warning them to pull their children out of the protest.
“My father was really scared. He told me that you are Muslim in a place where both governments are now BJP. I kept telling them that ‘Jamia is safe, it is the only place where I feel the most safe.’ But then this happened,” said Sajahan.
Later that night, at 12:12 am on February 13, Sajahan and around 10 other student protesters received suspension letters from the office of the chief proctor while they were at the indefinite sit-in outside the university’s central canteen. The letter stated, “You are suspended with immediate effect due to your acts of vandalism, unauthorised and unlawful protest(s), and defamation of the university.” It also cited provisions of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, including those related to mischief causing damage to property, unlawful assembly, and defamation. However, the letter does not specify the duration of the suspension, leaving students uncertain about their academic future.
In the early hours of February 13, around 5 am, security guards, accompanied by Delhi Police officers, surrounded the protest site. According to students, the authorities cornered them while they were asleep. “They grabbed us, picked us up and handed us over to the police. They didn’t even use the main gate; they took us through a side gate,” said Sajahan. “Right outside the gate, there were nearly 200-300 police officers while inside the campus, around 80-90 security guards had been deployed to detain just 10 students.”
The students alleged that they were not given any prior warning or formal notice of detention. “There was a vague notice issued a couple of days earlier stating that some students were illegally occupying the area but that did not mention any specific action,” one student said.
Despite the presence of female students, male security guards forcibly detained them. “They completely disregarded all protocols meant to ensure the safety and dignity of women. When we protested, they deliberately mixed male and female detainees in the police buses,” Uthara, a first-year sociology master’s student, said.
The detained students were taken to three different stations: Kalkaji, Badarpur, and Bawana. “When our peers gathered outside Kalkaji police station with our lawyers, they shifted us from the back door to Fatehpur Beri police station without any prior notice to our family or lawyers. I am from Bengal and do not speak Hindi, but was given three Hindi forms to sign, even after repeatedly requesting English ones,” said Sajahan. The students were detained until 4 pm.
The faculty has largely remained silent, maintaining a deliberate distance from the issue. Despite the gravity of the situation, no professor or administrative figure has publicly addressed the matter, leaving students to navigate the crisis on their own. “However, in private conversations, some acknowledge that what has happened is unjust. A key issue is the absence of a teachers’ association at Jamia. The administration repeatedly cites an office memorandum that effectively bans all democratic student activities on campus—a directive issued in 2022. Notably, this was the same period when the Jamia Teachers’ Association (JTA) was dismantled, leaving both students and faculty without a formal platform for collective representation,” Sanam explained.
