Contesting Spaces and Civil resistance movements: A case study on
India’s #FeeMustFall Movement
Abstract
The paper intends to conduct a spatial reading of civil resistance
movements taking Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) #FeeMustFall in
India as the case study. Amidst penetration of neoliberal politics in
public goods like health and education, the pay-per-user principle is
not limited to the argument of efficiency of allocation of resources. It
can be comprehended as the larger strategy of the ruling dispensation to
deplatform dissent and homogenise state space on an ideological
singularity catering to majoritarian and hegemonic nationalism. The
paper shall focus on the spatial reading of civil resistance movements
using Lefebvre’s characterisation of state space and Gramsci’s
understanding of hegemony and nationalism locating in the context of
JNU’s #FeeMustFall movement.