Resistance Through Walls

Studies on resistance reflect that there are wide variety of ways and places in which resistance may be observed. The organisation of political assertions and events are few examples where resistance is explicitly expressed, and hence may be observed. The political assertions and engagement are also a part of daily lives for some of the universities where the students of the university are a part of the student political organisations. There are different ways in which these organisations and students’ groups express their resistance in different forms. The organisation of sit-ins (dharna), organisation of meetings, talks, lectures, singing songs of resistance, organisation of plays, pasting of political posters and pamphlets are few of the ways in which these organisations and groups express their resistance. The organisation of political organisations and students’ group have used the posters and paintings on the walls as a medium to express their resistance in the universities. The walls of the university with these expressions on them become a message board for the general public having access to these spaces. They also become a medium to politicise the general public by making them aware of the situations and events of injustice, and ideas and ideologies of different kinds. This paper intends to understand what are the various ways in which these walls of the universities express resistance. The study intends to present the cases of four universities and how the expressions on the walls of these universities differ in terms of content, duration, and engagement with the expressions on the walls. The expressions on the walls of the university is also a part of the culture of the university, leading to difference in expression. This paper reflects on what are the different reasons for which the walls of these central universities in the national capital region of India, Delhi. How they have utilised the wall spaces, and how some of these cases become an example of political assertions and engagement. The idea is to present the expressions of different kinds on the walls of these four universities by reflecting on the following questions: What are the expressions of different kinds on the walls of these universities? Why are they there? In what ways does the expressions on the walls differ, and why? What are contents of these expressions? What are the intentions behind these expressions and language?