Umar Khalid was uncharacteristically laconic in his response to questions about his life in prison.
It has been more than five years since the former student-activist from the Jawaharlal Nehru University was arrested and imprisoned for his alleged involvement in the 2020 Delhi riots. The trial is yet to begin.
In January, the Supreme Court denied Khalid bail. Days later, Scroll interviewed him through one of his JNU friends who regularly visits him in Tihar Jail.
Khalid, 38, said his first couple of years “away from social media” in Tihar were “good”. Over time, the detachment with which he approached the experience gave way to “restlessness”. And as his bail pleas snailed through the corridors of Indian courts, that restive feeling “metamorphosed to resignation”.
Today, he feels “disconnected” from reality. “Do I even know the world any more?” he asked.
A national storm erupted in February 2016 when the Modi government ordered a police crackdown against students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University for slogans raised at a campus event. Three students were arrested on charges of sedition, sparking a debate on nationalism and democratic freedoms.
Ten years later, we revisit the legacy of that moment by tracing the trajectories of four student-activists – the choices they made, the outcomes that followed, and what that reveals about political...
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