I noticed that from all the student leaders speaking to the crowd, only one of them could speak fluent English. In the meantime, a government minister arrived and met student leaders. After a few hours of protest, police warned the crowd to disperse but the students were determined to stay. Approximately 25 student leaders took turns addressing the gathering and each renewed their demand for a separate Telangana state, chanting, ‘abhi nahi to kabhi nahi!’. As I approached Arts College where students were protesting, I saw that they had blocked the main road and burned an effigy of the chief minister. Were sipping tea and discussing the incident as if it was routine for them. I stopped at the nearby tea stall to see if I could understand what the commotion was about. After about an hour, I noticed a larger crowd of students carrying the corpse, holding banners and shouting the slogan ‘Jai Telangana, Jai Jai Telangana’. Later, I returned to Narmada Research Scholars’ (NRS) hostel where I was staying. Listening to the discussion, I discovered that the victim was not a student of Arts College but of another college of Osmania, and that this was part of a growing trend, whereby outsiders committed suicide at this ‘suicide point’. I heard spectators commenting that this area had become a ‘suicide point’. Two students made calls to the family of the deceased young man. The letter stated the financial crisis his family faced and how his education did not lead to a job.The letter concluded with an appeal to the government to grant separate statehood to the Telangana region in the state of Andhra Pradesh. One student had tears in his eyes as he read the suicide note found on the body. Making my way through the crowd, I found that they had taken down the body of a young student who had hanged himself. I thought that some students may be protesting or preparing for an agitation that day, which is routine at Osmania’s College of Arts and Social Sciences (known as Arts College). It was the fifth day of my pilot field study at Osmania University in Hyderabad in December 2012 and I enjoyed walking around campus, observing student life. While I was on my morning walk, a small crowd gathered around a tree near the library caught my attention. MAPS 1.1 Hyderabad State before Its Merger with Indian State in 1948 1.2 United Andhra Pradesh TABLES 1.1 Political and Cultural Version of New Social Movement Theories 1.2 Migration from Coastal Andhra to Hyderabad District (1961, 1971) 1.3 Understanding the Telangana Movement as a New Social Movement 3.1 Andhra Upper-Caste Dominance in Media Typeset in Bembo Std 10.5/13 by Tranistics Data Technologies, Kolkata 700 091 Printed in India by Rakmo Press, New Delhi 110 020 You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. First Edition published in 2018 All rights reserved. Published in India by Oxford University Press 2/11 Ground Floor, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002, India © Oxford University Press 2018 The moral rights of the author has been asserted. Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. The University as a Site of Resistance Identity and Student Politicsġ Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.