the recent screening of the banned bbc documentary india the modi question at university of hyderabad once again unearthed the strong undercurrent of dissent making the institute synonymous with its rebellious streakthe screening was the most recent act of dissent on the campus which has been intermittently on the boil since protests broke out after the suicide of rohith vemula in 2016 both instances exposed fissures on the campus triggering ripples across the state and countryagitation is not new to students who have been politically active since the eighties uoh which was established in 1974 has witnessed several leftdalit movementsthe movement culture began at uoh in 1985 said k laxminarayana a professor at school of economics who has been working at the varsity for more than three decades he said the karamchedu killings of dalits by uppercaste landlords sparked outrage and triggered a movement dalits for dalits which got massive support from uoh studentssince then we have witnessed many studentled movements against atrocities discrimination infrastructural problems among other issues a suicide by a dalit woman student in the early 90s led to a major movement at uoh in the late nineties suicide by a boy from tamil nadu and two students from telangana also brought dalit issues to the forefront he added saying most movements at uoh are led by left and dalit students unlike in universities like jawaharlal nehru university jnu where they are dominated by leftistsby the mid90s the varsity had begun seeing more political activism said students and faculty members when i was a masters student the campus was small but when i joined back as a faculty member seven years later it was a completely different university there was political activism and polarisation the caste and gender consciousness became more visible said vinod pavarala who did his pg at uoh between 1985 and 1987 and has been faculty member since 1995he said postmandalisation of politics rebellion against uppercaste dominance the composition of students at the varsity has changed which brought in positive changes the academic productivity started increasing during this period and parallel activism also grew added pavarala in the early 90s the rape of a girl student ushered feminist consciousness in the university with faculty and students attending trial at the court to support the victimhowever till mid2000 student wings of political parties did not function under their own banners for instance akhil bharatiya vidyarthi parishad abvp was operating under the name discovery and the coalition of sfi was known as university discussion forum udfduring the tenure of jnu alumnus seyed e hasnain who was uoh vicechancellor between 2005 and 2011 partybased student politics were encouraged on the campus and with the influx of younger batches of integrated undergraduate students in the same period a clear political divide on campus emerged in the following decade abvp gained prominence even winning a few student union elections said a senior campus faculty memberduring this period the suicide of phd student senthil kumar in 2008 led to pavarala