Call for Artists from LeftWord Books

In recent times, India has witnessed lakhs of student protestors braving all odds to hit the streets – from Himachal to Kerala and from Pune to Assam.

Since 2014, the attack on students and higher education has been relentless.

From intensified neoliberal onslaught in terms of massive fee hikes and scraping students’ fellowships to politically-motivated appointments of incompetent administrators, Rohith Vemula’s institutional murder, saffronization of education, attempts to delegitimize students' protest by calling them anti-national, and using brazen state violence against students. This regime has been at war with its students.

Public higher education encourages debate, dissent, critical thinking, and questioning that leads to politically informed citizens aware of their social responsibilities. This is an anathema to the Hindutva Project. Additionally, we have also witnessed protests inside and outside of campuses galvanizing into wider united resistances resulting in even greater Government-backed crackdowns, both at the state and Central levels.

Neoliberalism and Hindutva offensive on higher education is fundamentally anti-student and has posed serious challenges to accessing higher education. However, students and teachers of different institutions continue to put up sustained resistance against this dual assault.

Students Won’t Be Quiet soon-to-be-published by LeftWord Books documents some of these truly inspirational and historic struggles of our time.

What should the cover of this book look like ?!

Here we call for you to imagine the cover for this book and add more colours to students’ struggles through your revolutionary art.

Submission Guidelines:

Theme(s):

  • Solidarity and Unity Strengthen Our Collective Resistance
  • Students Against Corporate Loot, Communal Politics, and Caste/Gender Violence
  • We Are Not Defeated As Long As We Resist
  • Right to Protest and Unionise
  • Education for All
  • United Fight Against Saffronisation and Commercialisation of Education
  • Today’s Struggles are Tomorrow’s Hope

Size and resolution:

  • 14.5 x 22 cm / 5.625 x 8.75 inches in JPG format (300 dpi)
  • As this is book cover art, please leave space for the title and do not include additional text
  • Multiple entries are welcome
  • Send entries with contact details to winniesgv@gmail.com
  • Last date for submission: 10 August 2021

All proposals will be a part of a virtual exhibition to commemorate eighty-five years of glorious students’ struggle in India.
One of the entries will become the cover of our forthcoming book — Students Won’t Be Quiet.