Paper short abstract:

We propose to explore ethnographically how graffiti on college campuses around the cities of Kolkata and Delhi, India, make visible the spaces of hegemony and conflict. This paper asks how graffiti on college campuses socialize students to a particular political ideology.

Paper long abstract:

We propose to explore ethnographically how graffiti on college campuses around the cities of Kolkata and Delhi, India, make visible the spaces of hegemony and conflict. By drawing attention to the ways in which graffiti articulate social and political concerns, this research provides an ethnographic account of the material process of hegemony and conflict. Two universities in Kolkata (Jadavpur University and Presidency University) and two in Delhi (Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University) are selected to represent the different axis of student politics and to link it to broader attempts to control the cultural and political hegemonic front by monitoring the politico-ideological discourse among students through graffiti. This paper asks how graffiti comprehends national conflicts and contestations, and in the process socialize students to a particular political ideology.