The story of a political prisoner's coming of age as a student activist in India
Keeping Up the Good Fight is the story of a young man's political coming of age and his experience as a student activist and scientist incarcerated by two authoritarian regimes in India, half a century apart.
On September 25, 1975, the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi called for a strike to protest the expulsion of Ashoklata Jain, an elected student union member. Three months earlier, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had declared a state of Emergency. It was the second day of the strike and the campus was tense. A black car rolled up near a group of students. A few plainclothes cops got out, and abducted one of them: The student spent the next year in jail. Almost fifty years later, on February 9, 2021, the founder of an online news portal saw his home and offices raided for 113 hours straight, ransacked by officers from the Enforcement Directorate. Nearly two years later, on October 3, 2023, the Delhi Police Special Cell reappeared. The founder of the news portal and his colleague were remanded to custody under the dreaded Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
That student journalist and scientist, Prabir Purkayastha, tells his own story with wit and humor, as he engages with some of India's most pressing social, political and economic issues across the decades—and remains committed to "keeping up the good fight."

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eBook - ePub
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword by Lalita Ramdas
- 1. Does Every Generation Have to Face an Emergency?
- 2. Learning to Fight: A Personal Journey
- 3. To Delhi and a Turning Point
- 4. A University Under Emergency
- 5. Life in Jail
- 6. The Last Chapter of Mrs Gandhi’s Emergency
- 7. Living Politics
- Acknowledgements
- Annexure 1: From the Shah Commission Report
- Annexure 2: MISA Detentions During the Emergency: Prabir Purkayastha
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Yes, you can access Keeping Up the Good Fight by Prabir Purkayastha in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.