On February 12 when JNU Students Union head Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested from the campus on charges of sedition, the reaction was muted. Classes went on as usual. But that changed by evening, as the news spread like wildfire and students reacted with shock and confusion. There was considerable anger on the campus, but no display of it yet. It was then that the faculty at JNU took it upon themselves to fight what they believed was the high-handedness and attack on freedom of speech by the government and the police. Their decision catalysed a students' movement that made national headlines and ensured their voice never went unheard in the debate on nationalism and Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest.

The students' voices rise

By the next day, the students had gained in confidence, but their protest still hadn't taken shape. So they gathered at a dhaba in the campus and formed a long human chain.

They raised slogans demanding that sedition charges against Kanhaiya Kumar be dropped. Families of staff members residing on the campus also joined in.

Support had started trickling in, through mainstream and social media. The faculty and the students now decided they needed to speak in one voice. A group of five-six teachers and students came together and formed a social media group.

"People were already taking their protest to social media platforms, but channelising that was needed. We created the Facebook page Stand With JNU (it has has more than 10,000 likes) which proved very useful," Vikas Rawal, a professor of Economics at JNU, who led the group, said.

"Actually, multiple pages were created, but this picked up the most," he said.