India, July 30 -- The carnival that the recent student protest became is now over. The government has conceded the most important demand of the protesters: Dharmendra Pradhan has been removed as the education minister. Now what? Conclusions galore. The most obvious are threefold.

One, electoral victories for the government do not rule out large latent anger. The protests, unprecedented in terms of mass participation, followed the Bharatiya Janata Party's landslide and groundbreaking victories in multiple state elections, despite its partial setback in the 2024 national elections. Two, when an issue strikes a chord with the masses, mobilisation can transcend organisational barriers and surprise not just the government but also the Opposit...