Outlook has extensively covered protesters and dissenting voices, covering movements from farmers, students and Shaheen Bagh protesters to individuals like Umar Khalid and G.N. Saibaba.
Its reporting foregrounds ground realities and civil liberties, with in-depth stories from conflict zones like Bastar and coverage of incarceration under stringent laws.
The magazine has also documented protest movements in India and abroad, using special issues and cover stories to examine resistance as a vital force in democracy.
Outlook has always stood by the side of the protesters, whether it is large groups like farmers, students, homemakers in Shaheen Bagh protesting against CAA or an individual like Umar Khalid. The farmers’ protest against laws which they felt went against their livelihood was covered extensively when those who live by the soil and feed the rest of us came out on highways in droves. There have been many ground reports from the Naxal-affected areas like Bastar, giving a holistic view of the travails of the common people caught between the armed Maoists and the security forces. We have done cover stories on wheelchair-bound activist and scholar G.N. Saibaba, who was incarcerated under stringent laws and passed away last year. Not just in India, protests worldwide— like recently in the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Nepal—found in-depth coverage in Outlook’s pages.
Roses Among Thorns: Protest, dissent, disagreement, opposition … call it by any other name, but resistance remains civil society’s most potent weapon against injustice and subjugation. In 2021, the year farmers celebrated a hard-fought victory against three contentious farm laws, we looked at the art of protest over the years and how it shaped India
Who is a Citizen?: The Parliament nod to Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 (CAB) had Assam and Tripura in a fiery churn. Questions were raised about secularism. In this issue Outlook asked—Why is CAB such a burning issue?
My Mulaqat: In 2023, Umar Khalid, arrested under the UAPA for his alleged role in the ‘Delhi pogrom’, had been languishing in Tihar jail for more than three years. In a piece, published in the October 21, 2023, issue, Outlook wrote about the tedious process of prison mulaqats, Umar’s experience of being in Tihar, and the mental and emotional toll it was taking on him
Professor in Peril: In 2015, it had been a year since wheelchair-bound professor G.N. Saibaba was lodged in the Nagpur central jail on multiple charges. He had been denied bail twice and was confined to the infamous ‘anda’ cell, at one point, without his wheelchair. Arundhati Roy documented his plight
Red Star, Lodestar: A hundred years after the Communist Party of India was formed, the Left parties in India are facing the most irrelevance in the face of a robust and muscular Hindutva. What can they do to keep the red flag flying? An Outlook Special
The Turbanators: Outlook’s February 1, 2025, cover featured Punjab farmer Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who became the face of farmers protest after announcing fast-unto-death at the Khanauri border. Other farmers joined him. The issue asked how long before the central and state governments stir
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This article appeared as Notes From The Underground in Outlook’s January 1, 2026, issue 30 years of Irreverence, which commemorates the magazine's 30 years of journalism. From its earliest days of irreverence to its present-day transformation, the magazine has weathered controversy, crisis, and change.
