‘A sweet breeze amid a heatwave’: liberals feel hope again following Narendra Modi’s loss of his majority

Students at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, which has been the target of rightwing attacks since Modi came power, discuss India's general election results. Photograph: Aakash Hassan/The Observer

In the leafy surrounds of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), a pocket of students sat beneath a banyan tree engaged in impassioned evening ­conversation. As usual, it was about politics – but this time the mood was different.

“For the first time in a decade, we have hope,” said Antariksh Sharma, who is doing his PhD in the arts. “It is like a sweet cold breeze amid a heatwave.”