AFTER the Indian National Congress morphed from being a national movement into a political party, several civil society movements have tried to make this transition. The most prominent among them being the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), led by Periyar, that evolved into more than one political party. In the 1980s the leadership of the students’ movement in Assam moved from street protest to state governance. The All Assam Students Union (AASU) and various other offshoots of the students’ movement emerged and withered as political parties. The agitation for a separate state of Telangana led to the creation of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) that was in office for a decade.