Indian young people are a huge global demographic. However, this set of people have not acquired the attention that they have deserved. There are numerous popular accounts of young people in literature and film, but there remains relatively little academic work on how young people in India are responding to increasing social inequalities, educational transformation and political upheavals. The papers in this Special Section of South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies go a small way towards addressing this gap. Each paper reflects the outcome of sustained fieldwork in different parts of Northern India. Each is written from a broadly critical perspective and seeks to elucidate issues of power, difference, hope and agency. In other ways, they are different, reflecting the different disciplinary training and specific interests of the authors