Youth adolescence, that first bloom of one’s prime is an extraordinarily beautiful, alluring, delicate and fluid state of being. It is an age that meets a thousand new challenges and tests them for itself, an age as tender as it is resilient. In the wings of youth lies the strength to reach for the sky, and so it would not be wrong to call this the age of pure, unadulterated power. Indeed, every dream of tomorrow, every idea yet to come, is born and expands from within youth itself. Youth is the attempt to glimpse tomorrow’s sunrise through moments of intoxicating, reckless abandon. It is never merely the age of registering opinions; it is the age of action, of standing one’s ground, and of asking questions.
Today, young people the world over are writing history, and this history is no longer confined to any one country or continent. Change, revolution, evolution — all of it has been shaped by the young. The many faces of youth keep appearing before us: the youth who leap toward the moon, who wander through space, who run colossal experiments day and night to probe the earth’s core, the youth who unfurl the wings of victory at the Olympics. Youth is a great book filled with love, valor, courage, sacrifice and heroism — a book that rebels against the system and asks questions of it. Youth is the distillation of every new dream. It is not merely losing oneself in the world of one’s own dreams; it is boldly voicing what does not sit right, what grates against one, building movements around it, laying mines beneath the throne of power the moment its unchecked nature becomes visible, and recklessly pouring one’s life into bringing about fundamental change in the system — this too is the true identity of youth.
Lessons from History
Even a glance at our ancient history brings this same truth forward again and again. Shankaracharya, at the mere age of thirty-one, built an immense edifice for the propagation of Hindu dharma. Plato and Aristotle, who gave the world its foundational philosophy, were themselves young men. The Buddha undertook his work of right thought and understanding in his own youth. The architects of the revolutions in France and America were young too.
The leaders of our own freedom struggle were young when Jawaharlal Nehru came into Mahatma Gandhi’s circle, he was merely twenty-six years old; Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was in his mid-thirties; Sardar Patel was in his forties. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar built his struggles for transformation in his own youth. Bhagat Singh went to the gallows at the age of twenty-three. India’s freedom struggle was, at its core, a struggle of the young. Even then, the young took to the streets, and even then, the established order opposed that youthfulness. All these examples underline one single truth again and again — that within the young lies an immense capacity to bring about revolution, to bring about change.
This same truth has proven itself again and again across world history, from philosophy to politics, in every sphere of life. Youth is not merely the portrait of someone lost in the world of their own dreams, sunk to the neck in iridescent memories. The list of movements the young have led, of struggles they have fronted, of governments they have overturned, is a very long one — whether it is the fall of Russia’s iron curtain, or the students who stood in Tiananmen Square to challenge the dictatorship of China’s Communist Party. This history has been made by youth, and to keep making it is simply its nature.
The Ember That Never Dies
Ash slowly gathers over a burning ember, layer upon layer, until the fire within seems to have died out. But if the ember keeps burning from within, ash never truly settles upon it. The same is true of youth. How could such an enormous population of young people possibly sit still and quiet? There are many reasons this restlessness has been born of the times, but the principal one is economic. The gilding of history, the arrangement of symbols and images, and the dose of emotional patriotism handed out to make people forget questions of survival do not always work. Sooner or later, the hollowness within is recognized. Telling empty hands to fly colorful balloons, while the stomach itself is on fire, cannot go on for very long either.
From Satire to a Nationwide Movement
This very picture is visible again today, directly before our eyes, in India. What has been unfolding at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar over the past several weeks is a fresh example of precisely this restlessness, this ember that refuses to die. The protest began in a limited form — some student organizations came together over flaws in the education system, opacity in the examination process, and unemployment. The NEET paper-leak episode and the irregularities in CBSE’s on-screen evaluation had already left students seething. This simmering discontent found its outlet through an ironic, satirical protest — the Cockroach Janta Party. Young people mocked the language and political style of those in power and built this satirical political movement, and before long this mockery had drawn the support of thousands of students. This small sit-in at Jantar Mantar transformed within a few weeks into the country’s largest youth movement.
Later, social activist Sonam Wangchuk joined the movement, a hunger strike began, and the protest gained a distinct moral force. Police used lathi charges and tear gas, cases were filed against many young people — yet again and again, thousands upon thousands gathered at Jantar Mantar. An attempt was made to march toward Parliament along Sansad Marg, and there too a fierce clash broke out between police and protesters. But neither batons nor water cannons could dampen the resolve of this youth.
A Minister’s Resignation
And finally today, on 25 July, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This resignation came against the backdrop of the nationwide outrage over the NEET-UG examination chaos and the weeks-long youth protest at Jantar Mantar, and he himself set out the reasoning behind his decision publicly on social media. Forcing a Union minister to resign stands as the greatest achievement so far of this youth movement at Jantar Mantar. A movement that began in irony and humor as the “Cockroach” protest ultimately shook the very core of power. What distinguishes this movement is that it carries no single, fixed political banner. This is a movement of Generation Z — that is, the generation born from the late 1990s through the first decade of the twenty-first century. It is a generation that has grown up amid social media, that lives within a flood of information, and that has, at the same time, been scorched by the absence of jobs, by chaos in competitive examinations, and by uncertainty about the future.
This same generation brought about a change of power in Nepal a few months ago, similar youth movements shook the government in Bangladesh as well, and now this same generation is raising its voice from Jantar Mantar in India too. The only difference is that in India this movement began in the language of satire and irony, even though the pain behind it is genuine and grave.
The pride visible on the faces of these young people as they sing the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, is itself proof of how sincere their demands truly are. India today is among the countries with the largest young populations in the world. It is simply not possible for so vast a population of young people to remain quiet, still, and passive. When these young people feel that the government is toying with their future, that it does not value their hard work or their dreams, they take to the streets. And when a government tries to impose a single opinion, a single ideology, a single stance upon the citizens of a country, that is simply not possible within a democratic nation — least of all upon its youth.
If a government sidesteps the Constitution and acts in bad faith, the young will certainly raise their voice against it. Our Constitution has embraced the values of justice, liberty, equality and secularism; our country stands upon a foundation of inclusiveness. If the administration is betraying these values, and if young people are speaking up and protesting against that betrayal, then branding them as agents of violence cannot be justified in any sense. Today’s youth are fighting a struggle for the upliftment of humanity itself, in demand of equality and justice, and to view them through the lens of an enemy would only reveal the callousness of our system of governance.
This is not the first time the youth of this country have taken to the streets. Whether it was the Total Revolution movement that rose under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan in the seventies, or the storm that swirled around the Mandal Commission in the nineties, or the more recent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act — every time, it has been the young who have taken the lead. The only difference is that, back then, the momentum of a movement depended on newspapers and word of mouth, while today it reaches every corner of the country through social media within moments. A single hashtag, a single reel, a single livestream reaches lakhs of young people in so short a time that those in power scarcely have time to respond. This very speed is what carried the Jantar Mantar movement to a nationwide scale so rapidly.|
The name Cockroach Janta Party is itself an ironic commentary. When those in power belittle protesting youth, dismiss citizens who ask questions, and compare them to lowly insects, then picking up that very insult and naming one’s own movement after it — turning it into mockery of the arrogance of power — is a mark of this generation’s distinctive style. The language of movements from earlier generations was as grave and slogan-driven as the language of today’s generation is ironic, playful, and every bit as sharp. This style of holding a mirror up to power through humor and satire is a mark of this generation’s new political sensibility — one that is difficult to fit into old frameworks, and precisely for that reason, it unsettles the established order all the more.
For any ruling establishment, a movement that stands up in such an ironic, lighthearted way proves all the more troublesome, because it cannot be targeted as a concrete opposition party, and it cannot be stamped with any single ideology. This is precisely why those in power, and certain sections of the media, repeatedly attempt to discredit such a movement, to allege that it enjoys foreign backing, or to suggest that opposition parties are behind it. But speak directly with the young people gathered at Jantar Mantar, and it becomes clear that most of them are not bound to any political party at all; their demand is singular — a transparent examination system, an honest recruitment process, and assurance for their own future. This is a simple, direct and legitimate question, and there is no need to view it through any political lens. Yet when those in power brand even such legitimate demands as political conspiracy, the anger of the youth only grows more intense, because it makes them realize that their voice is not being heard at all — merely being suppressed.
Beyond Delhi: A National Echo
The movement at Jantar Mantar has not remained confined to Delhi alone. Its echoes have been felt in universities and colleges across the country, even in the coaching classes for competitive examinations in small towns. The support this movement has received on social media reflects the distinctive organizing style of Generation Z — there is no single central leader, no single fixed organization, yet out of one shared pain, one shared anger, lakhs of young people come together, through hashtags, through reels, and by physically taking to the streets, to raise their voice. This new style of organizing cuts across old political frameworks, and that is precisely why it unsettles those in power all the more. The youth standing today at Jantar Mantar are writing the next chapter of that very tradition. The only difference is that today’s youth have at their disposal an enormous platform in social media, which carries their voice far faster and far wider than ever before.
A Movement of Many Voices
Another distinctive feature of this movement is the diversity of the young people taking part in it. It is not only students from big cities, educated in English-medium schools, but also large numbers of young people from small towns and semi-urban areas, educated in Hindi and regional languages, who arrived at Jantar Mantar. Young women too joined this movement in large numbers, taking to the streets, raising slogans, and voicing their views just as firmly. This diversity itself proves that the pain behind this movement is not confined to any one class, any one linguistic group, or any one region, but spans the youth of the entire country. The impact of unemployment and irregularities within the education system does not fall upon any single caste, religion or region; it is a question that has reached every single household, and that is precisely why the movement built around it has proven so wide-reaching and inclusive.
The Power of Technology
‘The strength technology has given this generation cannot be overlooked either. Earlier generations had to spend months, sometimes years, building a movement — organizing had to be built up, a cadre of workers had to be assembled. Today’s youth build a parallel organizing power through nothing more than a smartphone and an internet connection. Any information can be searched for on Google within moments, facts can be verified, government claims can be dissected. Livestreaming through platforms like YouTube and Instagram means not a single moment of police action goes unseen. It is precisely this transparency that has made it far harder than before for those in power to suppress a movement. Every lathi charge, every tear-gas shell reaches lakhs of people within seconds, and from that the movement draws further strength. The movement at Jantar Mantar represents precisely this new, technology-empowered youth, which is answering power with the strength of information.
A Warning Power Cannot Ignore
History bears witness that whenever power has ignored the questions of the young, it is power itself that has had to pay the price for that neglect, eventually. Whether it was the verdict the youth delivered in the elections after the Emergency, or the changes of power that have taken place in neighboring countries in recent times — every time, this same truth has been proven: the anger of the young cannot be suppressed for very long. The resignation of the Education Minister has repeated this very truth once again. Where the Jantar Mantar movement goes from here cannot be said with certainty today, but one thing has now been proven — this movement has delivered a clear warning to the country’s political class that taking the young for granted will no longer be affordable. If the fundamental demands around education, employment and transparent governance are not addressed in time, today’s ironic protest could well take on a far more intense form tomorrow.
