After a Summer Win, India's Gen Z Protesters Face a Winter of Uncertainty

In July, a crowd at Jantar Mantar, the designated protest ground in central Delhi, cheered as word came through that federal education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had resigned under pressure from Gen Z demonstrators. One protester turned to the BBC reporter, beaming, and called it the youth's victory.

Just over three months later, the same movement is struggling to gather at all. Last month, demonstrations over voting rights by the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) met sweeping restrictions, and thousands of peaceful protesters were detained. The summer wave had grown out of deep frustration among young people and was fuelled by irreverent online satire. It spread across the country and left Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a leader with a strongman image who is unused to open mockery, struggling to contain it. The government's tougher security response now suggests it learned from its rare concession, and it is invoking public order to limit dissent.

Syed Zafar Islam, national spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), rejected accusations of heavy-handedness. He told the BBC that the right to protest is constitutional but must be exercised within the law, and that it cannot override the rights of others or public security. Demonstrations, he said, cannot trample other citizens' rights because a handful of people want to protest and are responsible for violence.

This is not the first time Modi's government has faced mass protest. But Yamini Aiyar, former president of the Centre for Policy Research and a visiting professor at Brown University, says the breadth of this one is a particular problem for the BJP. It is not defined by caste, gender or economic class, she said, and even parts of the BJP's core base, upwardly mobile lower-income groups, were drawn to it. Earlier movements were easier to dismiss as speaking for narrow sections of society or to label anti-national. In 2020, farmers blocked from entering Delhi staged months of demonstrations, with occasional clashes on the capital's borders, and after a year the government dropped its agricultural reforms.

The online dimension adds weight. Protesters have broken a long-standing taboo by openly mocking the prime minister. Sakhi, a student protester who uses they/them pronouns and is affiliated with a left-wing student group at Delhi University, said it is more than laughs: the fear of repercussions felt by older generations is weaker in theirs, and comedy is a new language for challenging authority. The cost is real. Sakhi's viral posts have drawn targeted abuse and transphobic attacks, and the BBC has seen posts threatening violence and rape. The abuse sometimes deters Sakhi from protesting or changes how they dress. They say some of their content was removed after millions of views. Under India's information technology laws, the government can order platforms to block content on national security grounds, and notices on X and Instagram have shown accounts withheld in India.

The legal shadow is longer still. Student activist Umar Khalid was arrested under anti-terror laws after the Delhi violence of 2020, in which 53 people, mostly Muslims, were killed. Accused of being a key conspirator, he has spent more than six years in jail without his trial beginning; his latest appeal was lodged this month. His partner, Banojyotsna Lahiri, says they have no regrets but described a lasting fear, and a dark mesh of empty space because no one knows when it ends. Aiyar believes opponents are using a familiar playbook to de-legitimise protest, though it is resonating less convincingly.

CJP leaders have faced repeated detentions and legal action. Spokesperson Saurav Das and fellow leader Ashutosh Ranka spent a week in Delhi's Tihar jail after being accused of trespassing at Jantar Mantar, which has since been struck off the list of authorised protest sites, a decision now being challenged in court. Members of the All India Students' Association (Aisa) have also faced police action over alleged defiance of orders. Das said the group expected a crackdown and that the government has learnt a lot. Ali Khan of Lloyd Law College warned that many cases may end in acquittal but take years: the process is the punishment. Constitutional lawyer Vrinda Grover, who advises the CJP, said organisers have repeatedly stressed non-violence and that rights have been whittled down in the name of law and order. CJP leaders have likened the climate to the 1975 Emergency.

Dissent has not disappeared. On 1 November, tens of thousands rallied in Delhi at an event organised by the INDIA bloc, the Congress-led opposition alliance, with the authorities' permission. Das walked out of Tihar on 21 October, photographed smiling, and said to wait and watch: time is on their side, because they are a very young generation. The court ruling on Jantar Mantar, and whether opposition rallies can carry the momentum, are the next things to follow.