Tome And Plume: Digital Natives’ Jantar Mantar Stir Catches Nation’s Imagination
· Free Press Journal
Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The protest has created three groups: those who supported it, those who rejected it, and those who backed it but with an objection to the language the agitators used and the memes they made
Generation Z has grown synonymous with movements against authorities, especially after they ousted three governments in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.
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Similarly, triggered by the sardonic Cockroach Janata Party, young Indians took over Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, creating trouble for the government, forcing a minister to quit over the NEET paper leak.
The agitation spread to other cities. Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, witnessed a spark of it but with a lesser impact. Yet, soon after the Jantar Mantar protest, the state capital saw the farmers’ agitation with Generation Z at the forefront.
The Jantar Mantar protest has created three groups: those who supported it, those who rejected it, and those who backed it but with an objection to the language the agitators used and the memes they made.
Who belongs to Generation Z? The people born between 1997 and 2012 come under this category. It means they belong to the age group of 14 to 29 years.
As Generation Z launched the movement, one felt borne back into the past. During British rule, the people of this age group led the protests. The then government hanged Khudiram Bose, a revolutionary, when he turned 19. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru went to the gallows at 23.
When Subhash Chandra Bose and a few students of the Presidency College beat up Edward Farley Oaten for offending Indians, they belonged to the age group that people call the Generation Z of today. Because the revolutionaries fought fire with fire, they often resorted to using arms.
But Mahatma Gandhi’s entry into the Indian freedom struggle changed the course of the movement which began with the Champaran Satyagraha on April 10, 1917. 'Satyagraha' means peaceful civil disobedience. Mahatma Gandhi used Satyagraha for the first time when he launched a movement in South Africa on September 11, 1906.
The post-independent era witnessed many such agitations, but none was like the democratic resistance movement led by Jaiprakash Narayan against the Emergency (1975-1977).
The people born between the late 1950s and 1962, then called baby boomers, joined the protest, signifying that people aged 18 to 25 years took to the streets, leaving schools, colleges, and other academic institutions.
The police cracked down on the students, forcing them to take shelter in forests. Because the government controlled the information system, the newspapers, but for a few, turned out to be government mouthpieces. Kuldeep Nayar, in his book, The Judgement: Inside Story of the Emergency in India (1977), vivified the days of the Emergency.
Some newspapers, despite repression, used to publish the cartoons, critical of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Some editors poured out their anger against the authoritarian government which lost power.
Yet, using slang against the prime minister or any other ministers rarely happened those days, as Satyagraha means keeping away from any kind of violence, including using taboo words.
Profanity part of social media chat
At Jantar Mantar, expletives remained part of the agitation led by Generation Z armed with mobile phones. The people during the Emergency lacked the advantage of the information technology that gave birth to social media. A piece of information took 48 hours to reach people in 1975-1977. But today, it goes viral in a few seconds. Generation Z pours out anger through emojis, memes, cartoons, and a few expletives, instead of writing long stories.
Cultural norms have changed, and social rules have relaxed, allowing swear words to release physical pain and stress. As a result, polished language has given way to profanity, for which the IT cells of many political parties and a few politicians cannot shun their responsibility. The age group of the people launching agitations today remains the same as we saw in history.
They also followed Satyagraha at Jantar Mantar, observing fast as the Mahatma did. Sonam Wanchuk, a pioneer of the movement, abstained from food for 26 days.
Yet, today’s protesters stay armed with mobile phones, more powerful than 10,000 cannons.
Arup Chakraborty
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