India's Gen Z Moment

 

How long does it take for a country's media to go from unquestioning celebration of youth to reviling it? Not long, it seems in India, as all the celebration of Gen Z turned sour as some people started asking questions that the media didn't.

The generational labelling is an imported practice from America that Indians embraced enthusiastically. It makes no sense, as the Indian history didn't follow the same path. For example, the equivalent of the silent generation - people born between 1928 and 1945 and lived in the shadows of their parents (the greatest generation, who fought the war) and their children (the baby boomers, who prospered) - would be the generation that built the Indian republic, the heroic ones. However, somehow the Indians like to believe that the world is flat, or at least, it has gotten flat since the 1990s.

Therefore, Gen Z was celebrated as the herald of brilliance and prosperity, the generation that would lead India to the 'developed country' future. It was a political trope all along - this was supposed to be a generation that could forget the facts and lose themselves in reels and chats. They were supposed to drive India's consumer economy, hanging out in malls, buy the latest wares and when called to action, gang up against Pakistan, China or whichever would be the enemy of the day.

The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) movement, therefore, caught the powers that be, and particularly the media comentators, completely by surprise. The young people were supposed to be pliant, following the opinions of India's great commentariat, those who fashioned themselves after the MAGA commentators and thought India was America! Who knew the young people could raise a question all by themselves? Therefore, as the CJP protests took shape, they went looking for 'deep state' connection, right out of the playbook of their MAGA models. They were more interested in the personal - how can the protest organisers afford travelling to and from Delhi, for example - than the issues themselves, e.g., integrity of the education system, government accountability, employment etc.

Predictably, such tactics backfired. The protests may not usher in any significant political change, but at least it was different. The 'deep state' narrative backfired, as the ordinary middle class parents, whose children are affected, could see through the propaganda. Whether the political class became accountable can be questioned, but the opportunism of the media stood exposed. At times of crisis in the US (let's say, during ICE atrocities last winter), the MAGA commentators could rail against the liberal media and sow confusion, but in India, the media is monochrome and billionaire-owned already, so there was nothing for them to target except the people themselves. 

As for political change, it will take more than a middle-class revolt. Over the last decade, India has become a true neoconservative state, which has forged authoritarian politics, weak institutions and billionaire raj at the altar of xenophobic nationalism, centred around a charismatic figure, more a messiah than a political leader. This is a state where political opposition exists as a caricature, more to legitimise the rulers than to challenge them. In a way, Indians are living through one of those transitional historical epochs of wholesale political change, a sort of pre-revolutionary period of uncertain length, when everything must break before the future can be built afresh.

Amidst this, the Gen Z moment is perhaps a blip. But it exposed something: While the authoritarians don't care for political opposition, they live in mortal fear of street agitations. Their power lie in their carefully crafted image, of which the paid media is the keeper and the guarantor. If the media loses its credibility, as it surely did when it took on a whole generation, everyone could feel the absence of the king's clothes. The angry rhetoric, which tears down anything high-minded so mercilessly, was powerless against satire; speeches were so boring when pitted against music. The great leader stands, but without his megaphone, he is a mere political operator. 

Therefore, at this point, as the protestors went home, I am thinking - this is no Gen Z. Whether or not they have changed India, all Indians should bear them gratitude. Not because they have shown the way, but because they have defied the stereotype. If we must label them, perhaps they are Generation Zero; from this moment, let everyone start again.