please read this even if you're not indian. especially if you're not indian.
you've seen the jokes. india is "dirty", indians are "everywhere", why don't they fix their own country. ok. let me tell you why, and what's happening right now while nobody's watching.
first, the history you skipped: britain ruled india for two centuries and drained it. economist utsa patnaik's research estimates around $45 trillion in today's money was taken. the india that got independence in 1947 was one of the poorest countries on earth. every "why is india like this" question starts there. you don't get to profit off a robbery and then mock the crime scene.
now, what's happening RIGHT NOW:
in may the question paper for NEET leaked. that's the national medical entrance exam. over 2.2 million students took it. cancelled. years of studying, families' savings poured into coaching, gone overnight because someone sold the paper. students died by suicide after. these were kids who wanted to be doctors.
and out of that came a protest movement. a gen z group called the cockroach janta party, started by a 30 year old named abhijeet dipke, got 22 million instagram followers within DAYS. they've been doing a sit-in at jantar mantar in delhi demanding education minister dharmendra pradhan resign.
and then there's sonam wangchuk. if you've watched 3 idiots, he's the real engineer the character was based on. built solar schools in ladakh. invented ice stupas so himalayan villages have water. spent his whole life on education. he's 59 and he's been on hunger strike for 17+ days now. reporters went to see him this week and he was too weak to talk. and the troll armies are calling him "anti national" and "foreign funded". a man starving himself for other people's children. that's the thing here, anyone who asks a question is suddenly a traitor.
it's not one incident, it's everywhere you look:
• infrastructure worth thousands of crores failing within months of the ribbon cutting. tunnels collapsing in regions where heavy rain is a guarantee, not a surprise.
• youth unemployment near 10% for ages 15 to 29, 13.6% in cities. in a country of 1.42 billion where more than half the population is young.
• only about the top 3% of indians earn above 10 lakh a year. meanwhile billionaire wealth keeps ballooning and the headlines celebrate it.
• manipur burned for over two years. an ethnic conflict, tens of thousands displaced, and the prime minister barely said the word manipur while it happened.
• journalists raided. critics' houses bulldozed. activists sitting in jail for years without trial under laws like UAPA. our press freedom ranking has cratered.
• even the petrol is a fight now, ethanol blending pushed through while drivers complain about their engines and get no straight answers.
and through all of it, the PM, who came to power on religious polarisation (americans, sound familiar?), travels abroad for photo ops and has not held one single open press conference in over a decade. not one.
what i'm asking:
if you're not indian: share this. our media mostly won't cover any of it because the big outlets are owned by the same billionaires the government serves. the only reason wangchuk's fast is getting any coverage is people refusing to look away.
if you ARE indian: speak up even if you're comfortable. especially if you're comfortable. join the protests. add to this, correct me, translate it. staying quiet is a choice when nothing in this post touches your life.
india is not "dirty". india was robbed, and it's being robbed again, from the inside this time. but it's also the country where a 59 year old will starve for strangers' kids and 22 million young people will rally behind a party literally named after cockroaches, because cockroaches survive everything.
we can still save her. but only loudly.
reblog. share. don't scroll past.
I beg of Indian leftists to have serious and open minded dialogue on how to interpret this protest and how to move forward.
1. radical leftists: you tell us not to engage because no one gave transgender people, Muslims, Kashmiris, Dalits, Adivasis any thought when the time came to speak up. you're absolutely right. but as a friend of mine said, "we must allow people to be wrong and to then improve."
Abhijeet Dipke is quickly learning he can't control the movement anymore. The government and Godi media has taken an opposing stance to an extremely mainstream student-led movement. The time has never been better to co-opt and teach.
2. Sonam Wangchuk, no matter how much we romanticise him, is a liberal at heart. He has already softened his demand of resignation to a humble request. I commend his efforts but he cannot be a figurehead. CJP leadership, as most of us have come to agree, is ineffective, unwilling to participate in revolutionary praxis beyond yelling Inquilab (and, ironically, sanitising the protest), + desperate to be recognised as the "right" kind of protestors.
3. The demands proposed by the CJP fail to accomplish anything. Replacing Dharmendra Pradhan? We'll bring in another self serving idiot. 1 crore compensation to the families (which will amount to INR 5 lakhs per family), as if the money will bring back their children. The only reasonable demand is to cancel the FIRs lodged against peaceful protestors.
Students are afraid for their future. The centre to right wing youth, the loudest voices in this country, is starting to become conscious of police brutality now that they've faced it.
There is FINALLY a streak of anti-government fervor - and YET. YET I see leftists online poke and prod at the OBVIOUSLY shoddy theory of the movement, unwilling to fill in the gaps with their knowledge of theory and ground work, unwilling to guide an audience looking for help, in numbers that could strengthen our cause a hundredfold.
I am young. I have only marched once or twice, and was barred from attending the CJP protest. But I refuse to dismiss the movement on grounds of ideological impurity. There is frustration, rage, anger at the establishment and far too much of the Indian left is content to let this atmosphere fizzle out into disappointment and eventually a distant memory. It won't be our fault if Modi comes to power in 2029 but we damn well could've done more.
To the leftists who are trying, who are succeeding, due to whose efforts I am watching Modi voters regret and reconsider: I am so, so in awe of you. I'd love to get in touch and help however I can.
