And they finally came out. The so-called Gen Z, the apparently privileged, entitled, anxious, snowflake, Instagram Reels-obsessed generation of India, is hitting the streets as we speak.
It has taken a lot of people by surprise. From top political parties to media houses, many are scratching their heads over how this happened. Sure, there was an Instagram meme account of a Cockroach Janta Party that went viral. A lot of traction happened in the social media space. However, nobody expected this particular generation to hit the streets. Likes and shares? Yes. Protests and street activism? No. Reels? Yes. Real? No way!
But all that changed last week, and there’s no putting this genie back in the bottle. What could have remained a limited protest was handed a massive boost by the government’s own response. In this case, it was content gold.
Videos emerged of Delhi Police personnel in helmets, armored vests and riot gear chasing unarmed student protesters, many of them teenagers. For millions watching on their phones, the optics were devastating. Lathis and armed officers on one side; students on the other. Whatever the circumstances leading up to those confrontations, the images were political dynamite. There was even a video of a ten-year-old being chased by cops. Well done. Did the Delhi Police secretly want to side with the protestors and give them this content gold?
Because imagine India waking up to this. Imagine every student across the country opening their phone first thing in the morning (yes, that’s what they do) and seeing videos of other students being chased by cops and struck with lathis. Then imagine knowing that these students are protesting because they want justice and merit, that’s all.
They are not asking for more reservations. They are not asking for money. They don’t want guaranteed jobs. All they want, for God’s sake, is for one of the most important exams of their lives to be conducted fairly. Not easier. Not subsidised. Not rigged in their favour. Just fair. For a country that constantly tells its young people that merit matters, that should not be too much to ask.
And leak it does, year after year.
Even though a National Testing Agency exists specifically to prevent such failures, paper leaks continue to make headlines. India has somehow managed to inject doubt into one of the few institutions young people still believed in: the promise that hard work would be rewarded fairly.
The signs of this issue being a big one were always there. During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as well, paper leaks emerged as a significant issue among many young voters. However, other reasons were cited for the BJP’s lower-than-expected performance, coalitions were quickly arranged, and political astuteness ensured the government remained in power.
Things seemed well. Except the issue remained. The anger against paper leaks remained. A few token announcements, a few small fry being blamed, and India hummed along.
Not the Gen Z brains, though.
They didn’t hum along. They festered, as tokenism felt to Gen Z like little lollipops being handed to a crying child. Here’s a lollipop, put it in your mouth and stop crying. And here’s 5 GB of data; now watch random reels and forget about whatever happened.
Except they didn’t forget.
The establishment made a basic miscalculation. It assumed Gen Z’s attention span was short because its content is short. It assumed that because young people communicate through memes, they think through memes. It assumed that a generation raised on reels would eventually scroll past its anger. That assumption may turn out to be one of the biggest political misreads in recent years.
The anger wasn’t only about paper leaks anymore. Paper leaks became the spark. Around it gathered frustrations about corruption, forced ethanol blending, the controversies surrounding the Ram Temple project, and a broader sense that powerful institutions increasingly operate without accountability. To many young people, these were not separate issues. They were symptoms of the same disease.
Meanwhile, there was literally no legitimate outlet left for the expression of one’s grievances. The media is considered biased. The opposition is either too weak or has been rendered weak. Where does all the pressure go?
Well, finally, it got expressed in one outburst of anger, this time IRL (in real life) by our normally digital Gen Z.
Turns out the Z in Gen Z didn’t stand for the sleeping ZZZs. It stood for Zeal, Zest and, above all, Zero Fear. We just hadn’t seen it yet.
The signs were all there. The anger was real. How did a party renowned for its political instincts miss it? That’s the bigger concern. The individual issues can be fixed, but the larger picture—that the government may be losing touch with a generation that will shape India’s future—is what should worry it most.
For this Gen Z won’t settle for tokenism, symbolism, and lollipops anymore. They want solutions. Solutions that are hard. Solutions that involve overhauling systems, making them more accountable, not more autocratic.
Will this government be able to do it?
More importantly, will students trust that it will?
That remains the question.
To be fair, the government is taking steps. It has offered debates, taken action against alleged culprits, and made several announcements. These may well be part of the solution. However, right now, this is not only about solving a policy problem. It is also about addressing public anger.
And just as support for a political candidate or party can be emotional rather than rational, so can anger. Emotions do not operate entirely on logic.
The police-action videos have added fuel to the fire. Now, almost any student—or even any person watching from the sidelines—can understand the emotions driving the protestors. It is a quagmire the government must navigate carefully, because there is every chance that heavy-handed responses could make matters worse.
In democracies, governments often underestimate the moral and political power of student movements at their own risk. History offers enough examples of that.
This generation is upset, very, very upset.
This generation does not leave its screens, abandon its feeds, and step out into the streets for nothing. If India’s most online generation has decided to become India’s most visible generation, then something has gone seriously wrong.
Please take them seriously.
Don’t talk down to them. Talk to them.
Don’t hand them pacifiers.
Hand them a say in how the country is run.