After a summer victory, India's Gen Z protesters face a winter of uncertainty

There were celebrations at Delhi's Jantar Mantar protest ground in July, when word arrived that the Gen Z movement had pushed federal education minister Dharmendra Pradhan into resigning. One young demonstrator, smiling broadly, called it a victory for the youth.

Barely three months on, the atmosphere has changed sharply. Student demonstrators are now finding it hard even to gather. When the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protested over voting rights last month, sweeping restrictions were imposed and thousands of peaceful demonstrators were detained.

The summer had brought a fresh wave of dissent across India, born of deep frustration among the young and powered by biting online satire. The movement spread nationwide. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose strongman image leaves him unaccustomed to open criticism or ridicule, found it difficult to contain. But the government's increasingly forceful security response shows it has drawn lessons from that rare concession, using public order as the ground to rein in dissent.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's national spokesperson, Syed Zafar Islam, dismissed claims of heavy-handedness, telling the BBC that the right to protest and free expression are guaranteed by the constitution but must stay within the law, and cannot come at the cost of public security by overriding the rights of others.

This is not the first time the Modi government has faced protests on a large scale. What makes this movement a challenge for the BJP, says Yamini Aiyar, former president of the Centre for Policy Research and a visiting professor at Brown University, is its breadth. In her assessment, the protesters are not defined by caste, gender or economic class, and even some members of the BJP's own core base — upwardly mobile, lower-income groups — were drawn to the movement.

The movement's scale is amplified by its online presence. Protesters have broken a long-standing political taboo by mocking the prime minister openly online. Sakhi, a student protester linked to a left-wing student organisation at Delhi University, says it is about more than laughs: their generation does not feel the fear of consequences the way earlier generations did, and comedy has become a new language for challenging authority.

Earlier movements, Aiyar notes, seriously challenged Modi but were easier to brush aside as representing narrow sections of society, or to brand 'anti-national'. In 2020, farmers protesting controversial agricultural reforms were blocked from entering Delhi, leading to months of demonstrations and at times clashes on the capital's borders. After a year of protests, the government abandoned the reforms.

The protests of 2019 and 2020 against a contentious citizenship law remain a stark reminder of the judiciary's powers when someone is deemed a national security threat. Student activist Umar Khalid was arrested under anti-terror laws after violent clashes in Delhi in which 53 people, most of them Muslims, were killed. He was accused of being a 'key conspirator'. He has now spent more than six years in jail without his trial having begun. His partner Banojyotsna Lahiri told the BBC they have no regrets, but the situation has created a prevailing kind of fear; with no idea when the endpoint will come, they feel they are staring into a dark mesh of empty space. Khalid's latest appeal was lodged this month.

Aiyar believes opponents are now using a familiar 'playbook' to delegitimise the protests, though it is not resonating as convincingly as before. Even so, the youth protests have struggled to recapture the momentum of the summer.

CJP leaders, including spokesperson Saurav Das, have faced repeated detentions and legal action. Das and fellow leader Ashutosh Ranka spent a week in Delhi's Tihar jail after being accused of trespassing at Jantar Mantar. The site of their summer victory has since been removed from the list of authorised protest venues, a decision being challenged in court. Protesters from other groups, including the left-wing All India Students' Association (Aisa), have also faced police action over allegations of defying orders. Das says the group had expected some kind of crackdown, and that the government has learnt a great deal since the summer.

Legal experts warn that the proceedings themselves can have a chilling effect. Ali Khan, an assistant professor at Lloyd Law College, points out that many cases may end in acquittals, but only after years — the process becomes the punishment, and that can deter protesters. Vrinda Grover, a constitutional lawyer advising the CJP, says the restrictions on demonstrations have become excessive. The organisers have repeatedly emphasised that the protests are non-violent, she argues, and rights have been whittled down in the name of law and order.

The BJP has rejected suggestions that it is suppressing peaceful dissent. Islam told the BBC that demonstrations cannot override the rights of other citizens merely because a handful of people want to protest and be responsible for violence. Dissenting online carries risks too. Sakhi's viral social media posts have drawn targeted abuse and transphobic attacks, and the BBC has seen posts threatening them with violence and rape. At times this deters Sakhi from protesting, or even makes them change how they dress. Making people laugh, Sakhi says, can end up being labelled anti-national; the aim, they add, is to make them feel damaged. They say some of their content was removed after receiving 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 being withheld in India.

CJP leaders have likened the crackdown to the 1975 Emergency, when then prime minister Indira Gandhi suspended civil liberties and jailed political opponents. Opposition parties have partly filled the void: on 1 November, tens of thousands gathered in Delhi for a rally organised by the INDIA bloc, the Congress-led alliance of opposition parties, held with the authorities' permission.

CJP leaders, meanwhile, insist the movement is bigger than their organisation. When Das walked out of Delhi's Tihar prison on 21 October, photographs showed him smiling. His message was to wait and watch: time, he said, is on their side, because they are a very young generation.