Reforming Rebellion

The discourse of dissent, rebellion, and political rhetoric in the country has been on a major roller coaster for more than a month now. And today I aim to pen down my thoughts regarding my observations of the same.

A few events have struck my consciousness pretty deeply. This past month has felt jarringly hopeless, laced with immense despair, especially as a student in the last leg of formal education in a not-so-celebrated course. But it is probably this unpopular field of academia that gives me the insight into the covert tones of these events.

In the student protests, I saw an entirely new language of rebellion altogether. On one hand, kids, parents, aspirants, everyone came together and braved a violent repression; on the other hand, an endless supply of memes, some of the most creative experimentations with sarcastic criticism, a reversal of narrative simply through actions rather than tall claims, and subversion of authority by making a literal joke out of authority in the most innocent way possible took place. Humour became a tactical shield. Such a phenomenon must be the first of its kind in the history of rebellion and revolution, combining the silliest of expressions with powerful political commentary.

This entire process saw a structural breakdown of the etiquette of formality and posed the burning question: what use are the institutions of ethics and morality and structure if they repeatedly keep failing the intended beneficiaries on multiple counts across generations? What use are these buildings and forums and ministries and organisations?

But the most crucial part of any protest is the period of response from the presiding authorities, which ultimately determines the effectiveness of the united outrage.

The brutal repression and the subsequent violent clashes, the extension of the movement which allowed many upset sects of society to infiltrate it and participate and narrativise the greater discourse of the entire struggle are no secret. These developments also led to the virtual public being divided and at cross-purposes with each other regarding ethics, responsibility, optics, purpose and accountability. To me, the police and RAF’s actions were a textbook example of Weber’s “Ironcage of Bureaucracy”, nothing more or less. Their actions and fate were designed and determined by powers much higher and incomprehensible, and within this lot of hands-tied officers hid some of the really brutal, lecherous, disgusting individuals under government salaries, quite seamlessly.

Coming to the political response, I have a bone to pick with almost every side. First with the ruling party, this has to be the most disgraceful crackdown in the history of Indian politics. Events like corruption, fleeing accountability, and rewarding criminals are not new to this field, and the general public has grown absolutely immune to such occurrences. But the desperate attempt to infantilise, degrade, humiliate, slut-shame and disregard the entirety of the youth of the nation, for demanding simple accountability after losing money, hard work, in some cases even their lives and future, paints a truly horrifying picture of the putrifying ideals of the social and political institutions.

Next we have the principal opposition, whose literal job it was to listen to the queries of the distressed protestors and present it in the Parliament for official debates and discussions, but stayed aloof till the monsoon session was over.

My obvious takeaway from this? All of them are in cahoots with each other and the general public keeps fighting amongst themselves for foolish allegiances’ sake. The true welfare of the public, the actual role of the political apparatus of the country, lies beyond the horizon of expectations of the to-do lists of the Parliamentarians.

Now comes the most dangerous display of power the ruling party has over the inner selves of the public. It is almost magical how the entire conversation turned from asking for an apology to demanding and also receiving one from the victims. The debate turned from institutional failure to rampant moral policing of teenagers, an almost obscure and garish display of performative concern so shallow, more than angry, it left the kids stunned with skin-crawling disgust. History, if it gets to note these events as they happened, would definitely mark it as a dangerous period of control over expression, media and discourse.

The language of rebellion and the rhetoric of suppression have long since moved on from obvious violent repressions. Now, the structure and design of language itself is being weaponised by the opposing sides to place their points. The modes of revolution are on the way to witness a complete makeover, where humour and satire shall be tanks and cannons and the cavalry, a convergence of the most divergent.

P.S. These are my views alone, and I am always up for debates and discussions. Healthy, civil criticism is always welcome. Hopefully this piece urges some introspection.