Why Protests don’t work in India?
December 16, 2012, rocked India with an incident of a brutal rape and fatal attack on a 23-year-old girl that took place in the national capital. Entire India was on the street, leading one of the most vocal protests of the 21st century in India. Protestors demanded capital punishment for the accused, which was fulfilled.
It was one of the few times the entire nation spoke the same language (no pun intended).
Delhi rape case got famous as the Nirbhaya (a pseudonym to prevent the identity of the victim) rape case. Nirbhaya means fearless, and her struggle and death became a symbol of women’s resistance to rape around the world, specifically in India. But that’s for the best our myopic Indian mentality can ask.
Yet, a crime of similar propensity was committed in 2019 in Hyderabad against a veterinary doctor. People protested in large numbers against the brutal nature of the crime, and with a fan-serving model of government, the accused were nabbed and killed in a staged encounter.
Amidst the roaring celebration of achieving “justice”, a tiny minority demanded to curb the rape culture for a long-term solution. But as usual, those cries went unheard. And the rape culture thrives.
It’s not that all protests fail in India. Yet those protests which ARE successful have only provided a short-term solution (of seeing someone getting justice), rather providing a long-term amendment in how we approach the gruesome reality around us.
If we kill the perpetrator, we are offering justice that the victim deserves. BUT, neither any to-be-perpetrator is horrified by these occasional instances of justice, nor it limits these gruesome crimes from happening.
All this because people prefer denial rather than accepting and improving things. But there are some logical explanations to these irritating realities of our society.
Three reasons why protests don’t work in India:
1. Tolerance & Normalization
Protests at a large scale only take place for something like “brutal gang-rape”. Rape, marital rape, harassment doesn’t get the voice of the busy and occupied people of this nation. We have normalized it to a level that we can live with it if it doesn’t directly affect us. That’s the level of insensitivity which we have adapted over the continuous recital of the term, “it has been like this”.
Whenever anyone says “It’s been like this”, he is actually saying, “It’s been happening like this and will keep on happening with my blessing.”
Hence, the rape culture flourishes unscathed in India, because taking accountability is not in our Indian genes.
That’s the primary differentiating factor for protests in India and protests in western countries. One generation adjusts with injustice and passes it on to the next generation as if it is a normal part of life. Don’t question our culture of inequality or the culture that asks the boys and girls to sit apart in classrooms.
2. Selectivity: Part-democracy, Part-Communism
Most of the protests which happen across the nation are not as stirring as the Nirbhaya Rape case. Especially the political one that rarely gets any traction. And by chance, if they are against the ruling government — they are ignored at best, deemed as anti-national at worst.
India is a country, where even the stock market runs on emotions. The majority here have an emotional bonding with religion. And as it turns out, Politics and Religion are inseparable in India. Our politicians don’t permit that.
So you can ask for the execution of someone on account of rape, but you can’t ask people to have a look at human rights violations, especially when it’s about a religion or Kashmir. People here rarely feel anything.
3. Media: Death of Democracy
In the beginning, I mentioned the protests for Nirbhaya and how coherent they were. Well, the CAA-NRC protests were polar on social media, but they still were vocal at ground level. Everything was done right, yet it hardly made any impact (until corona struck). This goes to prove that asking for equality among religions is not possible in a hypocritical extremist government.
Media — by omission of facts, mocking the left, and labeling the liberals — diminish the probability of a cultural change to take place. No doubt India ranks at a 144th number in the World Press Freedom Index.
To top it off, evidence can be tempered, narrative can be modified, and terrorists can be created with neatly crafted stories. Students from Jamia and other reputed universities are being booked under the anti-terrorism act, which is quite resembling Communist China — a country known for crushing every sort of protest against the government. That’s how media perversion brings the demise of democracy.
In a nutshell, India is a pseudo-democracy where you can get along pretty well if you can adjust to the cultural shortcomings and turn a blind eye to human rights violations, among other forms of atrocities. But you can not protest. It’s pointless.
One of the major reasons the west progressed and paved the way for reforms by (peaceful) protests is that they based their institutional structure (Governments) on a perfect blend of religion and logic. There’s a perfect balance between the two.
While in India (and many Asian countries) religious belief dominates, in fact, it crushes the logic under its feet.
People in Asia have become indifferent and nihilistic towards injustice. We like adjusting. Even if someone tries, often feel helpless since they are limited in numbers. Hence the culture deterioration progresses.
4. Compartmentalized Education
Though India has a literacy rate of 74%, most of these literate Indians are illiterate in terms of moral values, rationality, and human rights. Over 66% of the Indian population is rural which holds conservative beliefs, blind religious values, and bigotry.
India don’t have an audience that would entertain Plato or Socrates or Manjhi.
The only solution to this spiral loop of deterioration is — proper education. It might seem a far-fetching thought as of now, but education can indirectly lead us to a culture where dissent can be appreciated and facts won’t be tempered.
There’s a reason why all the human right talk, reforms and every major change starts from metro cities — they have higher education density.
People with actual education (being aware about the issues around the world) have perspective and objective reasoning. Hence, they are easily enticed by injustice even if doesn’t affects them directly.
But most we need is a system, where we may voice our thoughts and offer our criticism for the betterment of society.
We need education for all which offers a chance for everyone to evaluate right and wrong, instead of being at the mercy of our lobbied media.
We need a culture where politicians are actually “for the people” and civilians have the power of bringing the necessary changes in the system.
