Signals in the noise

Nepal's Gen Z made their point; perhaps time has come for India to pay more attention to the social and technological changes that are a lived reality for its own youth

- BY K. SUNIL THOMAS & SHUBHANGI SHAH

From Colombo to Dhaka to Kathmandu, the fire and fury of the young generation has upended governments and shaken entrenched systems. India, by contrast, has so far avoided such an eruption, but as noted economist and former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan warned, the country is not to- tally immune. In his book, Breaking the Mould, Rajan made the startling observation that the youth in India were jobless and were “entranced” by cheap mobile videos. When THE WEEK asked him to elaborate, he described a mutiny in the making.

“Things will start to blow up at some point. [There is] frustration [among the youth which] looks for immediate cause and sort of boils over. What we are seeing right now are small mutinies. Manipur, tussle over reservations, etc. These are examples of the way in which they come out in our country.” The recent outbreak of violence in Ladakh could be another case in point.

Rajan may have been prophetic in this theory, though the “mutiny” has spared India till now, even as it has ravaged, step by step, India’s neigh- bours—Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in recent years and Nepal, a month ago—where it led to existing systems and authorities being toppled. In Pakistan, the simmering discontent of the young may have been stifled for now, but it has never really been stamped out.

India's size and complexity may make a mutiny less likely, but there are lessons. A few recent measures suggest the authorities discount the youth as a category, ignoring a gener- ation living a digital-first reality.