Visuals of an unruly mob, stated to be a segment of protesting farmers — a claim denied by farmer groups — storming the Red Fort in the national capital will be etched in minds for years to come. Just as America will not neglect anytime quickly the invasion of the Capitol, reportedly at the behest of then incumbent president. Protests in Russia, Hong Kong, France – the previous couple of years have observed a number of movements that have been talked about the planet more than.
Whatever be the trigger — pro-policy or anti-policy, pro-occasion or anti-occasion, pro-particular person or anti-person—outrage resulting into protests is absolutely nothing new. Whether the rulers granted it or not, the appropriate to dissent has been seized and implemented to the complete considering the fact that time immemorial.
“Where there is no democracy, there is no contestation, and we should be seriously worried about the health of the country if there are no protests. Of course, democratic and peaceful protests are very much a sign of a living democracy. In the words of socialist political leader Ram Manohar Lohia, ‘Agar sadkein khamosh ho jayein to sansad awara ho jayegi’ (If the roads become silent then the Parliament will stray),” says Yogendra Yadav, the founder of Jai Kisan Andolan of Swaraj Abhiyan, a socio-political organisation in Gurugram.
Yadav has been connected with farmers for more than two decades. He is one of the farm leaders named in an FIR that incorporates charges of rioting, criminal conspiracy and try to murder, amongst other people, following the violence on Republic Day in Delhi. A identified psephologist and former member of the national executive of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Yadav says, “Contestation is woven into the texture of democracy. If governance provides the warp then protests provide the woof, without which you cannot weave democracy. Unfortunately, in the past few years, the current regime has gone out of its way to demonise and criminalise any possible dissent.”
As a social phenomenon, protests are quite vital for public awareness of the social circumstances of the planet and modes of negotiation, feels Savyasaachi, professor of sociology, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. He says, “The tone and tenor of everyday life is textured with risks and uncertainties on account of multiple complex predicaments, and protests form the basis of dissent. Like the farmers’ protest is an unprecedented spectacle noticed by everyone. It has become a subject of conversation in every home.”
Protest politics
As the pandemic hit the planet, 2020 was a year of activism. Besides climate strikes and anti-lockdown protests, the Black Lives Matter movement, Black Friday Amazon protests, the siege of the US Capitol, protests in Hong Kong, Shaheen Bagh and the farmers’ protest in Delhi hit the headlines.
Many had politics behind them, and some had been alleged to be motivated by politics. Professor Kapil Kumar, historian and former director of Centre for Freedom Struggle & Diaspora Studies, IGNOU, is of the opinion that protests based on false propaganda are developed to suit political aspirations. “We have seen many false charges made for electoral gains, and engineered protests, when challenged in courts, led to apologies. The electorate of today is different than yesteryears and understands, weighs and votes. Rather, I would say people enjoy political clowns and nautanki to entertain themselves but don’t take them as serious political statements. Else the chor-chor campaign would have given dividends to INC rather than routing it,” he adds.
But important movements have turn out to be powerful voices of resistance, and resulted in uniting men and women. Protests on anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) began in Assam in December 2019, soon after the bill was introduced in Parliament, and by January 2020, the concentrate of the protest had shifted to Delhi, with Shaheen Bagh becoming its epicentre. Protests against and in assistance of the controversial legislation snowballed into communal violence in northeast Delhi in February 2020.
However, ‘success’ is not assured just about every time or the deadlock would bring luck as a number of protests culminate devoid of leaving any influence or reaching any purpose. “We had not thought about the end result when we started the farmers’ agitation but we are sure that we will succeed. The three laws have several discrepancies. Since MSP remains on paper and its benefit doesn’t reach the farmers, this has been the case for years. When the laws were promulgated, no organisation or even a single farmer was consulted. We approached all the people who matter in the government before starting this agitation. After protesting in Punjab, we decided to move to Delhi when the government did not agree to our demands. Hence, we were left with no option but to protest as this is our right in democracy. If medical doctors, sanitation workers or the CM can sit in protest then why can’t farmers? The circumstances have compelled us to do so,” says Virender Dagar, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Delhi unit in-charge.
Yet, a number of things like organisation, ideology or techniques have an effect on the results or failure of movements to create social transform, apart from public opinion, that has an vital mediating function in figuring out a movement. As in the case of mass protests at Rajpath post the brutal gang rape-cum-murder of a paramedic in Delhi in December 2012. The nation witnessed an outpouring of anguish and anger as men and women poured onto the streets demanding justice. The agitation was not pulled off by people or any group but rattled the then UPA government and led to transform in laws concerning crimes against females.
A protest falls flat if it can not clarify the challenge to the public there are no credible faces or the voice of dissent goes against the nation alternatively of the regime. The ongoing farmers’ protest is a important stalemate largely in absence of leadership.
Academics really feel the protests of yesteryears brought a revolution largely for the reason that of leadership. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X had been colossal figures of non-violent protest and excellent outcomes.
In India, revolutionary freedom fighter Jatin Das, Bhagat Singh, Subhas Chandra Bose, and, of course, Mahatma Gandhi fired the independence movement.
Kumar of IGNOU feels today’s leaders have no comparison with their historical counterparts. “Compare the peasant movements led by Baba Ram Chandra, Swami Sahajanand, Motilal Tejawat, Sita Ram Raju and in modern times by Charan Singh and even Mahendra Singh Tikait with the ones today,” he points out.
Dharnas have a particular mention in protests. In 2011, the Jan Lokpal Bill movement was one, when anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare started a hunger strike at Ramlila Maidan to place stress on Indian government for bringing in a powerful ombudsman. Arvind Kejriwal sat in dharna along with his cabinet even as chief minister against actions of the lieutenant governor of Delhi in 2018.
One of the celebrated faces connected with the Anna Hazare protest believes that the dignity of a protest has gone down soon after what ever transpired politically — formation of AAP and departure of its founder members. “I believe parents will think twice before allowing young adults to join any movement in the future, as the Anna andolan created a ‘crisis’ for future protests. Farmers’ agitation is in a similar predicament. A protest has to struggle a lot to protect its sanctity,” says the member of the core group connected with the Anna movement, requesting anonymity.
Sympathetic to farmers’ trigger, he feels that anti-national slogans raised at the Delhi border should really have been condemned by the organisers straight away. “It’s easier to discredit any movement. The pro-separatist slogans raised at farmers’ agitation should have been immediately shunned and disowned by the organisers,” he adds.
Delhi-based author and political scientist Sanjay Kumar, who is also a professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), an Indian investigation institute for the social sciences and humanities, feels the quantity of protests by political parties have decreased as compared to a decade ago.
“For those in power, social media has helped in putting their point across. Now common people frequently use the dharna route instead of political parties. A decade ago, this wasn’t the case.”
Social media sword
A critical element in deciding the course of a protest these days is social media. A hotbed for comments, details, unfiltered photos and videos, such platforms not only incite social transform from the public or leaders, but also have an effect on public sentiments.
The ease of access to floating details transcends the limitations of communication, and this sort of digital engagement can have detrimental effects, top to fake news and partial judgment, therefore misleading financial, social, or political ambitions, also at occasions, prompting ‘slacktivism’, the practice of supporting a political or social trigger by social media or on line petitions.
If history is identified for mass mobilisation in the streets, present day calls for mobilisation on social media. Like the farmers’ protest this week intensified into a hashtag war across the planet, with celebrities, politicians, activists and pretty much just about every Twitter user in India reacting to pop star Rihanna’s tweet highlighting the farmers’ protest, followed by Greta Thunberg’s tweet in solidarity and subsequent news of an FIR getting registered against the toolkit shared by her. Even the government reacted by issuing a stern statement of caution.
Both amusive and provocative, social media creates disruption, taking away the reality of the predicament with trolling and mockery. The farmers’ protest has also been mocked several occasions as netizens uploaded footage of pizzas, consumption of dry fruits, tea getting served, enormous roti-makers, comfy bedding, waterproof tents, and foot massage machines, which went viral on social media.
Delhi-based author and political scientist Sanjay Kumar feels the farmer movement was not a photo chance. “Shaheen Bagh, NRC, Anna Hazare or Nirbhaya were non-political movements and powerful tools to attract the attention of the policymakers. Why defame farmers’ protest as a five-star movement if they have facilities for comfortable living? They are not on a hunger strike and have every right to survive,” says Kumar.
Services readily available for farmers at protest websites are a deliberate try to discredit or weaken the protest in order to divert focus from actual concerns, feels Dagar of BKU. “What’s the hullabaloo about? The same luxuries are enjoyed by many, but it’s a problem when the poor have access to them,” he says.
Despite movements arising from distinctive situations and environments, social media also aids in amplifying the message of protests. Visuals are often attractive to senses, like the footage of George Floyd’s death.
Many have been arrested for ‘objectionable’ tweets and posts as well. Yogendra Yadav feels there is a deliberate crackdown by the present regime against dissenters. “The only challenge that comes is from protest and movements and thus there is an attempt to criminalise dissent and use various means— social or news media, use of income tax laws against NGOs, use of anti-terrorist points of laws against social activists, etc.
Calling a protest as trivialisation is to trivialise the issue. To my mind protest and contestation are the lifelines of democracy, therefore, it’s a full-blown onslaught on the foundation of a democracy,” he says.
Recently in a social media post, Hindi poet Kumar Vishwas also lamented how the ongoing farmers’ protest is getting discredited. He wrote that it is not appropriate to dismiss movements just for the reason that they are against our ‘favourite’ government, regime or political parties.
Speaking HEADS
Where there is no democracy, there is no contestation. We should really be seriously worried about the well being of the nation if there are no protests — Yogendra Yadav, founder, Jai Kisan Andolan of Swaraj Abhiyan, a socio-political organisation in Gurugram
Today’s leaders have no comparison with their historical counterparts. Compare the peasant movements led by Baba Ram Chandra, Swami Sahajanand, and in contemporary occasions by Charan Singh and even Mahendra Singh Tikait with the ones today — Kapil Kumar, professor & historian, and former director, Centre for Freedom Struggle & Diaspora Studies, IGNOU
For these in energy, social media has helped in placing their point across. Now, frequent men and women regularly use the dharna route alternatively of political parties. A decade ago, this wasn’t the case — Sanjay Kumar, Delhi-based author & political scientist, and professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, an Indian investigation institute for the social sciences and humanities
If healthcare physicians, sanitation workers or the CM can sit in protest, then why can not farmers? The situations have compelled us to do so— Virender Dagar, unit in-charge, Delhi, Bharatiya Kisan Union
A history of protests
Protests and protesters under no circumstances go by the playbook. Right from the freedom movement, eradication of social evils, or amendment in archaic legislations, a number of reforms are a outcome of concentrated efforts and campaigns initiated by leaders and reformers.
Violent, non-violent, writings, poems, rallies, demonstrations, resistance movements, marches or revolutionary struggles in social, financial, political, religious and cultural energy structures or the thought of human freedom from bondages of slavery, feudalism, colonialism and capitalism type the basis of protest and therefore turn out to be a effective tool of social transform to shape the present or assure a superior future.
India’s journey to independence dates back to extraordinary campaigns of protests from 1857 to 1947. Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement via Satyagraha in 1915, Salt March or Dandi March in 1930, protest more than discrimination against ‘untouchables’ in 1932 or the Quit India movement in 1942 had been a couple of important struggles for Indian independence.
Several other people had been faces of the independence movement, which includes Subhas Chandra Bose, who led an Indian national force against western powers, and Bhagat Singh, who popularised the phrase ‘inquilab zindabad’.
American history signifies protests punctuated by race riots, massacres and clashes to advocate transform. Like the Great Migration in the course of the Silent Protest Parade of about 10,000 African-Americans in New York City in 1917 is amongst the most vital early events in the lengthy civil rights movement against racial violence.
The nature of protests encompassed other points more than the years. Like the peaceful protest in The March for Science in 2017 in Washington exactly where one hundred,000 men and women marched on Earth Day to stand up for scientific enterprise. They felt threatened by the policies of former US president Trump, who mocked climate transform as a hoax. Non-violent demonstrations like the 1973 Chipko Movement in India became the strongest type of resistance by females farmers against rampant cutting of trees. Under the path of Sunderlal Bahuguna, a Gandhian activist and philosopher, the protest helped spread a critical message and led to the uprising in other states in north India. More lately, climate activist Greta Thunberg has been at the forefront of Fridays for Future, urging schoolchildren to protest against climate transform.
Last year, New York City saw more than a thousand protests — peaceful and violent—caused by the outrage at the death of George Floyd in May 2020. The death ignited a wave of outrage in the US more than law enforcement’s repeated use of lethal force against African-Americans.
In India, Delhi has been at the centre of dissent appropriate from the British era. Hartals, satyagraha against the British rule, movements soon after independence like the Emergency protests, kisan agitations, Mandal Commission protests, Jan Lokpal andolan, December 16 gangrape protests and farmers’ protest, to name some. Ramlila Maidan and Jantar Mantar are identified as protest websites more than something else.