Call it YouthQuake or Protestrocracy, but it is raining protests in India and across the world. From the "Cockroach" movement in India to Gen Z regelt ("Gen Z takes charge") in Germany, young people are rising, and the pattern is hard to miss. Youth-led protests brought regime change in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Serbia's student movement ended more than a decade of dominance by Aleksandar Vučić's party. These are not isolated flare-ups. They are a shared response that deserves to be understood, not dismissed.
The grievances travel across borders: broken promises, shrinking investment in education and jobs, wars and widening inequality, enriched elites, weakened democratic institutions, and a neglected planet. Governments should listen to what young people are actually protesting for, and so should my generation. We, and the generations before us, have left them a world near ecological breakdown.
A World on the Streets
Protest in India is not confined to one cause or one city. Manipur has returned to the streets demanding peace, justice and the return of displaced families after more than three years of conflict. Communities in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya are resisting large dam projects, including the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project. Indigenous people in Bundelkhand launched the Chita Andolan, the "funeral pyre" movement, against displacement and inadequate compensation for the Ken-Betwa river-linking project. Sugarcane farmers blocked the Maharashtra-Karnataka highway over minimum support prices, villagers in Chhattisgarh hugged trees to stop felling for a film city, and students at Jamia Millia Islamia want their union restored. At JNU, sanitation workers, mess staff and guards are protesting illegal deductions and denied benefits. On November 1, a large demonstration against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which critics say threatens to disenfranchise millions, demanded the Chief Election Commissioner's resignation.
There were ironies too. Delhi Police personnel protested outside their own headquarters on November 2, seeking a grievance committee and clear procedures for handling confrontations: police protesting against police, in front of police. Meanwhile, the ruling party launched a nationwide campaign to "Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy." A party in power that must take to the streets to save democracy invites an obvious question about who has been looking after it.
Elsewhere, cost of living and strained public services drove large demonstrations across Europe. On Halloween, Gen Z-led marches spread through France, Germany, Spain and Italy, mostly peaceful, with some violence. About 320,000 people marched in France against a declining education system and high living costs, and in places some police chose to de-escalate. In Germany, over 100,000 young people marched in Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich over school underfunding, spending cuts, military service, surveillance and climate change. Spanish youth are protesting a housing crisis, Italian students want school funding, and Albania's "Flamingo Revolution" demands the prime minister's resignation. Asia and Africa echo the same themes: prices and forest fires in Indonesia, wages in Bangladesh, salaries and services in Pakistan, unaffordable taxes in Kenya, education and healthcare in Morocco, and water and electricity in Madagascar. Even Israel saw protests demanding accountability for the failure to prevent the October 7 attack.
What the Young Want
This wave leans left, perhaps because the left is strong in university politics and students are taught ideals of equality, democracy and sustainability that they do not see in practice. The anger has been building for years, mostly from the failures of neoliberal capitalism. Many in my generation knew this and stayed silent. We submitted, and the young chose to rise.
The economics are stark. Oxfam estimates that billionaire wealth grew 81 percent between 2020 and 2025, while public spending on education, housing, healthcare and basic services fell short of ordinary people's needs. People are told constantly that there is not enough money, and they live in the anxiety of unaffordability. What young people want is modest: somewhere to live, enough to eat, healthcare, education, a future for their children, public services that work, and a say in the decisions that govern their lives. When people are told they cannot afford these things, demanding radical change is legitimate.
Several features set these protests apart. They are largely non-partisan. Young protesters mostly carry flags that belong to no party, as at Jantar Mantar in July. The 31 October rally at Ramlila Maidan, led by INDIA bloc parties, drew one of the largest mobilisations since the JP movement, with a sea of flags reflecting concern beyond any single party. They also reject the stereotype of the young as careless and consumed by screens, showing integrity and focus despite threats. They are pushing us to rethink democracy as more than the occasional election, and a state of everyday protest keeps governments alert and accountable.
They have bypassed compromised media, mobilising on social media to make up for thin mainstream coverage. Serbia's media apologised to the youth after the election, but an apology afterwards cannot undo the damage of silence. In India, they have also questioned the judiciary, whose delayed or missing responses to state excesses raise doubts about institutional integrity. If protests, hunger strikes and satyagraha lose their place in constitutional democracy, something has gone wrong with its values.
And they are creative. From "Chai Becho, Desh Nahi" to the Delhi Police memes, humour has been a weapon. A "cockroach" remark from the Chief Justice of India was turned by the young into a rallying identity, the Cockroach Janta Party. Above all, the protests have been largely peaceful. Where violence occurred, as in parts of France, Italy and Germany, it was the exception. In India, much of it came from police action and groups aligned with the government.
The Response, and the Way Forward
The response of those in power is also consistent. US Senate candidate James Talarico captured it: they divide us by party, race, gender and religion so we do not notice our schools being defunded and taxes cut for the rich. In India, the Hindu-Muslim, Mandir-Masjid and "love jihad" narratives are being challenged by young people, to the visible discomfort of the ruling party. Labelling protesters "anti-national" or "urban naxals" is a familiar tactic. Peaceful protest is curtailed, including by de-notifying Jantar Mantar, while water cannons, tear gas, detentions and, in India, pellet guns are used. Italy now fines violence and property damage up to €20,000 and makes parents financially liable for their children's vandalism. Indian authorities have detained protest leaders and asked some to sign peace bonds, and some universities ask students to sign "no protest" bonds at admission. Complacent citizens should take note: it may be their turn tomorrow.
Governments are right to fear a loss of power. Serbia's example, the Democratic gains in the US midterms and Lula's return in Brazil suggest the tide is turning.
Young people are angry with good reason. They have been failed on basic needs while climate change, economic marginalisation and declining institutions close in. History shows that when politicians live off the people rather than for them, people revolt. Socrates challenged power 2,400 years ago. Gandhi's satyagraha won India's freedom. The Paris students of 1968 demanded the impossible. Political scientist Erica Chenoweth found that nonviolent campaigns involving roughly 3.5 percent of a population rarely fail. One wonders what Gandhi, King, Mandela and Carl von Ossietzky would make of today's young leaders.
A new generation is already entering office: Rob Jetten in the Netherlands, Kristrún Frostadóttir in Iceland, Zohran Mamdani as New York's mayor, and new US senators-elect including Talarico, Pia Dandia, Abdul El-Sayed, Chris Pappas and Keisha Lance Bottoms, many of them firsts for their communities. Serbia's movement fielded a 250-candidate list of academics, doctors, farmers and actors, deliberately not students or career politicians. The question for my generation is whether we will help with the harder task, which is governing.
States cannot be run by perpetual protest. But protest is essential when capital sits beyond the reach of ballots. The young have held power to account where others would not. If the old order ruled for so long with little accountability, the young deserve their chance, and they must know they are being watched, both by those they displaced and by their own generation.
The foundation of a new politics has to be moral. Whether we are liberal, free-market or Marxist, we should state our position and not hide. As José "Pepe" Mujica said, choosing the left means choosing a philosophy of life where solidarity comes before selfishness. The world needs its young people. They must be heard, represented, and given a real say in their future. The battle will be long, but it is not unwinnable.
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Dr. Mansee Bal Bhargava is an entrepreneur, researcher, educator, speaker, and mentor. More about her is available at www.mansee.in, www.edc.org.in, and www.wforw.org.in
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