01/02/2013
The year 2012 was a year of anger in India – starting with Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement (a follow up of 2011), involving a series of country-wide protests intended to enforce accountability through a strong legislation – the Jan Lokpal. This was followed by the breakaway faction that took the political route by forming the Aam Aadmi Party, under social activist Arvind Kejriwal, and going on an expose drive against corrupt deals by heavyweight politicians, industrialists, as well as India’s most powerful family. The last straw was the youth uprising against the gruesome gang rape in the capital exposing the ills of India’s patriarchal society. It was only some timely measures by the Delhi police that prevented India Gate from resembling Egypt’s Tahrir Square.
Anger is best described as a strong feeling of resentment , usually provoked. The provocation was there for long. The outburst was long in the waiting . While the jury on fury is still not out, 2012 has in India discovered the enormous strength of rage when in collective form. To its benefit, India houses the largest number of youth in the world. However, the young are also restless and their patience is being tested. In the absence of opportunities, aspiration leads to desperation. In the presence of inequalities (income, wealth and opportunities), disparities lead to disgruntlement and then discord. Tragedy gives it the ignition, politics the fuel,youth the energy, media the enthusiasm. A question – what causes anger in the youth? Intolerance, defiance, frustration, marginalization, alienation, attitude or something else? The list of possibilities is long. In the context of India, it gets complex too, given the economic, social, religious and cultural diversity, and the classic urban-rural divide.
Issue-based anger and frustration is what we see more commonly on our television screens. Social media adds another dimension to this – think the Pink Chhadi campaign of 2009. There is clearly a hunger to bring change, whether big or small, in social attitudes, the political system and in thinking. Armchair activism is quickly becoming a thing of the past. The bigger question, though, is can the youth move beyond one specific incident and subsequent moments of anger, sustain this emotion, and stick to their guns for the long term in the face of mounting difficulties?
The need of the hour is leadership which moves beyond vested interests and looks at the public interest at large. Whether we will see political youth leaders emerge with a sound grounding in this principle or whether, the more unlikely scenario, the current leadership will undergo a profound change in thought processes remains to be seen.
Is anger then wrong – specially the kind that leads to positive action? In the last few years, we have seen many a youth-centric campaign come up across India – the Blank Noise Project, GotStared.At, Halabol, Must Bol, The YP Foundation, The Viewspaper, Teach India, to name a few. These campaigns have all been the product of anger or frustration at some level, and are continuing to grow.
We need to remember though that anger in the youth is not a recent phenomenon. The manifestation of this anger may take different forms, in different societies over the years. The downside though , especially in the urban context , is the lack of civility when displayed. Anger manifests itself in daily life in the form of road rage, verbal abuses, physical violence, sexual assaults, female foeticide, dowry deaths and what not.
The dynamics of society in urban India have undergone and are undergoing a huge change. We see more women in the workforce, smaller and nuclear families, more entrepreneurs, more risks being taken; it’s almost as if a different type of economy is being shaped in the current context. A change that may be responsible for more anxiety, more pressures, more stress and hence more anger.
Frustration led anger becomes an important wake up call. Beyond that it often leads to violence. The trick is to channelize it creatively and consistently, lest it become counter-productive, more so when we are dealing with the zest and inexperience of the youth. One out of every six humans on this planet is Indian, almost half these Indians are youth and almost half these youth are without regular employment. That’s a unique problem of plenty. For an aging western world it will soon become a global problem. Now the world should be getting angry