Wednesday, November 26, 2014

India’s urban youth are angry. Unlike their parents, they have little to lose...

I met a pair of 20-year-old insurrectionaries last week. They were gently spoken and as slight as kittens, yet only recently the vice-chancellor at their elite university claimed they and their friends had threatened his life.

The story of how Dibyokamal Mitra, Nabottama Pal and a bunch of undergraduates drove one of the grandest institutions in Kolkata into meltdown needs to be heard far outside India. It’s an extraordinary blend of traditional protest rituals and social media, alleged police beatings and a march that brought an entire city to a standstill. But it also highlights one of our most important, yet under-remarked, geopolitical truths: in its megacities and towns, across campuses and workplaces, urban India is breeding a generation of angry young men and women.

In a report last year, the UN dropped its usual diplomat-ese to warn: “In every sphere – education, work and play – there is a mix of disenchantment, resentment and hope. With growth has not come equity. The cost of urbanisation is beginning to tell in a way that if left unattended could plunge society into fragments.”

Numbers alone make that globally significant: there are 433 million people aged between 15 and 34 living in Indian towns and cities. Imagine an army bigger than the combined populations of the US, the UK and Canada. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Kerala: Mass kissing drive leaves cops high and dry...
  2. Indian youth killed after stopping attempted rape of sisters...
  3. Girls ditch grooms in parched Gujarat villages...
  4. India’s Love Commandos – and the runaway couples they protect...
  5. Female lecturer in India gang-raped by three teachers...

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