A generation of angry young Indians takes to the streets to challenge Modi

NEW DELHI (AP) — Kashish Rawat traveled to New Delhi on Saturday to protest. She did not tell her parents she was going.

When the 22-year-old economics student arrived in the Indian capital, she encountered a city transformed. Metal barricades choked the streets as police moved against young demonstrators, beating some, dragging others into buses and chasing away the rest. Protesters filmed the police violence on their phones, and the videos quickly went viral on social media.

The crackdown was meant to keep crowds of mostly young Indians from gathering to demonstrate against a purge of voter lists they say favors Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party. It did not deter Rawat, who stayed on the streets until evening, keeping out of the reach of police officers.

“We are not going anywhere. We will come back again and make our voices heard,” she said.

Protests led by India’s “Cockroach” youth movement intensified earlier this month over an ongoing review of voter lists that’s already removed more than 130 million names since last year. Critics say the campaign is politically motivated and threatens to disenfranchise millions more. They have demanded the resignation of election chief Gyanesh Kumar.

The Election Commission says the exercise is needed to remove duplicate and ineligible entries.

Modi has not publicly commented on the protests. Some of his party leaders have dismissed the demonstrators as “anarchists” and suggested, without offering evidence, that they are backed by foreign powers.

The dispute has struck at the heart of Indian democracy: the right to vote. It is also testing whether a generation raised under Modi, who has been prime minister for more than 12 years, can turn its growing disillusionment into a sustained challenge to his Hindu nationalist government.

“I don’t see him as almighty,” Rawat said of Modi. “I see him as someone who we have elected. So I don’t understand the reason why we should be scared of questioning that guy.”

A test of India’s democratic institutions

India’s democratic institutions have come under growing pressure under Modi, with critics accusing his government of weakening checks on executive power, curbing dissent and targeting religious minorities, particularly Muslims. Press freedom groups have also raised concerns about pressure on independent media.

The government rejects the accusations, saying its institutions remain robust and law enforcement targets violations of the law, not dissent.

But for many young Indians, the institutions they grew up trusting are falling short of their promise. They see a political culture hostile to dissent, where challenging those in power can result in harm. The voter list dispute has sharpened those frustrations, giving a generation’s discontent a common cause.

Earlier this summer, protesters forced the resignation of Modi’s education minister, offering a rare example of street pressure translating into political change. Their mobilization since then has mirrored a wider wave of youth protests in other countries, particularly in South Asia, where Gen Z demonstrators have challenged political elites.

For Maya Ribeiro, a 19-year-old student, the controversy over voter lists has raised questions about a democratic right they had taken for granted.

At the protests Saturday, where the sociology student was joined by two friends, Ribeiro said they had registered to vote because they believed that participating in a democracy was both a right and a responsibility. But the prospect of more voters being struck from the lists has left Ribeiro worried that their right to vote is not assured. Ribeiro said it has made the fight over the electoral process more urgent.

“When we talk about the institution of voting, it is an important institution, but it is an institution that needs to be cleansed,” Ribeiro said.

Police crackdowns have deepened anger among the young

The sweeping police crackdown has given young Indians another reason to take to the streets, protesters said. They described the response to a planned demonstration as disproportionate in a democracy.

Aryan Kajaniya, a 21-year-old philosophy student, said the dispute reflected a broader disillusionment among young Indians with the country’s political system. He and other protesters, he said, were increasingly unsure how to exercise their right to free expression when authorities could restrict gatherings and detain demonstrators.

“People are actively trying to gather more information about what’s going on in the capital. They are joining in from different cities, but the system is actively trying to suppress us,” he said.

The movement’s reach extends beyond the crowds on the streets. Many protesters said they do not identify with any particular group or political party, but are driven by shared concerns.

Ribeiro said conversations among friends, debates at home and social media exchanges had turned their private frustration into collective action.

After years of feeling powerless, the protests had given young Indians like them a renewed sense of political agency, they said. That shift was visible during the “Cockroach” protests earlier this summer, when demonstrators broke a long-standing taboo by openly mocking Modi.

“I do believe that we are at a point where we have been so disillusioned that we are now more resilient than ever,” Ribeiro said.

Challenging Modi will take more than street protests

Challenging a leader as entrenched as Modi is no easy task. He has dominated Indian politics for more than a decade, and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has built a formidable electoral machine. Opposition parties have struggled to turn previous discontent with his government into a sustained national challenge.

The youth protests have also yet to coalesce into a coherent political alternative. But for many, creating space to question the government has become a fight in itself. And that has come at a cost.

Rawat said politics had become a recurring source of tension in her family. She believes her parents’ views have been shaped by television coverage sympathetic to Modi’s party, and their disagreements have sometimes led her to stop speaking to relatives.

“I do still try my best to have a conversation with them, but I have been failing so far,” she said.

For Ribeiro, the question is whether young Indians can turn their anger into a sustained movement for transparency and accountability. They said the protests have helped young people recognize that their voices can matter.

“I think for the first time in a very long time … I have felt a sort of renewed belief in what democracy can do,” Ribeiro said.