“If I can’t dance to it, it is not my revolution”. So said Emma Goldman, a potent voice of anarchism in North America and Europe. Young Indians who occupied Jantar Mantar, dancing and singing to celebrate their own revolution, intended to convey the same. Goldman said famously, “Demonstrate before the palaces of the rich; demand work. If they don’t give you work, demand bread. If they deny you both, take bread.”

She was branded by the American government as “Red Emma” and the “most dangerous woman in America”. Though protesters were vilified by many BJP leaders, the government showed restraint by not equating the young protesters with “Red Emma”.

Prime Minister Modi had to make a rare retreat by sacking Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. As senior commentator Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay has said, “This is not just one minister’s exit… It may be the moment Prime Minister Modi’s aura of invincibility has finally cracked.”

Politics As Celebration

Young agitators converted the protest into a fiesta and a carnival, very much like what the indigenous and women’s movements in Latin America have done in recent years.

The protesters used music, memes and reels not to dance and forget but to hurt and insult the ruling classes. Songs, dances, memes and reels gave them a view of the world. At Jantar Mantar, politics and songs became one and the same.

To this generation, politics is not for politics’ sake; it is for life’s sake. Their protest was not meant to simply charm but to seduce. Protesters used their bodies........

© Free Press Journal