By Hari Bapuji and Pankhuri Agarwal

A few weeks ago, a consumer in Delhi announced on social media that their family switched from Amul butter to Milky Mist. Their reason had nothing to do with taste or price. “The Amul girl has refused to speak up for the students (in the Cockroach Janta Party protests)”. Others quickly said they were doing the same. It was a small act, but a telling one: A generation raised on hashtags and group chats had decided that corporate silence was itself a position, and a costly one at that.

That silence has been the norm. Across India, Kenya, Bangladesh and Nepal, Gen Z-led movements have reshaped the institutional environment businesses operate in. The triggers for these movements and their demands vary, but they concern inequalities, corruption, and democratic rights. Despite calls for business leaders to voice their support, they remain silent. The question worth asking is not just what businesses risk by staying silent, but what they stand to gain by engaging with a generation that is participative, vocal, and impossible to ignore.

A generation with its own playbook

What set the CJP apart was as much its style as its substance. Protesters stayed peaceful in the face of provocation, invoked constitutional rights, and reclaimed the language of democracy for themselves. When branded anti-national, they wore patriotism openly on their sleeves and flipped the narrative back on their critics. The demands were serious, structural, even, but the tone was anything but grim: Dancing, singing, livestreaming, and memes were integral parts of their protests. The country watched, largely with disbelief, as a generation it thought it understood turned out to be something else entirely.

Business leaders were no better attuned to this shift than anyone else. Where some spoke, it was often to dismiss rather than........

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