Gen Z pours out on India's streets as dissent surges

Despite tens of thousands of security personnel deployed to stop them, youth protesters in India scaled barricades last week, chanted anti-government slogans and scuffled with police officers trying to drag them away.



"Long live the revolution," shouted one young man before police bundled him into a bus.



Street protests in India this year are likely to be higher than at any time in the past decade, the independent Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) Project has said, as dissent mounts against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and Gen Z activists pour on to the streets.



Analysts say the youth protests, and growing support for the opposition, form the worst crisis for Modi since he came to power in 2014, with people under 30 making up nearly one quarter of the country's 1 billion voters. But his government remains stable and the next general election is not due until 2029.



"The nation has suddenly found its voice," said Yogendra Yadav, an anti-government activist who has played a leading part in the demonstrations. "I would not say this is the beginning of the end of the Modi regime, but this definitely is the beginning of a downward spiral".



The government and Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party declined comment for this story.