Educator sees renewed interest in Gandhian protest among India’s Gen Z
An educator’s account of classroom reactions to Gandhi and recent student protests argues that truth and non-violence remain meaningful to younger Indians. The article links students’ responses to the 2020-21 farmers’ protest and a recent Jantar Mantar demonstration led by Gen Z activists.
An educator and journalist has argued that Gandhi’s principles of truth and non-violence remain relevant to young Indians, despite changing attitudes towards the independence leader and his legacy. The writer recalls showing Richard Attenborough’s 1980 film, Gandhi, to Class IX students three years ago. Some students applauded and cheered during the scene depicting Gandhi’s assassination, while others later apologised and said they had been caught up in the moment.
A smaller group said Gandhi deserved to be killed. When the film was later shown to Class VIII, some students again reacted by cheering. The educator paused the screening and asked them how they would feel if a similar act happened to an elderly person they loved.
The students then fell silent, according to the account. The writer subsequently asked whether a Gandhian revolution could still succeed. To illustrate the possibility, the educator showed footage of the farmers’ protest at Delhi’s border in 2020 and 2021.
The protest was described as peaceful and persistent, and the government eventually repealed the three farm laws at issue. The article also points to a more recent protest at Jantar Mantar involving Gen Z demonstrators who demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The writer says the protesters repeatedly emphasised that their resistance would remain non-violent, returned after violence on July 20 and continued until Pradhan resigned.
The account compares that persistence with the satyagrahis depicted in Gandhi, who advanced despite police violence during the Salt March. It argues that young protesters’ refusal to retreat showed that non-violent resistance had not become irrelevant. The writer calls the generation “Gen G”, for Gandhi, while acknowledging that its approach includes contemporary language and forms of mobilisation.
The central argument is that Gandhi’s political method can still influence protest, even as young people reinterpret and debate his legacy.
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