The Indian Gen Z is the topic of the hour, and it seems they just keep surprising everyone. The recent incidents involving the NALSAR students or the ‘Dimagi Naxal Party’, not to mention all the other protests and attempts to raise their voice against socio-political issues, are proof that they are not letting fear stop them.
In response, the older generations can often be seen commenting, “In my time, we would never have dared.” But maybe that is exactly the point.
Maybe this is the time when the current generation has finally come to an understanding that silence cannot bring change.
It also needs to be pointed out that India’s Gen Z has never truly been silent. Over the years, they have spoken up about the injustices and inequalities they have noticed in society, just on a very micro level.
The nation is listening now only because the stage has grown beyond the individual confines of a job or a classroom. It is also listening because, for the first time, threats of consequences are no longer enough of a deterrent to make Gen Z subservient.
When an institution threatens to withhold a degree, or falls back on the age-old “do this, or else,” Gen Z’s response, instead of cowering, is to shrug, make a meme and carry on calling out for their cause.
The Threat To A Degree, Or The Insult Turned Into Opportunity
Two recent incidents have put a spotlight on how the Indian Gen Z really isn’t letting fear hold them back. Or at least not as much as one would have thought.
The first is the controversy at Hyderabad’s NALSAR University of Law, where students protested against the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, coming as the chief guest at NALSAR’s convocation.
It wasn’t just the protest that took things further; it was the reaction of the Bar Council of India (BCI), which sent a notice to every state bar council in the country stating that no graduate from the 2026 batch of NALSAR University of Law was to be enrolled as an advocate, “till further orders.”
Nothing really came of it, though. The order was withdrawn within hours of being released, with the BCI receiving nationwide backlash for taking such a harsh decision.
Even CJI Surya Kant, while hearing a petition related to the matter, pushed back on the BCI’s notice, stating, “They (students) have a right to protest. Who can stop them?”
The court also issued a notice to the BCI, restraining it from taking any further action against NALSAR’s students or faculty.
The second is the phrase “Dimagi Naxal”, used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech this year, which went viral soon after. Many people took it to mean that anyone who criticised those in power was being labelled a Naxal, and argued that this did not sit well with the democratic nature of the country.
In a trend that started with the Cockroach Janta Party, a social media handle soon popped up called the “Dimagi Naxal Party.” This has been an interesting phenomenon, where the current generation takes any insult thrown their way and turns it into an identity.
So, the question that arises now is, why isn’t Gen Z scared anymore?
1. It Started At Home
The thing is, Gen Z has been talking about the issues it believes in for a long time now. It was just that the scale was very micro, more related to their immediate life or environment. Their push to change the Indian professional sector is proof of this, as Gen Z has been calling out harmful and toxic practices for years.
Using various social media platforms, many have shared instances of toxic managers, executives harassing women or young freshers, work-life boundaries not being respected, or proper compensation not being given to an employee.
Delhi-based psychotherapist Divija Bhasin, speaking with Outlook Business, said, “This dynamic is thankfully changing now. The older generation is finding it difficult to accept that the younger generation actually has a life beyond their work. We need to redefine ‘hard work’.”
Even at home, Gen Z has routinely called out unfair practices or spoken up about a relative crossing their boundaries. To the older generation, this would be practically blasphemous, since cultural conditioning dictates that one must respect one’s elders and never voice anything ‘unsavoury’.
2. The Unifying Factor Of Jantar Mantar
Some might be sick of the Jantar Mantar protests being brought up, but one cannot deny that they brought about a unifying factor that seemed to have been missing. Now, it must be said that it is not as if the previous generations had just been sitting on their hands, letting wrongdoing happen.
Over the last decade or so, many protests have taken place, whether it was the farmers’ movement, various students’ movements or the Anna Hazare agitation.
Change has even come out of many of these protests. But the unifying identity was not there. Nor was the determination not to let things end once the demands were met.
The Jantar Mantar protests in Delhi gave Gen Z that identity, bringing them all under the same umbrella.
Read More: Indian Parents Vs Gen Z Opinion: Is It Really Necessary To Struggle In Life?
3. They’ve Got The Guts
Another reason could be social media. Now, wait, let me explain: this generation has been publicly humiliated online since they were teenagers, and maybe what it has done is wear the edges off the fear that used to keep people compliant.
Indian Gen Z has basically grown up performing in public, being screenshotted, being cancelled and un-cancelled. So, in a version of exposure therapy, it has worn down the fear of public consequence. The continued injustice they have seen over the years has also eroded whatever fear of authority they once had.
4. A Pressure Cooker That’s Reached Its Peak
If one has been around social media, then maybe the current wave of fearlessness would not seem very strange. One can almost liken it to a pressure cooker, where the pressure had just been building up, and it has erupted now.
Ever since the COVID pandemic, there has been unrest simmering within the younger generation. The lack of job prospects, higher taxes and cost of living, under-managed educational institutions, paper leaks, rising social unrest, communal disharmony, poor civic amenities – all of it is just one issue on top of another that has led to a pressure cooker effect.
See, threats of a degree being withheld or one’s career prospects being ruined only stand when those things – a degree, a career and a job – are actually present at the end of it. But, as per various surveys and reports, that does not seem to be the case.
Educator and author Prashant Kirad, in a recent LinkedIn post, wrote that “only 42.6% of Indian graduates are employable right now – meaning more than half are walking out of college with a degree the job market does not value.”
He added, “The honest reason is not that the students are not working hard enough; it is that college is preparing them for a version of the job market that no longer exists.”
According to the State of Working India 2026 report by Azim Premji University, graduate unemployment among 15- to 25-year-olds stands at almost 40%. The report also found that in 2023, two-thirds of the country’s unemployed were graduates.
24-year-old graphic designer Aditi Garg, based in Bengaluru, told CNBC, “I have lost count of the number of jobs I applied to last year,” adding that many from her generation are “barely able to find a job or settle for one that barely pays bills.”
The fact that there are “always a hundred other people” in need of a job means they cannot even negotiate for better pay or working conditions. Garg explains that this frustration with the education system and the economy of the country made her join the Bengaluru faction of the Delhi student protests.
The State of Working India report also found that around 5 million students graduated between 2004 and 2023, and yet only 2.8 million of them were able to find jobs, with salaried employment being even rarer.
The cost of living is also constantly rising, with people posting about how it is practically impossible to live in cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru today, even with an impressive salary. Corruption and the mismanagement of civic facilities are other things that make daily life very difficult.
It also seems as if the positive outcomes of recent student protests in neighbouring countries – such as Bangladesh’s 2024 student-led uprising, Nepal’s 2025 Gen Z protests and Sri Lanka’s 2022 Aragalaya protests – might have given hope to the Indian Gen Z. The fact that the younger generations of nearby countries spoke up against injustice could have lit a similar fire among the Indian youth to also be the change they want to see.
With nothing certain waiting at the end of the ladder, time spent on activism stops feeling like a cost. It starts feeling like the only investment that might actually pay off.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Hindu, The Wire, Deccan Herald, Outlook Business, CNBC
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Indian Gen Z, CJI law students, NALSAR students, NALSAR students CJI, NALSAR students BCI, BCI, Dimagi Naxal, Dimagi Naxal Party
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