Gurmehar Kaur - The Young and the Restless: Youth and Politics in India

In the last one year I have heard, in varied contexts and conversations, the words young and political as the keywords used to define or make sense of me and what I do more times than I had in all my previous twenty years of existence. At sixteen, I was certain I was finally stepping into pre-adulthood as I finished my dreaded tenth standard board exams; at eighteen, I had thought I was officially an adult.

But then 2017 happened. If there was one good thing that immediately came out of all the media drama that took place around me, it was the re-establishment of my youth in my own head, highlighting the very small number that marked my age and the years I have ahead of me. A shocking revelation followedthat while there are many young people out there on the streets, six hundred and seventy million to be precise, there arent enough in our Parliament, assemblies or panchayats.

With this unexpected turn in my life, I found myself amidst people holding powerful positions with long designations, longer introductions and the longest amount of time spent under the label youth leader when in reality they were anything but young. It got me wondering why it was that the country that will have the highest population of youth in the world in the approaching future has leaders at least three decades past the age of the average youth.

Social media is a norm for those of us who grew up in the lap of the Internet. But skewed versions of history are being fed to us by leaders our grandparents age, leaders who have somehow managed to bring their politics to the Internet. For most of our adolescence, the Internet was a gateway to worlds which were out of reach. Today, even our screens are a reminder of broken promises.

It is true that the Internet has pushed India towards modernity, opening us up to ideas of same-sex marriage, interfaith relationships, inter-caste marriages, awareness of concepts of racism, feminism, communism and various other schools of political thought. The Internet was supposed to be democratic and open.

But then, something changed. Politicians discovered the Internet. It became a vehicle for political propaganda set by older, regressive, powerful demagogues. I know, because I was a victim of horrifying trolling and taunting and fake news from the very people who were meant to protect my rights.

The collective mindset of Indias citizens was manipulated through cyberspacealmost set into rewind mode. Emotions were evoked, conversations were forced and identities were questioned. We, the young Indians, as a demographic, were being seen as nothing more than a vote bank. Is now the time that we put our foot down and ask for younger, more dynamic and progressive leadership?

This conversation isnt new. Time and again, around the time of the Lok Sabha elections, politicians make elaborate speeches on the importance of involvement of younger people in politics. Banners are put up, rallies are carried out and on every wall and pillar we see plastered young, fresh faces of smiling party-workers and office-bearers. And yet, election cycle after election cycle, post the announcement of results, our Cabinets are filled with people more than twice our age. The average age of the Cabinet minister in India is sixty-three. What does that say about us?

I often wonder what it was about Kanhaiya Kumar and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) row that propelled the entire nations attention to this bunch of postgraduate and PhD students coming out strongly against the countrys leadership, making everyone either discredit our political rulers or question the politics of the country. Love them or hate them, they came in like fresh air after a storm, and along with them wafted in these ideas of a newer politics and a hope that we could have younger, passionate and dynamic leaders.

I grew up in a household where politics was discussed regularly. I remember the day I sat opposite my mom at the age of eight, pointing to the caricatures of Congress leaders in the corner of our daily newspaper, asking her to explain to me who they were and what their jobs entailed. But never once was there a discussion about whether I wanted to be a politician. Any mention of that idea was snubbed with politics is too dirty and not for girls from good homes or politics is only for people who have a political background.

When Atal Bihari Vajpayee served as prime minister for a full term, during my growing up years, he was already a septuagenarian. Did I even want to be in service at that age? I would rather be retired and enjoying with my grandchildren! Im certain that I wasnt the only one. Unlike the USA, where classrooms encourage children to aim to lead the country as the President, we are stuck to dreams of being doctors, engineers, teachers, pilots and astronauts. We are even taught to dream of joining the armed forces. But politics? No one told us that was an option.