79 years after Independence, what a ‘free’ India looks like to Gen Z

The Nobel Laureate Tagore’s poem, written in Bengali as ‘Chitta jetha bhoy shunno’ in 1913, envisaged an India free from British rule. Now, 79 years after India gained independence from colonial rule in 1947, the country’s Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) has its own idea of what a truly ‘free’ Indian society should be like. And the idea goes beyond just geographical or political independence.

For years dismissed as the "online generation", criticised for “not being in touch with reality”, India’s Gen Z are awake and alert.

Last year, as a youth protest against corruption in Nepal saw a regime change in the neighbouring country, a BBC article published in October 2025 asked, “Why young Indians aren’t taking to the streets”. “One reason is that India's Gen Z is fragmented. Like their regional peers, many are disillusioned by joblessness, corruption and inequality. Yet their anger flares around local issues, making a unified national movement unlikely,” the article argued.

That changed this year. Triggered by a National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) paper leak scandal that broke out in May, India's Gen Z took to the streets to demand reforms and accountability in education. The epicentre of the students’ protest was Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, but the movement spread far and wide, with Gen Z across the country organising solidarity agitations in their hometowns. The agitation — spearheaded by the Cockroach Janata Party, which started as an online movement against comments attributed to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, equating the country’s unemployed youth with cockroaches (the CJI has since claimed that his statement was directed at fake law degree holders and not all unemployed youth) — saw Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of parliament (MP) Dharmendra Pradhan resign as Union education minister.

The protest ended last month. But the Gen Z, fresh from an agitation that changed the dialect of dissent in the country with its protest reels, memes, Gen Z Korean finger heart gestures and the humorous irreverence of words like ‘delulu’ (delusional) and ‘kuchu puchu’, appears to be in no hurry to return to the "comfortably numb" life it had so far been perceived to be living.

Instead, it displays amazing clarity of thought while dwelling on its idea of ‘India’, the political, social and economic changes that it would like to see in the country and the role that it can play in bringing about that shift.

Also read: Why for Gen Z kanwariyas, politics is walking a tightrope between faith and concerns about future

“We are free only in history books, but the reality is something else,” alleges 24-year-old Ruchita Das, 24, an engineer working in the field of cybersecurity. “Infrastructurally, India may have taken strong strides, but inequality, poverty, unemployment, red-tapism, corruption, educational mess (even in some reputed institutions), agricultural distress and now enhanced religiosity coupled with rising hate speech all exist and continue to rise”.

That Das is not merely mouthing platitudes and is in complete touch with reality can be verified by the news reports coming in from across the country. There have been reports of farmers’ agitations in various parts of the country, for government procurement of farm produce and relating to minimum support price (MCP). According to reports, hate speech against religious minorities in the country rose by 13 per cent in 2025.

Das adds: “The recent protests and the coming together of people from our generation have, however, reaffirmed what we always knew — that solidarity counts, collective strength counts. Now the youth have realised their right to demand accountability from an elected government and that identity-based politics and communal agenda of the political parties should not be the real [poll] issues but jobs, proper healthcare, climate distress, access to open data and most importantly ‘living without fear’ should take precedence.”

Agrees Harshita Agarwal, a Mumbai-based college student, “The greatest message out of this protest [the Gen Z students’ agitation] is the renewed belief that collectively we can bring about change. Till now we have been ensconced in our own virtual world; we were focused on our lives and more invested individually. Fighting for a cause so deeply and collectively and coming together is a great feeling. Perhaps the new thought emerging this Independence Day is that freedom of thought and fearlessness are constitutionally guaranteed.”

And those from Agarwal’s generation that The Federal spoke to appear to be taking that guarantee very seriously, moving beyond the recent protest to talk about other changes that they would want to see in the country. Their concerns range from practical needs of job and livelihood — a better future for themselves and their family — to the addressing of social issues such as caste and religious targeting.

“We need jobs here and not just in metro cities. I want to stay in Jaipur, but there are not many job opportunities here in the field of cybersecurity,” says Das. “We know government jobs are the most coveted since they are perceived to be secure. But despite vacancies everywhere… in school, in hospitals, in railways, the process in which these are being filled is questionable,” she alleges.

The 24-year-old adds: “We keep filling forms, take recruitment exams and get disillusioned after a while.” The concern voiced by her finds reflection in an ongoing protest in Jharkhand against alleged irregularities in job recruitment examinations.

Das says: “I would probably earn more if I seek jobs abroad; maybe I would in the long run if the pay is better. But cyber security is a big issue here, so working here would help my country.”

For Seema Biswas, a 19-year-old college student in Kolkata, that urge for her generation to help shape the country’s future goes beyond taking up jobs in the country to participating in the governance process.

“I would like to see more younger people in politics, which is extremely difficult in India. Only the sons and daughters and relatives of established political leaders [seem to] get party tickets to contest elections. Political parties also see them as a safe bet and do not want to disturb their vote banks. So ideally we need to purge the vote bank and dynastic politics and give a chance to those really interested in joining politics and governance,” she reasons. “I have also seen bureaucrats and top police officials getting tickets. Maybe we can have a certain number of seats reserved for young blood in all political parties? They can kind of screen these people like we have exams in all government jobs,” she wonders aloud.

Meanwhile, Nandini (identified by first name only), a 22-year-old studying law at NLSIU, Bengaluru, takes a more social stand, drawing attention to the “moral policing” that she would like to see an end to. “Though the Uniform Civil Code [UCC] imposed in states like Uttarakhand seems like a progressive move, it actually encourages moral policing of interfaith couples. The public notice requirement under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 creates a big impediment for interfaith couples wanting to marry under secular legislation, as threats from family members and social vigilantes can be made and honour killings won't be entirely off the charts. Interestingly, no personal law prescribes such a public notice requirement. Do frauds not happen in personal law marriages? Why specifically the SMA?” she questions. “In my idea of India, we must do away with this public notice requirement at once. Secular laws in India must strive to facilitate interfaith marriages and uphold the true spirit of a secular India.”

Her idea of India is echoed by Tushita Mukherjee, a Raipur resident. At 30, she is just beyond the Gen Z group (roughly those aged 14-29 years today). But a year doesn’t really result in much difference in thoughts. Touching upon the subjects of inter-caste and inter-religious relationships and the boogie of ‘love jihad’, she says, “Why would community and religious leaders be concerned about how two individuals from different religions co-exist peacefully? There is no place for moral policing in today’s India. My idea of India is obviously a nation which doesn’t see religious differences as a barrier.”

The Gen Z ‘awakening’ has given the older generations renewed hope about the country’s future. “They have changed the political language of protest. What began as the reclamation of an insult has been transformed into an identity of survival, collective strength and shared belonging. By converting a label meant to diminish them into a badge of resilience and solidarity, they have forged a new political vocabulary, one that connects individual experience with collective identity and turns humiliation into hope,” wrote Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha in a newspaper article recently.

Writer Arundhati Roy echoed his sentiments when she, too, stated, “For the first time in years, it feels wonderful to be Indian. Just when hope seemed lost, they came. Young roaches riding in on the rain.”

What many political and social observers draw attention to is the almost ‘unimaginable’ impact of the students’ protest on the system. Not only did the Centre give in to the Gen Z demands, but the subject has since continued to be a part of the political discourse in the country.

"The carefully cultivated aura of invincibility surrounding the top leadership has been dented. That is the agitation's greatest achievement,” political scientist and professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Zoya Hasan, was quoted as saying in an interview. “It has punctured the myth of the regime's invincibility and opened the way for a broader political challenge. The complete lack of accountability lay at the heart of the movement.”

Also read: Why online trolling of Gen Z women dissenters is yet another proof of growing digital misogyny

Psychologists, meanwhile, have been decoding not just their language of dissent and their use of Gen Z ‘tools’ to mobilise and connect, but their very angst.

“They seem to balance the reel with the real, using the internet to vent out their angst and mobilise support for a unique movement that the political class is still discussing,” says Satish Kaushik, psychologist and founder of Rajbala Foundation, which works in the field of rural mental health. “This generation is well-informed and understands the importance of social media and how it can be used positively for bringing change. Many of them voice their opinions through satire and memes and in a way are asserting themselves to bring change.”

Adds Dr Anindita Bhattacharya, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist: “What is striking about this movement is how they have moved from isolated to collective impact and from a sense of helplessness to shared agency, coming together with a belief that they can bring about change in the system. The internet [often seen as an isolating factor, cutting people away from those around them] has helped undo their aloneness, allowing them to realise that they are not alone in their anger, fear, anxieties and frustrations. In that sense, anger has become a more adaptive emotion; one that says, ‘something matters to me and you and that something needs to change’. Perhaps the most interesting psychological story is that their digital connectedness has become a vehicle through which compassion, solidarity, meaning, hope and agency can move into the physical world.”

And yet, despite the ‘newness’ of their protest dialect, this generation, born decades after the country’s independence also displayed their connect to the country’s founding fathers’ in their holding on to the country’s Constitution, in the placards bearing photos of freedom fighters and BR Ambedkar, and in the long-cherished cry of rebellion, ‘Inquilab Zindabad’, which blended into their discourse of ‘delulu’ and ‘Kuchu Puchu, please’.

“It adds another relational layer, a reclaiming of dignity, equality and democracy as ideals that belong to them too,” agrees Bhattacharya.

Her understanding of the Gen Z psyche finds echo in the words of Prateek Chandan, 22, also a student of NLSIU, Bengaluru. “My idea of India in 2026 remains the same as that of our freedom fighters. I am a staunch believer in a free, secular democracy that will help the nation realise its full potential.”

He adds: “I cannot stop myself from comparing India with other countries. However, I also understand the unique circumstances of India and believe that in a nation of a billion people, the best way to improve things is to improve oneself first and one’s surroundings by being a better student, a good neighbour, a helping friend and a better human being, while also asking others especially those holding responsible positions to be accountable and answerable in an egalitarian set-up.”

Like Bora, his idea of India, too, aligns with the lines of Tagore’s vision of freedom, “Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection/Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way/Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit…”.

Seventy-nine years since India’s independence, Gen Z is now looking beyond the ‘habit’ of freedom and democracy, to reclaim that ‘reason’ and ‘perfection’ promised in these ideas.