Across continents both in North and South, we see the rise of youth mobilization, either described as Millennials or Gen Z. For example, Nepal, Bangladesh, Italy.

According to some analysts, the world is going through a sort of youth insurgency. Though since the global economic crisis we have seen sporadic events like occupy wall street in the USA to Arab spring starting in Tunisia and further engulfing the entire Middle East, movement in India against corruption, Pakistan. But there has been a greater burst of such events since 2022 like the Aragalaya protest which has thrown the Rajapaksa Government out of power.

The year 2025, has seen the largest number of such protests in almost all corners, be it Italy or Peru, Madagascar or Mongolia. South Asia has attracted global attention as the youth has been successful in displacement of the government like in Bangladesh and Nepal.

And now, it is India's turn as we are witnessing a new phenomenon in the name of CJP raising the urgent and immediate concerns of Gen Z like transparency and accountability in examination pattern besides the broader issues like the decline of institutions. The control of corporations on media and public policy. Decline of tolerance towards dissent and attempts for highlighting the issues like cate and religion ignoring the real concerns of education and employment. India’s turn is being closely watched considering the largest number of youths India has.

The social scientists are still in the process of arriving at the conclusive theories and government responses have been ranging from being a naïve dissent to the serious conspiracies. Certain researches have also shown the geo-political dimension in context of US-China rivalries. Whether in Sri Lanka, Nepal or even in Bangladesh.

Popular protests at the grassroot level can be analysed through the various lenses:

A.  The present protest can be seen as the succession of Third Wave of Democracy as provided by Samuel P Huntington.

B.  The Relative deprivation theory and J Curve thesis of Ted Gurr and James Davis which explains the gap between expectations and reality. Also offers a lens.

C. The Resource Mobilisation theory of McCarthy and Zald can help us to understand the future prospects as the development depends on resource mobilisation.

Jurgen Habermas Legitimation Crisis offers a fruitful analysis not just to understand the phenomena but also looking forward toward a possible way out through revitalization of the public sphere.

At a general level, popular protests are expressions of radical politics/ the politics of left, though Fukuyama made over-arching prediction about the end of ideology in the age of Neo-liberal Globalisation, described by him as the end of history, socialism has not died as an ideology, though got relegated to periphery. in Post Cold War World Order, the three waves of socialism have appeared such as the third way of 90’s suggesting a middle path between market efficacy and distributive justice represented by Tony Blair, Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Ursula Von Der Leyen.

Millennial socialism, whose contemporary faces are Zohran Mamdani, Katie Wilson, Graham Platner, who emphasize on rights of labour, higher taxations on Plutocrats (rich), issues of basic health, education and the present wave of Gen Z socialism, arising out of local issues, but reflecting trans-national elements in terms of Membership, strategy dominating memetic warfare, a distinct iconography inspired by pirates as a symbol of resistance. What differentiates them from the earlier socialist is their anti-ideology for nihilistic tendencies demanding generational justice.

Experts have analysed the logic behind such protests in the sense that they are reflection of the troubled phase in which they are borne, whether they are engineered or organic in nature, requires proper analysis and data collection, yet for the time being it is a time for “Great Reset”, in the approach towards policy making as well as transforming the culture of governance.

Author Shubhra Ranjan is Director Institute for Humanities