The large-scale protests triggered by the gang rape of a 23-year-old student in  has renewed debate over the rise of a new urban middle-class activism in .
The strength and longevity of those protests, sustained as they were over several weeks and undeterred by police water cannons and teargas,[url=http://www.cheapgucchandbagsoutletus.com]gucci shoes[/url], took many by surprise. Student activism has generally been on the decline since the early 1990s,[url=http://www.cloutletcheapshoes.com]http://www.cloutletcheapshoes.com[/url], when the economy was liberalized,[url=http://www.c0achoutletusa2.com]coach bags[/url], and the Indian urban middle-class is notorious for its political apathy.
But the recent protests, coming on top of 2011’s massive anticorruption movement led by Gandhian activist Anna Hazare, has some commentators heralding a new social mobilization – one that is fueled by frustration with what is seen as an increasingly corrupt and out-of-touch political system, energized by a new generation of youth, and aided by both old and new media,[url=http://www.lvhandbasoutletcheap.com]louis vuitton handbags[/url].
“A generation has come of age that has [previously] been linked to a class and an ethos that was supremely indifferent to anything but their own self-interest – consumption and making money,[url=http://www.cheapgucchandbagsoutletus.com]gucci Sunglasses[/url],” says Aditya Nigam, a political scientist and senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi.He points out that this generation grew up in the 1990s,[url=http://www.polouscheaps.com]http://www.polouscheaps.com[/url], a period of economic liberalization that saw rising prosperity but also increased corruption – there have been several high-profile scams in recent years – that was perpetrated with impunity.
Demographics are certainly a factor in the recent protests. More Indians are entering the middle class – million, depending on the definition of middle class – and more now live in the cities.
They form the spine of support for the Aam Aadmi Party,[url=http://www.cloutletcheapshoes.com]christian louboutin sale[/url], launched in October by Hazare’s former deputy Arvind Kejriwal. This segment is believed to have contributed to the recent reelection of controversial right-wing leader , who courted what he called the “neo-middle-class” in the state of .
There is a “,[url=http://www.ralphlaurencheapus.com]ralph lauren polo[/url],” wrote a commentator in a leading business daily. “The middle class has sensed that its period of political irrelevance is over,[url=http://www.cheapminibootssonsaleuk2.co.uk]ugg boots uk sale[/url], with its numbers growing at a phenomenal pace.”
India’s population is also disproportionately young, a feature that is ,[url=http://www.c0achoutletusa2.com]http://www.c0achoutletusa2.com[/url]. The median age in India is now 25, while the median age of a national politician is closer to 60 – a generational and cultural gap that has been on display in the past few weeks as political and civic leaders have blamed sexual violence on everything from English education to short skirts.
The generational shift is evident to Arjun Bali, a 42-year-old filmmaker who turned up with his toddler for a women’s rights protest in an upscale neighborhood in  on New Year’s Day. Mr. Bali said he was no stranger to protests – he had attended many as a college student. “The generation born in the 1980s, they don’t know have the baggage or the fears” from, say, the Emergency, he says, referring to the period in the early 1970s when then  suspended elections and suppressed civil liberties.
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