Protest Wave Spreads Across India, Challenging Modi's Authority

This October, India is witnessing a protest wave of unprecedented scale and diversity. From the capital New Delhi to Mumbai, a wide range of groups are taking to the streets simultaneously, turning individual grievances into a collective voice that challenges the incumbent government's authority.

Returning to the streets since the start of the month, supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have staged non-violent civil disobedience actions to mark the 157th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The atmosphere has been festive, with large participation from students, women's groups, and young men chanting slogans focused on a single demand: the resignation of India's Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, over allegations of manipulating voter rolls to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

At the same time in Delhi, students and youth groups marched to protest the lack of safety for women after a 17-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped at Aastha Kunj park in the city's southeast. Three suspects in the case are said to have posed as police officers. In Mumbai, the parents of Sahil Wakode, a second-year engineering student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, began an indefinite hunger strike after their son died by suicide earlier this month. They are demanding the arrest of the teachers involved and allege that their son was severely harassed on the basis of caste.

In Pune, candidates for the Maharashtra Public Service Commission are also protesting, calling for the commission's chairman to resign amid concerns over irregularities in the exam, a lack of transparency, and uncertainty about the results.

Those not directly on the streets are spending much of their time in front of computer and phone screens, following events and expressing views online with emotions ranging from optimism and pessimism to outrage.

The sudden convergence of these protests has placed Prime Minister Modi's government in a pincer of domestic unrest. Overlapping waves of discontent mark a shift in the national mood, partly uniting a previously fragmented segment of the younger generation, energizing opposition parties, and turning individual complaints into a highly visible movement that authorities are finding difficult to control.

At the same time, central Delhi and parts of Mumbai have been placed under lockdown with heavy security, including on Gandhi Jayanti, worsening the image problem. According to analysts, Modi appears to be relying on hard power rather than the legitimacy of the ballot as he once did.

For much of his political career, Modi held both electoral legitimacy and control over institutions. That era has now ended, as he no longer commands the support he had in 2014, and no institution — media, parliament, election commission, or judiciary — is capable of absorbing shocks on his behalf.

The protests differ in their origins but share a common demand: power must come with accountability. The chief election commissioner, upper-caste teachers at IIT Bombay, and the men who posed as police in the gang-rape case are all being drawn into the same reckoning over accountability.

After CJP's first victory in July, which led to the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Modi is said to have retreated further into his office, having lost some of his usual confidence. Criticism spreading on social media through short videos and memes is seen as a series of cuts gradually eroding his image. According to observers, the first cracks in the government did not come from an election defeat, but from the moment ordinary students stopped believing they could do nothing to bring about change.

This latest round of protests, the second in three months, is challenging the inevitability of Modi's power. Nationwide protests are expected to continue throughout October. Alongside groups such as CJP, India's opposition parties will hold five major marches across the country. Beyond calling for Gyanesh Kumar's resignation, the parties also want a return to paper ballots instead of electronic voting machines (EVMs), arguing that electronic voting makes the recording and counting of votes vulnerable to interference. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has accused Kumar of treason and warned there will be consequences once he is removed from office.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi has shown no sign of conceding. He began his day at the Gandhi memorial, laying flowers before the leader of non-violence, while paramilitary forces and riot-control vehicles were deployed across Delhi and Mumbai to prevent protesters from gathering. Roads leading to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi — the designated protest site — were barricaded. Those who made it past the barricades were detained by police. Waves of arrests took place on Friday and continued through Saturday, but protesters kept returning to assembly points to press their demands.

Observers say the government is once again using some of the repressive tools Gandhi spent his political life fighting: restrictions on public assembly, curfews, preventive detention, and control of dissent. As its hold on power becomes more precarious, the government leans more heavily on hard power.

In the coming days, the government may clear the streets, arrest protesters, seize banners, and suppress dissenting voices. But what it will struggle to do, at least in the long run, is force Indian voters to believe that power is legitimate simply because it is strong.

In a democracy as weary as India's, where institutions are under pressure from unchecked power, the image of people rising up in countless acts of resistance is seen as one of the most notable developments. The month of protests is forecast to be chaotic, noisy, and unpredictable. This young movement carries a striking visual energy that easily invites romanticization — of purity, of youthful vitality, or of blazing anger.

However, according to analysts, it would be a mistake to romanticize or box India's new protest culture into a rigid mold. It is something more than that, and rare: unfinished.

The views in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.