After the police repeatedly detained her as she climbed over barricades blocking the protest site in India’s capital, Neha Bora took to Instagram last weekend.
The 29-year-old activist, who has become a prominent face of the season of discontent gripping India, shared the day’s accumulation of bruises with her more than one million followers, leaning into the style of a fitness influencer.
“This is my bicep, this is my tricep,” she said, rolling up her sleeves and pointing to each mark. “And see here — I had a shoulder day, too.”
Then, looking straight into the camera, she unleashed her fury at the Delhi police. Their intimidation would not stop the youth, she said.
“We will march again tomorrow,” she said. “To tell you that you can’t snatch our freedom, our right to protest.”
Protests, marches and strikes of all kinds were once common in the capital. But the space for dissent in India has shrunk over the last decade under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and recently his government has refused to allow protests even in the one “designated area” called Jantar Mantar that they had been reduced to in New Delhi. The police have denied permission for Saturday’s rally there and columns of security forces have been moving in to pick up anyone daring to gather.
But for months, India’s young have been putting their bodies on the line to be heard. The battle-lines are drawn, with youth groups calling for their biggest march yet on Saturday.
During the summer, they demanded the resignation of the education minister over repeated scandals in college entrance exams. Some protesters, including Ms. Bora, went on extended hunger strikes. The protests only grew, and the police unleashed water cannons, tear gas, and even pellet guns, causing widespread outrage. The government made a rare concession and the minister quit.
The protesters have taken to the streets again. This time they are voicing anger over the culling of more than 130 million names from India’s voter roll, which they argue was a political move to favor Mr. Modi’s party, which the ruling party denies. They are demanding the resignation of the country’s election commission chief.
Their sustained pressure on the streets, and creative use of social media, has opened a crack in the powerful hold that Mr. Modi established during his dozen years in office — something the traditional political opposition struggled to do.
Ms. Bora, a doctoral student in theater studies who is the president of the leftist All India Students’ Association, said the outpouring of anger was a sign that any strongman can consolidate power “only to a certain extent.”
“I’m not saying that people are completely at ease and they’re comfortable and the democracy is flourishing,” she said. “But people are not afraid of the police anymore.”
On the streets of Delhi, protesters have engaged in a game of cat and mouse, finding inventive ways to evade attempts by the police to block them.
Last Sunday, Ms. Bora climbed the first layer of barricades, trying to reach the designated protest site.
As police officers tried to hold the protesters back, she was fuming. After much push and pull, she managed to jump to the other side, and soon the police line was broken.
Protesters dragged the barricades apart, only to face another layer of barricades and more columns of police. The police dragged protesters one by one onto buses, driving them away into detention.
Ms. Bora was detained six times over two days; the last time, she said, the police drove her tens of miles and dropped her off in an industrial area.
“By the time you’re released and you come back to central Delhi or wherever the protest is taking place, you are so tired and night has set in, so you can’t again start the protest,” she said. “It’s part of their playbook.”
One group of volunteers developed an app to track the buses protesters are packed into. By tracing their route, the app connects them with volunteer drivers who can rush them back, as well as legal and medical help.
“Most of the people are students, women, people protesting for the first time, and they don’t know what to do,” said Rajiv Choudhary, 25, who helped develop the app. “We created a system to say, ‘No worries, we are behind you, we are sending some help.’”
In detention, the protesters continued to poke the authorities, training their cameras on the messy state of affairs.
“Guys, we have been detained in this police station,” says one young protester in an Instagram video. “But look at this — how dirty the water, this area, is.”
At the barricades near the protest site, as the young people were picked up, some older people who had come in solidarity stepped up.
Nisha Sidhu, 62, gave the police an earful. They leaned on the barricades, staring at her.
“In his speeches, the prime minister says ‘educate your daughters,’” she said. “But when they come here to ask for their rights, you try to silence them? It doesn’t look like we live in a free country.”
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