Why in News?
· Giorgio Agamben’s concept of ‘profanation’ means bringing objects, symbols or institutions from a restricted or ‘sacred’ sphere into common use.
· In politics, it represents demystification of authority through humour, satire, informality, memes and unconventional dissent.
· The student mobilisation illustrates a shift from conventional party-centric politics towards issue-based, non-party and digitally mediated political participation.
· Example: India’s freedom struggle similarly used boycott, non-cooperation and symbolic resistance to challenge colonial authority.
Profanation as a Political Language
Demystifying power: Profanation challenges the perception that political authority is untouchable or invincible.
- Example: Political cartoons during colonial rule ridiculed imperial authority.
Reclaiming political symbols: Citizens can appropriate symbols and language associated with power and assign them alternative meanings.
- Example: The student movement’s unconventional identity demonstrates how apparently derogatory imagery can be transformed into collective resistance.
Humour as resistance: Humour reduces fear and exposes contradictions within systems of power.
- Example: Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940) used satire to ridicule Hitler and fascism.
Informality as participation: Protests, memes, street performances and digital campaigns enable citizens to participate beyond political parties.
- Example: Youth-led movements increasingly use decentralised digital networks for mobilisation.
Profanation versus profanity: Satire and irreverence can be legitimate democratic expression, but threats, violence and abusive speech cannot automatically claim constitutional protection.
- Constitutional basis: Article 19(1)(a) guarantees freedom of speech subject to Article 19(2).
Historical Roots in Indian Politics
Non-Cooperation: Gandhi challenged colonial legitimacy by withdrawing cooperation from colonial institutions.
- Example: The Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22) promoted the boycott of government schools, courts and institutions.
Swadeshi and boycott: Foreign goods became symbols of colonial exploitation.
- Example: Burning foreign cloth transformed everyday consumption into political resistance.
Rejection of imperial honours: Renouncing British honours challenged the moral legitimacy of colonial rule.
- Example: Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in 1919 after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Salt Satyagraha: Gandhi transformed an ordinary commodity into an instrument of civil disobedience.
- Example: The 1930 Dandi March challenged the colonial salt monopoly.
Gandhian humour: Gandhi occasionally used wit to communicate structural inequality.
- Example: His reported remark regarding his clothing during his meeting with King George V in 1931 used humour to highlight the disparity between coloniser and colonised.
Emergence of New Youth Politics
Issue-based mobilisation: Youth politics increasingly focuses on employment, education, examination integrity and accountability.
- Example: The student mobilisation described in the article emerged from grievances concerning governance and institutional accountability.
Meme politics: Memes allow ordinary citizens to become political communicators without dependence on conventional media.
- Example: Protesters increasingly use memes and short videos to communicate grievances.
Leaderless mobilisation: Digital networks facilitate mobilisation without a rigid central hierarchy.
- Example: Recent youth movements have demonstrated decentralised organisation through social-media platforms.
Non-party politics: Such movements create political space between civil society and formal party politics.
- Example: Independent student groups can mobilise around examination reform without contesting elections.
Expansion of demands: Single-issue movements can evolve into broader accountability campaigns.
- Example: Examination-related protests can expand into concerns regarding recruitment, employment and administrative transparency.
Democratic Significance
Wider participation: Informal movements enable citizens without party membership to participate in democracy.
- Example: Student movements have historically brought education, employment and social justice into national debate.
Continuous accountability: Protest provides accountability between elections.
- Example: The Right to Information movement contributed to the enactment of the RTI Act, 2005.
Constitutional protection of dissent: Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(b) protect speech and peaceful assembly, subject to reasonable restrictions.
- Example: Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan v. Union of India (2018) recognised peaceful protest as an important democratic mechanism.
Beyond electoral democracy: Democracy also involves civil society, public deliberation and peaceful mobilisation.
- The V-Dem Democracy Report 2026 highlights deterioration in freedom of expression and civil-society space in several countries experiencing democratic backsliding.
Counter-hegemonic discourse: Satire provides alternative narratives against dominant political interpretations.
- Example: The Great Dictator demonstrated how cultural expression can challenge authoritarianism.
Challenges and Risks
Dissent versus disorder: Protest must not become a justification for violence or destruction.
- Example: Violent episodes during contemporary protests demonstrate the importance of non-violent mobilisation.
Excessive state response: Disproportionate restrictions can deepen distrust and suppress legitimate dissent.
- Example: Debates surrounding surveillance during protests raise concerns about privacy and proportionality.
Misinformation: Digital platforms enable rapid dissemination of unverified information.
- The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 identified misinformation and disinformation among major short-term global risks.
Polarisation: Meme-based politics can reduce complex policy questions to emotional binaries.
- Example: Debates on reservation, employment and examination reform may become partisan rather than evidence-based.
Institutionalisation deficit: Leaderless movements may struggle to develop detailed policy alternatives and internal accountability.
- Example: An examination-reform movement must eventually address examination security, recruitment procedures and grievance redressal.
Political co-option: Established parties may appropriate demands of spontaneous movements.
- Example: The anti-corruption movement of 2011 influenced mainstream political discourse and contributed to the emergence of a new political formation.
Way Forward
Protect constitutional dissent: Distinguish between peaceful criticism and unlawful conduct.
- Example: Restrictions under Articles 19(2) and 19(3) should satisfy constitutional requirements of reasonableness and proportionality.
Institutionalise youth participation: Strengthen student representation, grievance mechanisms and government–youth consultations.
- Example: Effective grievance-redressal systems can prevent administrative failures from escalating into prolonged protests.
Improve examination governance: Use secure examination infrastructure, independent audits, transparent investigations and time-bound grievance resolution.
- Example: Examination irregularities demonstrate that institutional credibility is essential for public trust.
Promote digital constitutional literacy: Citizens should understand both freedom of expression and its limitations relating to misinformation, incitement, defamation and public order.
- Example: Digital-literacy programmes can help distinguish satire from harmful misinformation.
Connect informal and formal politics: Democratic mobilisation should translate into institutional reform: Grievance → Peaceful mobilisation → Deliberation → Institutional response → Policy reform.
Preserve constitutional morality: The ideal should be ‘irreverence towards power, but commitment to constitutional values.’
- Example: Political satire can question authority while respecting dignity, equality, non-violence and rule of law.
