Photograph: Hemant Shivsharan/Rediff

Key Points

• 'We are here because my entire life's preparation feels like a coin toss. My family sacrificed so much for my coaching fees, but someone else just bought the question paper for a few lakhs. How do you explain to your parents that your hard work means nothing in this country?'
• 'They shut off the Internet near Jantar Mantar to mute us, but you can't Internet-blackout a whole generation's ruined future.'
• 'People call us the 'snowflake generation' who only care about reels, Insta filters, and lifestyle flexes. Look around you this evening. Does this look like a generation that doesn't care?'
• 'I have two younger siblings who will take these national exams in a few years. If we don't force a change right now, if we don't demand total accountability today, what kind of country are we leaving for them?'

When Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Aaditya Thackeray made an open call to Mumbaikars to gather at Shivaji Park for yet another protest against the most burning national issue of the day -- paper leaks of competitive exams and the rot of corruption behind these leaks -- little must he have realised that a sea of protestors would respond to his call and gather in huge numbers.

In fact, if any other leader had given this call, the Gen Z response would have been the same.

Gen Z is ANGRY, and they want to be heard. And they are doing it with amazing energy, camaraderie, and gusto, throughout India.

Photograph: Afsar Dayatar/Rediff

All the roads that led to the exact spot were choc-a-bloc with protestors and each and every damn -- to use the most popular Gen Z slang -- f***** had a story to tell, an issue to vent, a point to make, a slogan to shout, a placard to flash and be HEARD and SEEN that nobody cared what Aditya Thackeray had to say and how far away from them he was.

Their anger, their frustration, their hopelessness about their future in the "rotten-to-the-core education system" was everywhere -- ON RECORD.

Nobody shied away from saying what they were saying -- and, to say the least, they were saying a lot: not just through their sloganeering but by the posters and placards that almost one in four Gen Z were carrying.

Nobody cared for how crowded the roads were, even as wave after wave of protestors kept moving towards and away from Shivaji Park, in a single file that offered its own lessons in crowd management. Given the heavy concentration of protestors in a small area, one got an impression that the crowd could go berserk leading to a stampede, but the protest carried on incident-free.

Nobody knew how many protestors had assembled on the humid, balmy evening, and none bothered, but these protestors don't have to know the figure or wouldn't care even if there were a lakh or more.

Noise, Numbers, Decentralised Rage

Photograph: Hemant Shivsharan/Rediff

For, if Gandhi had his charkha and the power of Ahimsa and Satyagraha that gave him the strength to take on the mighty British Empire and let his message of freedom reach the Indian masses, these protestors had their cameras, cardboards, crayons, posters, placards, selfies, and their social media followers to amplify their reach exponentially to the Indian masses with just one demand: Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation.

The energy they showed while sloganeering, demanding 'We Want Justice', 'We Want Dharmendra Pradhan's Resignation', 'We Want A Complete Stop To All The Paper Leaks', was absolutely overwhelming.

Every protestor was like drowning in her/his own voice. And yet, blurted out a steady stream of demands.

"We don't care about political banners, and we aren't here for Aaditya Thackeray or any party," said a 19-year-old NEET aspirant who came straight from her coaching class in Thane, asking not to be named for fear of a police backlash after recent detentions in the area.

"We are here because my entire life's preparation feels like a coin toss. My family sacrificed so much for my coaching fees, but someone else just bought the question paper for a few lakhs. How do you explain to your parents that your hard work means nothing in this country?"

Slogans like 'Inquilab Zindabad', 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai', 'Vande Mataram' -- totally unassociated with the Gen Z crowd (and that is where we seem to be making a mistake in assessing what the Gen Z is capable of and how they think) -- made the round repeatedly.

A National Firestorm

Photograph: Hemant Shivsharan/Rediff

What played out under the canopy of Shivaji Park's's verdant locality was not an isolated flare-up; it was the direct echo of a storm that has been raging at Delhi's Jantar Mantar. For weeks, the national capital has been the ground zero of youth unrest following repeated paper leaks in high-stakes examinations like NEET-UG and irregularities in CBSE valuation systems.

The Delhi movement -- powered by the satirical yet fiercely earnest Cockroach Janta Party alongside leftist youth groups like AISA and SFI -- saw high drama when prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk went on an indefinite hunger strike demanding accountability.

When police crackdowns, detentions, and Internet blackouts hit the Delhi protest site, the anger didn't dissipate; it multiplied and spread across the country. From stone-pelting and student marches in Bihar's Begusarai and Katihar to mass assemblies in Mumbai, the youth have made it clear that their patience with administrative incompetence has burned out.

"They shut off the Internet near Jantar Mantar to mute us, but you can't Internet-blackout a whole generation's ruined future," said a 21-year-old final-year science student from South Mumbai who requested anonymity while holding a cardboard sign that read 'Leak In India'.

"We watched the videos of students being dragged and police applying force in Delhi. It made us realise that sitting at home quietly scrolling through X or Instagram wasn't an option anymore. If Delhi bleeds, Mumbai has to stand up. Let the world know that India's Gen Z has now moved out of their social media world and is ready to face the lathis, the tear gas shells or the spiked-dandas of cops."

"Our rotten-to-the-core education system needs a shock treatment and we are here to give it."

The fear among these young minds is real, yet overshadowed by an overwhelming sense of betrayal. The recent string of police detentions of over 400 young protestors across Mumbai over the last few days has only hardened their resolve rather than scaring them off.

Unlikely Slogans, Crumbling Societal Silos

Photographs: Hemant Shivsharan/Rediff

Gen Z from all walks of life, from all strata of society made their way to Shivaji Park because they wanted to be a part of an Inquilab that they believe they are on the cusp of.

They were breaking all kinds of taboos and barriers and gender divisions that the non-Gen Z think have riven the Indian society for quite some time now. They were dressed as simply and as fashionably as they could have to become part of a protest that one thought the Gen Z was incapable of.

Through these protests they seem to have opened the nation's eyes to tell them that they are not as oblivious to what's happening in India as one would like to believe. They just melded into the pot that had people from all walks of life at Shivaji Park this evening.

Standing side-by-side near the park's perimeter were young men in streetwear sneakers, women in burqas, college athletes in track-pants, and quiet, shy kids who looked like they had never stepped out of their college library.

"People call us the 'snowflake generation' who only care about reels, Insta filters, and lifestyle flexes," muttered a 20-year-old engineering aspirant who hid his face behind a black mask, declining to reveal his identity. "Look around you this evening. Does this look like a generation that doesn't care?"

"They've broken our faith in the system. When a paper leaks, it's not just an exam that's cancelled -- it's our mental health, our youth, and our dignity that gets destroyed. If standing on a street in Dadar makes me a target, so be it. I am ready to die if I have to for justice."

Parental anxiety also seeped quietly into the crowd.

Photograph: Afsar Dayatar/Rediff

"I have gone through the anxiety that NEET and CET students have to go through. Though I have finished my physiotherapy I came here to express my solidarity with my fellow Gen Z," said a physiotherapist from Thane who was accompanied by her parents.

"All my daughters are well qualified and they have struggled through the education system but have somehow managed to educate themselves and fend for themselves," said her father. "I have four daughters. One is a physiotherapist, one has done her MBA, another works as a doctor in Thane and the fourth one works in Dubai," he said.

"It is very painful when one sees all the hard work go down the drain when paper leaks happened. This must stop," he said.

Like this gentleman, there were many fathers and mothers who stood on the edges watching their teenage daughters lead chants, while mothers handed out water bottles to strangers exhausted from hours of shouting slogans.

The sheer organic nature of the crowd proved that no political party holds the remote control to this demographic; politicians might provide the venue or the loudspeaker, but the raw fuel belongs entirely to Gen Z.

The Digital Satyagraha

Photograph: Hemant Shivsharan/Rediff

As the evening wore on and the humid Dadar breeze blew in from the nearby Arabian Sea, the crowd showed no signs of thinning out. Aaditya Thackeray, as he concluded his address to the crowd, asked them to disperse peacefully and quietly. The streetlights illuminated hundreds of glowing smartphone screens -- not used for mindless scrolling, but live-streaming, recording testimonies, and uploading real-time updates to ensure the protest remained visible to the world outside.

The tools may have shifted from Gandhi's physical spinning wheel to the digital feeds of the day, but the underlying instinct remains the same: A moral refusal to accept systematic injustice. The young crowd at Shivaji Park wasn't just demanding a minister's resignation or a re-examination; they were demanding a complete overhaul of an educational system that treats their hard work and honesty as collateral damage.

"I have two younger siblings who will take these national exams in a few years," said a 22-year-old university graduate, keeping his hand over his badge-less t-shirt to stay anonymous. "If we don't force a change right now, if we don't demand total accountability today, what kind of country are we leaving for them? We aren't going back to our bedrooms until someone actually answers for this mess."

As evening gave way to the night over Dadar, the voices didn't grow quiet. The collective chant of 'We Want Justice' echoed against the residential buildings surrounding Shivaji Park, sending a clear message across state lines and political corridors: India's Gen Z has officially logged off their Insta accounts and stepped onto the streets to demand justice.

More glimpses from the Shivaji Park protest:

Photographs: Hemant Shivsharan/Rediff

Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff, Manisha Kotian/Rediff