I recently came across the term ‘Armchair Activist’, something that sounded deeply offensive to me from the get-go. I dug deeper to understand why the term offended me so much and realized it’s something that sounds so close to the term ‘Couch Potato’ that the connection could not be ignored. It almost seemed as if there was supposed to be a universal standard for what was considered activism. But, after attending a series of protests that I assumed took me a step ahead of me from armchair activism, I have realized that it might not be the worst. Today, there exists scenarios where even your retweet has the power to make or break someone’s day.
Fighting for causes in the 21st century isn’t as simple as it was before. There are too many factors involved and governments and citizens have begun recognizing gray areas in many issues they disagree on. This is where hopelessness enters the picture, it is often the only thing that unites activists and victims as they all tend to have different reasons to fight for a cause. A significant portion of protestors often hopes to help resolve short-term issues instead of bigger issues at play in the world, as big issues have only gotten worse for people to navigate with time. I experienced this in the recent CAA and NRC student protests in my homeland, India. The ruling Bharatiya Janta Party that openly supports right-wing Hindutva ideologies resorted to many aggressive and violent measures to silence the student protestors all across the nation but especially in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous Indian state and the nation’s capital, Delhi.
At several points in the past few weeks, me and tons of other Indians like me have expressed concern on such intense measures that range from police brutality to violence at the hands of BJP supporters. Members of the student wings of political organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh that gave birth to the BJP also broke into one of India’s leading Social Sciences University, JNU and beat up a bunch of faculty and students. This incident accelerated the frequency of the protests nationwide but no arrests have been made even though it has been a month since the incident.
Recently, the BJP also went ahead and launched CAA, the first part of their atrocious agenda.
With several majority leaders spewing out hatred every few hours in public gatherings, it is naturally very easy to lose hope and give up. Protest fatigue has hit many students. Detaining students and intellectuals and trying to boycott the work of artists that support the protesters in any capacity has become the norm all over the Indian Peninsula and the Us V/s Them narrative gains strength by the second.
But in times like these, the privilege of social media comes to my rescue as it gets easier to know who’s simply a silent bystander while this happens, who’s against what I stand for and who’s with me in this fight. I have found myself blocking and unfollowing people as debating with them on such issues turns pointless since they choose to remain ignorant or indifferent to factual information. As I see such tensions unfold across the world including the United States, where I live now, it gets harder to stay committed to one issue and actively work towards it. I and my friends back home have been through the same experiences in the past weeks which dictates what our future experiences with activism will be like. We’re very different people but these days we often find each other replying to each other’s texta with Ughs and Oh Nos, as we update each other on the situation around us. Our therapy sessions are more centered around the world and politics than ourselves and though we see it as a positive, the fact that such aggression on our part might not have any tangible results looms larger than it ever has.
Unfortunately, the only thing keeping us going is this very hopelessness that brings us together as people. People like Prime Minister Modi in India and President Trump in America have been the prime oppressors with regard to issues around the world. The population that voted them in power is increasing every day and the hate they carry in their hearts rises as well. There is only so much a protestor can do but amidst this chaos, communicating with people and taking care of yourself is as important as attending those meaningful protests. The protests against CAA and NRC in India will continue for a while and they have taught me a lot about the people around me. Winning this fight for democracy and maintaining the integrity of the constitution while I read reports of hundreds and thousands get detained, injured or even murdered is depressing, but we’re all in this fight, hoping for a day when we won’t have to do this.