Dissent, Dynamics and Domination: India’s Protest Movements (2014-26)
Dissent, Dynamics and Domination: India’s Protest Movements (2014-26) Posted on 16th October, 2026 (GMT 19:20 hrs) Updated on 17th October, 2026 (GMT 12:55 hrs) ABSTRACT Between May 2014 and October 2026, India’s BJP-led National Democratic Alliance confronted an almost unbroken sequence of protest and resistance—from the 2015 land-ordinance agitation and the 2020–21 farmers’ siege of Delhi to the 2026 youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) rising—under conditions of sustained political domination rather than the successful production of consent. This article maps the ecology of that dissent: the movements themselves; a counter-public of non-Godi and crowdfunded media; satirists and stand-up comedians deploying hasya and vyanga against the regime’s bhayanaka and vibhatsya; organic intellectuals of political and civil society; dissenting advocates and judges; and watchdog NGOs. It documents the repertoire of domination deployed against them—imprisonment without trial, preventive d...