How protests have shaped India: From anti-Hindi agitation to farm laws

Since last week, several student organisations and a wide spectrum of opposition parties have been engaged in a tactical tug-of-war, with tens of thousands turning up on Monday, far outnumbering police personnel.

Protesters are demanding sweeping reforms and the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar after revelations of election irregularities. The agitation marks the latest challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s grip on power, after his education minister was forced out by the same group of demonstrators less than three months ago.

The Modi government has tried to portray protesters as representing antinational interests, working to slow down India’s growth or even to enable its breakup.

But India, the world’s most populous country, has had a long history of street protests, from its freedom struggle against the British Empire to waves of movements during the 79 years of the Indian republic that have shaped its modern identity.

“Time and again the government [of the day] has opposed these protests, [and] at times engaged with them critically,” Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst in New Delhi and former journalist, told Al Jazeera. “But protests have run centrally through India’s story all along.”

Here is a look at major street protests in India and how they often forced powerful governments and leaders to yield.

For the federal government of a vast and diverse country, the idea of one common official language of communication was attractive as a tool of unification. But for many of the ancient societies that had agreed to come together under the Indian Union, this led to fears of cultural domination by the Hindi-speaking north of the country.

Demonstrations by several student organisations, opposing the imposition of Hindi, broke out, often leading to clashes with the police.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a regional political party advocating Tamil nationalism, led by CN Annadurai and M Karunanidhi, spearheaded the protests. In January 1965, Annadurai was arrested on the eve of an anti-Hindi agitation. Two young supporters immolated themselves, and Hindi books were burned.

Then-Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri assured protesters that English would continue to be used alongside Hindi. The DMK won Tamil Nadu’s state election in 1967, ending the until-then dominant Congress party’s rule in the state.

It was one of the defining moments of Indian federalism and regional identity in a young nation. English has remained one of India’s two official languages — and the Congress party has never returned to power in Tamil Nadu on its own.

Soon, it evolved into a nationwide challenge to then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Congress government’s dominance over Indian politics. Students, civil society groups, trade unions and opposition parties subsequently joined the agitation.

Narayan famously called for “Sampoorn Kranti”, or “Total Revolution”, a slogan that still rings in India.

The movement set the stage for a national emergency, declared by Gandhi on June 25, 1975, suspending civil liberties and censoring the press. After the emergency ended, opposition parties united and defeated Congress in the 1977 general election, ending Gandhi’s uninterrupted reign and giving India its first non-Congress government.

The Total Revolution did not come to pass, as Narayan had envisioned, but the movement fundamentally altered opposition politics — showing no leader was beyond the electoral consequences of mass dissent. Many of the leaders who emerged from this movement went on to become state chief ministers and leading federal ministers.

The decision triggered nationwide protests against reservation by students of privileged castes who feared that quotas would reduce their access to government jobs.

Supporters of reservations argued that concrete actions were needed to address entrenched caste discrimination and unequal access to opportunities, while privileged caste students framed their opposition around merit.

More than 100 students tried to die by suicide by setting themselves alight, and more than 60 succeeded, during those protests.

In 1992, the Supreme Court upheld the 27 percent OBC reservation in central government employment, excluding the relatively financially better-off “creamy layer” within communities.

The reforms reduced restrictions on private enterprise and opened more sectors to foreign investment. Trade unions feared that privatisation and easier business closures would cause job losses, weaken collective bargaining and erode workers’ protections.

Left-aligned political parties supported many of these protests. But the protests could not prevent the reform programme from proceeding.

Successive governments have continued to expand private sector participation, pursue disinvestment in state-owned enterprises, and modify labour regulations.

Activists demanded a strong law with an independent anticorruption ombudsman empowered to investigate and punish corruption involving public officials.

Social activist Anna Hazare led the movement through hunger strikes, also featuring activists such as Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan. Its demonstrations attracted large crowds across the country.

Parliament passed a law in December 2013, establishing a statutory framework for an anticorruption watchdog. But more than a decade later, its impact is minimal.

The movement was divided over whether activists should enter electoral politics. Kejriwal broke away to establish the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2012 and went on to become a two-time chief minister of Delhi state.

The legacy of the movement remains largely in the shadow of Kejriwal today, who is now in opposition after Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Delhi state election last year.

The crime triggered mass demonstrations against sexual violence, unsafe public spaces, inadequate policing and the treatment of women in the country. Protesters demanded justice for the victim and fundamental changes to how authorities handled sexual assault cases.

Students, young people, women’s rights activists, and common residents mobilised in Delhi, including around India Gate and other key locations.

Four adult defendants were convicted and sentenced to death; their executions took place in 2020.

Parliament passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, broadening the legal recognition of sexual offences, criminalising offences including stalking and voyeurism, and strengthening penalties for several crimes.

Activists continue to argue that stronger laws alone cannot address entrenched misogyny and inadequate policing. And crimes against women, including sexual crimes, remain rampant across most parts of India, including the capital.

Critics argued that making religious identity a basis for preferential citizenship undermined India’s secular constitutional principles. Millions feared the law could work alongside a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) to place Muslims at greater risk of exclusion and possible expulsion from India.

The movement was decentralised. Students at Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University led major demonstrations, while women-led sit-ins, especially at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, became national symbols of resistance against Prime Minister Modi’s Hindu majoritarian politics.

In February 2020, large-scale mob violence primarily targeting Muslims broke out in northeastern Delhi. More than 50 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.

Meanwhile, the sit-in in Shaheen Bagh lasted 101 days before police cleared the site on March 24, 2020, soon after imposing the COVID-19 lockdown. Dozens of Muslim activists were arrested and charged under antiterrorism laws. Student leaders such as Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam remain in jail, six years on, with no trial.

The protests could not secure repeal of the law, but delayed its implementation. The government notified its implementation in March 2024, bringing the citizenship process into operation.

Many farmers, particularly in northern India, feared that the changes would weaken the government-regulated wholesale markets through which much of their produce was sold. They also worried that the reforms would undermine the minimum support price (MSP), a government-set price for certain crops.

Numerous farmer unions surrounded and shut down roads leading up to Delhi under the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a coalition formed to coordinate the agitation. Thousands of farmers camped on Delhi’s outskirts for months.

More than 700 farmers died amid extreme weather, road accidents, suicides and clashes.

In November 2021, Modi announced that the government would repeal the laws.

It marked the first such moment when protesters had wrestled a significant concession from Modi, who built his political currency as a leader who does not compromise.

Student Abhijeet Dipke doubled down on the viral joke, creating a pressure group – the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) – and led protests against irregularities in the national medical school entrance examination. The newbie protesters of the CJP movement were held together by left student organisations, choking Parliament Street and the popular protest site Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

The Gen Z protests eventually forced out the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, in July 2026.

The CJP protesters have again come together, along with opposition parties, this time demanding CEC Kumar’s resignation.