- Published
The language of India's young, perpetually-online population has finally reached one of its oldest institutions.
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language → publish → institutions
Days after a youth-led protest movement forced the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, India's parliament found itself speaking the protesters' language.
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itself → lead → language
Until recently, those words belonged to Instagram comment sections, group chats and meme pages.
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words → belong → sections
On Tuesday, they echoed across the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) instead.
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they → echo → parliament
As MPs debated a new anti-exam leak bill, introduced by the government after weeks of protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Gen Z slang flew freely through the chamber.
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slang → debate → chamber
Shiv Sena party's Shrikant Shinde accused the opposition of being "MIA" - missing in action - gripped by "FOMO", or the fear of missing out, before eventually becoming "delulu", Gen Z shorthand for detached from reality.
Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda, meanwhile, invoked the viral protest catchphrase "waste-guna-huiya" - a deliberately nonsensical meme popularised during the demonstrations - to poke fun at the government.
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Hooda → accuse → government
Government lawmakers embraced the internet's lexicon too.
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lawmakers → embrace → lexicon
Bansuri Swaraj of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had "clocked it" - Gen Z slang for getting something right or spotting the solution - by introducing the law.
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something → rule → law
Her fellow MP Tejasvi Surya accused the opposition of being "delulu" for criticising the bill after failing to pass similar reforms while in power.
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MP → accuse → power
Across the aisle, opposition leader Supriya Sule briefly stepped outside the debate to marvel at the aburdity of the moment.
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Sule → step → moment
"Why are we getting into the lingo of Gen Z?" she asked.
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she → get → Z
Moments later, she was using "delulu" herself.
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she → use → delulu
A movement that had begun online, fuelled by memes and Instagram reels, had not only forced the resignation of a cabinet minister but now seemed to be reshaping the language of the parliamentary debate that followed.
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that → begin → debate
The CJP began as a satirical internet collective.
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CJP → begin → collective
But outrage over alleged exam irregularities soon turned it into an unlikely rallying point for broader frustrations over unemployment, failing institutions and political indifference.
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outrage → allege → unemployment
It also spoke a different language.
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It → speak → language
The movement was organised on WhatsApp, coordinated on Telegram and lived on Instagram.
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movement → organise → Instagram
Its politics unfolded through "fit checks" - showing your outfit - "Get Ready With Me" videos, first-person vlogs, memes and sardonic edits.
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politics → unfold → videos
Protests became reels within hours, drawing millions of views and pulling more young people onto the streets.
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Protests → become → streets
The government's response increasingly unfolded on the same platforms.
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response → unfold → platforms
Modi, whose political rise has long been intertwined with social media, joined the digital battle with selfie-style videos and direct appeals to young people as the protests gathered momentum.
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protests → intertwine → momentum
Opposition MPs later mocked some of those efforts in parliament, arguing it was easier to change camera angles than answer students' concerns.
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it → mock → concerns
It would be tempting to see all this as evidence that Indian politics had suddenly discovered Gen Z.
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politics → see → Z.
But Rahul Verma, a political scientist at the Centre for Policy Research, cautions against reading too much into a single parliamentary debate.
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Verma → caution → debate
Politicians have always borrowed the language of popular culture, he says.
"
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he → borrow → culture
They have an understanding of where their electorate is.
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electorate → have → understanding
The examples stretch back decades.
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examples → stretch → ?
Parliamentary speeches have long borrowed from cricket, advertising and popular cinema.
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speeches → borrow → cricket
In 2019, the catchphrase "How's the josh?" leapt from Uri: The Surgical Strike - a blockbuster inspired by India's 2016 cross-border military operation against Pakistan- into the political mainstream.
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josh → leap → mainstream
Originally a soldiers' rallying cry in the film, it soon echoed across election rallies and Parliament.
So
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it → echo → rallies
the language may be new, Verma argues, but the instinct behind it is not.
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instinct → argue → it
Rather than signalling a fundamental shift in Indian politics, he says it may simply reflect politicians doing what they have always done: trying to speak the language of the voters they hope to win over.
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they → signal → voters
Unlike a Bollywood catchphrase or a cricketing cliché, it isn't coined by scriptwriters or sporting heroes.
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it → coin → scriptwriters
It emerges from millions of online users, evolving collectively, mutating at breakneck speed and often disappearing as quickly as it appears.
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it → emerge → speed
That, says digital anthropologist Payal Arora, is what makes its journey into parliament significant.
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journey → say → parliament
"Language is often the first thing politics borrows when it is trying to connect with a new constituency," she says.
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she → borrow → constituency
But borrowing a generation's vocabulary, she argues, is easier than engaging with the frustrations that produced it.
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that → borrow → it
Using Gen Z slang signals "cultural awareness, not necessarily political transformation".
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Using → use → awareness
In the days since the protests ended, the government has appeared increasingly uneasy about the movement's digital afterlife.
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government → end → afterlife
Authorities have sought the removal of some protest-related content, while police have pursued legal action against several students and activists linked to the demonstrations.
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police → seek → demonstrations
…and 12 more, not listed.
