THE post began with an apology.
asserted
post → begin → apology
The writer Amitava Kumar explained that Facebook had blocked his Substack link in India, so he was sharing his essay as plain text instead.
asserted
he → explain → text
I read that line twice.
asserted
I → read → line
Then I laughed, because I recognised it.
asserted
I → laugh → it
In Pakistan, we know this routine well.
asserted
we → know → routine
The link that won’t open.
asserted
that → open → ?
The site that loads everywhere except here.
asserted
that → load → ?
The workaround that everyone shares and no one in authority admits is needed.
asserted
one → share → authority
Kumar was writing about the young Indians who call themselves cockroaches.
asserted
who → write → themselves
Their movement began as satire, a joke party mocking the government over a leaked medical entrance exam.
asserted
movement → begin → exam
Then it became the Cockroach Janta Party.
asserted
it → become → ?
For over a month, young people camped at Jantar Mantar – Delhi’s iconic protest site.
asserted
people → camp → Mantar
Now their anger has turned on a revision of the voter rolls that has, reportedly, stripped millions of their right to vote.
uncertain
that → turn → right
Last week, the state responded with brute force: thousands of protesters and journalists were detained; CJP leaders were picked up on arrival in Delhi, and mobile and internet services were jammed in most parts of the capital.
asserted
services → respond → capital
India’s mainstream television channels looked the other way.
asserted
channels → look → ?
Seen from here, none of this looks new.
asserted
none → see → this
We have lived through nationwide internet suspensions.
asserted
We → live → suspensions
We spent more than a year with X blocked.
asserted
X → spend → year
We have watched names vanish from television screens, speeches go unaired, and protests barricaded before they began.
asserted
they → watch → screens
We have seen leaders detained on their way to rallies and journalists told, politely or otherwise, what not to cover.
asserted
journalists → see → what
If the government across the border has a playbook, some of its chapters were written here.
asserted
some → have → chapters
But the cockroaches have a playbook too, and it is one we also know.
asserted
we → have → playbook
They named themselves after the creature everyone wants to crush but can never eradicate.
asserted
everyone → name → creature
An insult became a badge.
asserted
insult → become → ?
A threat became a punchline.
asserted
threat → become → ?
Their posters are irreverent, often profane and frequently very funny, in a culture where young people are raised to be respectful towards their elders.
asserted
people → raise → elders
Reporters at the protests have described crowds fanning each other in the heat, laughing into the police’s eyeglasses with facial recognition.
asserted
Reporters → describe → recognition
Humour is what people use when the usual channels close.
asserted
channels → use → what
Humour is what people use when the usual channels close.
asserted
channels → use → what
It is harder to arrest and cheaper than a lawyer.
asserted
It → arrest → lawyer
Pakistanis understand this instinctively.
asserted
Pakistanis → understand → this
Under Ziaul Haq, satire went underground and survived.
asserted
satire → go → Haq
In recent years, when television fell silent on certain subjects, the jokes simply moved online.
asserted
jokes → fall → subjects
A meme can say what a news anchor cannot, and a whole generation has learned to read between the punchlines.
asserted
generation → say → punchlines
When the media looks away, someone else fills the gap.
asserted
someone → look → gap
In India, young reporters and small digital outlets have covered the protests that big channels ignored.
asserted
channels → cover → that
One protest site even had a wall honouring the journalists who showed up.
asserted
who → have → journalists
In Pakistan, some of the most important reporting of the past few years has come from people working with a phone, a YouTube channel — and very little protection.
asserted
some → come → phone
Kumar wrote in the same post about another writer urging his fellow guests to “celebrate the cockroach”.
asserted
writer → write → cockroach
Young Indians, he said, had given the country its most hopeful moment in a long time.
asserted
he → say → time
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
