(Express photo by Partha Paul)As the Indian Republic completes another year, there is uncertainty in the air. In fact, the protests alert us to the impending loss of the social contract which made the Indian Republic possible. The Republic requires astute and resolute resistance while what we are witnessing presently are ideologically ambivalent and strategically ill-prepared series of autonomous protests. They may recover the vocabulary of the Constitution, they may show us the possibility of a new idea of citizenship. But only if the protests of today graduate into a movement, would there be a recoupling of the Indian state and democracy.

Source: Indian Express January 24, 2020 18:45 UTC