Aaliyah Nair

During the student protests of 2026, jokes proliferated online that a ticket to the Dhurandhar movie was better proof of loyalty to the regime than an Aadhar Card. Humour, as ever, is rooted in some truth. Dhurandhar’s articulation of the militarised, hypermasculine and Hinduised vision of “New India” gives it immense propagandist potential, yet it is closer to the norm. Each year, a large number of the films Bollywood produces (and awards) mirror narratives that serve a right-wing agenda,...

India is witnessing one of the most significant waves of youth mobilisation in the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) tenure, and this momentum is worth supporting. This brings forth an opportunity to critically examine one of the movement’s most visible vehicles: the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). Consequently, while looking at the ongoing protest, it is worth closely inspecting the CJP’s role, and how it reveals far more about the boundaries of acceptable dissent in India than it does about the...