The images of university students across India are hinting towards a definite message. There is a ¡®youthquake¡¯ around. The youngsters are apparently unhappy with the current situation and they are pushing hard to ensure that things don¡¯t remain the same as they are. The current protests are against the recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens of India. Both the things are highly criticised for threatening the Indian constitution that does not identify individuals by their religious beliefs.
Students are said to be the pulse of the society. They represent the undercurrents that are ignored by many of the learned elders occupying high official posts in the administration. Not only in India but across the world, students have changed the course of the history in many countries. Be it the Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia or the famous Tiananmen Square protests in China, students have always been at the forefront, taking the bullets right in their chests and ensuring that the existing system changes for good.
Here¡¯s a list of a few of the protests that still inspires the university students across the world. These protests have been registered in the history books not only because of what happened, but they are remembered because they began the new era in the places wherever they happened.
While the Cold War was coming to an end with the fall of Berlin Wall between the West and the East Germany, there were news coming from the USSR that the mighty union was about to disintegrate and give way to several independent countries, Chinese students in Beijing¡¯s Tiananmen Square were standing right in from of the army. The students were demanding democracy, that¡¯s it. The students had gathered to remember the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Hu Yaobang. They were demanding to implement his liberal democratic values in what they saw as a suffocating system of governance.
On June 3, 1989, students started gathering to demand democracy, but they were brutally thrashed by People¡¯s Liberation Army. Hundreds of protesters were killed in indiscriminate firing by the Chinese army. The protests went on for 7 weeks as the students continued to sit there despite being beaten, amputated and killed. The Chinese authorities confirmed that at least 7,000 protesters were injured and 200 protesters along with dozens of security personnel were killed. Independent sources confirmed that the number of injured people and casualties were much higher than what Chinese authorities claimed.
The government might have been able to suppress the students with its brutal force, but the entire world got to know what was wrong in China. The international community criticised the Chinese regime and they were forced to look for ways to bring some democratic changes in the system.
Far away from China, the world saw another youthful revolution in Eastern Europe. In the same year when Germany was uniting and the war of ideologies was coming to an end, youngsters in Prague, Czechoslovakia, gathered 8 days after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The waves of freedom that began in Germany, reached the streets of Prague on November 17, 1989.
The students led the protests that were later joined by the other groups after they realised that the government was trying to suppress the demands of the students. About half a million Czechs and Slovaks were protesting together at the Wenceslas Square. And as they say, they ¡®occupied¡¯ it. The protest led to the Communist government¡¯s resignation.
Moving back to Asia, 20 years after what is called the Islamic Revolution, led by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, the students were seen once again protesting in the big cities of Iran. In July 1999, Iranian security forces stormed Tehran University and arrested as many as 125 students. In the process they thrashed students and left 25 of them badly injured. As a result 10,000 people gathered to protests against it and continued agitation till the government as well as the Ayatollah did not apologise publicly.
The year 2014 saw the Black community in the US rising up against the racism they face in every walk of life. The protest began with three women in their20s and 30s. Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opel Tometi began the protests after police brutally thrashed an 18-year-old black boy named Michael Brown. Following this the students in the US which included both white and non-white members started a nationwide protest with the name of ¡®Black Lives Matter¡¯. The waves of the protest reached many parts of the world as the persecuted communities empathised with the protesters. This led the US administration to seriously think about the treatment of the Black community by the security forces and racism practiced by common white people.
This is fresh in our memories. The recent protests in Hong Kong got the attention of the entire world not only because of the number of youngsters but also because of the innovative ways that they use to outsmart the security forces.
It happened in October and November 2019 when people in Hong Kong decided to oppose the extradition bill, which was seen as a tool by the government to outlaw any citizen who was seen as a threat to the government. A protest was called and thousands of students from schools and colleges gathered to protest against it. The protests were held at several places, including the international airport. China moved in its security forces into Hong Kong, but the unity of the protesters made sure that their protests are not hampered. The government eventually had to take back its move.
All these cases prove that youths can bring any government decision down whenever they want decide to oppose it.