Memes, reels, posters: Humour amplifies messages of Jantar Mantar protest

Spearheaded by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and touted as peaceful, the demonstration is largely powered by Gen Z. And their biggest weapons in their fight for education reforms are humour, satire and irony.

“Since the government doesn’t seem to take students seriously, perhaps using a non-serious method will get their attention. And it is also entertaining to see how the andhbhakts (die-hard supporters) are incapable of understanding the nuance of fighting force with laughter,” says 27-year-old Khan, who identifies as a “memer”. At the protest site for over 20 days, he was also on a hunger strike for a week.

It is a memefest on the ground, and the examples are as plentiful as they are diverse.

The humour at Jantar Mantar is distinctively Gen Z – nonsensical and hard-hitting (Photo Credit: Tanu Dogra)

There’s the personal-in-the-political humour, like Khan’s analogy between an ex-girlfriend and a corrupt government. In a witty rebuttal to accusations that the protesters are paid actors funded by the Opposition or foreign entities, a placard reads: ‘Nobody funds me, I hate this government for free.’ Some present facts about the state of things. ‘It’s so bad that even the privileged (and the introverts) are here’. And some are cheeky: ‘Ikea has better cabinets.’

Pop culture and Bollywood references are a separate category. A recreated poster of the Ranbir Kapoor-Shraddha Kapoor-starrer Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar (2023), featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pradhan, is among the most circulated.

Protester at Jantar Mantar referencing the film, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar featuring Dharmendra Pradhan and Narendra Modi (Photo credit: Reva Thakkar)

There are unexpected analogies — between the NEET paper leaks and menstruation, for instance: ‘My pad is more leakproof than NTA’.

Prime Minister Modi and Pradhan, unsurprisingly, are the muse for many creations. One poster shows the Education Minister playing ‘plucking the daisy’ to make a decision: ‘Should I resign? Should I not resign?’ Some dig into mythologies. One poster subverts the Mahabharata scene in which Arjuna seeks Krishna’s guidance. In Arjuna’s avatar is Pradhan, who says, “Everyone is against me, Madhav.” Krishna’s reply is brutal: “Resign kar yaar tu pehle (first you resign)”.

There are memes on Melody — the toffee that made headlines after the portmanteau ‘Melodi’, reflecting Prime Minister Modi’s camaraderie with the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, became a viral trend, especially after the Prime Minister gifted a pack of Melody to his Italian counterpart.

Sisters Sana and Muskan etching out the words, ‘Melody khao, desh nahi’, on a sheet of paper. Sana says she came to the protest despite an exam five days later. “We had to come. How could we not? This protest is about our future. Today the immediate issue is NEET, but tomorrow it may be something related to my education. I simply had to be here,” says the 19-year-old student at Delhi College of Art.

The humour at Jantar Mantar is distinctively Gen Z – nonsensical and hard-hitting – but weaponising it is a lesson passed down the generations.

At Jantar Mantar, it is only half the protest; the other half is online, and humour is their constant companion (Photo credit: Tanu Dogra)

Historically, whenever absolute power reigned, humour made itself heard. In kingdoms, it was the court jester: Birbal for Akbar, Tenali Raman for King Krishnadevaraya and Gopal Bhar for Raja Krishnachandra Roy.

In more recent history, satire has been the weapon of choice for artistes like Habib Tanvir who challenged the Emergency with the slapstick comedy of the play, Charandas Chor. Abu Abraham’s “President in the Bathtub” cartoon was published in The Indian Express during the same time. In a sharp and minimalist iteration, it captured how Indira Gandhi’s government used ordinances to bypass the legislature. Abraham’s cartoon shows the then president, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, signing one, in the bathtub, and saying, “If there are any more ordinances, just ask them to wait.”

Down south, there was Cho Ramaswamy’s ‘Tughlak’. Instead of written editorials, he published stories from the Mahabharata about the arrogance of rulers and silencing dissent, making it difficult for the authorities to challenge the magazine, which was technically “quoting scriptures”.

Subverting authority using humour is what Russian philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin has called the carnivalesque. By flipping the existing hierarchies, it catches those in power off guard because while they know how to repress anger with fear, controlling a laughing crowd is a challenge.

The Gen Z protesters at Jantar Mantar may have learnt from India’s legacy of creative dissent; but they have made it their own through their use of the digital space. At Jantar Mantar, it is only half the protest; the other half is online, and humour is their constant companion.

Among the most popular reels from the protest are those that show students running from cops charging at them.

What was inarguably a moment of fear has been turned into an “IRL” – meaning ‘in real life’ – recreation of the game Subway Surfers in which the player flees an inspector. Those who couldn’t be at the protest site have expressed “Peak FOMO over not playing Subway Surfers at Jantar Mantar.”

In another post, a protester cosplays as Mahatma Gandhi. It is captioned: ‘Mahol aisa ban gaya ki season 1 ke player ko bulana pada,’ – a reference to Gandhi’s pioneering non-violent agitation against the British.

A reel on the police’s use of tear gas against protesters flagged the pollution in Yamuna, saying “Police ko batao main jamnapaar rehta hu… isse zyada gandi gas humare naalo mein hoti hai.” This loosely means: “I stay across the Yamuna, our drains emit gas more pungent than this.”

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, whose “cockroach” remark in the Supreme Court prompted Abhijeet Dipke to launch the Cockroach Janta Party platform, has also been a subject of memes. A post doing the rounds has his photograph and the ‘Aag aisi lagayi, maza aa gaya’ couplet from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s ‘Mere Rashke Qamar’ plays on loop.

At the centre of it all is Pradhan. Online, he is being ‘thanked’ for bringing the country together despite their differences. “Thank you for uniting every religion, caste, gender against you — humare zamane ke angrez.”

Back at Jantar Mantar, Khan stands with his poster and smiles as fellow protesters click pictures to post online. Whether the government yields or not, Khan knows his dissent will survive on the cloud.