Vihan, Arpit Singh, Rachi and Banaudhia, Umang
Securitising youth dissent: How INDIAN media frames protest in Nepal and Ladakh
- Economic & Political Weekly
- 61(12), Mar 21, 2026: p.18-20
The Indian mainstream media has increasingly framed youth-led protest in South Asia through a securitised lens, as seen in the cases of Nepal’s 2025 Gen Z uprising and agitation in Ladakh. Dissent, in both cases, was portrayed less as a democratic claim and more as a problem of instability, disruption and strategic risk. By contrast, international media situated both movements within a broader regional wave of generational mobilisation against shrinking civic space. The article argues that this divergence reflects a growing alignment between Indian mainstream media and state-centric notions of security, with significant consequences for how democratic dissent is publicly understood.-Reproduced
https://www.epw.in/journal/2026/12/commentary/securitising-youth-dissent.html