Vihan, Arpit Singh, Rachi and Banaudhia, Umang creator text Economic & Political Weekly monographic eng

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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 Economic & Political Weekly 260428