Young climate activists in India are shaken – but proud they have rattled the powerful
Distinct from older movements, their activism is decentralised, collaborative, fluid. But the downside is the lack of safety nets, visible in recent arrests. A young woman at a protest over Amazon wildfires in 2019. | Indranil Mukherjee/AFP
On February 14, as the Delhi Police arrested 22-year-old Disha Ravi for her alleged involvement in preparing a Google document that Greta Thunberg tweeted in support of farmer protests in India, many young climate activists like her felt alarmed, but then came to see it as a validation of their work. In a short time, they say they have achieved enough to rattle the Indian State.