Who has the right to protest in Modi’s India?

A protest going unheard was a common trope in the news stories we wrote in India before 2014. After Narendra Modi became prime minister, this changed – a protest taking place itself made for a story.

The unspoken question was: who is brave enough to come out on the streets to protest? Many demonstrations later, the question has changed: who is powerful enough to protest and go home unscathed?

In a democracy, citizens have the right to protest and the government must listen to them.

India has always been a flawed democracy. Many of its citizens were never allowed to exercise their right to protest without consequences. Whether it was Adivasis resisting encroachment of their lands in the name of development, or people from Kashmir and the North East demanding some form of political autonomy, their peaceful protests either went unheard or were met with state violence, pushing these communities into armed resistance.

But the Modi era has expanded the state’s dominance and lowered its tolerance for any expression of dissent by citizens – unless you are from a dominant social group like the Marathas in Maharashtra, electorally important for the ruling regime.

This week, the Maharashtra government came to the rescue of Manoj Jarange-Patil, the leader who has been...

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