Understanding the Cockroach Movement
Following the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s controversial courtroom analogy where he regarded certain unemployed or dissenting youth to cockroaches, the analogy resulted into the formation of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) that amassed over 10–12 million Instagram followers and tens of thousands of Google Form sign-ups in less than a week. I guess, nobody would have anticipated this negative label turning into a badge of solidarity. While memes can generate a significant visibility or emotional solidarity, whether they can really translate into structural transformation remains uncertain. To this uproar, Justice Markandey Katju, a retired SC judge, dismisses the CJP as a comedy and buffoonery. He quotes Shakespeare’s Macbeth; “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. To understand it in a full swing, this phenomenon demands a rigorous sociological and philosophical interrogation.
India’s post-liberalization youth has navigated a series of hard shocks; be it demonetization, COVID-19 disruptions, rising inequality or the uncertainties of gig economy. This embodies a classical Durkheimian concept of anomie - a state of normlessness or disconnection arising from........
