Highlights
- Protest-themed games emerge as youth movement spreads
- Activists gamify voter-roll protests with online satire
- Protest games test Modi's grip on youth communication
- Memes and games become new tools of India's dissent
A web-based multiplayer game in which players dodge police and detention on their way to a protest site in New Delhi has gone viral, as young Indians use satire and humour to respond to police actions.
As youth-led protests over jobs, exam paper leaks and voter roll revisions spread across India, a growing crop of online games is transforming political grievances into shareable digital content.
The trend shows a generation raised on Instagram is expressing dissent in ways that differ sharply from the political communication style of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
One such game, 'Jantar Mantar Chalo', was developed by 27-year-old IT professional Suraj Kushwah, who has described it as "dark humour".
The game satirises the difficulties protesters face in reaching Jantar Mantar, a main protest site in the capital, amid police blockades, road closures and public transport suspensions. Players can build a kafila, or procession, evade checkpoints and stage a demonstration, or switch sides and deploy batons and tear gas to disperse crowds.
"Whatever news was coming was kind of like a circus," Kushwah said.
"People were trying to reach Jantar Mantar. And they were getting detained. And I imagined it as a 3D game."
Kushwah said at least 2,000 people had been playing the game at any point in time since its release on 14 October.
Another game casts firebrand left-wing activist Neha Bora as the protagonist of a retro 8-bit-style platform reminiscent of classic arcade games.
"We as artists believe that satire is the most powerful way to talk about things," said 30-year-old Anav Nayar, who co-developed the game with his brother, Akshay.
The protests were triggered by the "cockroach" youth movement, which also started as a joke online.
The games draw inspiration from protests against the Election Commission's voter roll revision exercise, which opposition parties and activists say has disenfranchised 130 million eligible voters and favoured Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Election Commission and BJP deny the allegations.
Gen Z's style of expression poses an unusual challenge for Modi. After the "cockroach" movement forced the resignation of Modi's education minister in July, he intensified outreach to younger Indians through self-shot Instagram videos.
But analysts say Modi's outreach might not be enough.
"The BJP has long enough enjoyed its dominance of controlling the narrative online and on the ground, but this time the younger generation has countered them everywhere," said Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst.