When you consider India’s Gen Z, a collage virtually instinctively varieties in your thoughts, typically decoding what this 370-million-strong cohort is supposedly about. They’re reshaping work tradition, bringing again Y2K style, embracing the enjoyment of lacking out, and reinterpreting identities and existence. However how a lot can we truly perceive about this chronically related era’s political consciousness? The place do they get their information, and what are their issues and non-negotiables?
And for all these questions, Chennai’s Gen Z had solutions that didn’t essentially align with each other. But, amongst all of the Gen Zers this reporter spoke to, one factor was irrefutable: they get their information from social media, absorbing the gist earlier than swiping on. Some, nevertheless, do gravitate towards long-form items by way of newspapers and digital subscriptions.
Ciby Sankavi, a 25-year-old academic psychologist from Guduvanchery, says she follows sure information shops on social media to remain knowledgeable about political developments. She feels that Gen Zers typically discover it safer to advocate on social media, however notes that advocacy can’t finish with a narrative or a reel.
“We do care; we resonate with the socio-political surroundings very deeply. However on-line advocacy can turn out to be performative; there may be an phantasm that you’re doing one thing, however it could actually additionally cease you from doing extra. Solely once we flip to motion can we really feel grounded in our perception and politics techniques; in any other case, it’s going to live on in silos,” says Ms. Sankavi, who believes Gen Z wants to consider the best way to convey youth mobilization into their constituencies.
“All the pieces is political. The local weather is just not equitable for all of us, from the air we breathe to the water that floods solely sure elements of Chennai,” she provides.
Voting in digital age
Voting is the most efficient strategy to specific one’s political opinion, says a 24-year-old information scientist from Chennai who didn’t wish to be named. “There’s merely no purpose to overlook it. We’re all a part of a social construction,” he says, including that he actively reads newspapers to stay objectively politically conscious, and that he traveled from town the place he was finding out again to Chennai to forged his vote within the 2021 Tamil Nadu election.
“I’ve seen just a few individuals my age being politically aggressive with their opinions however nonetheless lacking out on voting. Many in Gen Z additionally type their ideologies and opinions from social media — tweets, reels, and Reddit skirmishes — however don’t purchase real political literacy. Solely by studying broadly can one domesticate well-rounded political consciousness,” he provides.
Sanjith Singh, a Gen Zer from Chennai who works in occasion administration, says he depends on social media for updates on present occasions and circles again to learn extra solely when one thing hits near residence.
political priorities
Among the many youthful cohort of Gen Z, a few 18-year-olds shopping books on the Anna Centenary Library confessed that politics is solely “not their cup of tea.” They stated girls’s security and freedom take absolute priority, however remarked that political events within the nation haven’t accorded these issues the precedence they deserve, which, in flip, diminishes their inclination to vote. For context, based on Election Fee of India (ECI) information, solely about 38% of 18-year-olds in India have been registered to vote within the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
One other set of 18-year-olds — buddies who say they may forged their ballots within the 2026 Tamil Nadu election — take a markedly totally different stance. Poorna, a first-year MBBS scholar, and Shyam, a CA aspirant, point out that they’re politically conscious. “Now, even political events are posting memes about one another and sparring by way of reels. And Gen Z is particularly getting their updates by way of this meme tradition, sadly,” the duo provides. Nevertheless, Ms. Sankavi factors out that resistance by way of memes is just not trivial, since Gen Z copes with humor and enjoys political satire.
Issues over SIR
GenZ had ideas on the continued Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, too. Dharmarajaguru Okay., a resident of Kodambakkam who’s in his mid-twenties, shares his statement that Sales space Stage Officers themselves aren’t given ample coaching on the SIR course of. “With the election simply months away in Tamil Nadu, why is there instantly such a rush to execute such an enormous train inside a single month? How are daily-wage laborers presupposed to run round and by some means shield their voting rights? The primary thought that crosses any employee’s thoughts is: nothing goes to vary for me particularly, so why ought to I scramble like this?” he provides.
Mr. Shyam and Ms. Poorna had one other concern: a big part of the Gen Z inhabitants doesn’t truly know what the SIR course of entails. “Sure, ideally this could clear up the voter record and make the electoral roll extra correct, however we do not know the way successfully will probably be achieved or how far its supposed affect will attain,” they add.
As they spoke, there was a perceptible restlessness between phrases, at the same time as their opinions pulled in several instructions. Nonetheless, the youthful crowd stored returning virtually in unison to their record of non-negotiables: not solely to construct secure careers however to have much less exploitative working circumstances, to breathe clear air, and to stay in a system that acknowledges psychological well being, autonomy, and social fairness not as afterthoughts however as absolute, core requirements.
Revealed – November 24, 2025 06:00 am IST