Global youth revolts expose neoliberalism’s collapse of social contracts—from Delhi to Paris
Original framing: “Economic fears fuel protests in India, France as ‘social contract’ breaks down” — South China Morning Post
Marginalized voices—**Dalit and Adivasi youth in India, *banlieue* residents in France, and informal workers globally**—are the primary drivers of these protests, yet their demands (e.g., **land rights for Dalits, universal basic services in France**) are sidelined in favor of elite narratives about 'law and order.' In India, **Dalit women** face triple discrimination in labor markets, yet their protests (like those against the **2019 Citizenship Amendment Act**) are dismissed as 'communal.' Similarly, in France, **North African and Sub-Saharan migrant youth** lead the most militant factions, yet their leadership is erased in media coverage.
The protests in India and France are not isolated eruptions but **symptoms of a global neoliberal collapse**, where the social contract has been systematically dismantled by elites who benefit from precarity.
The historical parallels—from **1968 to 1974’s Emergency**—show that these crises are not accidental but the result of **policy choices** that prioritize capital mobility over human dignity. Marginalized voices, from **Dalit youth in Delhi to *banlieue* residents in Paris**, are leading the resistance, yet their demands are erased in favor of elite narratives about 'foreign interference' or 'law and order.' Solutions like **Universal Basic Services, worker cooperatives, and debt jubilees** exist but require **transnational solidarity** to overcome the fragmentation imposed by neoliberalism. The trickster reveals the absurdity of a system that demands obedience while starving its youth—yet the only path forward is to **invert the power structures** through collective action, as indigenous and cross-cultural movements have long demonstrated.