When you are young they assume you know nothing.
Malala Yousafzai, a name synonymous to revolution, is not just a person but a story. The story of how even a gunshot couldn’t budge the determination of young girl who was stubborn about what she believed in. After being shot in 2012 by a Talibani Gunman for prophesying about need for education and encouraging girls to fight for their right to do so, Malala didn’t abort her mission. Rather, when she woke up 10 days later after going through several surgeries, she took to international platforms for advocating about right to education for girls. This strong willed girl then went on to become the youngest receiver of Noble peace prize.
Malala receiving what was due to her in 2014 was just a start of what a determined youth can do. She was followed by several others such as Emma Gonzalez and her friends—survivors of an open fire in school in 2018— who took to social media, bringing to light the urgency of gun control. This garnered over the hundreds and thousands of demonstrators who joined this initiative at the “March for Our Lives” where Emma recited the names of her unfortunate classmates and stood in silence for several minutes.
In the recent times, we have a Swedish student who began skipping her classes to sit outside the Swedish parliament with a board which read ‘School strike for climate change’ written in Swedish. Within one year she did what even well known environmentalist couldn’t accomplish— she stared all of us in our eyes and made us care for the climate change. This girl, Greta Thunberg, at the age of 16 shook everyone’s conscience.
Often the elders belittle the young people for not indulging in events happening in the world and then disregard their opinions and ideas by calling them naive. It is startling to see how the former generation underestimates the power of the youth, completely forgetting how many of the revolutions of their time were led by the youngsters.
The Chittagong Uprising of 1930 is a little known incident related to the freedom struggle and yet it is one of the boldest ones. A teen army led by Surya Sen (a teacher who was elected president of Chittagong branch of Indian National congress) had captured two armouries, burned down the European club, took over the telephone, telegraph, and railways thus cutting off communication with rest of the India and even hoisted Indian flag to declare the independence of Chittagong from British India. Even though this freedom didn’t live for long but this incident became evidence in the history to tell everyone about the power and potential of the youngsters.
In school, there was a quote which was always either spoken in the school assembly or written on the top of the blackboard which read “Speech is silver but silence is golden”. We have been taught about the power of silence over and over. But often, it has been the case that, our opinions have been silenced either by labelling us as disrespectful or naive or stupid. This has created a silence chamber around us in which our thoughts ultimately lose their voice.
Silence in no sense means being ignorant, rather it means to be intelligent enough to know when to speak. Being ignorant is a choice made by those who fear the consequences and therefore settle with the fact that change isn’t possible. But speaking is the choice made by the people who demand the change they want. Malala was just 15 year old when she was shot. She stood against the Taliban, the most dreaded politico-military organization, and spoke while being completely aware that she won’t achieve what she wanted without any opposition. The Chittagong uprising consisted of a small army of teenagers who fought against the humongous British Army. They were well aware of the danger. But it didn’t bother them. Questioning, opposing and dissenting youth of the generation before us, and even in this generation, has brought many radical changes in the society which would just have been a dream if people kept quiet and obeyed.
This generation, though, has a lot of emerging leaders who by the means of social media are trying to bring change. Most of the youngsters see social media as a platform for putting out their opinions and debating over controversial subjects. The youth of today is greatly involved in politics and societal issues and brings hope in the time of darkness when everything around us is crumbling. Often a source of anger for the former generation, the eloquent youth has made it clear that they shall not sit and watch the atrocities and shall speak through whatever medium they have but, as is the fact, every good thing has a bad side.
The people who lack knowledge want to teach the world what they don’t know and the rest listen to it and learn the same.
Today’s youth is ready to speak but choose to speak about the second-hand opinions attained from social media and memes. Most of the people have inherent arrogance related to what they think and hold concrete opinions to an extent that they do not understand the difference between discussion, debate and argument. There is a difference between speaking and making noise and this must be kept in mind while raising your voices. This difference can be learned through practice— practice of making your point but also listening to the ones made against you; the practice of having flexible opinions which can be corrected when new information is received; the practice of knowing what is right and standing beside it— The practice of right discussion, debate and dissent.
Raise your voice but raise it right. Find a platform where you can interact with people who share the same intellect as you or even have more knowledge than you do. Discuss what you can’t understand, debate about your opinions instead of tweeting them and learn how to bring change through dissent. Let the people who are angry remain angry. The history is evidence of what can happen when the youth decides to speak up. Break the silence chamber, speak out loud and clear. Reclaim your lost voice—make it heard.
-Ayushmita