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It is interesting to observe that just three months after I wrote on the international aspects of Jasmine Inc in this column, the subject has manifested itself in India rapidly. I had raised the points of whether and how the Jasmine revolution could reach Indian shores from the global scene.

I believe we’ve got the answer sooner than we had bargained for or imagined in the form of a not-so-silent revolution on the subjects of lack of governance/transparency and the power of general public being demonstrated in an open environment. To allude to the events occurring in the last few weeks across India in the real world and the digital world, a few of these need specific mention.

On the subject of governance and the role of the general public or common citizens, a movement that started as the solitary belief of a few Indians in northern India became a mass hysteria cutting across geographies of India.

That set of Indians has been trying to bring some discipline to the disorganized set of public governance and public rights/participation in policy-making. But the participation in the silent protest movement extended to ranks, files, age groups, professions, social profiles of citizens with a common voice and a unified objective to bring back power of people.

The eventual or initial success, however, can be termed as a job well begun but it is far from being the end. While the movement was initiated and continued to receive support from across the nation by way of physical presence of supporters, there was another peculiar trend that emerged and went rather unnoticed comparatively at the time.
This was the support that was generated from the confines of living rooms of homemakers/office desk of a BPO employee/office cubicles of busy executives/desktops of young students and massive support from GenY. This was the digital power generated by what one could call “Netolutionaries” or net revolutionaries. This could be clearly spotted on the blogs and social media websites including Twitter and Facebook.

An indigenous event that was reported more by local media in the confines of Mumbai without any prominence on a national scale was when a number of Mumbaikars progressed to lodge protests by walking on the city’s only sea-link. These citizens decided to break the rule that restricted pedestrians from walking along the sea-link by forming a sequence.

They also blocked traffic on the sea-link for a few hours. The peaceful and sudden movement caught the administrators unprepared. The point was made.
Arguably, the similarities of these events with activities during the freedom struggle of the country are intriguing, be it the hunger strike or be it the silent (but firm) protest by token break of rules. The messages that speak loudly are pretty unambiguous… the dislocation of governance causing damage and irritation to common citizens may not be tolerated for long and the silent weapons would be used effectively to counter it. The powerful digital world would play its crucial role in future social movements and the rules that differentiate commoners based on social class may be changed to bring about equality.

Can you smell the fresh fragrance of jasmine, my rekindled and awakened fellow Indians!

The views expressed here are personal.

BHARAT BANKA is the Founding CEO of Aditya Birla Private Equity.

©Entrepreneur May 2011

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Bharat Banka, Jasmine, revolution