The Privilege of Guilt: How Urban Elites Gentrified Activism

Somewhere in a cozy café in South Calcutta, a bespectacled Banerjee stirs her lebu cha while lamenting the state of India’s democracy. Between quotes from Arundhati Roy and Instagram reels from protests she didn’t attend, she assures her followers that she “stands in solidarity.” Meanwhile, her domestic help hasn’t had a Sunday off in three years or salary hike in five years. 

This isn’t just a Bengali story—it’s a pan-Indian epidemic: the rise of the Performative Urban Liberal

From Zamindari to Zoominars

Many of these liberals descend from families that once benefited from land ownership, caste hierarchies, or colonial proximity. Yesterday's zamindars are today’s TEDx speakers. The surnames may change—Mukherjee in Kolkata, Iyer in Chennai, Nair in Kochi, Mehta in Mumbai, Sharma in Delhi—but the playbook remains the same.

Their activism is tidy. It has fonts, filters, and fundraising. But most importantly, it has distance—from the people it claims to fight for.

Their ancestors built bungalows with colonial loyalty. They build their careers with hashtags.


📍Delhi: The Khan Market Cartel

They speak of poverty from air-conditioned apartments in Greater Kailash, drink kombucha while calling farmers “misguided,” and post screenshots of The Wire next to their Oatly lattes.

Their kids do internships at think tanks where no one earns below ₹75,000 a month. They say "caste doesn't exist in Delhi"—because everyone they know has a legacy at St. Stephen’s.

You’ll find them at India Habitat Centre panels titled “Decolonizing the Marginal Mind”—hosted by people who’ve never stepped inside a government hospital.


📍Bangalore: Koramangala Techno-Left

These are your startup bros turned saviours.

He codes by day, quotes Noam Chomsky by night. Wears a Che Guevara T-shirt but gives ESOPs only to IITians. Thinks he’s "feminist" because he once said "women are better coders" at a TEDx Whitefield.

Their activism is on Slack channels and Reddit AMAs. And yes, they think Rohith Vemula was “tragic” but prefer not to hire folks who didn’t go to an English-medium school.


📍Mumbai: Prithvi Theatre Progressives

The land of latte Leninists and organic Marxists.

At Prithvi Café, aunties in silver jhumkas whisper about capitalism between rehearsals of their play “Caste? What Caste?”

Their husbands direct documentaries that win European awards, yet refuse to cast a Dalit actor because he doesn't “look oppressed enough.”

Their favorite resistance story? “We opposed the Emergency." Their favorite activity today? Silently sipping wine at SoBo book readings while talking about “how bad the country has become.”

🐱 South Calcutta Syndrome (Revisited)

And of course, no piece is complete without the original—the Bengali Bhadralok.

With a grandfather who once wore a three-piece suit in 42°C to teach Shakespeare, the new Bhadralok wears FabIndia to teach gender studies.

He reads Foucault, writes for EPW, tweets against Brahmanism… and yet, god forbid his son marries outside the caste.

He romanticizes “the masses,” but has never taken a local train after college. He’ll defend queer rights at Park Street cafés, but won’t hold his boyfriend’s hand on Rashbehari Avenue.


🎭 Revolution as Rebrand

This isn’t critique for critique’s sake—it’s a call-out. Because these elites have gentrified activism.

They’ve turned people’s lived trauma into fellowship proposals, rallies into LinkedIn credentials, and politics into aesthetic rebellion.

You don’t dismantle a system by co-opting its language in designer fonts.

Real revolution doesn’t come with a cappuccino and a Canva graphic. It doesn’t trend.

It takes risk. It takes loss. It takes getting your hands dirty—not just your grid curated.

Today, you’ll hear more about “allyship” than access. More about “decolonizing minds” than giving up caste privilege. More about “amplifying voices” than actually sharing the mic.

India doesn’t need more savarna saviors.It needs silence from them—so someone else can finally speak.

Aniket Kumthekar


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