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Young people have revived the country’s glorious tradition of nonviolent dissent.

Four takeaways from India’s protest movement, at a moment when democracies around the world are under pressure.

Police blocked a march toward the Election Commission of India’s office and detained some protesters as demonstrations continued in New Delhi over a contentious voter-roll overhaul. Farmers’ groups and trade unions had called for nationwide protests. (Source: Bloomberg)

Suhasini Haidar, diplomatic editor for The Hindu, describes the police response to the “Cockroach” protests in Delhi and how assumptions are being challenged about India’s place in the world. (Source: Bloomberg)

Indian farmers who helped force Prime Minister Narendra Modi into a rare policy retreat four years ago are set to join nationwide protests against a contentious overhaul of voter rolls on Friday, widening a movement challenging the country’s Election Commission.

A court in India on Wednesday ordered the release of two leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party, the youth-led movement that has led historic waves of protests in India since the summer. Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were detained amid massive protests last week after they scaled a barricade to enter a site popular for protest, unfurled the national flag and called for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Kumar oversaw the deletion of 130 million names from the voter rolls in India since June of last year. Opposition parties say those impacted are primarily Muslims and other minorities less likely to support the BJP , the Hindu nationalist ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “You have a deep and wide — an ideologically wide — historical culture of resistance in India,” says acclaimed writer and activist Arundhati Roy. At the same time, the Modi government “has three things in its playbook: One is false-flag attacks, two is engineering communal riots, and the third is massive repression. And I don’t think we’ve seen its hand yet.”

Two leaders of India’s Cockroach Janta Party walked out of a New Delhi prison late Wednesday after more than a week in police custody, as authorities intensify restrictions on protests over a contentious overhaul of the country’s voter rolls.

Leaders of India’s governing coalition are trying to frame the demonstrations as a power grab by traditional political parties rather than a grass-roots youth movement.