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Drilled

Disha Ravi on Becoming the Face of "Radical" Protest in India

Drilled

Critical Frequency

True Crime, Earth Sciences, Social Sciences, Science

4.82.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When she was just 22, Disha Ravi, co-founder of Fridays for Future in India, had police show up at her home, borrow a pen and paper to write an arrest warrant on the spot, and bundle her onto a plane to fly across the country to a city she'd never been to. Here she explains what happened, how it's still impacting her two years later, and why she'll never let it stop her activism or force her out of India. An extended version of this interview will run in partnership with the Heated newsletter next week, as the G20 Summit gets underway in Delhi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Before you can pass a policy that criminalizes protest or show up at someone's house and

0:17.9

bungle them off in an unmarried van, you have to spend a good few years making sure a

0:23.4

substantial portion of the population will be on your side and not theirs.

0:28.2

And the best way to do that is to vilify and dehumanize the activists in question.

0:34.7

To make them annoying mosquitoes that everyone wants to swat away, even if they agree with

0:39.8

their cause.

0:41.4

Globally, the efforts to cast climate activists in that light have been pre-successful.

0:47.5

It is not uncommon to see everyone from prominent climate scientists to moderate politicians,

0:53.5

emphasizing the tactics of protesters a whole lot more than they criticize the criminalization

0:58.9

of protest.

0:59.9

It doesn't just happen, it's carefully orchestrated, and in recent years mainstream media has

1:06.4

mostly been assisting in that effort.

1:10.0

When it covers activism at all, which is rare, the media is largely critical of it.

1:16.1

Headlines describe climate activists as radical, decry-disruptive tactics, or focus on the

1:22.9

cost that this or that protest has inflicted on a business.

1:28.4

Articles will sooner raise an eyebrow at who's paying the activists and engage with the

1:33.5

cause that's driving them.

1:36.1

The reality is that the vast majority of climate activists are smart, joyful, deeply caring

1:42.2

individuals who are doing a pretty brave thing by putting their lives, their livelihoods,

1:48.9

and their bodies on the line for something they believe will protect all of us.

1:54.4

In an effort to re-humanize them, we'll be bringing you their stories directly throughout

1:59.8

this series.

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