The Jan Lokpal movement spear-headed by Anna Hazare had even the older generations, that weren’t exposed to Internet’s wonders, take notice of the virtual revolution that took India by storm.

It gave the time-pressed urban society a mode to support the issue irrespective of their geographic, demographic and time-zone barriers. The trending topics on the Internet that could make/break brands and reputations suddenly acquired a new power and voice.
As it created ripples around the world, Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption spawned a huge online revolution, in the form of India Against Corruption (IAC) — and facts suggests that the Internet will probably be the bearer of the coming revolutions as well.
The outpour of young hearts in support was considered by some as a sentimental, adrenaline-driven group whose attention and support rises would eventually fall. Talking about Internet being the medium of choice for engaging youth; and also the medium for mass-movements in future, Arvind Kejriwal, a key member of the Jan Lokpal movement, says, “The difference is that we are able to communicate directly with the people. IAC movement will be a year-old in a couple of months and the support is ever-increasing so I don’t think the youth have a short attention span. No doubt, Internet is the medium of choice for engaging the youth and in future its role will only increase.”
When the Jan Lokpal movement gained prominence on the youth-fed platform, some speculated that the armchair activism that consists of reading the goings-on over the Internet and clicking “likes” wouldn’t amount to much support on the ground, but it was otherwise. “It was a pleasant surprise but let me add that a movement is not born on the internet or social media, because these are just mediums. The core of a movement is its ideology and what it stands for. There has to be activity on the ground as well and these mediums will help you amplify thoughts and act as a two-way communication system,” says Kejriwal.
The seeds of the IAC campaign were sown long before. Shivendra S. Chauhan, a journalist and owner of the India Against Corruption handle on Facebook, had begun by running the Commonwealth Jhel campaign on FB where he began disseminating information regarding the irregularities during CWG and had a following of 4,000 people.
Shivendra was then introduced to Kejriwal who came up with the name India Against Corruption for the civil society’s movement. Shivendra informs, “We only had 4,000 followers when we planned a civil society protest from Ramlila Maidan to Jantar Mantar, and heavily promoted it on FB. And through it, 20,000 people turned up in Delhi for the protest and at the same time across 60 cities in India and four cities in the US. Civil society didn’t have an inkling of such a response. Also advantageous was the power to disseminate information that was straight from the horse’s mouth and not ‘gate-kept’ by media sources.”
Talking about Internet’s triumph over conventional media, Kejriwal says, “It’s truly democratic and not owned by anyone, so there are no biases. Moreover, Internet offers interactivity like no other conventional medium and therefore is more suited for community-building like in our case for the India Against Corruption movement.”