印度政治世家后裔正试图抓住属于他的时刻拉胡尔·甘地是三位印度总理的后裔。一波抗议浪潮可能会为他提供一个挑战现任国家领导人的跳板。
dia, the Scion of a Political Dynasty Tries to Seize His Moment Rahul Gandhi is the descendant of three prime ministers. A surge of protests could give him a springboard to take on the nation’s current leader.
印度国民大会党领袖拉胡尔·甘地上周末在金奈出席一场学生集会。 不是人们对印度最显赫政治家族的中年后裔的预期。但对拉胡尔·甘地来说，这可能是他一生难逢的机遇。
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Indian National Congress, attending a student rally in Chennai last weekend. Credit...Anindito Mukherjee for The New York Times Supported by Joining Gen Z protesters and confronting the police are not what one might expect of the middle-aged scion of India’s most illustrious political dynasty. But for Rahul Gandhi, they could be the opportunity of a lifetime.
多年来，甘地一直在印度政坛变幻莫测的局势中艰难寻找立足点。尽管贵为最大反对党领袖，他却很难摆脱人们对他“印度首任总理曾孙、以及另两位总理之孙和之子”这一身份的单一印象。
For years, Mr. Gandhi has struggled to find his footing in the treacherously shifting sands of Indian politics. Even as head of the largest opposition party, he has had difficulty being seen as more than just the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister and the grandson and son of two others.
现年56岁的甘地可能已经迎来了他的高光时刻。他挺身而出，反对现任总理纳伦德拉·莫迪的强人政治风格，并与走上街头的青年运动站在一起，这些青年运动的领导人认为全球最大的民主正在面临威胁。
At 56, he may have found his moment by rising to oppose the strongman-style politics of the current prime minister, Narendra Modi, and stand with the youth movement that has taken to the streets against what its leaders see as a threat to the world’s largest democracy.
长期以来，甘地一直在警告印度民众，他们的权利正在遭到瓦解。今年夏天，大学入学考试试题泄露导致考试被取消，引发了大规模学生抗议，并最终导致印度教育部长辞职，他的这一信息随即引发了广泛共鸣。几周后，选民登记记录中被删除了1.3亿个名字，这再次激起全国范围的愤怒，并引发了罢免印度首席选举专员的要求，甘地称这进一步证明了他此前的观点正确。
Mr. Gandhi has long warned Indians that their rights were being dismantled. His message caught fire over the summer, after leaks of questions for a college-entrance exam resulted in its cancellation, igniting massive student protests that led to the resignation of India’s education minister. Weeks later Mr. Gandhi claimed further vindication after the deletion of 130 million names from registration records again fueled national outrage and demands for the removal of India’s chief election commissioner.
作家兼政治评论员尼尔贾·乔杜里表示，人们现在更容易接受他的信息，因为“对政府的不满情绪正在增长，人们感到疲惫，缺乏新的活力”，再加上莫迪往往会采取严厉的高压手段。因此，甘地先生“获得了信心，”她说。
Neerja Chowdhury, an author and political commentator, said people are more receptive to his message because “dissatisfaction with the government is growing, there’s fatigue, there’s no new energy,” on top of which Mr. Modi tends to come down with a heavy hand. As a result, Mr. Gandhi has “gained confidence,” she said.
问题在于，他现在能否推动他的政党印度国民大会党在印度2029年的下届大选中取得胜利，并结束莫迪先生的印度人民党到那时将长达15年的执政。更加自信的方法自2007年就认识甘地先生并曾与他合作开展竞选活动的约根德拉·亚达夫将他描述为“一个对书籍、对思想有着深厚兴趣”的人，但“略显羞涩”，并不是那种天生的演讲者或“爱交际的外向者”，这也是他有时在舞台上显得生硬和尴尬的原因。
The question is whether he can now propel his party, the Indian National Congress, to victory in India’s next general election in 2029 and end what by then would be a 15-yearlong grip on power by Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. A More Confident Approach Yogendra Yadav, who has known Mr. Gandhi since 2007 and worked with him on campaigns, described him as “someone deeply interested in books, in ideas,” but “somewhat shy” and not a natural orator or a “gregarious extrovert,” which is why he can appear stilted and awkward onstage.
这使甘地先生成为了莫迪党内成员的目标，他们嘲笑他是“帕普”（pappu），即笨蛋，并把他塑造成享有特权且无能的形象——这种负面形象困扰了他多年。
That made Mr. Gandhi a target for members of Mr. Modi’s party, who have mocked him as a “pappu,” or simpleton, and cast him as privileged and incompetent — an image that dogged him for years.
十多年前开始，他的政党在莫迪先生领导的印度教民族主义政府面前屡战屡败，他本人也输掉了曾由其父亲、前总理拉吉夫·甘地持有的选区，这对他的处境毫无帮助。（他的祖母英迪拉·甘地也曾担任总理；他的曾祖父贾瓦哈拉尔·尼赫鲁是印度的第一任总理；他的母亲索尼娅·甘地曾多年领导国大党。）2022年9月，甘地先生踏上了扭转政治命运的征程，字面意义上的步步为营——他开启了一场全长约2500英里、历时136天的跨国徒步之旅。
It didn’t help that his party started losing election after election more than a decade ago to the Hindu nationalist government led by Mr. Modi, and he himself lost the constituency once held by his father, Rajiv Gandhi, a former prime minister. (His grandmother, Indira Gandhi, was also prime minister; his great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was India’s first prime minister; and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, led the Congress Party for many years.) In September 2022, Mr. Gandhi set out to turn his political fortunes around, literally step by step, when he embarked on a roughly 2,500-mile, 136-day journey on foot across the nation.
这场名为“巴拉特·约多·亚特拉”（Bharat Jodo Yatra），即“团结印度之旅”的徒步活动，旨在打破他精英化和脱离群众的形象。
Called the “Bharat Jodo Yatra,” or “Unite India Journey,” the walk was aimed at countering his image as elite and out-of-touch.
在2024年的大选中，这场行程似乎取得了回报。当时莫迪先生的印度人民党获得的议会席位远少于预期，被迫组建联合政府。甘地先生则成为了反对派领袖。
The journey appeared to pay off during the 2024 general election when Mr. Modi’s B.J.P. secured far fewer parliamentary seats than expected, forcing it to form a coalition government. Mr. Gandhi became the leader of the opposition.
去年，当甘地先生所在的政党在马哈拉施特拉邦的地方选举中失利时，他声称就在几个月前，选民名册遭到篡改，从而使印度人民党受益。他针对比哈尔邦的选举也发表了类似的言论。
Last year, when Mr. Gandhi’s party lost state elections in Maharashtra, he claimed that voter rolls had been manipulated just months beforehand, to the benefit of the B.J.P. He made similar claims about elections in the state of Bihar.
他加大了对印度选举委员会这一独立监督机构的批评力度，指责该机构在一年前开始修订选民名册、删除了1.3亿个名字后，在听从莫迪先生的吩咐。
He stepped up his criticism of the Election Commission of India, an independent oversight body, accusing it of doing Mr. Modi’s bidding after it began a revision of voter lists a year ago that removed the 130 million names.
该委员会表示，这些删除行动背后没有政治动机，这些行动对穆斯林以及其他可能反对印度人民党的选民产生了更大影响。但甘地先生将这些行动描绘为这位总理企图把持权力的举措。
The commission said there was no political motive behind the deletions, which more heavily affected Muslims and other voters likely to oppose the B.J.P. But Mr. Gandhi cast them as a bid by the prime minister to hold onto power.
甘地先生上周末在沿海城市金奈的一场集会上表示：“莫迪先生不明白，游戏已经结束了。”
“Mr. Modi does not understand that the game is over,” Mr. Gandhi told a rally last weekend in the coastal city of Chennai.
执政党成员表示，甘地先生做得过头了，他所挑起的话题或许能引起不满现状的年轻人的共鸣，但可能会疏远其他选民。
Members of the governing party say Mr. Gandhi is going too far, taking up issues that may resonate with discontented youth but could alienate other voters.
内政部长阿米特·沙阿对记者表示，国大党正在为“惨败”做准备。“消极政治不会给他们带来任何好处。”激发印度青年活力在金奈的集会上，甘地先生邀请年轻人上台分享他们的经历。这是一场名为“学生呼声”的运动的一部分，该运动由他在6月左右发起，大约正值由Z世代主导、呼吁政治问责的“小强民众党”开始吸引人们眼球之际。
The Congress Party is setting itself up for a “massive defeat,” Amit Shah, the home minister, told reporters. “Negative politics will not bring them any benefit.”Rousing India’s Youth At the rally in Chennai, Mr. Gandhi invited young people onstage to share their experiences. It was part of a campaign called “Chhatron Ki Goonj,” or “Voices of Youth,” which he began in June around the time that the Cockroach Janta Party, a Gen Z-led movement calling for political accountability, was beginning to grab attention.
一名受邀者讲述了一个妹妹在面对高压的医学院入学考试时自杀的故事。另一名受邀者讲述了她作为穆斯林和女性所经历的歧视。
One invitee spoke about a sister who killed herself when faced with the high-pressure medical school entrance exam. Another spoke about discrimination that she experienced as a Muslim and a woman.
“打破父权制！”这是甘地先生的口号之一，它引起了集会上18岁政治学专业学生里蒂卡·雷切尔·普拉温的共鸣。她说，听到一位领导人说“在印度这样的国家，像父权制这样的东西应该被打破”，让人感到“耳目一新”。
“Smash the Patriarchy!” one of Mr. Gandhi’s slogans, resonated with Ritika Rachel Pravin, 18, a political science student at the rally. Hearing a leader say that “something like patriarchy should be broken in a nation like India” was “very refreshing,” she said.
甘地先生通常避免一对一的采访，并拒绝了我们多次的采访请求，他利用社交媒体作为其形象重塑的一部分。他在演讲技巧上的不足，通过旨在将幽默与庄重结合的短视频得到了弥补。
Mr. Gandhi, who generally avoids one-on-one interviews and refused our multiple requests, has used social media as part of his rebrand. What he lacks in oratorial skills he makes up for in short videos that aim to mix humor with gravitas.
甘地先生穿着休闲——他通常穿着不塞进裤腰的Polo衫和休闲裤——并且在8月Instagram上的一场“问我任何事”问答环节中，他分享了自己的健身日常（武术、游泳、跑步、力量训练和瑜伽）以及饮食习惯（高蛋白、低碳水化合物）。
Mr. Gandhi dresses casually — he typically wears untucked polo shirts and chinos — and in an “Ask Me Anything” session on Instagram in August, he shared his fitness regimen (martial arts, swimming, running, strength training and yoga) and diet (high protein, low carbohydrate).
社交媒体上的帖子还展示了甘地先生的反抗举动。7月时，甘地先生和同为国大党成员的姐姐普里扬卡·甘地·瓦德拉在莫迪先生官邸外举行静坐抗议，他被警察强行拖走的照片在网上广为流传。
Social media posts have also shown Mr. Gandhi in acts of defiance. In July, when Mr. Gandhi and his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, also a Congress party member, staged a sit-in outside Mr. Modi’s official residence, photos of him being dragged away by the police went viral.
本月，他用双腿抗拒试图将他推进公交车的警察的画面在网上热传，一段他爬上黄色警察路障以防被安全部队抓获的视频也是如此。
This month, images of him using his legs to push back against police officers trying to shove him inside a bus went viral, as did a video of him climbing up a yellow police barricade to avoid being captured by security forces.
布朗大学研究南亚政治的国际研究教授阿舒托什·瓦什尼表示，这些抗争的场景使甘地先生在对阵莫迪先生和印度人民党时赢得了政治加分。
The scenes of struggle have allowed Mr. Gandhi to score political points against Mr. Modi and the B.J.P., said Ashutosh Varshney, a professor of international studies at Brown University who studies South Asian politics.
瓦什尼先生说：“至于这是否足以让莫迪下台？目前完全还不清楚。”
“Now, will it be enough to unseat Modi? That remains wholly unclear,” Mr. Varshney said.
世俗传统的继承人 为了准备一场决对决，甘地先生试图把自己塑造为印度人民党印度教民族主义政治的对立面，以此来扩大他对年轻选民的吸引力。他把自己描绘成印度宪法中所奉行的世俗原则的捍卫者——他在抗议期间经常挥舞着一本宪法副本——以及一个其根源可追溯至反抗英国殖民统治的政党的继承人。
Heir to a Secular Legacy To prepare for a showdown, Mr. Gandhi has tried to broaden his appeal with younger voters by presenting himself as the antithesis of the B.J.P.’s Hindu nationalist politics. He portrays himself as the defender of the secular principles enshrined in India’s Constitution — a copy of which he often brandishes during protests — and the heir to a party with roots that go back to resistance against British colonialism.
乔杜里女士表示：“他不仅是反对派领袖，而且是反对派中将与莫迪较量的人物。”她还说：“这是莫迪对阵拉胡尔。”就在上周一，甘地先生率领游行队伍前往印度首都新德里的最高法院，抗议选民名册的修改。陪同他的有他的妹妹，以及大约两打属于一个名为“印度”集团的国大党领导之联盟的政党领袖。因青年抗议活动而崭露头角的人气学生内哈·博拉也加入了进来。
“He’s not just the leader of the opposition, but the figure in the opposition who will take on Modi,” said Ms. Chowdhury. “It’s Modi vs Rahul.”This past Monday, Mr. Gandhi led a march to the Supreme Court in New Delhi, the capital of India, to protest the voter roll changes. He was accompanied by his sister and leaders of some of the roughly two dozen political parties that are part of a Congress-led coalition called the INDIA bloc. Neha Bora, a student who has become a breakout star of the youth protests, also joined.
这是甘地先生朝着他一直在努力实现的目标迈出的又一步：将青年抗议活动和政治反对派编织成一股统一的力量，同时小心翼翼地不与任何单一运动（例如“小强民众党”）结盟。
It was another step toward what Mr. Gandhi has been trying to do: weave the youth protests and political opposition into a unified force, while being careful not to align with any one movement, such as the Cockroach Janta Party.
作为“印度”集团中唯一的全国性政党，国大党是迎战印度人民党的天然领导者。该党一个地方联盟成员的负责人迪潘卡尔·巴塔查亚表示，印度人民党“是在几乎整个政治体系的牺牲下壮大起来的”。
Congress, as the only national party in INDIA, was the natural leader to take on the B.J.P., which “has grown at the expense of virtually the entire political system,” said Dipankar Bhattacharya, who heads a regional bloc member.
甘地先生呼吁抛开反对派联盟内部的分歧，集中精力应对他所说的更大威胁：现代印度身份核心民主价值观的“消亡”。
Mr. Gandhi has called for putting aside differences within the opposition coalition to focus on what he says is the bigger threat: the “killing” of the democratic values at the heart of modern India’s identity.
他在上周一的一次记者会上表示：“这场战斗是在多个战线展开的，”包括认知、心理、法律和政治战。“我们正在所有战线上战斗，并且我们在所有战线上都在取胜。”阿努普里塔·达斯为《纽约时报》报道印度和南亚新闻。她常驻新德里。
“This battle is fought on multiple fronts,” perception, psychological, legal and political, he said at a news conference last Monday. “We are fighting on all fronts, and we are winning on all fronts.”Anupreeta Das covers India and South Asia for The Times. She is based in New Delhi.
哈里·库马尔报道印度新闻，常驻新德里。他从事新闻工作已有二十多年。
Hari Kumar covers India, based out of New Delhi. He has been a journalist for more than two decades.