Democracy by Design

A crowdsourced visual archive of the posters, placards and photography of India's protest movements. It began with the students and the leaked exam paper; it is open to the movements that came after.

Start with The Lighthouse, our photo essays, reading the placards one at a time.

The posters are the point: we archive the art of the streets, and we automatically cover protesters' faces, with a tape sticker where a face is big enough to carry one, a blur where it is not. Read the submission guidelines · appear in a photo? Request removal.

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⟡ Movements

What this archive holds

Different movements, different causes. Each has its own album, and its own link to send.

From The LSR and Delhi University women's safety protests
Sexual violence, campus safety and the right to walk home

The LSR and Delhi University women's safety protests

196 photographs · September 2026 onwards

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From The SIR and 'vote chori' protests abroad
Electoral rolls and civil liberties

The SIR and 'vote chori' protests abroad

10 photographs · From October 2026

#VoteChoriBandKaro

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From The Hindu College dharna
Privatisation, fees and an admissions scandal at a Delhi University college

The Hindu College dharna

32 photographs · September 2026 onwards

#HinduCollegeNotForSale

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From The 'One Protest' march to the Supreme Court
Electoral rolls and civil liberties

The 'One Protest' march to the Supreme Court

24 photographs · 12 October 2026 · New Delhi

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From The SIR and 'vote chori' campaign
Electoral rolls and civil liberties

The SIR and 'vote chori' campaign

5 photographs

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From The Gen Z protests against the Chief Election Commissioner
Deleted voters, the delayed roll revision and a demand for resignation

The Gen Z protests against the Chief Election Commissioner

15 photographs · From 2 October 2026

#VoteChoriBandKaro

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From The Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra rallies against the SIR
The SIR, paper ballots and the Election Commission

The Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra rallies against the SIR

5 photographs · 7 October 2026 · Pune

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From The 2026 NEET-UG paper leak protests
Students and education

The 2026 NEET-UG paper leak protests

336 photographs · May – August 2026

#NEETUG2026

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From The Jharkhand protests
Jobs, recruitment exams and land

The Jharkhand protests

5 photographs · From 29 July 2026 · Ranchi

#BhartiGhotala

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From Cartoons, a collection in the archive
A collection

Cartoons

42 photographs · across every movement in the archive

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Or by place

Delhi122 New Delhi65 Mumbai31 Hindu College, New Delhi22 Jantar Mantar, Delhi15 The Hague, Netherlands10 Goa10 Don Bosco Square, Shillong9 Indore6 Dandekar Pul, Pune5 Hyderabad5 Ranchi5 Panjim Municipal Garden4 Sealdah to Esplanade, Kolkata3 Freedom Park, Bengaluru3 Mumbai - Why Loiter Campaigm2 Shivaji Park, Mumbai2 Baghmara,South Garo Hills,Meghalaya1 Bengaluru1 Pune1 Kolkata1

Every place in the archive →

28 movements are open and holding nothing yet: Ken-Betwa, Bengal teachers, Resident doctors, E20 petrol, Political prisoners, Press freedom, and 22 more. Send us photographs · see them all.

Just added

The newest photographs in the archive, in the order they went up.

Recently added to the archive from Vote chori abroadVote chori abroad Recently added to the archive from Hindu CollegeHindu College Recently added to the archive from One ProtestOne Protest Recently added to the archive from SIR / vote choriSIR / vote chori Recently added to the archive from SIR / vote choriSIR / vote chori Recently added to the archive from SIR / vote choriSIR / vote chori Recently added to the archive from Vote chori abroadVote chori abroad Recently added to the archive from Vote chori abroadVote chori abroad
⟡ The Lighthouse

Reading the placards

Essays from the archive, reading a single placard, a march or a material closely. Newest three.

A printed banner of a green parrot above a hand-painted poster of a tambourine, in a Pune lane
Album 025

The King's Life Is in the Parrot

A day of door-to-door campaigning in Pune, where the printed banners carry the organisation's name and the hand-painted ones carry the argument.
A laminated sheet held above a crowd in Ranchi, printed with a photograph of the protest and its own placards
Album 024

A Placard Made of Placards

In Ranchi one protester carried the whole protest on a single sheet of A4, and four of the five photographs here carry a printed image glued to something handmade.
Slogans and a cartoon drawn in coloured chalk across a Mumbai street
Album 023

Written on the Road

Everything else in this archive was made to be held up. The chalk was made to be stood on, and to be gone by the end of the week.

All 25 albums in the Lighthouse →

Everything, all at once

Every photograph in the archive, all movements together, in no order at all.

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