Centuries have passed since man first created a civilization on the banks of a river. After so many years if one sits and reflects on the journey of mankind, he finds his mind filled with memories of progress, prosperity, devastation, war, famines, love, hate and so on. It is imperative to ask how much sophisticated and developed mankind has become since the first civilization. What we see today, is it the peak of civilization or were there any instances in the past where mankind had been more exalted than it is today.

Before trying to explore the answers for these questions, let’s have quick look at the following points

• Mankind, today, has the capability to scour through the depths of oceans and vastness of the solar system.
• Mankind has advanced the communication network to an extent that it has diminished the differences of time and space.
• Mankind has developed the military power to a level that it can wipe out itself with just the click of a button.
• Mankind has been able to put up surveillance in every sphere of human life, but has been unable to prevent occurrence of crimes.
• Mankind strives to become globalized but nurtures venoms of racism, casteism and supremacist ideologies.
• Mankind has mastered the field of political sciences but prefers to alienate masses from power centers.
• Mankind appears to be experts in economics but still millions of people struggle to meet their daily ends meet.
• Mankind has been able to bestow basic rights even to the beasts but tolerates killing of humans to satisfy the collective conscience, to ensure stability of the rulers and Gau raksha.

These are nothing but various facets of our society. Even though obscure to many, the real face of our society is a shame on the whole mankind. Man in his quest to dominate over other and to amass power has gone astray. The collective efforts of the society have failed to stop his march towards destruction. Corrupted with evil ideologies, nefarious policies and haphazard practices, society is on the brink of collapse by itself.

In these circumstances a thorough overhaul of the society’s ideology, structure and logistics is utmost necessary. Merely rehabilitating or repairing of a part or two wouldn’t be of much use. In short a revolution has to be unleashed within the society.

This is what Telangana Youthquake 2018 is. This ambitious campaign launched to address the current condition, pull out the masses from the abyss of despair and hopelessness and to cut down the arms of the ‘plunderers of the society’ is the flagship programme of SIO Telangana’s term 2017-18. The term YouthQuake, an amalgamation of Youth and Quake, represents the revolution propelled, driven and carried out by youth, which would rattle the deep rooted establishments of injustice, inequality and insecurity. SIO Telangana wishes to give a new definition to the raw power, commitment and attitude of youth which is usually associated with merry making and aimless adventurism. SIO Telangana wants to show the world that the youth are capable of harbouring constructive ideologies and bringing upon a positive change by themselves.

The campaign intends to unleash the change in two parts. Questioning Present and Envisioning Future. It is imperative for a vibrant society to question every aspect of life. Every notion and every tradition must be questioned. The peak of the questioning shall be when the purpose of one’s life is questioned. Without questioning no society can travel much on the road of existence.

Not a few, but every individual of the society must be questioned and made to question. The society needs t be taught to question why our sisters and daughters get raped every day. Why there is such a huge gulf between the rich and the poor. Questions must be asked as to why there are no equal educational opportunities for all. Questions must be asked as to when and how the human dignity became inferior to that of animal. Questions must be asked as to why someone becomes noble and someone humble by virtue of birth. Questions must be asked why the condition of our country has become so deplorable. Questions must be asked to those who unleash wars and destruction in the name of terror and national security. The day society fails to raise questions, it loses its right to existence.

Conscious citizens not merely question the status quo, but come up with answers. Being an ideological organization it is SIO’s duty to not only question the present conditions but provide a road map for a bright future.

To envision the future SIO Telangana has come up with a three dimensional approach namely 1. Educate 2. Contribute 3. Renovate

The first step to prevent someone from committing a crime is to enlighten him about its ill effects. Without educating him about the consequences of his actions no meaningful progress can be made in this regard. Educating people shall include addressing the ideological root cause which has been causing all the problems and teaching them the ultimate truth and guiding ideology that can solve the issues and guide towards light.

The second step is to develop the concept of contributing to the society. If everyone feels it his responsibility to pay his debts to the society, he shall find an attachment towards the society which stops him from deteriorating it.

The final step is to renovate the society we live in. The society in which we live is so corrupted and deteriorated that it needs to be re-constructed. The damaged portions have to be demolished and built afresh.

By combining these three factors the aims of Telangana YouthQuake 2018 would come alive.

This campaign which was launched five months ago is nearing its culmination point with a massive state conference scheduled on 9^th September, 2018. As a part of this campaign various activities like rallies, seminars, lectures, symposium, get together, professional meets etc were conducted throughout the state. Each activity was planned keeping in view the five objectives of YouthQuake, listed here under:

1. Nourishing the Idea of Questioning and Shedding Passivism in the society.
2. Promoting social sensitivity in the masses especially students and youth.
3. Inspiring students and youth to lead socially accountable and morally responsible lives.
4. Building a better alternative discourse against corruptions of all forms based on realities of life.
5. Organizing the efforts of students and youth towards the renovation of society.

At some point of time a question may arise whether such an ideal society could ever be established or was it established any time in the history? The answer is ‘yes’ for both the questions. The mankind was established on these very principles at the beginning itself and many a times in the history, the recent not being more than fourteen centuries ago. Which means we are not at the peak of civilization, but the peak moment was achieved in the past itself. Now, our aim should be to revert back to the principles basing on which the peak moment was achieved in the past. This answers the questions raised in the beginning of this article.