By Cedric Prakash
Ahmedabad, November 9, 2026: Change is here! During the past weeks, on several counts, the world has been experiencing this reality!
After a phase of darkness, primarily caused by dictators and autocrats, fascists and fundamentalists, fanatics and feudalists, megalomaniacs and manipulators, profiteers and bloodsuckers, corrupt and communal, violent and warmongers – there is suddenly the warm and welcome glow of a new dawn.
A Change! Something different, something new! At this moment, it clearly seems that the long, painful and relentless struggle of millions all over the world, is beginning to pay rich dividends. The Change is here!
Serbia perhaps set the tone for this change, which is snowballing the world over!. For more than fourteen years, Aleksandar Vučić, the populist and nationalist strongman of Serbia, ruled the country with an iron fist.
He was first Prime Minister, then President. He spared no dissent. Corruption was rampant in the country. The collapse of a canopy at a railway station in 2024 triggered an anti-corruption movement in Serbia.
There was a groundswell of protests. It forced Vučić to dissolve the National Assembly more than a year ahead of the scheduled date of December 2027.
Finally, early parliamentary elections were held in Serbia on 25 October 2026 to elect members of the National Assembly.
The students and other youth of the country put together what they called the ‘Student List’ of people with impeccable records, who were not corrupt and who were willing to contribute to the good and future of the country!
They won the election with an absolute majority of seats, defeating the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which had been in power since 2012.
Then came Brazil! Trump and the US regime were determined to defeat the charismatic and people–oriented incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Big corporations wanted him ousted too. In the first round on October 4, Flávio Bolsonaro (son of jailed former and corrupt President Jair Bolsonaro) led with 47.03% against Lula’s 45.16%.
However, despite all odds and defying power and money, Lula pulled off an electoral comeback in the October 25, 2026 runoff.
It is his fourth term as President of Brazil. Lula’s victory marks the first time since Brazil’s return to civilian rule in 1985 that a candidate won the presidency after losing the first round.
In the meantime, Bolsonaro has fled the country and gone to the United States! Lula’s victory signalled that Change is here!
On 27 October, Israel went to the polls. The world waited and watched. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had waged a horrendous war on the people of Palestine/Gaza, killing several thousand people in the past few years.
So this election was seen as a referendum on his policies of hate, violence and war!
The elections ended in a political deadlock, with neither Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc nor the opposition alliance securing the 61-seat majority required to form a government in the 120-member Knesset.
Following the certification of the results, President Isaac Herzog formally opened coalition talks on November 4, 2026, to determine who will be tasked with building the next government.
Interestingly, the Arab bloc has cornered a whopping nineteen seats. On Sunday, 8 November, the Israeli President Isaac Herzog formally tasked Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s rival, with forming the next government. Some change indeed!
On 3 November, it was Election Day in the United States. The American people came out in large numbers to exercise their franchise for members of the US Congress and Senate, for Governors and Mayors and for members of the State bodies.
Donald Trump, his Republican Party and their crony capitalist friends spared no effort in wanting their candidates to be victorious.
Though Trump has two more years as President, these elections were seen, like Israel, as a referendum on his policies and particularly on his war against Iran. And wow, the election results were like a tsunami.
Trump was beaten, lock, stock and barrel. People whom he hated, despised, discriminated against and denigrated won significantly!
It was a clear repudiation of his war against Iran, siding with Israel and economic policies, which made the ordinary American poorer and helped the rich amass huge amounts of wealth. His racist policies towards immigrants and minorities from other countries backfired tremendously.
The internet has been breaking ever since the results began coming in; governments and people from most countries of the world have been cheering! It was young America that voted the Republicans out of the Senate, the Congress and important Governorships!
Over to India! The change here is palpable! Millions have been out on the streets for the past several months! It is a people’s pro-democracy movement!
The protests are against the Chief Election Commissioner and SIR Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in India. There is enough hard evidence that the CEC must be dismissed immediately and SIR has to be scrapped!
Besides, corruption and communalism have gripped the nation. On 1 November, thousands had gathered at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi.
It was a protest rally organised by the I.N. D. I. A. opposition bloc. The protesters came from all walks of life.
Gen Z is responding strongly to the fascist regime. They are taking a stand about what is happening in the country!
They have come out in droves, leaving their comfort zones. They are providing new hope and new impetus to all, including the opposition political parties. One thing is sure: despite using the police and other forces to their advantage, this Government is scared!
They really do not know how to deal with the youth force of the nation! There is no doubt that truth will triumph. The people are angry and united to bring about a regime change! India is certainly experiencing a change!
There is much more, big and small, happening everywhere! India and the rest of the world are fed up with the hate and violence, the conflicts and wars everywhere.
It is evidently clear that people want change, and they are committed to being the change they want to see!
Bob Dylan has been in the news of late. His immortal, historic pro-peace, anti-war song of 1963 is more relevant than ever today
How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail, before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly before they are forever banned?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist before they are allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have, before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows that too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind, the answer is blowin’ in the wind.
The winds of change are blowing today! Change is here!
(Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash is a renowned human rights, reconciliation, and peace activist trainer and writer. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com)