Earlier this month, more than 20,000 supporters cheered as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood triumphantly with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium. Modi, who has ruled India for more than twelve years, was repeatedly described by the press during his visit as the popular leader of the world’s largest democracy. By the end of the month, the actions of hundreds of thousands of angry students had forced the Modi regime to make concessions to the most significant mass movement in India in a long time.
Following dramatic wins in regional elections earlier in the year, including in the historically left-wing dominated state of West Bengal, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian People’s Party) seemed stronger than ever. But the results papered over a growing crack of discontent, mainly among young people.
Young people have not benefited from the economic improvements Modi likes to tout. Among graduates aged under 30, 11 million out of 63 million are unemployed. In a now-infamous speech in May, India’s chief justice, Surya Kant, referred to these unemployed youth as “cockroaches” and “parasites” who would rather become activists than join the workforce. These remarks quickly became a meme and spurred the formation of the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) by US-based student Abhijeet Dipke. Membership criteria for the CJP include being “unemployed, lazy, chronically online, and possessing an ability to rant professionally”. The party gathered millions of Instagram followers in its first few weeks, becoming a symbol of dissent.
Online campaigning became a protest movement in June. The catalyst for the protests was the leak of the 2026 National Eligibility cum Entrance Test papers. Around 2.3 million students were taking this exam with the hope of securing one of the 137,000 places at India’s medical and dental schools. For children of working- and middle-class families, this is a pathway to a stable and comfortable life, and their families often incur significant debt to give their children the opportunity to take the test.
Instead of the test going ahead, though, students this year were told it would be delayed due to a leak. Such leaks have happened 127 times under Modi’s rule, usually as a result of wealthy people seeking and gaining access to the test questions in advance and the questions then becoming public. This delay pushed many students, already under intense pressure, over the edge, with at least twenty taking their own lives. This tragedy, and the circumstances surrounding it, unleashed the movement.
With the help of local communist student groups, such as the All India Students’ Association and the Students’ Federation of India, the CJP organised a series of protests in Delhi, the capital, starting in early June. Despite being referred to as “terrorists” by Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the protests grew. Then, on 28 June, prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk and six students began an indefinite hunger strike, bringing widespread attention to the cause.
Although the movement initially called only for administrative changes and the removal of Pradhan, it broadened to demand the release of detained protesters and the removal of Modi himself, a wide range of anti-Modi chants being taken up by protesters on the streets of Delhi. Like other uprisings over the last few years, slogans to do with the liberation of Palestine and opposing the government’s ties to Israel were raised by the left of the movement. Then, on 20 July, the movement really took off.
To mark the first day of the new parliamentary session, the CJP announced it would march on parliament. The government tried to stop the gathering by imposing internet shutdowns, but tens of thousands gathered anyway. Some of Delhi’s largest metro stations were closed to restrict movement, but the trapped participants staged their own protests anyway. Students faced attacks from police with batons, tear gas, water cannons and pellet guns, and several women reported being groped by the officers and other security forces.
Despite this, protesters marched all the way to the parliament, where they were stopped by security agents wielding AK-47s. Modi was whisked away to safety as the demonstrations continued into the night.
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