The Cockroach Rebellion: India’s Student Revolt
This year, youth and students led significant mobilisations against the ruling class in India. These were organised by the “Cockroach Janta Party” (CJP) which states its mission is to “build a party for the young people who keep getting called lazy, chronically online, and – most recently – cockroaches. That’s it. That’s the mission. The rest is satire.”
This movement of youth and students successfully forced the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on 25 July 2026—the first time a member of Narendra Modi’s Cabinet has been forced to resign in twelve years. This an important victory and comes after significant “Gen Z” protests in South Asia and elsewhere.
Join Red Spark for a public webinar discussing the youth protest in India, the current situation and what might come next. We will be joined by Atul Chandra, a co-coordinator of Tricontinental Asia based in Delhi.
Atul Chandra is a researcher and the Asia Co-Coordinator at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. His work centers on geopolitics, anti-imperialist movements, and questions of dignity and sovereignty across the Global South.
He researches and writes extensively on US militarisation in Asia, environment and development, social exclusion, and broader socio-economic issues facing the region. Focusing on popular struggles, labor organizing, and the dynamics of new social movements, his work grounds complex geopolitical and economic shifts in collaborative research, popular education, and international solidarity.
You can read Atul’s analysis “India’s Cockroach Rebellion and what comes next” for Breakthrough News and Tricontinental’s Fifteenth Asia Newsletter (2026) “The Cockroaches Have Learned to March.”