Indian Gen Z ‘cockroach’ protesters aim to upend assumptions about democracy – and populism – in Modi’s India

Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free!

(The Conversation) — Five months after its founding, India’s Cockroach Janta Party, known as the CJP, has revealed what youth-led democratic movements can achieve – and how hard they are to sustain.

The movement was formed in May 2026 to protest the government’s cancellation of medical school entrance exams and after India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant likened unemployed youth to cockroaches. By July, the largely Gen Z movement had scored an early victory with the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The CJP has since moved on to a much larger political issue: The Election Commission’s reported deletion of approximately 130 million names from the voter rolls. Since Oct. 2, protesters have descended on the streets of Delhi, Mumbai and other cities demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, halting the deletions pending an independent inquiry, and the restoration of the old electoral rolls before the next elections.

In the process, the CJP has encountered strong government resistance.. Amid a crackdown on protests, two of the movement’s spokespersons – Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das – were detained, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing populist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, have refused to bend on the voter roll issue – instead accusing protesters of undermining democracy.

Nonetheless, as a long-time scholar of Indian political parties and social movements, I believe the CJP’s protests have revealed people’s deep-seated anxieties over democratic erosion in a country of nearly 1.5 billion. Through courage and acerbic wit, the CJP has done something that has eluded conventional opposition parties over the past 12 years: puncturing the ruling party’s aura of invulnerability. In doing so, I believe the protests have challenged the government’s view of who “the people” are, what democracy means, and who speaks for youth, women and the politically marginalized.

Defining ‘democracy’ and ‘the people’

Modi often describes India as the “Mother of Democracy,” a reference to its civilizational heritage and to Bharat Mata, the Hindu mother goddess. Democracy, he insists, is not a Western import but a native inheritance. The implication is meant to be reassuring: India has always been democratic and always will be.

Workers and activists of various opposition parties march toward the Supreme Court demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in New Delhi on Oct. 12, 2026.

AP Photo/Manish Swarup

But some outside monitors disagree. Sweden’s V-Dem Institute classifies India as an “electoral autocracy,” meaning that although it regularly holds multiparty elections, it fails basic democratic benchmarks such as legislative and judicial checks and balances and citizens’ active political participation.

Judged by how the country treats dissent, the record is damning: using anti-terrorism laws to jail activists without trial, barricading protest sites, internet blackouts and police brutality.

By contrast, the CJP considers peaceful protest, along with upholding the country’s constitution, essential elements of democracy. Demonstrators regularly circulate images of B. R. Ambedkar – the chief architect of the Indian constitution – on posters, in slogans and in songs. Like Ambedkar, 30-year-old CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke is a Dalit, or untouchable within the Hindu caste system.

Critics argue that the BJP defines the nation through Hindu civilizational identity, which is exclusionary because it rejects India’s rich Muslim historical traditions and casts doubt on the political loyalties of the country’s Muslims, who constitute about 14% of the population – 197 million people. By contrast, the CJP draws no line between insider and outsider by faith, caste or birth, and it defines community by shared commitments.

The voter roll struggle shows what is at stake in the question. The Election Commission says the revision will remove duplicate entries, deceased voters and noncitizens. But critics worry that the burden of proof falls on voters. Consider how hard it is for poor Muslims, Dalits and migrant workers to produce decades-old birth, education and land certificates. Moreover, those whose names are struck from the electoral rolls fear being branded illegal immigrants.

Cracks appear in BJP’s dominance

While the BJP had held the prime minister’s office before, Modi’s 2014 election marked a sea change in Indian politics, disrupting the Congress Party’s dominance.

Indi…