Why are tens of thousands of young Indians suddenly calling themselves cockroaches?
What began as outrage over leaked national entrance exams has exploded into one of India's biggest youth-led protest movements in years. It's a direct challenge from Gen Z to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and it's spreading to cities across India despite a government crackdown.
Here's what to know.
What is the Gen Z 'cockroach' movement?
It began with an insult. After India's chief justice compared unemployed young people to "cockroaches" during a court hearing, students adopted the label.
Boston University graduate student Abhijeet Dipke posted on X "What if all Cockroaches come together." Within hours, he created a website and social media pages for the "Cockroach Janata Party" or CJP, a satirical take on Modi's ruling BJP.
The CJP Instagram page has amassed more than 25 million followers, more than twice that of BJP.
What are protesters asking for?
The outrage over the 'cockroach' insult came after India's Ministry of Education threw out the results of an entrance exam for undergraduate medical programs because questions on the test had been leaked in advance. Two million students had already taken the costly and difficult test, and news that it wouldn't count sparked outrage.
India's hyper-competitive entrance exams can determine the future for millions of students and offer a means of upward social mobility.
Repeated allegations of leaks and corruption left many students feeling their years of hard work had disappeared overnight. Activists have linked the leak to at least 20 student deaths by suicide, according to the Times of India.
Among other things, protesters are demanding the ouster of India's education minister, increased punishments for people who leak test materials and fee compensation when exams are voided.
A broader list on the party's website is also pushing for increased representation of women in parliament, a more independent media system and the arrest of the chief election commissioner if votes are ever erased.
These are part of a push for more accountability, not just for exam failures, but for what they see as a political system that has failed young people.
How have police and politicians responded?
Clashes broke out this week as CJP protesters marched toward India's Parliament. Demonstrators accused law enforcement of using excessive force as they targeted unarmed students with tear gas, batons and reportedly even pellet guns. But if the goal was to break the movement, it appears to have had the opposite effect.
"If the government thinks that doing this with Gen Z can stop us, then that won't happen," student Sona Bisht, 20, told the Associated Press. "We are here talking about education, talking about securing our future. And till the time our demands are not met, we will not move from here."
And as the Gen Z supporters of the CPJ movement document arrests in real time and use memes and humor to challenge the government, people across India have shown their support by sending meals and supplies to students camped at protest sites through food delivery apps.
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India's Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders have backed the demonstrations, accusing the government of failing India's youth.
Government supporters and some mainstream media outlets, meanwhile, have portrayed the protesters as anarchist and influenced by foreign actors.
"This idea that anyone who is critical of any aspect of the government is anti-national or is a terrorist, I think there's an exhaustion with that discourse, an anger at that discourse that genuine legitimate criticism is reframed as being anti- national — that being critical of Mr. Modi is somehow being anti-Indian," said Rohit Chopra, a professor of communication at Santa Clara University and visiting fellow at the Center for South Asia at Stanford University.
Modi broke his silence Wednesday after weeks of protests, announcing fast-track judicial measures to address the exam scandal. But he stopped short of dismissing the education minister, one of the protesters' central demands.
What makes these protests different?
A sign is seen during a July 20 demonstration in Kolkata, India, in solidarity with protests by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) held at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Photo by Sahiba Chawdhary/Reuters.
India has seen major protests before. But analysts say this moment feels different. This isn't just a protest against a policy. It's now challenging the authority of three-time Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, Chopra said.
"I've seen lots of posters and songs in different idioms, whether it's sort of rap or poetry, basically mocking Mr. Modi. What is different right now is the fact that this brutality is linked and seen as the responsibility of the Prime Minister directly and protesters are very unequivocally asking for accountability from the Prime minister, Mr. Modi, himself," Chopra said.
"No matter what the immediate consequence or outcome of these protests, whether [the education minister] resigns, whether there is some kind of reform in this whole examination system, all of that remains to be seen. But I think one thing is for certain, the aura surrounding Mr. Modi has been damaged permanently."