Christianity Today August 6, 2026 9 min signal 2026-08-06

Christians join Gen Z 'cockroach' protests in India

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Christianity Today

August 6, 2026

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Abhishek Chinnappa / Stringer / Getty

Alvin Joseph was not particularly interested in politics and protests until this past July, when his Instagram feed started to fill with hundreds of reels from a Gen Z protest calling for the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan following a college exam scandal.

The 23-year-old law student and worship leader could no longer ignore the Cockroach Janta Party, the fledgling satirical movement leading the protest, and its call to march on Parliament. Beyond the leak of a nationwide entrance exam for medical colleges, young people were fed up with unemployment and dissatisfied with the establishment.

On July 20, Joseph joined thousands of youths in New Delhi for the protest. When police in riot gear tried to disperse the crowds with batons and tear gas, he fell to the ground with severe pain in his calves. He could not open his eyes or breathe properly for nearly 10 minutes. Other protesters rushed him to a nearby sidewalk to wash out his eyes and offered him water.

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“It was like shards of glasses piercing through my skin,” Joseph told Christianity Today. “Yet it felt good; I am proud that I stood up for what was right.”

Other protesters said police used pellet guns, tasers, and batons embedded with nails against them. Yet the next day, the young demonstrators—including Joseph, whose legs were still swelling—returned to the streets. Five days later, Pradhan resigned, a victory for India’s Gen Z protesters and a loss of face for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu nationalist government has long crushed dissent.

As the protests wound down, people were quick to underline the importance of the moment on social media, circulating an old video of a Modi cabinet member saying, in effect, “ministers do not have to resign [in this government].”

In a marked difference from the generations before them who shunned politics and typically laid low as a religious minority, Christian Gen Zers showed up at these demonstrations in large numbers. They sang, clapped, and worshiped amid the crowds. Some prayed for divine peace and protection for protesters. Many handed out food and beverages to protesters. They shot Instagram reels of themselves at the demonstrations, prompting other Christians like Joseph to join.

Christian young people who spoke to CT said prayer alone without standing up for what’s right is unbiblical. Joseph cited Proverbs 31:8–9—“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves … defend the rights of the poor and needy”—adding, “As a law student, I cannot claim to defend justice if I stay quiet when others are suffering.”

The protests erupted after authorities scrapped the results of the May 3 admission exam for medical colleges, called the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), following an alleged leak of exam questions. This forced nearly 2 million students to retake the test on June 21. The cancellation, uncertainty over results, and the new exam date exacerbated the stress on test takers, many of whom had spent years studying for it. As many as 21 students reportedly have died by suicide, and their families blame the fallout from the exam scandal.

Anit Bedare, 19, of Pune, a city in Maharashtra state in western India, said the government hasn’t taken seriously the issues surrounding such a high-stakes exam. He prepared for two years before taking the NEET in May and was forced to retake the exam after the scandal. He passed the retest, but others who were certain they passed previously did not.

“For medical [school] aspirants, it is a life-defining moment,” Bedare said. “The government’s credibility is lost anyway, but our credibility could be lost as well when we become doctors” because they passed what might be perceived as a compromised exam.

Gladsy Amol Gaikwad, 17, of Nagpur, Maharashtra, was sure she passed her May 3 exam when she came home that day and checked her answers. It appeared that two years of preparation and a four-hour daily commute to and from a test preparation center had paid off.

Gladsy was in Pune on vacation when news of the question leak broke and exam officials announced retesting dates. She was devastated, but her parents, both pastors, encouraged her as she prepared to repeat the exam. She leaned on Philippians 4:13 (“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” NKJV), her “go-to verse,” during what she described as a depressing time.

The retest results came out July 16—and Gladsy didn’t pass, dashing her hopes of becoming a doctor. She is now reluctantly weighing alternative fields such as biotechnology, pharmacy, and nursing.

“I can’t waste another year or two trying to become a doctor,” she said. “What is the guarantee that there would be no paper leaks in the future?”

Since 2014, exam paper leaks have compromised at least 152 major examinations that qualify students for universities, medical schools, and government jobs. Every year, tens of millions of students take these exams. Middle-class families often sacrifice a lot—mortgaging their houses and taking loans at exorbitant interest rates—to obtain expensive coaching for their children to make the cut.

In a country with deep social and economic inequalities, these exams become the only available route to a respectable social status. Critics contend an ecosystem of greedy middlemen, corrupt printing press owners, and coaching institutes colludes with exam authorities to extract millions of rupees from desperate candidates in exchange for question papers before the tests.

Amid the rising concerns over exam leaks, an off-the-cuff remark from India’s chief justice compared unemployed youth to “cockroaches” who attack institutions through the media, social media activism, and litigation. A recent college graduate from India living in Boston inadvertently made it a rallying cry, joking on social media, “What if all cockroaches came together?” He went on to create the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a satirical movement that has drawn widespread online support despite not being a registered political party. Students and jobless youth have declared themselves “cockroaches.”

Within days, CJP gained millions of followers across social media platforms, surpassing India’s ruling Bharatiya Janta Party. The government’s decision to block CJP’s account on the social media site X backfired as a new page with even more followers sprang up. Within weeks, what started as a joke turned into a national conversation. Social media users, particularly Gen Z, piled on memes, takedowns, and AI slop videos.

Thousands descended on the national capital to launch one of India’s largest youth-led protests in recent times in response to CJP’s call to demand the education minister quit.

When protesters gathered at Jantar Mantar, a historic location in Delhi for demonstrations, they buried their differences across social, cultural, and religious lines. A Muslim man fanned exhausted Hindu protesters resting in the 104-degree heat. Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, and Muslims stood next to each other to serve food and water so that no one camping there slept hungry. When police chased away protesters, nearby churches reportedly opened their gates to offer shelter and access to restrooms. Such scenes stood in stark contrast to the images of religious division that often dominate India’s prime-time television debates.

Christian leaders have called for fasting and prayer during the unrest. Blessen Sam, 26, a youth leader at a local church, felt uneasy praying from the comfort of his home, so he gathered seven other Christian friends to lead a “prayer walk” in a park near the Delhi protest. They circled the park, stretched their hands out, and said “Amen” every time Sam uttered a “declaration for peace and protection.”

Sam said he had a vision from Exodus of the moment when Moses raised his hands with the staff of God during the battle against the Amalekites: Whenever Moses raised his hands, Israel won, but when he dropped them, their enemies won.

“I could not sleep at night,” Sam said. “I do not want to tell my children that I was sleeping when my country was burning. … So, I went there to release the kingdom.”

On Instagram, Gen Z influencers urged fellow Christians to speak up for justice, underlining that they needed to do more than just pray. One posted a scene from The Chosen depicting Jesus overturning the moneychangers’ tables in the temple, followed by a note: “My Jesus was full of love, but He was never indifferent to corruption.”

Ruth Dutta, 21, a Kolkata influencer, posted in support of students facing police brutality while urging Christians to pray and speak truth to power. “Jesus himself was opposed. … He was … challenged by the authorities, falsely accused, arrested, and put on trial,” she said on Instagram. “If you are feeling unheard today, if the government isn’t listening, if you are facing police brutality … do not lose heart. My heart truly grieves for everyone who has suffered.”

For Sharvik Londhe, a pastor in Pune, the protesting youth remind older believers of a fundamental Christian tenet—”Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26, NKJV). He held up a placard at a demonstration with a message directed at pastors: “Some are called to preach, some to show up. I do both.”

“As Christians and as pastors, let’s come out of [our] cocoon,” he said. “We are still on earth. … Remember to give to God what belongs to God but also give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.”

As for Alvin, the pain of his injuries at the hands of police has subsided, and he is back to his routine juggling law school and music practice. But the protests left him with a change of heart about speaking up against injustice. “When [we] stand up for righteousness, truth, and values, we represent Jesus better,” he said.

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