I’ve never really liked cockroaches. I mean, who does?

They’re hard to kill. They seem to spawn out of nowhere. They’re quick. Smart. They’re ready for battle.

But for the first time, I wish I was there, with the cockroaches. The Cockroaches of India. The Indian Youth. The Cockroach Janta Party, formed satirically in response to the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, referring to the Indian youth as “cockroaches.”

On May 3rd, thousands of students in India sat down to take NEET, a medical school entrance exam. It’s incredibly competitive and requires hours and hours of tedious studying. A few days later, it was revealed that the NEET exam paper was leaked. Again.

Imagine spending months of your life, studying 10-12 hours a day, preparing for this one day. And then you’re told everything you worked for was a waste and you’re going to have to retake it.

A dozen students took their own lives. The pressure. The lack of accountability. The inability to protect students and stand for students.

And then came the cockroaches. Led by Abhijeet Dibke, and supported by many other students and engineer-activist-educator Sonam Wangchuk and many others. The cockroaches claimed victory when India’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, resigned on July 25, 2026.

But it wasn’t an easy victory, to say the least. Thousands of students came together and went on a hunger strike. They fought against state police violence. They recorded and shared. They pushed through fake government-backed claims. They vocalized their concerns. They understood and practiced their rights.

The resignation is not the be-all-end-all. After all, Pradhan can be easily replaced by yet another RSS-BJP backed, corrupt minister. In the words of the iconic Arundhati Roy, “The stakes are far bigger. The rot in the whole system of governance, from top to bottom is clearly visible and has begun to stink like a decomposing corpse.”

Education is political. To maintain a nationalist agenda, politicians and leaders have always historically tried to control education and learning. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party burning tens of thousands of books. Donald Trump reinstating the 1776 Commission to promote a nationalist American curriculum. Modi and the RSS-BJP doubling down on a Hindutva curriculum. Education is political.

During a time where it doesn’t really feel like our voices are being heard and things aren’t really changing, the cockroaches reignited the fizzling fire in me. I saw people from all over the country, from all different castes, religions, professions and more come together. To dance, cry, laugh together.

To protect each other.

To remain together.

For each other.

Hope is not lost.

Oh to be a cockroach.