Read The Diplomat, Know The Asia-Pacific
India’s Gen Z protest undeniably reopened democratic spaces that had shrunk over the past decade.
Protesting students in New Delhi demanding the resignation of the Education Minister over exam paper leaks, July 2026.
Youth anger as reflected in Gen Z protests has set South Asia ablaze. Beginning in Sri Lanka and spreading to Bangladesh and Nepal, India is the most recent site of political upheaval caused by angry youngsters.
Explanations for its causes and implications abound. In India, Gen Z protests erupted after a series of exam paper leaks and the formation of the Cockroach Janta Party, in reaction to disparaging remarks made by the chief justice of India about unemployed youth, calling them “cockroaches.”
