{"id":306212,"date":"2026-07-27T01:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T01:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/306212\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T01:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T01:42:14","slug":"the-indian-diaspora-in-new-york-joins-the-cockroach-party-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/306212\/","title":{"rendered":"The Indian Diaspora in New York Joins the \u2018Cockroach Party\u2019 Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aarsh Chauhan doesn\u2019t usually go to protests. An Indian citizen studying finance at Baruch College, he describes himself as \u201capolitical.\u201d But after watching videos of police in India beating protesters<\/a>, he joined demonstrations against its government, not in New Delhi but in New York.<\/p>\n

Mr. Chauhan, 25, was one of an estimated 500 people who gathered in front of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi<\/a> in Union Square on Friday, chanting \u201cwe will take our freedom\u201d in Hindi.<\/p>\n

It was one of two protests held in the park last week. \u201cThere\u2019s a limit to everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After tens of thousands<\/a> of Gen Z and millennial Indians took to the streets across India this month, in one of the largest demonstrations against corruption there in years, parallel protests emerged in cities that include New York, Los Angeles<\/a>, London<\/a>, Prague<\/a>, Berlin<\/a> and Vancouver<\/a>, British Columbia.<\/p>\n

A demonstrator, Aarsh Chauhan, at Friday\u2019s rally.Credit…Sarah Chatta\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know the moment in your life when you realize the systems you believe in no longer protect you,\u201d said Shonita Joshi, a 36-year-old actor originally from Mumbai who attended both demonstrations in Union Square. \u201cThe young people in India have come to realize that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Directed at India\u2019s prime minister, Narendra Modi, and at the country\u2019s education minister, the diaspora protests focused on issues in the Indian education system and the lack of job opportunities. They were inspired by the Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical political party formed in May by a 30-year-old Boston University graduate, Abhijeet Dipke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In India, the Cockroach party has presented one of the most significant challenges to Mr. Modi\u2019s power over the course of his 12-year rule. On Saturday, the party declared a major victory<\/a> when India\u2019s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, resigned.<\/p>\n

The party asked protesters to withdraw<\/a>, while it began discussions with the government about broader reforms to the education system. But as those talks play out, members of the diaspora said they would continue to protest in support of the movement going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know the moment in your life when you realize the systems you believe in no longer protect you,\u201d a protester, Shonita Joshi, said.Credit…Sarah Chatta\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past week, the global Indian diaspora spontaneously organized diverse solidarity rallies, large and small, all over the world,\u201d said Sunita Viswanath, executive director of the advocacy group Hindus for Human Rights, which led protests in the U.S., Britain and Australia. \u201cWe have seen just how much our community wants to come together in support of the growing student movement in India and we will continue to organize solidarity rallies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The protesters in New York said they were outraged by the scenes from home playing out on their phone screens, and were frustrated with the shrinking space for dissent in India.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I was in India right now,\u201d said Dipti Balwani, 37. She had worked as a teacher in Indian government schools for a decade, and said that many of her former students participated in the protests back home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like all my people are out there on the streets,\u201d said Ms. Balwani, who came to the United States to study education and has become a therapist. \u201cThis is one way to kind of feel at home and be in solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demonstrators in New York held up signs critical of Mr. Modi, and many of them read, \u201cMain Bhi Cockroach,\u201d meaning \u201cI am a cockroach too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cockroach party arose after a judge on India\u2019s Supreme Court compared young, unemployed Indians to cockroaches. The next day Mr. Dipke posted on X, as a joke, \u201cWhat if all cockroaches came together?\u201d<\/p>\n

To his surprise, this post garnered thousands of replies on social media, so he created a website and social media handles for a so-called Cockroach Janta Party. Within a couple of weeks the handles gained tens of millions of followers, and suddenly his party was more than just a joke. Mr. Dipke left Boston and returned to India.<\/p>\n

His party is now the primary outlet through which Gen Z and millennial Indians are channeling their frustration. Even though India is the fastest-growing economy in the world, an estimated 40 percent of the country\u2019s university graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed<\/a>. Those with means often go abroad, including to the United States, in search of economic opportunity.<\/p>\n

The rallies abroad \u201cdemonstrate that the Gen Z protests reached such a crescendo in India that they transcended India\u2019s physical borders and motivated members of the diaspora,\u201d said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.<\/p>\n

Several of the Indian demonstrators in New York said they had had a change of heart, among them Ayush Yadav, a 32-year-old who had voted for Prime Minister Modi and his ruling party twice. Now, Mr. Yadav said that he felt the country was plagued with problems, and that the government needed to be held accountable. Showing up to support the youth protesters \u201cis the least we can do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some 34 million<\/a> Indian citizens live abroad. In the United States, Indians make up the second largest foreign-born group in the country after Mexicans. Hundreds of thousands of young Indians study at American universities<\/a>, and hundreds of thousands of others work at U.S. companies on H-1B and other visas<\/a>.<\/p>\n