Squiz Shortcuts: What's India's cockroach movement?
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Over the past few months, you might have seen a few stories about a cockroach movement in India. We're not talking about the insects here. We're talking about a parody political movement that has, over time, turned into a genuine one. And this week, it successfully forced the resignation of the country's education minister. This is a story of economic inequality, social media and youth versus establishment. And it's become a major deal in the most populous country in the world. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we'll explain how it started, how it grew and what it means for India and the world. Squiz Shortcuts is the backstory to the big news stories.
How did the ‘cockroach’ label spark a political movement in India?
I'm Andrew Williams.
And I'm Larissa Huntington.
Before we start, Larissa, we wanted to shout out Afra who emailed us requesting this shortcut and your wish is our command. A reminder that if you'd also like us to cover a particular topic, you can email us anytime at hello at thesquiz.com.au.
And it's a good shout because it's possible you've seen lots of headlines about cockroaches in India recently, but without the backstory, it can be a little bit difficult to appreciate exactly what's going on.
Sure can. It's also coming just a couple of weeks after India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, visited Australia and promised increased cooperation and trade between the two countries. So what goes on in India very much affects us here in Australia.
And the rest of the world too, given it's such a massive country. Just a couple of years ago, it passed China to become the most populous country in the world. Over 1.47 billion people live there. But as you might imagine, in any country that size, millions of those people are doing it tough.
And that has planted the seed for this cockroach movement to get rolling. So let's start at the beginning. This all harks back to May when India's Chief Justice, a man named Surya Kant, he's their most senior legal voice, was quoted as describing unemployed young people as cockroaches and parasites of society. He also complained about young people joining social media to complain rather than working hard to get ahead.
Now, it's important to note that he says he was misquoted there. He says that he was talking about people who joined the legal profession with fake degrees, not unemployed young people as a whole. But whether it was a direct quote or a misquote, it's had a huge butterfly effect.
Sure has. So shortly after he made those comments, a political communications graduate called Abhijit Dipke asked online what would happen if all the cockroaches came together. That comment went viral. And so he took it a step further and turned this kind of frustration that happened around that comment into an online only political party, which was called the Cockroach Junta Party.
And that basically translates to the Cockroach People's Party, which is a parody of the Bajijenta Party, which means Indian People's Party. And that's the one that's in government at the moment. And in very Gen Z style, he's made their cockroach mascot via generative AI. It's been hugely effective.
It's gone viral around the world. Dipke said that the cockroach junta party would serve as a voice for what he called the lazy and unemployed people, or as they're now owning the term, cockroaches in India. He said it was designed as a movement for young Indians who felt as though mainstream politics wasn't doing them any favours.
And the movement and its cockroach mascot really took off. It gained 10 million Instagram followers in under five days. It had over 350,000 people sign up to be a member. And it rapidly went from a satirical political party to one that had some real people power behind it.
You had protesters in cockroach costumes on the street, and even though that might make it seem like a bit of a joke, the movement is tackling some very serious issues. In particular, there's one around something called the NEET, which stands for the National Eligibility Come Entrance Test, which is the medical school entrance exam for Indians.
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