India‘s young protesters are mocking their government. And the jokes are landing.
As thousands of demonstrators take to the streets in the Indian capital, they are waging a parallel campaign online, flooding social media with memes, parody videos and self-deprecating jokes.
In doing so, they are also beating Narendra Modi — the powerful but image-conscious prime minister — at his own game.
Modi built his political brand through social media. Now protesters are using that same platform to mock his administration, ridicule pro-government television news coverage, transform confrontation with police into viral content and seize control of the online narrative.
The campaign has taken the protests demanding accountability and education reforms beyond the streets, broadening its reach and intensifying pressure on a government wary of appearing to yield to a rapidly growing youth movement.
Humor has become a form of protest
The “Cockroach” movement’s digital campaign has been largely powered by humor.
Clashes with police have become viral content. Videos showed protesters joking about keeping their Strava streaks alive — a reference to the fitness tracking app used by runners — as they ran from police baton charges. Others edited footage of themselves dodging police barricades to mimic the popular endless runner mobile game Subway Surfers.
Some women have borrowed influencer culture, posting “get ready with me” videos before marches and “fit check” posts featuring helmets, goggles and other homemade protest gear. Other protesters have created spoof videos mocking pro-government television anchors and their dramatic style of broadcasts that have labeled the protesters “anti-national” and “foreign-funded conspirators.”
The Associated Press interviewed several protesters, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from authorities.
One 25-year-old protester said the memes are more than comic relief; they’re a way of coping. She sees them as a generational trait.
Unlike older generations, who learned to endure hardship, hers has little patience for “simply putting up with it,” she said.
“If our phone data runs out, we can’t even bear that. So we’re definitely not going to tolerate this,” she said, referring to Monday’s police crackdown on protesters in the capital.
Protesters lean on meme culture
The street protests erupted a month ago, fueled by anger over a string of exam scandals, including the illegal sharing of entrance exams for the national medical program. Young people say the scandals have jeopardized their futures and eroded trust in the education system. Protesters blame Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and demand his resignation, but the demonstrations have since expanded into a wider anger over government accountability, spreading to other cities.
Much of that expansion has been driven by the Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical group that started the movement two months ago. Through memes, humor and satire, it has given younger Indians a new way to express their frustration with the government and helped turn a single-issue campaign into a broader youth movement.
At the main protest site in New Delhi, that influence is hard to miss.
Some protesters march in Spider-Man masks and Batman costumes, carrying tongue-in-cheek placards. Other protest signs echo the irreverent tone of social media, with memes and pop culture references woven into the demonstrations.
One poster featuring the education minister asked: “When will AI take his job?” Another captured the movement’s spirit with the slogan: “Every joke is a (tiny) revolution.”
Some slogans and posters have taken on an overtly profane and risqué tone.
A 23-year-old student said the protesters were simply speaking the language of their generation.
“We find speeches boring, we are the summary generation. We have a habit of consuming things in a short span of time, so we are using the same ways to put our message across,” she said.
The jokes now target the prime minister
For Modi, who is entering his 13th year in office, the protests present an unusual challenge. His image is built on strength and decisiveness, but he risks alienating young people if he responds too forcefully. Nearly half India’s population is under 25, making young voters one of the country’s most influential electoral groups.
But the protests have broken a long-standing taboo: mocking Modi himself.
Jokes about Modi were rare during earlier protests, when his government was criticized for suppressing dissent. But now, even he has become a target of taunts.
Modi’s gestures, pauses and mannerisms have been turned into viral edits that turn his own words into political jokes.
When Modi released a late-night, selfie-style video Thursday addressing the protesters, he promised swift legal action against those responsible for leaking academic or job exams. But many internet users edited the clip with parody voice-overs and references to his past promises they said had gone unfulfilled.
One video went particularly viral. Modi’s original address began with him referring to the protesters as “friends.” A parody video kept that opening, and abruptly cut to three young girls staring into the camera and responding: “No, we are not.”
A 21-year-old student said there is no better way to challenge Modi than by using social media that helped build his political brand.
“We’re just answering him in his language,” he said.