‘Won’t back down’: Indian student protesters return after police crackdown

New Delhi, India – Blood spots connected the walls, overturned barricades, shattered mirrors and sandals strewn crossed the road. A scarf here, breached glasses and a torn garment determination prevarication arsenic remnants of the chaos that took implicit the Indian capital.

The bosom of New Delhi – Parliament Street and Connaught Place, a colonial-era quadrate – bears the imprint of Monday’s constabulary crackdown connected thousands of protesters, astir of them students, who had unopen down the capital, demanding that Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resign.

A swarm of protesters reached parliament’s doorstep earlier retreating arsenic the constabulary tear-gassed them. More than 100 students were injured.

“I inactive cannot judge my eyes that I’m successful Delhi,” said Anshul Dev, an 18-year-old who grew up successful the capital. “Part of it is due to the fact that teardrop state inactive stings,” helium added, bursting into laughter with his radical of friends. One of them had some legs bandaged.

“This government, whom our elders voted to power, is treating america similar terrorists and criminals,” Dev said. “This is our country, and we are reclaiming it from their hateful politics. We are present to interruption the spell.”

Anger among India’s youth, the world’s largest Gen Z cohort, has been simmering for the past 2 months implicit a drawstring of compromised entranceway exams that affected millions of students. In immoderate cases, exam papers were leaked; successful others, students who sought copies of their reply scripts recovered that they had been wrongly graded. More than 20 students died by suicide, galore citing the insubstantial leaks.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not addressed the protests, adjacent arsenic helium appeared smiling connected Monday successful parliament, hardly metres distant from demonstrators astatine 1 point.

Analysts said the pupil protests look formidable obstacles earlier they tin extract concessions from Modi’s government. Yet the protests, the government’s refusal to clasp immoderate of its ain accountable and the crackdown person besides embellished a complaint that the premier curate has agelong faced from critics and absorption parties – that though helium is elected democratically, helium behaves similar an autocrat.

Tear state spreads astir protesters successful New Delhi connected July 20, 2026 [Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters]

‘Protests volition continue’

In the acheronian connected Monday night, Abhijeet Dipke – the person of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a governmental unit radical that called the march – returned to a torn-down signifier astatine the CJP’s main protestation tract adjacent Jantar Mantar, an 18th-century observatory that is present an important determination for protests.

“This barbaric Delhi constabulary has beaten up our students and comrades. We are heartbroken,” helium said, addressing astir 2,000 protesters who stayed backmost aft the crackdown. “We volition proceed to defy and request accountability from the government. We volition not backmost down until Dharmendra Pradhan resigns.”

Dipke told the protesters that the Delhi constabulary “brutally cracked down to crush our hopes” that Pradhan would resign. “It was lone our archetypal telephone to march,” helium said. “There volition beryllium more. Do not suffer hope.”

Volunteers began to prime up rubbish, necktie a structure unneurotic and expanse the roadworthy astatine the Jantar Mantar site. This is wherever much than 100 protesters from pupil unions person been sleeping for astir a period to articulation Sonam Wangchuk, a salient activist, connected a hunger onslaught to question the minister’s resignation.

The constabulary besides rampaged done these pupil unions’ tarpaulin tents and belongings connected Monday.

The question gained momentum past week aft the constabulary forcibly removed Wangchuk from the protestation tract and restricted him to a government-run hospital, wherever helium remains. His household and the CJP person called it “illegal detention”, but the Delhi High Court has refused contiguous relief.

Wangchuk, 59, broke his hunger onslaught earlier the march connected Monday; however, aboriginal helium said helium would beryllium astatine it again aft “seeing the brutality” against “peacefully protesting students”.

The Delhi constabulary person filed astatine slightest 5 transgression cases against protesters related to violence, stone-throwing and vandalism during the march.

CJP laminitis Abhijeet Dipke speaks to protesters injured successful New Delhi connected July 21, 2026 [Arun Sankar/AFP]

Meeting with authorities a ‘waste of time’

Before the march, CJP leaders said the authorities reached retired for talks.

As thousands of demonstrators assembled successful New Delhi, 2 CJP spokespeople met JP Nadda, India’s wellness minister, to convey the movement’s 3 demands: Pradhan’s contiguous resignation, Wangchuk’s discharge from infirmary and compensation of astir $105,000 for the families of those students who died by suicide.

However, they were disillusioned by sunset. “It was a discarded of our time,” said Ashutosh Ranka, a CJP spokesperson. “We were made to hold for 4 hours, and the curate met america for 10 minutes.”

Nadda said helium met with the spokespeople “in a cordial atmosphere”, adding that helium “requested each the protesters to extremity their sit-in and assistance the medication successful restoring normalcy”.

Some students person been calling for the decentralisation of the protests, truthful they could determination beyond the CJP to request accountability from the government.

And governmental analysts who spoke with Al Jazeera said maintaining the credibility of the CJP’s enactment remains 1 of the biggest contiguous hurdles for the question successful the look of an unprecedented assemblage turnout for the march.

A CJP protagonist poses adjacent to a protestation connection successful New Delhi aft the constabulary crackdown connected July 20, 2026 [Sajjad Hussain/AFP]

Confronting a ‘strong man’

Since the constabulary forcibly removed Wangchuk from the protestation site, the question and demonstrators person called connected Modi to resign. Slogans targeting the premier curate reverberated done cardinal New Delhi connected Monday.

The ample fig of protesters “is itself a large situation to the premier minister”, said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, an writer and Modi biographer.

As of now, helium told Al Jazeera, “Modi has decided to proceed with his instinctive effect of not giving immoderate concessions to protesters and continuing to task himself arsenic a beardown antheral with wholly unshakeable will.”

The biographer added that the premier minister, who has been successful powerfulness since 2014, “does not attraction earlier crushing a protestation oregon utilizing brute unit until it cuts done his voting constituencies”.

“They volition spell by their gut effect of a crackdown. Modi would not privation to look from this with a bloody nose,” helium added, “despite a batch of choler among youth, which shows the undercurrent of anti-incumbency.”

The simmering choler recovered a vent arsenic Gen Z rallied down a joke, the Cockroach Janta Party, aft India’s main justness equated authorities critics and unemployed younker to “cockroaches” and “parasites”.

Memes, online rants and students taking photos successful beforehand of constabulary person flooded the net successful India, wherever they expressed anguish and took digs astatine the constabulary crackdown.

Meghnad S, a YouTuber, was among the thousand-strong assemblage successful beforehand of the Indian Parliament connected Monday.

“It was insanity, and the assemblage was truly riled up owed to constabulary actions. It was cruel,” helium told Al Jazeera from the protestation tract connected Monday night. “But movements are ever messy. This is precise hard to control. We are each cockroaches, aft all. And we are inactive swarming here.”

By Tuesday morning, the assemblage had packed the tract yet again. The cockroaches had returned.

CJP supporters march towards parliament connected July 20, 2026 [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]