A judge called them cockroaches. India’s Gen Z took it as a compliment.
They arrived waving Indian flags and clutching schoolbooks. Many wore cockroach masks. The placards were satirical; the anger was not. On June 6, crowds gathered at Jantar Mantar as what many commentators are calling India’s first Gen Z political uprising moved from smartphone screens onto a street. Jantan Mantar is New Delhi’s designated public protest zone, historically the gathering point for the country’s largest anti-corruption and farmers’ demonstrations.
