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Sonam Wangchuk’s fast was spark that drove youth protest movement – and now he wants to cleanse the political system
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World news — Amrit Dhillon in Delhi
For 26 days, India watched as Sonam Wangchuk wasted away . His hunger strike, held in solidarity with India’s “Cockroach” youth protest movement, would prove to be one of the most politically consequential fasts held in the country’s modern history.
Many in the country view the gruelling fast, which began on 28 June, as the crucial spark that helped propel the Cockroach movement into one of the most formidable challenges to the government of prime minister, Narendra Modi, in more than a decade.
Abhijit Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach movement, said Wangchuk had “awakened the conscience of an entire nation” through his sacrifice.
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The Cockroach movement was launched in May, following the cancellation of a key nationwide exam to enter medical college after a paper was leaked. The cancellation was devastating for the 2 million students who had already sat the exam, a dozen of whom reportedly took their lives.
The movement took its name from comments made by India’s chief justice, Surya Kant, who had compared some unemployed young people to cockroaches and parasites in a court hearing.
Dipke’s demand for education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, to show accountability for the leak by resigning struck a nerve, and anger that had been seething below the surface surged out on to the streets.
The protest ballooned into a nationwide movement. For weeks, deadlock prevailed between the government and Dipke, backed by thousands who flocked to his sit-in protest in Delhi. Eventually, after an unprecedented police crackdown which further influenced public opinion in its favour, the protesters triumphed and Pradhan resigned on 25 July.
The victory was not a foregone conclusion and Dipke has acknowledged the importance of Wangchuck’s fast in determining the outcome. Unlike the students, Wangchuck was a well known and respected figure, recognised for his decades-long efforts to secure educational reforms and environmental protection. Last year, he was arrested in Ladakh on charges of inciting anti-government protests.
I felt confined, trapped … like a prison … The heat and humidity were awful
The timing was also key: crowds at the Delhi protest site had been thinning before he started his fast on a stage there on 28 June, injecting new energy and momentum into the movement.
Wangchuk had declared he would not end his strike until the government had listened to the demands of India’s protesting youth. He lay outdoors at the Cockroach protest site in the heart of Delhi, day and night, enduring rain, torturous heat and mosquitoes. Already a lean and slight figure, he lost 11kg over the 26 days.
“I felt confined, trapped … like a prison,” he told the Guardian. “The heat and humidity were awful.”
In the aftermath, Wangchuk, a softly-spoken engineer, environmentalist and educationist, remains humble about his role. “I was a known entity and that helped,” he said. His reverence is reserved for the hundreds of thousands of young people in the Cockroach movement, which he says has changed Indian politics for good.
Wangchuk is adamant that the Cockroach movement’s success is far bigger than a single resignation. In an era where dissent is routinely criminalised, young people, he said, had seized back the power of political protest.
“They have stripped away the curtain of fear that existed,” he said. “They are now engaged. They have tasted success in getting results and I expect them to continue.”
The 60-year-old admits the hunger strike took a gruelling toll. By the time he broke his fast on 24 July , he had pushed his body to the limit and was perilously close to organ failure. But as thousands of young people and politicians flocked to his side, his spirit remained unbroken throughout.
The greatest test, he says, came when he was forcibly removed by police from the protest site and taken to hospital against his will. Videos of his frail body being dragged away by burly police went viral and Wangchuk was hailed by young people online as a national hero. When mass protests erupted the following day, Wangchuk’s name was chanted and held aloft on placards.
Wangchuk was not always an obvious figure of anti-government resistance. Born in Ladakh, he rose to international prominence as an engineer and environmentalist, best known for inventing the ice stupor , a unique technique for water storage in human-made glaciers. He became a prominent champion of the rights of Ladakhis and set up his own school and cultural and environmental institution.
He had been a vocal supporter of several prominent policies of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) but it soon turned to resistance as he accused the BJP of failing the people of Ladakh. Last year, as protests in Ladakh escalated, he was imprisoned by the government for almost six months under draconian anti-terrorist laws.
While his focus has been on rebuilding his body in recent weeks, regaining about 60% of his previous weight, Wangchuk has also continued his call for political reform, albeit without any overt criticism of the Modi government.
At the moment, there is no trust in anything, not in elections, not in exams, not in civil servants
In a video message posted before India’s independence day in August, Wangchuk called for a “second independence movement” and urged Indians to choose men and women of “character and substance” to lead the country.
He has urged people to share the names of individuals of integrity who can be trusted and once he has a list, he plans to meet them in Mumbai and Delhi to discuss how elections can be cleansed of those with a criminal background.
“Indians have to trust those at the top,” he said. “At the moment, there is no trust in anything, not in elections, not in exams, not in civil servants. Clean and honest leaders are the first step to a better future.”
He expressed his support for the decision by the Cockroach movement to resist calls to become a political party and instead focus on being a pressure group, championing issues of education. “When we used to talk during the long days of the fast, I used to advise them that being a pressure group is the best way to keep clean and neutral,” he said.
For now, he is back living quietly in Ladakh, finally able to enjoy the one food that lingered on his mind during his hunger strike. “I did dream of apricots,” he said, “but that was just because I was wondering if mine back home had ripened.”
Many in the country view the gruelling fast, which began on 28 June, as the crucial spark that helped propel the Cockroach movement into one of the most formidable challenges to the government of prime minister, Narendra Modi, in more than a decade.
This report is published with credit to The Guardian. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on The Guardian →
Source: The Guardian · Amrit Dhillon in Delhi. Published 25 Aug 2026, 12:00 am.
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