India’s sweltering summer has seen sustained youth unrest that shows no signs of abating, with protesters remaining undeterred by monsoon rains or police crackdowns.
On Tuesday, police deployed water cannons against crowds in Patna, located roughly 600 miles east of New Delhi, as demonstrators attempted to storm the chief minister’s office. The protesters were protesting alleged irregularities in the civil service entrance exam and calling for reforms of the testing system. Comparable demonstrations and clashes have also erupted in the neighboring state of Jharkhand in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, organizers of the prominent education‑focused protests in the capital have pledged to resume street demonstrations. Although they declared victory following the resignation of India’s education minister, they now accuse the government of not fulfilling the promises made to quell the nationwide uprising.
Nationwide, Indian youth are expressing deep disillusionment with their education and the limited career prospects ahead. A recent government report revealed that only about 8 percent of college graduates secure employment that utilizes their degrees.
State and national authorities are simultaneously offering concessions and imposing crackdowns. Protests that reached a peak in New Delhi last month, targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have spread to other states, including those governed by opposition parties.
Protesters in Patna, the capital of Bihar, have spent weeks chanting slogans against a complex array of state‑level examinations and recruitment programs.
Their core demands reflect broader frustrations over education and employment that have been growing since the start of the summer.
Abhijeet Dipke, a graduate student who founded the Cockroach Janta Party and led the earlier demonstrations, has taken to the road with a “Fix Schools” campaign to assess and improve the physical condition of elementary classrooms across India.
This grassroots movement, which began as satire, reached a peak last month when it compelled the resignation of India’s education minister, whom it held responsible for flawed standardized testing. Hours later, after securing several commitments from the Modi government, the group temporarily called off its protests.
On Monday, the group warned that it would restart the protests.
“On July 25, solemn promises were made,” the C.J.P. told its 26 million Instagram followers. Yet, it added, those promises have not been fulfilled, so “we have been forced to return to the streets.”
The minister’s removal represented an extraordinary victory for the C.J.P. No previous figure during Mr. Modi’s 12‑year tenure had succeeded in pressuring him to dismiss a cabinet member.
The government also made concessions: it agreed to compensate the families of students who died by suicide after a medical college entrance exam leak; to withdraw criminal cases against the protesters; and to discuss a five‑point charter outlining broader education and exam reforms.
In the weeks that followed, the movement’s leaders grew skeptical of the government’s sincerity. Protesters noted that criminal cases previously promised for dismissal remained active, and progress on education system reform remained limited.
The group has denounced the perceived breaches, and on September 5—India’s Teacher’s Day—it plans to lead a peaceful march from the India Gate monument in central New Delhi to the city’s police headquarters. This could provoke another confrontation with security forces, which used pellets, batons and tear gas to disperse a similar demonstration in July.
Announcing a specific date heightens the stakes. If large numbers of protesters can be reassembled, pressure on the Modi government will intensify; failure to do so would indicate the C.J.P. has lost momentum.
“I would like to see the specific demands the government makes,” Akash Saxena, who works in education and mental health in Delhi and marched with students in July, said before deciding whether to participate.
Police are central to the movement’s renewed complaints. One of the key agreements the Cockroach Party reached with the government was to prevent prosecution of those who marched in July, a point emphasized by the police. The force submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court last week stating that the protests were “hijacked by antisocial elements.”
Tracking the criminal indictments filed against protesters in the capital and in states governed by Modi’s allies has proven challenging. The C.J.P. has requested the Supreme Court to consolidate the list, while the government has declined to provide a written guarantee, asserting that it cannot interfere with charges already before the courts.
The demand for compensation to the families of 21 students reported to have committed suicide after their exam results were canceled also stood out as a key victory for the Cockroach Party’s leaders.
However, Mr. Dipke said that none of the bereaved families in his home state of Maharashtra have received the $104,000 each was promised. Officials told him they needed to “look into the rules and norms.”
The march from India Gate is intended to demonstrate their determination.
