Cockroach Janata Party: How humiliation is turning into collective identity
Written by: Muskan Shah, Moitrayee Das
In India, approximately 67% of the population, more than 75 crore individuals, are below the age of 30 years (UNFPA). Indian society has always placed importance on educational and academic achievements, equating higher marks and degrees to success. Following this, millions of Indian youth spent years studying for degrees which are believed to bring with it stability and respect.
But, now, with unemployment rates steadily increasing in the past years, most of the youth find themselves without any opportunities, scrolling through memes and hearing comments from the leaders of the nation about their own failure (Singh, 2025).
In the courtroom, the Chief Justice of India made use of the words ‘cockroaches’ and ‘parasites of the nation’ while referring to unemployed youth with fake degrees in India. As a result, there continues to be discourse about the details of spoken statements and context, but one response to the statement has stood out to millions.
Built around an insult, the Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical movement, has gained the attention and support of 22.6 million individuals on Instagram as per 28th May, 2026 (Sharma & Das, 2026; The Week, 2026). Indians around the world have embraced the term cockroaches as a testament to their resistance and perseverance. This raises the question, why has this one comment managed to raise a firestorm? Why is the Indian youth identifying with this movement to such a large extent?
What Is Actually Going On
The answer to the question is multilayered, much deeper than the issue of unemployment. In a society where identity and dignity is organised around achievement and merit, the psychological toll of no guarantee of meaningful futures, despite continuously demanding performance, is high. This disparity between expectations and reality unites a major proportion of the youth.
In an effort to collectively reduce shame and create a collective group identity, the youth chose to settle for visibility when the organisations, institutions and country failed to offer them dignity. The social media page and the new organisation, a caricature of the ruling party, has turned the words around in their favor, presenting the cockroach as something which transforms stigma into identity.
Many young students in India spend years navigating examinations, unemployment, gig work and pull out all stops to avail of any and all opportunities. The insult ‘cockroach’ resonated with this population because they have gone through the emotional experience of being socially unwanted and despised to an extent, despite years of effort.
The rapid spread of this party, gaining more than twice the followers of the most followed political party in the world as well as gaining national and international media attention is a testament to the individual need to feel worthy and belong. Emotional recognition, not found through formal political language, was found through satire and humor.
The absurdity of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), amplified on it’s website and criteria for joining the party, is what made it succeed. While formal and traditional politics lies on the basis of ideology, polity, and structure, the youth of today communicates through symbolism and collective participation.
The humor, relatability, and transparency offered by CJP aided in creating an emotionally safe environment where political expression does not feel dangerous for a change. Instead, the platform offers a sense of feeling powerful, heard, and togetherness.
The online movement built upon the shared frustration of a major chunk of the population and allowed for free public participation and a platform to voice concerns. Combining outrage and anger with comedy doesn’t take away from the message, rather, it allows for emotionally charged and shareable content to be expressed in a more relatable manner.
The collective sense of identity that forms as a result of this is turning an originally self deprecative comment or statement into an act of recognition. Built around shared disappointment and a sense of hopelessness, CJP taps into each of its members/followers to form an online movement through humor and visibility.
Through A Psychological Lens
In India, identity is largely linked to success. This success, for the longest time, was simply equated to the amount of education received. The youth is raised on this meritocratic promise, and from a young age, the identity and self worth is directly related to the marks on the report card. When a student who has been raised to follow this thinking process fails, the failure becomes internalised.
The individual's identity is disrupted; they no longer know what else to tie their identity to, or how else to improve their self esteem. Psychologically, this internalisation of failure leads to a sense of shame, feeling of helplessness, decreased self worth and identity diffusion. When the pattern follows over years, chronic uncertainty leads to anticipatory anxiety and emotional exhaustion.
The feeling of learned helplessness seeps in as the job market continues to worsen, candidates are rejected on the basis of being overqualified, and labour markets remain volatile. The psychological injury, stemming from repeated erosion of personal agency, leaves lasting scars, impacting performance, self worth, and morale.
Unemployment is layered, stemming from a mismatch between education and labour demands, and is affected by the institutions, companies, government role, and economic markets. The reaction that the youth have had in this scenario is not a reaction to the problem of unemployment rates, rather it is in relation to being mocked while stuck in this position. Intended humiliation through the usage of words such as ‘cockroaches’ and ‘parasites’ is politically powerful.
Individuals being compared to invisible, distasteful creatures or pests symbolises that they are disposable and unworthy. This not only worsens the impact of being unemployed on self esteem, but also places individuals in a position where their status is injured further as they are pushed further down the social chain. In order to deal with this level of social defeat or injury, the population resorted to dark humor as a collective defense mechanism, emotionally distancing themselves and showing collective solidarity through the use of memes and satire.
Cockroaches are infamous for having an extreme ability to survive and being resilient. The Indian youth resonates with the symbol for perhaps the same reason. When faced with a hostile situation, the youth chose to raise their voices in a manner that fits them best as an internet native population.
What may be written off as childish behaviour or immaturity, is actually a show of action against institutional distrust, alienation, and collapse of collective faith. As resilience begins to replace hope, a new society with a stronger, more adaptable population is being created.
References
Sharma, S., & Das, K. N. (2026, May 21). India’s ‘cockroach’ group goes viral, spotlights Gen Z worries. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-cockroach-group-goes-viral-spotlights-gen-z-worries-2026-05-21/
Singh, G. (2025, August 17). Joblessness is far worse than we thought it was. The New Indian Express. https://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2025/Aug/17/joblessness-is-far-worse-than-we-thought-it-was
The Week. (2026, May 21). Why India’s youth are flocking to a fake political party. https://theweek.com/politics/why-indias-youth-are-flocking-to-a-fake-political-party
United Nations Population Fund. (n.d.). World population dashboard: India. UNFPA. https://www.unfpa.org/data/world-population/IN
Muskan Shah is a Research Assistant at FLAME University, and Moitrayee Das is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at FLAME University.