Peaceful Protests and How They Work!

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Peaceful Protests and How They Work!

When the NEET exam leak sparked outrage among two million students, a youth movement turned to peaceful protest — and forced a government minister to resign. Here's how it happened, and why nonviolence made all the difference.

What You'll Learn

1. In 2026, 22 lakh students competed for just 1.36 lakh NEET medical school seats — about 16 students for every single seat.
2. When the NEET exam questions leaked in May 2026, most students didn't find out for two weeks — after they had already studied, saved, and sat the exam.
3. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. both won lasting change through peaceful protest, without ever resorting to violence.
4. When police took activist Sonam Wangchuk away without his family's knowledge, it didn't weaken the protest — it turned it into a nationwide movement.
5. Research suggests that once about 25% of a community joins a cause, it becomes very hard for those in power to ignore.

Key Vocabulary

- Peaceful protest — A way of showing disagreement or demanding change without violence, through marches, strikes, hunger strikes, or public gatherings.
- NEET — The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test — the exam nearly two million Indian students take every year to get into medical college.
- National Testing Agency (NTA) — The government body responsible for conducting exams like NEET across India.
- Hunger strike — A protest in which a person refuses to eat in order to draw attention to a cause.
- Dissent — Publicly disagreeing with an official policy or decision.
- Cockroach Janta Party — A youth-led movement in India that organized the 2026 protests against the NEET exam leak.
- Jantar Mantar — A historic site in Delhi that has become a common gathering place for protests.
- Civil disobedience — Deliberately and openly refusing to cooperate with certain rules as a form of peaceful protest — used historically by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Classroom Lesson Plan

Discussion questions, a hands-on classroom activity, and grade-band standards alignment — grades 4–9.

Download Lesson Plan

Discussion questions

A — When Does a Protest "Work"?
Educator prompt: The episode argues peaceful protests succeed when they refuse to turn violent, even when met with force. Ask students to discuss real or historical examples where peaceful protest achieved change, and examples where protests turned violent and lost public support. What made the difference?

B — The Ethics of Removing a Protest Leader
Educator prompt: Authorities removed Sonam Wangchuk without his or his family's knowledge, and the episode says it made the movement grow rather than shrink. Was this a fair government action? Why might silencing a leader sometimes strengthen, rather than weaken, a movement?

C — The "25% Rule"
Educator prompt: The episode mentions research suggesting that once roughly 25% of a community joins a cause, it becomes hard for those in power to ignore. Is a numbers-based theory like this a good way to think about social change? What other factors might make a protest effective?

D — Accountability and Resignation
Educator prompt: The Education Minister resigned on July 25th after mounting pressure but called the protesters "anti-nationalist." What does accountability mean in government, and does a resignation alone address the root problem — the exam leak and its consequences for students?

[00:00:00] Welcome to Takaro. And today we're talking about something really, really important. We're talking about peaceful protests. Peaceful protests are a very, very important tool in communication, in showing dissent, in showing dissatisfaction or disagreement. And so the reason we're talking about it is because in India, we've been seeing a peaceful protest from the youth perspective and initiated by the Cockroach Janta Party.
[00:00:34] Now, a few episodes ago, we talked about who the Cockroach Janta Party is.
[00:00:38] What's really interesting is that a peaceful protest is not new. A peaceful protest is something that has been done for years And, we have really, really great examples of this even in India. You know, Mahatma Gandhi, he led peaceful protests and actually helped India gain independence and freedom from the British through his peaceful protests.
[00:01:06] He kept doing it, without hurting other people that the British had to finally give up. So it starts becoming very tough to ignore.
[00:01:16] And then even in other parts of the world, you know, people like Martin Luther King Jr. has, done peaceful protests, initiated peaceful protests for equal rights for Black Americans because there was a lot of slavery, there was a lot of, really nasty policies against Black Americans.
[00:01:34] It was not equal rights. And so he stood up and led marches, peaceful marches across the US and really, really shouted out for that equal right for Black Americans. And both of them extremely successful examples of what peaceful protests can be. In fact, what we are gonna be talking about today is a little bit closer to home, so what's happening right now from an India perspective, and the Cockroach Janta Party and the youth protest against a very simple examination.
[00:02:15] It is one of the most important examinations in India. But the NEET exam, which is basically the N-E-E-T, or the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test, is an examination taken by about two million people every year across India.
[00:02:34] And the reason they do this examination is because they want to basically get into medical school. And for many families, the NEET score is a difference between, you know, the student becoming a doctor or starting over entirely and then having to figure out something else to survive. So 22 lakh students appeared for the NEET exam, and there are only 1.36 lakh seats.
[00:03:09] So let's do the math over here. 22 divided by, you know, 1.3 So for every seat, there are about 16 students competing for it. Just think about it. 16 people around you competing for that same single chair or seat. Now that's a crazy competitive exam. Now what happened is in May 26 These examination questions were leaked before the exam.
[00:03:43] But here's the problem. Most students, did not find out about this leak till two weeks after they had already done the test, which means they had struggled, studied, put in all their savings and, gone in for the exam, and then they realized that, "Hey, by the way, you know, certain privileged people, people who could pay money for this leaked question paper, suddenly had all of those questions and answers well before the exam, and therefore it was unfair.
[00:04:15] This caused a lot of depression, lost... caused a lot of students to get really, really angry with the system and the fact that this happened. Many people died because of it and which was really, really unfort-unfortunate. And so that's where the Cockroach Janta Party really came in, to come in and stand for the youth of this country and say, "Hey, we want better. And since you do not respect us, since you do not listen to us, we are gonna start shouting about it, making more noise about it, but we're gonna do it peacefully."
[00:05:06] And so protests started, in Delhi, where some of the requirements or some of the demands made by the Cockroach Janta Party was that the Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, resign. Someone had to take accountability. They wanted the entire exam structure itself, and the National Testing Agency, which is the body that manages and runs these exams, to completely change. They wanted proper court-appointed investigations. They wanted compensation for the families.
[00:05:24] And so it really started picking up steam, so much so that Sonam Wangchuk joined the peaceful protest. Peaceful protests are interesting because the more people who come in, the more that protest starts getting noticed, right?
[00:05:50] And so Sonam Wangchuk is a really, really well-known environmentalist, education reformer, activist in India. He has done a lot of activism, and he's nationally known for his work on rural schooling, environmental issues in Ladakh. And so when he joined this protest, he started an indefinite hunger strike.
[00:06:17] And really where it all turned was July 18th and 19th, some plainclothes police people came and just took Sonam Wangchuk away. Without his okay, without his permission, they just came, physically carried him away into an ambulance. His family was also unaware what was going on. The authorities, the government, the police, thought that by taking him away, they were gonna suppress this entire movement.
[00:06:38] But that just made the youth even more angry, and it went from being a small little protest to the entire country coming together. And so Monday, July 20th, thousands of protesters, students, parents, young professionals, everyone marched towards Jantar Mantar in Delhi. There were different protests across the country in Bangalore, in Bombay.
[00:07:05] So it just really blew up. And what actually happened was it started becoming almost impossible for the government to not listen. There was tear gas, people were getting beaten by the police. There were barricades put up. And I feel, in a peaceful protest, that's when you get the advantage. When the other side starts becoming frustrated and starts using force, your peaceful protest starts becoming even more important, even more impactful.
[00:07:43] And so it takes a lot of courage, it is the right way. And in fact, even the opposition parties started championing this entire cause. Congress party leaders, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, some of the chief ministers from other states came in. They staged their own protest. They were taken away.
[00:07:59] And hour by hour, not even day by day, this entire movement started getting a lot of wind, and it started really picking up. In fact, so much so that on July 25th, the Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has put in his resignation. And he obviously called it anti-nationalist — "These people are terrible. What they're doing is not okay. They're going against the country."
[00:08:32] But what is very evident is that, when there's a peaceful protest of thousands and thousands and thousands of people that come together in the country, the government has to sit up and listen because it's no longer just about five, 10, 15, 20 people shouting about it. It is now in the tens and hundreds of thousands.
[00:08:54] And the youth are obviously frustrated. They have a real problem with some of these issues that have been pointed out by the Cockroach Janta Party. So there is more and more of this momentum that's building, and I think, from a peaceful protest perspective, this is the best you could ask for because you are not creating any sort of violence or destruction, but if the other side is now hitting you, you are already the person with the upper hand. Peaceful protest is already creating more impact than you would imagine.
[00:09:31] And so when I think about peaceful protests, and this is probably something I'll even ask you folks to think about: what are some of the other peaceful protests that have worked?
[00:09:41] What are some of the other peaceful protests that haven't worked? And why? When peaceful protests become violent, when the peaceful protesters start breaking stuff and resorting to violence, it immediately stops becoming impactful because you are now just creating a reason why someone should not listen to you, right?
[00:10:07] And so if you really want someone to hear your point, keep saying it. Keep saying it so that they hear it. You don't have to hit them. You don't have to break something because then you become the person who everyone is focusing on. Instead, peacefully keep talking about it and keep bringing more and more people to support your cause.
[00:10:34] In fact, there is some research and some studies that I was actually looking at, around peaceful protests and what is that magic number that you need to bring in so that it starts becoming impactful. And I don't think there is an accurate number, but what some of the studies have seen is that, if you bring in about 25% of the community on your side from a peaceful protest perspective, suddenly it becomes very, very, very impactful.
[00:11:02] And I think this is where this entire youth movement and the Cockroach Janta Party have really had an advantage. India is a 50-plus percent youth population. That means over half of India is youth. And if you are going to piss them off, then they are going to be a pretty loud voice that you cannot ignore, that you cannot silence, and that is the power of the peaceful protest.
[00:11:35] And it's not exact math. But what we do know from all the research is that 25% and plus becomes a pretty significant voice that the other side has to start listening to.
[00:11:50] When you disagree with something, using violence never really helps. It never really helps you bring your point across. In fact, it does the exact opposite. What does bring your point across is when you and a group of people come, stand together, and make your voice heard over and over again.
[00:12:11] And it's not about yelling and breaking stuff. It's about making sure that your message is heard, and that's the most important thing about peaceful protests.