The hunger-striking engineer demanding education reforms in India

Image source, RTR By Simon Fraser Asia digital editor, London Published 20 July 2026 Sonam Wangchuk is a well-known Indian activist and educator who is in the headlines after going on hunger strike in support of youth-led protesters demanding reforms to the education system.

At the protest site in the capital Delhi, he began fasting on 28 June and has consumed nothing but salt and water since then, losing more than 9kg.

Amid concern over his rapidly deteriorating health, tensions escalated when police forcibly admitted him to hospital on 18 July.

Wangchuk is protesting in support of an online satirical movement called the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) – so named after India's most senior judge used the term to describe unemployed young people. The CJP is seeking educational reforms after a series of controversies, including recent exam paper leaks.

The movement is being seen as one of the biggest public displays of dissent against the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's which has been in power since 2014.

Popularly known as "Sonam sir", Wangchuk is one of best-known public figures in the disputed Indian-administered territory of Ladakh and a well-known name in India. His work has earned international recognition, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2018, often referred to as Asia's Nobel Prize.

He was the inspiration for Three Idiots, the 2009 superhit Bollywood film, and in 2017, he appeared as a celebrity guest on Kaun Banega Crorepati - the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, hosted by superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

The activist's worsening health has caused alarm among his supporters. As his condition has deteriorated in the past few days, opposition leaders, activists, Bollywood actors and musicians have called on Wangchuk to end his fast.

But he has said he will do so only if the government takes accountability "for the recent failures in the education system"; or if he and the CJP leadership reached parliament and MPs assured them they would take up the issue; or if lawmakers visited him in hospital and assured him this would happen.

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Wangchuk went on hunger strike last year to demand more be done to protect the fragile ecology of Ladakh in the Himalayas

Fasting has long been woven into political life in India, a country where many of the religions its citizens embrace attach moral significance to voluntary self-denial.

Wangchuk, 59, is no stranger to refusing food as a form of protest.

Last year he held two hunger strikes, lasting several weeks, to highlight the fragile ecology of his hometown - an icy cold desert in the Himalayas, which is at the centre of border disputes between India and China.

Before beginning his hunger strike, Wangchuk and his supporters walked for hundreds of kilometres from Ladakh to reach Delhi. They argued that more autonomy for Ladakh would help prevent exploitation of natural resources.

Wangchuk and his supporters say that the fragile Himalayan ecology is in danger in the absence of constitutional safeguards.

The concerns stem from the fact that the government has accelerated infrastructure development in border regions.

Ladakh is strategically significant for India as it shares borders with both China and Pakistan.

The federal government has sanctioned several highways, power projects and military-related infrastructure in Ladakh, which Wangchuk says will harm the region, especially in the absence of consultation with local representatives.

"We don't oppose development. We want sustainable growth," he said.

Wangchuk and his supporters say that Ladakh's ecology means that it can't follow the development models of other Indian states.

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Bollywood star Aamir Khan (centre) played a character inspired by Mr Wangchuk in 2009 hit 3 idiots

Wangchuk has had a long career as an engineer and innovator - and has a long history of challenging the status quo.

As a child, he studied for three years in the city of Srinagar (then the capital of Jammu and Kashmir state) where lessons were taught in English, Urdu and Hindi. In an interview, he recalled being the "butt of jokes" in class.

"In Srinagar, I was a dumb boy from Ladakh who could not speak Hindi or English," he said.

In the 1980s, his experiences led him to question the education system in Ladakh, which he said did not address local needs. He protested against the use of textbooks in English and Urdu in a region where most people spoke the Ladakhi language.

"All the textbooks, even in early primary classes, came from Delhi. The examples were of unfamiliar cultures and environments like ships, oceans, coconut trees and monsoon rains," says a note on the website of a school co-founded by him. "These alien examples in alien languages only confused Ladakhi children."

Since then, he has worked with local authorities and communities to ensure that the education system addresses the unique needs of children in Ladakh.

Wangchuk studied mechanical engineering after a relative noticed his experiments with concave mirrors to brighten dark buildings and cook food.

In recent years, he has developed a low-cost mud house that maintains a temperature of 15C even in -15C conditions.

He has also designed an artificial spring in the shape of an ice stupa - a hemispherical structure common in Buddhist cultures - that stores downstream water for use during late spring when farmers need water.

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