New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) Sonam Wangchuk (59) has been known by many labels over the years — engineer, innovator, education reformer, environmental activist and Ramon Magsaysay awardee. As recently as 2025, he was called a Modi supporter, shortly after, an “anti-national”, and just this month a hero, as well as the “collective conscience”.
Some of these titles he has contested, some embraced, but together they trace the evolution of a figure that has become India’s one of the most recognisable campaigners at the moment, who has spent nearly four decades solving problems in one of the world’s harshest landscapes, Ladakh, by transforming classrooms, pioneering sustainable technologies and also championing the cause of the fragile Himalayan ecosystem and constitutional safeguards for Ladakh.
Born in 1966 in Uleytokpo village near Alchi in Ladakh, Wangchuk is the son of former Jammu and Kashmir minister Sonam Wangyal. Raised in the remote Himalayan region, he has often spoken about his difficult early years in school, where language became a barrier to learning and shaped his belief that education must be rooted in local realities rather than imposed through a one-size-fits-all system.
After graduating in mechanical engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar (now NIT Srinagar) in 1987, Wangchuk chose not to pursue a conventional engineering career. While still a student, he had begun helping Ladakhi students who struggled in mainstream schools. In 1988, along with his brother and a group of friends, he co-founded the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), an initiative aimed at reforming education in the region.
SECMOL went on to spearhead Operation New Hope in 1994, a collaborative programme involving village communities, teachers and the government to improve learning outcomes in government schools. Four years later, Wangchuk established the SECMOL Alternative School near Leh, whose hands-on learning model, solar-powered campus and emphasis on self-reliance drew educators and visitors from around the world.
His work gradually expanded beyond education into sustainable engineering. Wangchuk developed the Ice Stupa technology, which stores winter water in cone-shaped ice structures for use during the sowing season, besides promoting passive solar buildings and other climate-resilient innovations suited to high-altitude regions. His work earned him international recognition, including the CNN-IBN Real Heroes Award in 2008, the Rolex Award for Enterprise and the International Terra Award in 2016, the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2017, and the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2018.
Seeking to extend his philosophy of experiential learning, Wangchuk co-founded the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL) in 2016 as a university designed specifically for mountain communities. The institution has since faced regulatory scrutiny and funding-related challenges, developments that Wangchuk and his supporters have linked to his growing public activism.
Wangchuk initially welcomed the Centre’s 2019 decision to carve Ladakh out of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and make it a Union territory. His relationship with the Narendra Modi-led government seemed cordial at the time, as his wife and HIAL co-founder Gitanjali Angmo last year shared a video of a UN event in Pakistan and said Wangchuk had praised the prime minister for some of his initiatives.
However, Wangchuk later emerged as one of the strongest advocates for bringing Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, arguing that constitutional safeguards were essential to protect the region’s land, jobs, tribal identity and fragile ecology.
Since 2023, he has led or participated in several protests, marches and hunger strikes demanding constitutional protections and greater democratic safeguards for Ladakh. His campaign reached a flashpoint in September 2025 when he was detained under the National Security Act during the Ladakh agitation and lodged in Jodhpur Central Jail. At the time, Angmo questioned, “If Sonam is anti-national, is the government awarding anti-nationals?”, citing a Union renewable energy ministry award for HIAL’s solar building designs and Wangchuk’s 2018 Magsaysay award.
After nearly six months in detention, the Centre revoked the order, and he was released in March 2026.
His latest fast, however, shifted the focus from Ladakh to the country’s education system. Joining the Cockroach Janta Party-led agitation over alleged irregularities in the NEET examination on June 28, Wangchuk began an indefinite hunger strike in solidarity with the protesters.
His role in the movement was called heroic by some — a term he vehemently rejected and appealed to the people to be their own heroes.
Academics, filmmakers and civil society activists on Friday appealed to Wangchuk to end his hunger strike and said he was “our collective conscience”.
Twenty days into the fast, after doctors said he had lost nearly 9.5 kg, the Delhi Police forcefully whisked him away to Safdarjung Hospital following concerns over his deteriorating health.
While his name has frequently been associated with the character of Phunsukh Wangdu in the 2009 film ‘3 Idiots’, the discussion resurfaced this week after actor Aamir Khan said he and director Rajkumar Hirani did not know Wangchuk when the film was made, prompting social media users to recirculate a 2008 video of Wangchuk receiving the CNN-IBN Real Heroes Award at an event attended by Khan, along with another clip in which Wangchuk recalled the meeting.
As his latest hunger strike drew support from political leaders, student groups and members of the film fraternity, Wangchuk has once again found himself in the national spotlight — this time at the forefront of the movement against the alleged irregularities in the NEET examination, adding another chapter to a public life that has spanned education, innovation and activism. PTI AO PRK
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.