Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: India’s Cockroach movement winds down protests after the education minister resigns, violence surges around an election in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and the resignation of Bangladesh’s president leaves few allies of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in government.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: India’s Cockroach movement winds down protests after the education minister resigns, violence surges around an election in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and the resignation of Bangladesh’s president leaves few allies of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in government.

Modi Gives In to Protest Demands

The protest campaign led by the Cockroach Janta Party—one of the largest such movements in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 12 years in power—reached a conclusion over the weekend after the government agreed to some of the demonstrators’ demands. However, while the crisis has ended, it arguably has left Modi more politically vulnerable than ever before.

The Cockroach movement is one of just a small number that have significantly challenged Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. It exposed the level of fury that many young people harbor toward a leader and party that have banked on their strong popularity to win three straight national elections. The rhetoric of the protesters was angry and sometimes profane.

This also marks one of the few times when Modi’s government has given in to a domestic opponent. The only other instance of such major concessions was when New Delhi withdrew agricultural reforms that had triggered the mass farmers’ protests in 2020-21. Modi is seen as a tough leader who doesn’t make U-turns or acknowledge mistakes, even amid backlash. This unflinchingly resolute image has been undercut.

The resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the protesters’ core demand, delivers a sharper blow to Modi, though. Pradhan is an influential figure who is very close to the prime minister. The government prides itself on stability, and its cabinet ministers have largely remained the same since 2018. Pradhan’s departure upsets that trend.

Further, the Cockroach movement upstaged the government online—a sphere where Modi and the BJP have dominated, a strength that........

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