Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: India’s Cockroach movement grows as thousands of people march in New Delhi this week, an Iranian official’s visit to Islamabad highlights the importance of the Iran-Pakistan relationship, and violence flares again in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: India’s Cockroach movement grows as thousands of people march in New Delhi this week, an Iranian official’s visit to Islamabad highlights the importance of the Iran-Pakistan relationship, and violence flares again in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

India’s Youth Protests Grow

On Monday, thousands of protesters marched to Parliament in New Delhi, demanding the resignation of India’s education minister. Security forces responded with tear gas and batons, but demonstrators continue to stage sit-ins in the capital. The protest marked one of the biggest yet affiliated with the Cockroach Janta Party movement, which initially emerged as online satire.

The satirical party has racked up millions of followers on Instagram and held protests in various cities in recent weeks. However, they are unlikely to morph into a mass youth-led movement like those that ousted governments in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka in the last few years for a few reasons.

The Cockroach movement currently focuses on narrowly defined issues, mainly tied to education policy. The number of protesters is small relative to the tens of thousands who participated in India’s anti-corruption movement in 2011 or the campaign against sexual violence in 2012. (In Foreign Policy, Salil Tripathi writes about a veteran activist fasting in solidarity with the current protesters.)

Further, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is considerably more popular than those targeted by protests elsewhere in South Asia. Still, what’s playing out on India’s streets this week is deeply significant for Indian politics.

The Cockroach Janta Party is one of the few major anti-government campaigns to emerge during Modi’s 12-year rule. Others include farmers’ protests over agricultural reforms—which were later repealed—in 2020-21 and demonstrations against a new citizenship amendment law that critics accused of discriminating against Muslims in 2019-20.

The main trigger for this week’s protests was the recent leak of answers to India’s medical school entrance exam, affecting around 2.2. million aspiring doctors who have had to retake the exam. The news of the leak was followed........

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