Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Thousands of people protest India’s voter roll revision despite government crackdown, Pakistan’s government enacts emergency rule in opposition stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and a ruling party lawmaker in Nepal faces blackmail accusations.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Thousands of people protest India’s voter roll revision despite government crackdown, Pakistan’s government enacts emergency rule in opposition stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and a ruling party lawmaker in Nepal faces blackmail accusations.

Modi Faces Down New Protests

Thousands of protesters converged on New Delhi over the weekend to demand the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, India’s chief election commissioner. Opponents accuse Kumar of overseeing a manipulated voter roll revision that improves electoral prospects for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The government insists that only those who don’t belong on the rolls were removed.

On Oct. 10, security forces in New Delhi detained as many as 7,000 people, and authorities closed metro stations and shut off mobile internet services. The protests, coming on the heels of mass protests against India’s education policies this summer, threaten to become the biggest sustained street mobilization against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his 12 years in power.

The protests—taking place in large cities across the country—are unlikely to die down anytime soon, but it’s worth putting the movement in perspective.

Though tens of thousands of people have mobilized so far, in a country of India’s size, this doesn’t equate to a truly national mass movement. More Indians protested against sexual assault in 2012 and 2013 and corruption in 2011—all during the rule of Modi’s predecessor, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the Indian National Congress party.

There is also a big difference between the demonstrations in India and the mass movements that ousted governments in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka in recent years: Modi’s government remains popular. Though many Indians—especially young ones—are increasingly angry about misgovernance........

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