This week, I hear, all of India is talking about cockroaches, ahead of a youth-led protest organised by a new movement called the Cockroach Janata Party. What started as a joke has turned into calls for education reform, sparked by youth anger and frustration. I’m reminded of an edition of Southasian Conversations we had in the wake of the 2025 protests in Nepal, where Roman asked – why isn’t India seeing its own Gen Z protests? Could a meme-ified website become the birth of a broader movement? We’re certainly watching this news closely (while refraining from making Kafka references with the greatest difficulty.)
Speaking of fiction, and truth in fiction, if you’re looking for an escape from the reality of the news, tune in to the launch event of our annual Fiction Fest, featuring a stellar panel – click here to register and scroll below for more details! With this newsletter, I’m always working to bring you the latest in politics and culture from across the region.
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This week in Himal
Maximillian Morch writes about historian Thant-Myint U’s new book on his grandfather, the first non-white secretary general of the United Nations, revisiting the history of the institution’s diplomatic leadership that has faded away in the present day.
We’re excited to announce the launch event for Fiction Fest, in collaboration with the Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation, and featuring a panel with Booker-Prize winning writer and translator Deepa Bhasthi and scholar, poet and translator Parwana Fayyaz. Register for the event, happening on Zoom on 8 June at 7 PM IST, here.
Anita Zhang
This week in Southasia
India braces for Cockroach Party rally
This week, India braces for a rally led by the Cockroach Janata Party on 6 June. The youth-led movement was recently formed after comments made by Chief Justice Surya Kant in which he referred to unemployed young people who became activists as cockroaches (later clarifying that he was referring to students acquiring fraudulent degrees). His remarks stirred up anger, coming weeks after student protests following the cancellation of medical entrance exam tests due to an exam paper leak and given the graduate unemployment rate in India stands at 29.1 percent. That led to an Indian student in the United States launching a website that quickly drew millions of followers. A key demand is for the resignation of India’s education minister Dharmendra Pradhan in light of the medical school exam leak.
Comparisons are already being drawn to youth-led protests in Nepal stemming from a trending hashtag on social media, and also to Gen Z-led protests from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, stemming from youth frustration around the political establishment and economic mismanagement. But well-known activist Sonam Wangchuk has also pledged support to the party in order to call for systemic education reforms. The founder of the Cockroach Janata Party, Abhijeet Dipke says the Indian government blocked the party’s satirical website, and its X handle has also been withheld within India, even as the ruling BJP has been outwardly dismissive, saying the CJP should provide a ‘concrete’ list of demands.
Elsewhere in Southasia:
- Myanmar president Min Aung Hlaing discusses trade, border security and cybercrime in meeting with Prime Minister Modi in first foreign visit since taking office; India’s foreign secretary says New Delhi believes engagement is the way forward
- Russia and Afghan government sign military cooperation agreement a year after Russia removes Taliban from list of banned organisations, agree to begin repairing machinery left in country from 1979 Soviet invasion
- Bangladesh foreign minister Khalilur Rahman elected president of UN General Assembly in hotly contested Asia-Pacific rotation
- At least 46 lose their lives from bombing in area held by Ta'ang National Liberation Army in Shan State, Myanmar despite October 2025 ceasefire with Myanmar junta
- At least 18 die in road accident after truck transporting Afghan nationals being repatriated from Pakistan overturns
- Pakistan military conducts multiple raids, killing at least 17 suspected militants after train bombing by Balochistan Liberation Army left at least 20 dead last week; think tank flags 27 percent increase in militant attacks in May
- Taliban regime calls for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan to rein in crossborder attacks or risk losing their support in response to pressure from Pakistan during peace talks, Pakistan unconvinced, officials say
- Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission releases report calling on government to draft ‘retrospective legislation’ penalising former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, home minister and information and communications minister for acts to suppress September 2025 Gen Z protests
- Bangladesh rights body Ain o Salish Kendra condemns suspension of film screening, violent disruption of Baul music programme in Sylhet in March 2026, both after backlash by conservative groups
- Former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa testifies online in 2011 abduction case of disappeared Jaffna human rights activists Lalith Kumar Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan after repeatedly failing to appear before Jaffna Magistrate’s Court, citing security concerns
- Two Lhotshampa refugees rejected at Nepal border after spending 18 years in Bhutan’s Chamgang jail before being warned not to return to Bhutan
- Tamil Nadu BJP politician K Annamalai and Karnataka Chief Minister for Congress Party Siddaramaiah resign in wake of India’s state assembly elections; seen as reaction to populism, anti-incumbency politics
- Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah speaks in parliament about territorial ‘encroachment’ by both Nepal and India along disputed Kalapani-Lipulekh border, reigniting longstanding debate
Revisit the below archival stories from Himal adding more context to this week’s news updates from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Afghanistan
The Editors
Karin Heissler
Hamayon Rastgar
Snap Southasia
