New Delhi, July 25 -- A nationwide student movement rarely begins with something as mundane as an examination irregularity. Yet across South Asia, youth protests have increasingly become the first visible manifestation of deeper structural stresses.

In Nepal, students have repeatedly mobilized against corruption, unemployment, and political dysfunction. Sri Lanka's 2022 economic collapse brought students and young professionals to the forefront of a nationwide uprising. Bangladesh's 2024 protests over public-sector job quotas evolved into a mass movement that toppled a fifteen-year government.

Now India appears to be confronting its own moment. What began as outrage over irregularities in medical college admissions and public-sector rec...