New Delhi, Feb. 23 -- Over the past few years, South Asia has witnessed a striking wave of mass protests toppling governments and upending long-standing political arrangements in countries ranging from Bangladesh to Nepal and Sri Lanka. These upheavals are often explained in terms of domestic factors such as corruption, economic mismanagement and democratic backsliding. But the US-based scholar Muhib Rahman argues that there is a larger regional story at play - one that implicates not just local leaders, but also India and the United States. In a November 2025 essay, titled "The Folly of India's Illiberal Hegemony", published in the prestigious Foreign Affairs magazine, Rahman challenges the assumption that India's regional leadership has b...