Nepal’s turbulent political history witnessed another rupture this week as thousands of Gen Z protesters set the country’s parliament ablaze, forcing Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign after one of the deadliest crackdowns in recent memory. At least 19 people were killed and over 50 wounded as police opened fire on crowds demanding the rollback of a controversial social media ban and an end to rampant corruption.
The protests erupted after the government blocked access to Facebook, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), and 23 other platforms last week. TikTok, ironically left unblocked, became the rallying ground for enraged youth who accused politicians of silencing dissent while their own children flaunted luxury lifestyles online.
“Shut down corruption, not social media,” became the defining slogan of the movement. From tenth-grade schoolchildren to university students, the protests united a wide spectrum of Nepali youth.
Despite the government eventually lifting the ban, the anger had already spiraled beyond control. Protesters stormed Kathmandu, torching government buildings, Oli’s residence, and eventually the Parliament building itself.
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The sudden ferocity of the youth-led movement has invited comparisons with other South Asian uprisings. In Sri Lanka, an economic collapse toppled the Rajapaksa regime in 2022. In Bangladesh last year, students led an ethno-religious-tinged uprising that ousted Sheikh Hasina’s government.
Speaking exclusively to Asianet Newsable English's Heena Sharma, Professor Dr. Anshuman Behera, author and conflict resolution expert at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bengaluru, pointed out both similarities and distinctions.
“In South Asia, three countries what we have seen in, if not in quite succession, but one after another, we are seeing the youth actually storming the stage and coming and demanding the resignation of a particular kind of ruling regime. But having said that, what we witness, there are certain commonalities. One commonality is that the youth actually taking the center stage and protesting against the ruling regime, that is one important commonality.,” he said.
“In Bangladesh, what we saw was that the youth was actually protesting completely guided by the ethno-religious assertion of identities. In Sri Lanka, the important issue was that of the economic crisis and the authoritarian rule of the Rajapaksha government. But in Nepal, what we are seeing right now is that this is something that we predicted… Wherever you have a little scope for democracy or a democratic form of government is there, there could be some possibility that, okay, you know, the youth might actually rise and protest against the thing,” Dr Behra added.
But unlike its neighbours, Dr. Behera argued, Nepal’s protests are uniquely rooted in anti-corruption anger rather than religion or sheer economic collapse.
“What is so unique here, it is not colored with religious sentiments or ethnic sentiments,” he said.
Nepal’s fragile economy has long been dependent on remittances sent home by young workers abroad. But post-COVID slowdowns, shrinking Gulf job markets, and political paralysis have left many stranded.
“Nepal is actually suffering from three important things. One is unemployment and the second is the lack of employment, and then there is also slow growth and there is something called the underemployment. The state has been very cunning… they're saying, okay, people who are underemployed are seen as employed kind of people. But even after that, you have the unemployment rising to close to 13% in Nepal in 2024. And when the unemployment rate is more than 6%, it is an indication that your economy is not doing good.”
“The COVID factor continues to affect a lot of the Nepali youth who used to migrate to different foreign countries, especially Japan, the Gulf countries, India. The market has slowed down. And that has a kind of direct impact on the Nepali youth actually taking a lot of economic benefit outside.”
Frustration also stems from stalled projects and corruption.
“The BRI, the Chinese initiative, is lying, it is not taking anywhere. The development projects are not taking up… Frequent changes of the government has led to people understanding that the political parties are completely into making or breaking the government, they are not taking care of the people anymore.”
The uprising is part of a longer trend of youth asserting themselves in Nepali politics, Dr. Behera notes, recalling the election of Kathmandu mayor Balendra Shah.
“The first kind of indication we saw in Nepal, where the youth was actually asserting its position was when Balendra Sahai, if you remember, was a rapper, a musician, a civil engineer in Kathmandu, who actually owned and became the Kathmandu mayor, one of the youngest mayors in Kathmandu. That was the time there was also a lot of talk whether the youth in Nepal, a country which is completely stricken with poverty and unemployment, is actually seeing an assertion of youth or it's a kind of a rise of the youth to take the center stage," he told Asianet Newsable English.
As flames engulfed parliament in Kathmandu, speculation intensified about whether the protests were entirely homegrown.
Dr. Behera was cautious but did not dismiss the possibility outright:
“One commonality that cannot be actually kind of overlooked or oversighted is the role of the external actors. What we are seeing, I'm not reading too much into it, but just to provoke our kind of an audience and the thinkers, you see the India and the US relationship is not in best of terms right now. And we have certain kind of issues in Nepal and any mishap there in Nepal has a direct spillover effect on us, on India. So that said, the role of the US in kind of delegitimizing the role of China and the US in Sri Lanka… I cannot completely rule out the role of the external actors actually provoking and igniting such a protest.”
Nepal’s democracy, reinstated after the 2006 people’s movement that ended the monarchy, was meant to usher in stability. Instead, politics has become a revolving door of fragile coalitions.
“Unfortunately, there is absolutely no ideology. The ideology of actually clinging to the power, and making or breaking the government has been absolutely normalized. Nobody is an enemy, nobody is a kind of friend in Nepal politics. It's all about in that moment, who comes closer to you and forms an alliance.”
Since 2008, the country has cycled through 13 different prime ministers. Oli himself, a four-time premier, resigned Tuesday after protesters targeted his home. His departure leaves Nepal without a clear succession plan.
Dr Behra warns that the legitimacy of such politics is being openly challenged.
“This is a musical chair of forming government. Such movements directly question the legitimacy of such a kind of thing. The youth has taken the lead, and you will see that the neutral population will join them.”
For many young Nepalis, Oli’s fall is not just about one leader, but about reclaiming the future.
Balendra Shah, Kathmandu’s 35-year-old rapper-turned-mayor, urged restraint after the resignation but underscored that this is a generational revolution. “We had made it clear: this is purely a Gen Z movement,” he said on Facebook. “Your generation must take the lead in running the country. Be ready!”
With nearly 43 percent of Nepal’s population aged 15-40, the demographic weight is on their side.
The trigger for the protests—the sudden blocking of social media platforms—also reflects poor governance.
“Once you have such a kind of a system completely penetrated in your society, and the youth of your society is completely clinging onto it, then the question comes, can a sovereign state or does the sovereign state have a right to ban this kind of companies? The answer is simply yes, yes, the sovereign state. But is the sovereign state aware of the implications? That is where most of the states actually fail.”
Dr. Behera argues that while Nepal had the right to enforce registration, it mishandled communication with its people.
“It was also the duty of the state to communicate with its citizens before banning. They should have created a narrative that look, these are the foreign companies there in our land, they're not abiding by our rule. They could have created a public perception in favor of the Nepalese state. But the state here or the government rather failed in communicating. Why they failed? Because they are indifferent or not willing to factor in the people's aspirations, the people's habit, the people's interest and their connection with the social media, taking your citizens for granted.”
The International Crisis Group described the events as a “major inflection point” in Nepal’s uneasy democratic journey. Constitutional experts warn that the current crisis has already slipped outside formal legal processes, and that a transitional caretaker government backed by the army, trusted leaders, and protest representatives may be needed.
For now, the smoke rising over Kathmandu is both literal and symbolic: the ashes of an old order, and the fiery birth of a new youth-led assertion.
As Dr. Behera concluded, “Such movements, we can see more of such movements actually coming in the future. The legitimacy of this form of government has been questioned in a big way. The youth has taken the lead—and society is beginning to follow.”
