Over the last month, the landlocked Himalayan nation of Nepal has witnessed its most explosive protests in nearly two decades. While the immediate trigger was a government ban on social media, the uprising quickly broadened into a nationwide revolt over larger socioeconomic issues such as corruption, unemployment, and the country’s authoritarian drift.
Tens of thousands of young people, many in their teens and early twenties, flooded the streets of Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Biratnagar. They tore down barricades, clashed with security forces, and filled the capital with chants of defiance.
The state’s response was swift and brutal: rubber bullets, water cannons, tear gas, and live fire. By mid-September, at least seventy-two people were dead and well over two thousand injured.
The “Gen Z movement,” as it is referred to, is part of a broader regional wave of revolt. From Colombo in 2022, where Sri Lankans compelled their president to flee, to Dhaka in 2024–25, where widespread protests led to the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina’s government, people across South Asia are rising against elites that have failed to provide even the most basic necessities of life.
Nepal’s ‘Gen Z movement,’ as it is referred to, is part of a broader regional wave of revolt.
Nepal’s role in this ongoing cycle holds particular significance, as it was just seventeen years ago that the country abolished its monarchy and established a federal democratic republic. The irony is bitter. The very generation born after 2008 and raised under the republic’s flag is now…
Auteur: Sushovan Dhar
