GEN Z REBELLION

RAGE OVER CORRUPTION, NEPOTISM AND JOBLESSNESS ENDS IN A REGIME CHANGE IN NEPAL AND DEMANDS FOR A RADICAL RESET. WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR INDIA?

- By RAJ CHENGAPPA & PRADIP R. SAGAR

A powerful new playbook for changing governments midstream is being executed by young voters in the subcontinent with metronomic regularity, although it is far from democratic.

Take 1, Sri Lanka, July 2022. Youth facing severe economic distress formed the Aragalaya (the Struggle) and stormed the citadels of power, including the secretariats of the president and the prime minister, forcing the ruling Rajapaksa family to flee, and an interim government takes their place. Take 2, Bangladesh, August 2024. University students' unions protesting job reservations turned violent after the Dhaka police indiscriminately opened fire against them, resulting in more than 100 casualties. Symbols of power, including the Parliament building, were vandalised, and prime minister Sheikh Hasina had to escape to India in a military aircraft to avoid being lynched by the mob.

Take 3, Nepal, September 2025. A controversial social media ban sparks an explosion of countrywide outrage by the nation's Gen Z (those aged between 15 and 25) after their peaceful protests the previous day in capital Kathmandu was met by police firing, killing 19 of their compatriots. The streets turned into battlegrounds, with protesters setting Nepal's Parliament ablaze along with the Rashtrapati Bhawan and the prime minister's residence, as their occupants-President Ramchandra Paudel and Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli-flee to safety.