Nepal’s Gen Z must be heard, understood

It is natural to want to analyse the events of September 8-9 in Nepal. Newspapers, online forums, webinar discussions and podcasts have all discussed the meaning of what happened. However, as with the post-earthquake discussions, people's responses tend to follow prior assumptions about how Nepal works. The biggest challenge is not to generate more ‘hot takes’ but to listen, understand what happened and why, and to question our assumptions about Nepal and Nepali politics, starting from the point of what and who we don’t know, instead of what we think we already do.

- JAMES SHARROK

With some excellent exceptions, most explanations have been predictable and well-worn. One explanation is that this was chaotic and nihilistic violence generated by young, poorly educated and inarticulate smartphone watriors and that it has, for that reason, already failed, and has no lasting or wider meaning. Another, from the Left: As it is not an obviously class-based alliance representing the poor and there are noleaders or party organisations, the movement will fracture and again, not create lasting change. Third, this protest was orchestrated by foreign powers via NGOs, aimed at destabilising Nepal and/or removing KP Oli from his position of Prime Minister. Fourth, the protest was a continuation of the pro-monarchy riots of March 2025.

The first explanation fails to explain the organisation behind the initial protest, including the levels of coordination needed to produce consistent messaging (young people interviewed on Nepali news channels repeatedly pointed out that it was about corruption, not the social media ban), as well as the huge support for the protesters in wider society.

The Left’s explanation implies that we know best what political action entails, but also really struggles to explain the politicisation of urban youth and the role played in the protests by a newer type of NGOs (not oriented around donor-focused ‘projectisation’). Predictably, the Left’s explanation presumes the truly authentic poor Nepali to bea farmer in “remote” Karnali, not an urban jobless youth who speaks English and repurposes global memes.