SOUTH ASIA'S FRAGILE STABILITY UNDER STRAIN

Youth anger, weak institutions, and economic shocks fuel recurring street protests

- BY SAJJAD ASHRAF | Special to Gulf News

South Asia, home to nearly a quarter of humanity, has in recent years witnessed waves of popular unrest that have shaken governments and unsettled long-assumed certainties about political stability.

These eruptions are not isolated accidents; they are linked by structural weaknesses common across the region — fragile economies vulnerable to external shocks, widening inequalities, narrow political elites, and youthful populations frustrated with limited prospects.

Immediate triggers have varied, from debt defaults and fuel shortages to repressive governance and corruption scandals, but the pattern is unmistakable: when livelihoods are scarce and voices silenced, people take to the streets. In all cases led by the youth there was mass mobilisation of the deprived, episodes of violent state response, and an uncertain, often halting sense of repair. The consequences — regime change, violence, and long-term economic damage — hold important lessons for countries within the region and beyond.

There are also clear similarities in political economy. Each country entered the crisis with: weak public institutions, politicised law enforcement, a narrow elite controlling big economic rents, and large youth cohorts facing diminishing employment opportunities or stagnant wages.

Different sparks, same explosion