A new interim government in Nepal was sworn in this week, after the Himalayan nation erupted in protests that are part of a growing frustration with the elite across Asia.
The demonstrations, led by young people from Generation Z, were ignited last week by a ban placed on several social media platforms. But they tapped into a larger anger at the perception of corruption and nepotism inside the government. The hashtag #NepoBabies spread as a mark of discontent against Nepal’s ruling class.
Government institutions were burned to the ground, and more than 70 people were killed, many by police gunfire. The protests forced the resignation of the prime minister, and an interim one, the nation’s first female prime minister, was appointed last week. Fresh elections are scheduled for March, but it is unclear whether a new government can meet the expectations of a generation demanding fairness and equal opportunities.
Why We Wrote This
When governments are brought down, like Nepal’s recently was after youth-led protests, a sense of renewal abounds. But the systems that led to the frustration in the first place are harder to dismantle and rebuild.
Why did the government really ban social media?
Discontent with the ruling parties in the South Asian nation has been brewing for years, especially among the country’s Gen Z population – those born between 1997 and 2012.
They had taken to the internet in an online anti-corruption movement that predated a Sept. 4 ban on social media. It was fueled by the perception that those in Nepal’s ruling class lead privileged lives while the average Nepali is struggling.
In Nepal, young people make up the largest segment of the population; more than 40% are between 16 and 40 years old.
While the government claimed its social media ban, lifted five days later, targeted companies that failed to register with the government, critics say the real reason was to crush the growing online movement.
Richard Bownas, a professor of political science and international affairs at University of Northern Colorado, says a main source of youth anger stems from the country’s unemployment crisis, which has driven people out of the country. About 14% of the total Nepalese population is currently working abroad, primarily in the Middle East and India.
“For many people, [emigrating] seems to be the only option,” Dr. Bownas says.
The terms “nepo baby” and “nepo kid” made it to global international headlines amid the deadly protests that erupted last week.
Kathryn March, professor emerita of anthropology at Cornell University who has worked in Nepal for decades, says it visually marks the disparity between those with access to wealth and ordinary people in Nepal.
“Children of prominent politicians in Nepal posted pictures of themselves showing off their new Rolex watch, or their vacation in London, or their shopping tour, or their shopping trip to Gucci, or their new clothes,” Dr. March says. “Those pictures would be reposted by others in #NepoBabies to contrast them to pictures of kids in Nepal struggling, picking food out of the dirt, or carrying heavy loads.”
How do protests in Nepal fit into a wider regional trend?
The protests in Nepal are not isolated. South Asian nations Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have both seen Gen Z protests topple leaders in recent years. And in Indonesia this year, young people frustrated by a lack of meaningful job opportunities have also taken to the streets.
In Bangladesh, students led a July 2024 campaign against job quotas they said hindered their job prospects, forcing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to later flee the country.
In Sri Lanka, youth activists protested in response to an economic collapse in 2022, only to face repression from the government. Eventually, then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to leave.
While the protest movements across Asia are each unique, experts say young people in Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka have lower tolerance levels for unaddressed socioeconomic disparities and corruption.
That their frustration is mounting inside democratic states is disturbing to Dr. Bownas.
“It’s not like the Arab Spring, where the protests were all directed at authoritarian regimes,” he says. “What’s happening with democracy if people are protesting nepotism and corruption revolutionary-style against people who’ve been elected in, probably, free and fair elections?”
What does this mean for the future of democracy in Nepal?
Government ministries were burned to the ground across the Nepali capital, Kathmandu. Sushila Karki, a former chief justice, was appointed as prime minister. (She had landed as the first choice among users of a poll on Discord, an online communications platform initially designed as a gamers’ tool.) Ms. Karki will hold the position until the March elections. She is seen by the Nepalese people as largely uncorrupted, observers say – a win for the youth-led movement.
Young people have been frustrated because they feel they aren’t represented by the ruling classes. Even those young people in Nepal who get involved in student wings of the popular political parties – Nepal Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal – don’t feel they are taken seriously by the older members.
Dr. Bownas says, politically, young people in Nepal “don’t have a voice.” But he says it’s unclear whether the change in leadership, even if that includes many new young leaders, will be able to create the structural changes needed to quell public dissatisfaction.
“A lot of [protesters] probably are connected to the political parties, or will end up becoming connected to the political parties,” Dr. Bownas says.
“Maybe you’ll have a slightly younger generation of leaders in the political parties because the old one was so unpopular, but the same system of party-based corruption might continue,” he adds. “There’s a worry that the old party leadership will co-opt the movement behind the scenes, and when the next general election comes, it will just be the same story.”
