Nepal: a rebellious youth and a signal to the new global geopolitics

After a violent episode that left 22 dead and hundreds injured, the so-called Generation Z became the visible face of the revolt that led to the resignation of K.P. Sharma Oli. Hashtags and memes as the trenches of a society that decided to overturn the geopolitical board.

Nepal's recent uprising, which led to the resignation of now former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli after four terms, signaled a new, contested geopolitical order.

Pulled between the two Eastern powers, India and China, the young republic is now going through a period of institutional uncertainty, facing a mass of young people united under the name "Generation Z" (or "Gen Z") who erupted in spontaneous, self-organized protests. With the government's blocking of social media as the trigger, the outburst laid bare a long history of social discontent that the furious, unorganized youth took into its own hands.

Although the protests crystallized around the much-discussed ban on social media platforms, including Facebook and WhatsApp, Nepal's political and institutional deterioration has been building for a long time. Activist Sankha Subhra Biswas points to the nearby experiences of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as precedents. The common denominator has been the gradual rebellion of citizens organized outside traditional party structures. In the Nepali case, there is the added factor of social media as the glue of a predominantly young rebellion.

The buildup of the conflict and its eruption had several dimensions. According to the Global Corruption Barometer of Transparency International, in 2024, 84% of Nepal's population considered government corruption a major problem. An alarming figure for a democratic order that has existed as such only since 2008 and whose leaders never managed to stay in power beyond 500 days, with the exception of the prime minister until now.    

The constant tensions between Nepal's dominant left, Maoism and local communism, combined with constant accusations of perpetuating nepotism in power, began to erode representativeness. Added to this is the lack of employment.

As early as 2024, Amnesty International had begun denouncing the Nepali government's attacks on freedom of expression and the right to protest. In January of that year, according to the international organization, 8 people were detained at a demonstration in a key area of Kathmandu. That same month, a man was killed by police gunfire during a protest in the Barahathawa region. 

An article by the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL) revealed that the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI), an index designed to measure the quality of Nepal's democracy, had issued severe warnings about the content of the new Constitution approved in 2015. The BIT warned of questionable provisions in the new charter regarding gender equality, religious prohibitions and the erosion of judicial power.   

It is at this point that movements emerging from places such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh begin to spread toward Nepal. With the distinctive arrival of a strong youth component, their disenchantment is directed at the parties traditionally in power, as well as at combative nationalist or pro-monarchy organizations. 

According to several analysts, the situation in Nepal continues what years ago became known as the Arab Spring, a wave of revolts in countries such as Tunisia, Syria and Egypt, among others, in which organized citizens managed to topple monarchies and authoritarian governments. 

More than ten years after that process, this incipient "Asian Spring" is driven by online collectives, forums, memes, hashtags and an entire new language adopted by a youth hit hard by unemployment and migration. One of the most symbolic examples was protesters' use of the logo of the anime "One Piece" as a combative flag, an image of protest against corruption. The situation in Nepal bears witness to the advance of new, non-traditional forms of rebel organization in geopolitically strategic territories facing both East and West.

From Nepal to Madagascar: rebellion spreads

In line with the expansive dynamics of the aforementioned Arab Spring, the rebellion that shook Nepal in September has now found its counterpart in Madagascar in recent weeks. There, protests driven by the so-called "Generation Z" led to the overthrow of then-President Andy Rajoelina. What began as a series of demonstrations against intermittent power cuts and water service failures lifted the lid on deeper grievances in Madagascar.

The similarities with Nepal are striking. Almost 70% of the local population (more than 30 million) lives below the poverty line, according to World Bank figures, and unemployment mainly affects young people. "Rise up, youth" was one of the slogans Gen Z raised in the streets of Madagascar in the protests that preceded the uprising of the CAPSAT military unit and its seizure of power. 

Guillermo Whpei

President of Fundación para la Democracia