by Abhishek “Abe” Basnet
“May you live in interesting times.” These are words that I hope will not come to pass for anybody who is reading this.
It took two “interesting” days— September 8 and 9 —to change the face of Nepal figuratively and literally. Institutions that took decades in the making were wiped away in hours as Nepali protestors, mostly from Generation Z, unleashed their fury on what they perceived to be cruel indifference to their plight. Their government had failed them.
The seeds for the revolution were sown way before the aforementioned dates. For weeks leading up to the protests, Nepalis had popularly partaken in an online trend which called out the children of the political elites for being “nepo babies”. Their flashy lives stood in stark contrast to millions of Nepali who were fed up with the rampant corruption and high unemployment. While the former vacationed in the Alps with their luxurious regalia, the latter have been forced into leaving Nepal, mostly to the Middle East, in order to provide for their families back home. It was just too much.
Nepal’s Gen Z had been promised a Nepal that was democratic and fair. Instead, most of them came to age in a failing economy that could scarcely retain its youths. Me and many other Nepali students on campus were born around the time when Nepal had scarcely emerged out of a brutal civil war and had just begun transitioning into a democracy circa 2005 – 2008. Our parents had fought tooth and nail to ensure that we would lead better lives than them. And yet here we were. Stuck in an unwinnable scenario.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was a ban on 20+ social media platforms, enacted on Saturday, September 6. The government insisted that the reason for the ban came from tech giants like Meta (WhatsApp/Instagram/Facebook) and Alphabet (Google/YouTube) not registering in Nepal. The collective anger of the people spilled on into a mass protest as the country came out of the weekend. On the morning of September 8, thousands turned out across the country to protest nepotism and corruption. Composed of many teenagers, the protest was intended to be peaceful.
However, by evening, things took a dark turn. Fringe elements across the political spectrum attempted to hijack the protests as it turned violent. The police began firing upon the crowd with live ammunition as it tried to break through the Parliament. The death toll initially stood at 19 as the video of a boy in school uniform getting shot in the head went viral, leading to an outpour of universal grief and outrage. The Prime Minister K.P. Oli refused to resign as Prithvi Gurung, the minister for communication, argued against the resignation of Oli. These moves were widely condemned as being tone-deaf.
Tuesday, September 9, saw the unrest reach its peak. Despite curfews, crowds stormed the homes of politicians and burnt them down. The homes of the leaders of the three biggest political parties —Deuba from Nepali Congress, Oli from Unified Marxist-Leninists (UML), and Prachanda from the Maoists— were ransacked. Certain groups cornered and beat any politicians they could get their hands on as federal buildings like the Parliament and Supreme Court were set on fire, alongside many private businesses and properties. Many Gen-Z-ers disavowed the violence as evidence regarding political infiltration began to circulate around. Indeed, many who partook in violence were identified to have been much older and experienced with earlier incidents of political violence. The Nepali Army finally stepped in at around 10 PM to restore order in a landscape that was dominated by anarchy.
Wednesday brought a glimmer of hope as many protestors returned to the streets to clean and restore their cities. The Chief of the Nepal Army Ashok Raj Sigdel, asked Gen Z representatives to meet with him and President Ram Chandra Poudel, the last remaining civilian leader in high office. Because Gen Z protestors are not a unified group, they held townhall style meetings and discussions through Discord. The popular opinion on Discord held Sushila Karki, a former chief justice, to lead the interim government.
Nepal’s first female Chief Justice, Karki has soldiered on impressively so far since the past two weeks. She has mostly inducted individuals who have had a clean political history and enjoy the backing of Gen Z into her interim government. The political parties too have begun regrouping with some promising reform and introspection while others like Oli’s UML have doubled down on dismissing the new government. However, none of three top leaders have agreed to step down and hand over the reins of leadership over to the newer generation.
The circumstance for Nepal has proven to be rife for conspiracy theories, with some suggesting that it was a color revolution sponsored by foreign intelligence agencies while others allege that it was an internal power play. Even now, things haven’t fully simmered down and the interim government will have to walk a long road to rebuild the country. The first step towards that is to hold elections in the coming six months. Afterall, governments are accountable to the people that elect them in the first place and young people in Nepal are certainly exercising great vigilance right now. Only time will tell to as what will happen. Regardless, this whole chain of events is a shining testimony to the power exercised by young people like me and you, the reader.
This article is by no means definitive. As we wait to hear about developments in Nepal, the Nepali Students on campus and the Centre South Asian Cultural Association (SACA) greatly appreciate the support shown to us by the campus body from various offices to students themselves. We hope that this will persist long in the future, especially if there is ever a need to organize a fundraiser.
Abhishek is the President of the Centre South Asian Cultural Association (SACA) on campus. You can keep up with future developments regarding Nepal and the broader South Asian community at @centresaca on Instagram.