Nepal’s Gen Z uprising

Monday massacre claims Oli govt but throws the Himalayan state in disarray

Alok Tiwari

Protests, massacre, and fall of a government over denial of social media apps? Who’da thunk? Yet, this is exactly what happened in neighbouring Nepal. Nineteen persons, mostly youngsters, were killed when forces opened fire to disperse them in capital Kathmandu. Three more died later and over 300 were left injured. They were marching to the country’s parliament against a ban imposed last week on 26 social media apps, including popular ones like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Snapchat.

As protests and violence got out of hand, events unfolded quickly. After holding out for a day Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli resigned. Mobs set fire to important government buildings and chased ministers on the streets. Demonstrations spread to other cities even as government withdrew its ban on apps. There was no let up in popular anger that is now directed towards more than just denial of social media services.

The ban was on a technicality, that the apps failed to register with the government. Government insisted it only wanted to regulate them and not impose censorship. It fooled no one. Registration required the companies running the apps to have an office in Nepal and to comply with onerous rules. The attempt at censorship lay in those rules. They conflict with the privacy policy of several of these apps. The companies were given a week until Aug 28 to register. When most of them did not, Nepal’s ministry of Information Technology and Communication banned them. Only Chinese app TikTok escaped the ban.

The protests show how significant a position social media and the internet occupy and how deep their penetration is. Nepal is still a country with sub-optimal telecommunication infrastructure. Even in such a place people are willing to face bullets to be able to use social media. Many of us think of these apps as mostly entertainment or as means of cheap communication. It feels not much will be lost if they were to suddenly disappear. After all we did live without them until recently. We do not realize how central they have become to modern life. In Nepal, which has many nationals living abroad for work, these apps are main means of being in touch with families back home.

Also, in a moribund economy dependent largely on tourism and remittances from overseas Nepalis, these apps offer a means to earn livelihood too. Like everywhere else in the world, those with talent can earn from them too, selling goods, services, counsel, humour, their own personality, and advice. Nepali youths were already angry at government not being able to create jobs and bristled when it took away even source of making a living.

The Gen Z protests have now ousted the Oli government. It is third regime to fall to popular uprising in South Asia after Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Each time it was anger against autocratic rulers indifferent to the needs of the people. While it is immensely inspiring to see a corrupt regime being swept away, it also imposes costs in terms of human lives and political instability.

There are lessons in what is happening in Nepal for everyone, including India. The very first one is that people do not tolerate autocracy beyond a point, particularly if they have had a taste for freedom for a while. Second is that every government needs to eventually deliver on bread-and-butter issues. Though the social media ban was the immediate trigger, trouble for Oli government had been brewing for some time.

It had been unable to give the country’s economy any meaningful push. Also, the people were tired and angry at the rampant corruption around them. While youngsters had nothing to look forward to other than menial jobs in tourism industry, they could see that the powerful were doing fabulously. Pictures and videos of children of politicians and the wealthy enjoying luxurious lifestyle had been going viral with hashtags #Nepokids and #Nepobaby for some time. Instead of addressing the twin issues of growing unemployment and wealth inequality, Oli government responded by shooting the messenger.

Oli belongs to Nepal’s unified Communist Party. He was probably inspired, if not prompted, by the Chinese model in his action. However, he forgot that China does not have a history of political freedoms for its people. Moreover, if you want to deny people liberty, then you must be either an extremely effective and brutal police state like North Korea or give people oodles of wealth like China. Having a ramshackle, ineffective state and poverty is an extremely poor combination for a wannabe autocrat.

Nepal’s history in the last two decades has been of one upheaval after another. But its people have shown their heart and mind are in the right place. From being the only Hindu nation in the world, they chose to be a modern, secular republic (much to the disappointment of Hindutva zealots in India). They also overthrew a centuries old monarchy. They are not willing to be citizens without having a say in their own affairs.

They have now succeeded in making themselves heard but must confront fresh challenges. Chaos often makes people hark back to dangerous and discredited realities of the past. There are already calls for restoration of monarchy and turning Nepal into a Hindu state. These are medicines worse than the disease. Indeed, they were discarded amid just the type of anger now seen against Oli government. China will also try to stir the pot.

The task before Nepal’s political parties is to stitch together a coalition that will ease the real difficulties of the people. This will require compromises and looking beyond short-term gains. There must be visible crackdown on corruption and wealth inequality. But this cannot be at the expense of people’s civil rights. Nepal has the means to be both prosperous and free. Whichever government comes next needs to apply itself to those ends.

This column appeared in Lokmat Times on Sept 11, 2025