Start with 2025 -
We have the crisis in Nepal.
Clearly, if democracy has to survive, it will need some new faces and not just a tired, old elite passing the parcel.
Given Nepal’s many challenges and its huge diversity, a system that is not pluralistic and democratic may only face even stronger headwinds.
In 2024 - Dhaka was the epi centre and "civic insurrection" swept away Sheikh Hasina from power and 'removed' her father and Bangladesh founder Mujib virtually from the country's legacy !!
In 2023 - there was high drama in Pakistan starting with Imran Khan's arrest and it has ended up in 2025 - with a defeated army chief 'snatching' a title but managing lunch party in the White House.
June 2022 -- overthrew the government of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka
In 2021, there was a military coup in Myanmar.
In addition - Taliban danced in Afghanistan and the great American 'weakness' in the new world order came to the fore.
In Nepal of 2025 -- while the social media ban was the trigger, it is not a full explanation of the cause of the crisis.
"Some structural oddities of Nepal’s politics have to be kept in mind as well. The country formally abolished its monarchy in 2008. In the period since, there have been as many as 14 different governments and several prime ministers. The new Constitution, adopted in 2015, has not imparted any real stability to the country," says TCA Raghavan.
On Sunday, Sep 7, Nepal’s then-Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli mocked youth protesters, who were planning a major agitation the following day in the capital, Kathmandu, against corruption and nepotism.
By calling themselves the “Gen Z”, the protesters seemed to believe they could demand whatever they wanted, he said.
And of course the rest is history.
"....Those dramatic events have turned the Himalayan nation into the latest cauldron of political change, after similar youth-led movements in Sri Lanka‚ in 2022, and Bangladesh, in 2024, also led to the overthrow of governments in those South Asian nations," runs an article in aljazeera.com.
Figures and Facts:
Nepal has more than 56 per cent of its 29.6 million people aged below 30 years. The largest group is 15-19 years.
History !!
In 1951, opposition to the Ranas – including from educated sections of the elite – culminated Nepal's first modern revolution.
A government was formed with members of the Rana clan and the Nepali Congress (NC) – the main political party at the time.
Then, in 1959, the country held its first general election, with the NC’s Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala becoming prime minister.
But in 1960 King Mahendra Bir Bikram dismissed the Koirala government after its popular land reforms.
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Quick ... Fast forward -- In 2025 -- every important country will keep an watch on what's happening in Nepal.
The US will be interested and so would be a few European countries such as Germany and France. From general background note - it is understood China and also India will seek stability and a government that may favour or cater to the interests of either.
But one thing is certain ... though India and China have come together; neither side will want the other exercise too much influence on Nepal. There is a finer element too.
Nepal has ties with Pakistan, but the 'Pak-Nepal' relations are not seen as a factor in Nepali domestic politics.
The protests in Nepal had certain peculiarities - unlike the cases in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The so called 'Public anger' was not just focused on a single person or political party.
In Kathmandu- it was anti-elite, anti-rich more against neo-rich and also rather very specifically anti-Neta class. Prachanda's party supported Gen-Z; yet no one was spared.
Even the wife of a former PM was charred to death.
How can Nepal's new leadership deal with this broader cynicism in so-called fledgling democracy remains to be seen.
Ends
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