YOUTH QUAKES OR DEMOCRATIC TREMORS? A CRITICAL COMMENTARY ON NEPAL’S GEN Z PROTESTS

Abstract

The 2024 to 2025 Nepalese protests by the youth that has been widely described as a Gen Z uprising have been celebrated as a democratic awakening in a disillusioned polity. But a deeper questioning introduces the transformational possibility and uncomfortable limitations. This article places assertion on the protests and puts them into perspective with the topic of youth mobilisation and protest politics in Nepal and South Asia. It asserts that Gen Z activism is a sign that the new generation is going to break with elite-led party politics, but it is also fragmented, digitally short-lived, and easy to be appropriated. The anti-institutional spirit of the movement, as energising as it is on the other hand is also risky in the sense that it can cause individuals to grow cynical of democracy rather than to bring positive change to it. The article throws into focus the paradox of mobilised generation of the digital generation demanding accountability of the institutions they no longer trust and ponders on the implications of the same to the Nepal's frail work of democracy and the region in general.