Nepal Protests: Over To Gen Z

The Gen Z-driven revolt in Nepal has finally forced the government into retreat.

As Nepal’s young and restless set ablaze the remnants of an old regime, one can’t help but wonder, why them and not us?

India’s youth too face a ‘dead economy’, unemployment, exam and reservation scams, corrupt and discriminatory politics, and ostentatious displays of wealth by business families—all trappings for a revolutionary spark.

From my phone, reels of upheaval and vandalised elites made me feel young, very Gen Z, and at 21, briefly comfortable in my age, before the usual jibes, lazy, frantic and uncaring youth, returned.

Being someone invested in politics, this “vibe change” from festering online resentment to active mass protests over the ability to voice one’s opinion stirs a passion. I found myself speaking the unthinkable, but obvious refrain: Why them, and not us?

Wary still, knowing revolutions mirror regimes they topple, I sense peers craving change yet fearing risks. India’s Gen Z swings between apathy, right-wing zeal and stray dissent, yet a common thread endures: hope in our democratic heartland.

For me, India seems revolution-proof, not for the institutional love of democracy, but because its people see authoritarianism as a passing phase; beneath an unaffected exterior lies hope, an Indian Dream.

Unlike Nepali youth, India’s Gen Z mirror American peers—veering conservative, right-wing, religious—obsessed with identity, yet delivering 35 percent votes to the ruling dispensation in 2024 despite rising unemployment and inflation.

There is no singular Gen Z caricature—the old and new diverge, with earlier cohorts more liberal. In India, absent protests don’t suggest approval but reveal political apathy, doom, and leaderless youth fractured by class, caste, and religion.

While India’s Modi-era youth may find a sense of hope in government rhetoric, outreach to influencers, the adept use of social media platforms, and a narrative (to say the least) around developing ‘skills’, the average young person may be led to believe that all that is needed is hard work. The rags-to-riches story of the current dispensation offers hope strong enough to ward off the burgeoning restlessness of an underutilised youth.

The Nepal story, though not without nuance, is one of youth seizing the opportunity to fashion the nation’s future themselves—whether through Discord elections or TikTok dances in front of burning government buildings. While such sentiment may not currently resonate in India, our silence should never be mistaken for acceptance. As India’s Gen Z struggles to cope with socio-economic obstacles, wilful delusion will only carry them so far.

Chaharika Uppal is currently an editorial assistant at Juggernaut Books.