The Gen Z takeover of Nepal

We’ve all heard or seen the sentence saying “historians will skip our generation”, usually because Gen Z, referring to people born 1997-2012, are portrayed as being unserious and uncaring about issues within our world. However, in a dramatic display of unity and aligning interests for the their country, the Gen Z of Nepal have managed to overthrow their government, burning it to the ground both literally and figuratively, and then began to rebuild it all within the course of a week.

The movement originally began as a peaceful protest against corruption within the government as well as the newly imposed social media ban, mostly situated outside the Nepali Parliament building in Kathmandu. Nepal has had a troubled history of corruption within its government, and with many viewing the social media ban as repressing free speech, the situation finally reached boiling point when 19 protesters were killed by police and military personnel. This sparked outrage within the public who began to increase the severity of their protest.

Many more took to the streets in protest and cases of vandalism and arson began to increase. The crowds targeted government buildings and offices, including the parliament building which ended up blazing for several days. Houses of government officials were also targeted, such as the house of the ex prime minister, which caused the accidental death of his wife in the fire after she hid from the crowds on the street below. The wheelchair-bound wife of Minister of Energy Sharad Singh Bhandari was taken to the hospital by the rioters after her husband fled the scene and left her alone. During the protests, a flag was raised that originated from an anime series knows as One Piece, a show that has political undertones about standing up to corruption. Interestingly the flag was used in protests in Indonesia some time prior.

Eventually, the situation calmed down and the Gen Z protesters began a citywide cleanup effort to clear up areas that were affected. In order to fill the power vaccum within the city a vote was held on Discord, an online communication platform, to decide who would step in as the prime minster. It was eventually decided that Sushila Karki, Nepal’s former Chief Justice, would be the first female prime minister of Nepal. Karki was previously known for opposing the corrupt system. This is what she had to say about her new position “I did not come to this position because I had sought it, but because there were voices from the streets demanding that Sushila Karki should be given the responsibility,”. Despite the seeming success experts have said that Nepal’s economy has been set back by the effort, stating "Calm has returned, but we believe the violence has dampened near-term growth prospects by curbing normal economic activity, and hurting consumer and business confidence,".

Wether the impacts of this uprising will be detrimental or beneficial to the future of the country is uncertain. One thing that is for certain is that it will go down in history as the day that Nepal fought against a corrupt system.