1 week ago
9
In the 48 hours that Nepal’s Gen-Z gyration unfolded, 1 question echoed crossed the country: “Where is their Lenin?” But possibly that question missed the point. For decades, each Nepali gyration has been undone not by its enemies but by those who claimed to pb it. This time, the lack of a azygous figurehead was not a weakness; it was the movement’s top strength.
When the protests subsided, 1 sanction began to circulate: Sudan Gurung, caput of the youth-led organisation Hami Nepal. But Gurung did not pb the uprising; helium emerged lone aft it was over, much arsenic a spokesperson than a commander. His precocious prominence was impervious of what made this revolt different. By refusing to anoint a leader, Nepal’s young protesters broke with a past wherever powerfulness was ever concentrated successful the hands of a few. They showed that alteration could look from the corporate alternatively than the charismatic.
Yet the aforesaid gyration that reimagined enactment besides revealed the tremendous quality outgo of reclaiming power. In some quality and economical terms, it was among the astir destructive 48 hours successful Nepal’s history. At slightest 74 radical were killed and astir 2,113 injured successful the clashes. All 3 pillars of ideology – the parliament building, the Supreme Court and the Singha Durbar – were torched. The unit was not confined to the capital; astatine slightest 300 section authorities offices crossed the state were damaged. Even the 4th pillar of democracy, the media, came nether attack, with the Kantipur Media House, Nepal’s largest backstage outlet, acceptable ablaze. The economical harm has been estimated astatine up to 3 trillion Nepalese rupees (about $21bn), with preliminary authorities figures putting nationalist infrastructure losses adjacent 1 trillion, astir fractional of Nepal’s yearly gross home product.
By September 10, the authorities machinery had collapsed. The premier curate had resigned, parliament was successful ruins, and the service was the lone instauration maintaining order. Amid this governmental vacuum, the revolution’s decentralised quality became adjacent much visible. Protest organisers utilized the “Youths Against Corruption” Discord transmission arsenic an impromptu nationalist quadrate to determine connected a way forward. The alleged “Discord Election” was chaotic, with thousands debating. One study described it arsenic a “marathon league much befitting a Twitch stream”, with moderators struggling to negociate a flood of opinions from users with anonymous handles and anime avatars. More than 7,500 radical voted connected the platform, yet selecting erstwhile Chief Justice Sushila Karki arsenic their nominee for interim premier minister.
However, judging this gyration lone by these events would beryllium an injustice to history. The uprising was not planned; it was a reaction. We were simply precocious schoolhouse and assemblage students protesting. The massacre of 19 protesters, immoderate inactive successful their uniforms, connected the archetypal time transformed peaceful dissent into nationalist fury. The symbols of a authorities that would termination its ain children became the inevitable targets.
Now, the carnal chaos has subsided. A caller interim authorities with technocratic ministers has fixed Nepalis renewed hope. But that anticipation comes with a challenge: Will we autumn into the aged signifier of outsourcing powerfulness to leaders, oregon volition we clasp them to a caller standard? For 48 hours, the radical of Nepal believed that powerfulness resided with the public. This was not simply a belief; it was a information the nationalist stumbled upon done chaos.
Moving forward, the situation for Nepalis, some Gen-Z and beyond, is to ne'er hide the lessons of this revolution. History volition not hide what happened connected September 8 and 9, but we indispensable besides inquire however and wherefore it happened.
To recognize this, we indispensable presumption Nepal’s governmental past not arsenic a bid of isolated events but arsenic a recurring pattern. The 2025 uprising did not look from nowhere; it was the latest eruption successful a agelong rhythm of revolt and betrayal. A Marxist analytical lens tin help, not arsenic ideology but arsenic a framework. We tin get the concepts of “base” and “superstructure” and accommodate them politically. The “political base” tin beryllium understood arsenic Nepal’s entrenched strategy of power, a web of patronage, corruption and governance that sustains the presumption quo. The “political superstructure” is the unit that rises to situation it, sometimes an organised enactment and others, successful the lawsuit of Gen-Z, a decentralised public. This model reveals a tragic cycle: In Nepal, each caller superstructure that succeeds simply becomes the caller base.
Consider 1951, erstwhile Nepal saw its archetypal gyration of the century. From this lens, it was the governmental superstructure rising against the aged autocratic basal of the Rana regime. Figures similar B P Koirala, King Tribhuvan and the 5 martyrs became the revolution’s heroes, but 1 cannot hide the roles of the exiled parties, the aspiring bourgeoisie and a rehabilitated monarchy. Hopes were high, and Koirala, especially, became the look of that hope, aboriginal becoming Nepal’s archetypal democratically elected premier minister.
Those hopes, however, ne'er crystallised. Barely a decennary later, King Mahendra dissolved parliament, abolished the parties and introduced the Panchayat system, vesting sovereignty successful the monarchy itself. While immoderate glorify this epoch arsenic a aureate age, the discontent it produced led to the protests of 1980 and yet to the People’s Movement I successful 1990, the 2nd large gyration of modern Nepal.
That revolution, too, followed the acquainted pattern. It restored multi-party democracy, again shifting the governmental base. Yet the antiauthoritarian elite, composed of the aforesaid parties that had fought the Panchayat, failed to dismantle the underlying structures of patronage and feudalism. Instead, they became a caller governmental base, perfecting a kleptocratic strategy that would pb the state into a bloody civilian war. The Maoist insurgency, brewing for years earlier its archetypal attack, marked different acheronian chapter.
Given its roots successful communist theory, the Maoist movement, culminating successful People’s Movement II, seems to acceptable this Marxist lens perfectly. But contempt its ideological veneer, it excessively repeated Nepal’s tragic cycle. The Maoist elites did not regenerate the governmental base; they simply joined it. Commanders became ministers, presiding implicit the aforesaid corrupt systems they erstwhile denounced. They inherited the aged networks of patronage, perpetuating the aforesaid kleptocracy and ignoring the economical contradictions astatine the bosom of their revolution. The slogans changed, but the structures stayed the same.
In hindsight, the fatal flaw of each these revolutions laic successful their leadership. Across the governmental spectrum, leaders became opportunists who sustained a kleptocratic authorities disguised arsenic ideology and branded arsenic “People’s Movements”. The results ne'er materialised for the people. In this light, the leaderlessness of Nepal’s caller Gen-Z gyration was not a weakness but its top strategical strength.
This humanities trajectory shows that the Gen-Z gyration of 2025 was not a abrupt outburst but the detonation of a weaponry decades successful the making. The societal media prohibition was simply the spark. Each “failed” gyration added unit connected a governmental basal unsighted to Nepal’s economical contradictions, and connected a nationalist that had agelong internalised the request for revolt.
The task earlier Nepal’s revolutionary younker present is clear: To dismantle, relentlessly and transparently, the rhythm of betrayal by enactment itself. The extremity is nary longer to alteration who holds powerfulness but to alteration what powerfulness means. We indispensable ne'er again outsource hope, bureau oregon captious reasoning to immoderate self-proclaimed saviour. The acquisition of September is that our lone anticipation is ourselves. It has ever been ourselves – not the king, not the premier minister, not the president, not the mayor. We cannot let different person to hijack the people’s agency. Accountability indispensable go portion of Nepal’s civic DNA to guarantee a vigilant, organised and awake citizenry. The days of September 8 and 9 volition ne'er beryllium forgotten and indispensable ne'er beryllium repeated. The powerfulness indispensable stay wherever it was discovered: With the people.
The views expressed successful this nonfiction are the author’s ain and bash not needfully bespeak Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
English (US) ·