Nepal’s Protests Are the Result of a Blocked Revolution
When Nepal became a republic in 2008, it aroused hopes for a fundamental transformation of Nepali society. The inability of Nepal’s left parties to deliver on those hopes created a mood of discontent among young people that exploded over the last month.
Fire rages through the Singha Durbar, the main administrative building for the Nepal government, in Kathmandu on September 9, 2025, a day after a police crackdown on demonstrations over social media prohibitions and corruption by the government. (Prabin Ranabhat / AFP via Getty Images)
Over the last month, the landlocked Himalayan nation of Nepal has witnessed its most explosive protests in nearly two decades. While the immediate trigger was a government ban on social media, the uprising quickly broadened into a nationwide revolt over larger socioeconomic issues such as corruption, unemployment, and the country’s authoritarian drift.
Tens of thousands of young people, many in their teens and early twenties, flooded the streets of Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Biratnagar. They tore down barricades, clashed with security forces, and filled the capital with chants of defiance.
The state’s response was swift and brutal: rubber bullets, water cannons, tear gas, and live fire. By mid-September, at least seventy-two people were dead and well over two thousand injured.
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