South Asia’s Gen Z protests offer one lesson in common

Last month, as thousands of young Indians led by a group calling itself the Cockroach Janta Party, marched towards Parliament in New Delhi, they were met with tear gas and struck with batons by the police. It appeared that India’s moment in South Asia’s Gen Z revolution had finally arrived. As one journalist observed, for the first time since 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office, fear had “switched sides”. The protests began over paper leaks that resulted in the cancellation of the national examination for admission to medical schools. A few months ago, protests of this magnitude – with Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition in Parliament, demanding that Modi resign – were unthinkable. From Sri Lanka to Nepal, Bangladesh to India, South Asia has seen variants of youth protest movements, each producing its own unique results. The common theme for these protests is that they were essentially leaderless or horizontal movements and had no single political party behind them. All arose organically, spurred by youth anger over political and economic systems, and often drew on existing networks like unions, student federations and activist groups for on-the-ground organisation. But most had no grass-roots political mobilisation which could convert their street power into an organised political movement and lead to electoral success. Bangladesh offers the clearest example. A youth movement toppled the Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina and installed a technocratic interim set-up under Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, which struggled to hold elections on time. When elections were finally held, the country saw the return of the political establishment, with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Tarique Rahman, the son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, winning. Voters endorsed constitutional reforms in a referendum held alongside the election. But once in office, the BNP did not implement the reforms, pursuing its own 31-point plan instead. The National Citizen Party, formed following the protest movement, lacked grass-roots political mobilisation and organisational depth. It failed to translate its street power into political capital, winning only six of the 30 seats it contested. In Sri Lanka, the 2022 “Aragalaya” movement forced president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country. But the movement lacked the leadership and organisation to shape what followed. Ranil Wickremesinghe, a veteran of the political elite, filled the vacuum and suppressed the protests. Then, in 2024, Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his National People’s Power (NPP) coalition swept the presidential and parliamentary elections. Although the protests were short-lived and failed to produce immediate change, they had a lasting impact on Sri Lanka’s political landscape by disrupting the entrenched party system and creating the opening that the NPP filled two years later. Nepal followed a different trajectory. The September 2025 protests, triggered by a social media ban and fuelled by anti-corruption anger, forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s resignation. Unlike Bangladesh, however, the movement did not have to build a political vehicle from scratch. Balendra Shah, Kathmandu’s first independent mayor, joined forces with the four-year-old Rastriya Swatantra Party, resulting in a landslide win in March, making Shah Nepal’s youngest prime minister at 35. In India, the Cockroach Janta Party called off the protests after the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The movement has neither evolved into one that brought down the Modi government nor escalated into violence like elsewhere in the region. Whether the protests leave a lasting imprint on India’s political consciousness is unknown. In Pakistan, some argue that the youth are unable to mobilise since student unions have been banned. However, this is not the core issue and the past few years have seen multiple protests. However, they have consistently faced state pushback, from Baloch and Pashtun rights movements to religious and mainstream political parties alike, facing arrests, bans and worse. The latest flashpoint is Azad Kashmir, where more than 30 protesters have been killed since June, after the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee was banned. The state’s response has created a climate of fear, making ordinary citizens, particularly the urban middle class, reluctant to join protests. For now, it seems unlikely Pakistan will have its Gen Z protest moment but then it also seemed impossible in other South Asian nations. During the Arab spring, authoritarian regimes that had been in power for decades were toppled in weeks. However, one must be cautious of the consequences. As with the Arab spring and Bangladesh, an uprising and regime change don’t always result in stability or reform, especially when the organisational strength and ideological clarity needed to carry the movement forward are absent. Any reform or revolutionary protest movement must remember that.

South Asia’s Gen Z protests offer one lesson in common

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From Sri Lanka and Nepal to Bangladesh and India, youth protests have shaken or even toppled governments, but creating lasting change has been more challenging

From Sri Lanka and Nepal to Bangladesh and India, youth protests have shaken or even toppled governments, but creating lasting change has been more challenging