On April 20, the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies convened a flash panel on Nepal's Gen Z uprising, the interim government, and the implications of the March 5 elections that brought the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) to power with a historic majority. The panel was organized to hear the perspective of Nepal’s youths, some of whom were part of the Gen-Z movement, and to discuss the new political paradigm, its geopolitical implications, and what lies ahead for Nepal.
Susan Ostermann, Associate Professor of Global Affairs and Political Science at the Keough School and a Liu Institute Faculty Fellow, moderated the discussion. Panelists were Suraj Parajuli, a Master of Global Affairs student at the Keough School; Monisha Choudhary, a Gen Z activist and lawyer who helped draft the agreement between the Government of Nepal and Gen Z representatives; Dipin Subedi, a research program associate at the Center for Social Change in Nepal; and Salina Kafle, a human rights lawyer and executive director of the Human Rights and Justice Centre in Nepal.
Panelists traced the uprising to long-standing grievances over corruption, inequality, and the politicization of state institutions. A viral TikTok campaign, the "Nepo baby trend," exposed the lifestyle gap between political elites and ordinary Nepalis, many of whom had migrated to the Gulf for work. A subsequent government ban on 26 unregistered social media platforms brought public anger to a head. Protests began on September 8, and after police killed 19 students in school uniforms, the coalition government collapsed within 36 hours. Sushila Karki, a former Chief Justice endorsed by Gen Z organizers through Discord-based voting, became Nepal's first female prime minister and led a cabinet that built multi-party consensus for the March elections, in which former Kathmandu mayor Balendra Shah defeated sitting Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli by more than a threefold margin.
The panelists offered a cautious reading of the new government's early months. Subedi and Kafle pointed to encouraging signs: a 100-point action plan focused on digital governance and institutional efficiency, consultations with opposition parties on a shared national agenda, and a formal apology to Dalit communities. Choudhary noted that the new government has embraced the movement's anti-corruption energy. Concerns, however, remain. A social media user was reportedly arrested for criticizing the prime minister. The 100-point plan does not address human rights abuses from the 1996 to 2006 conflict period, which panelists warned could perpetuate impunity. And the RSP's limited local presence may leave citizens without clear channels to raise grievances.
Participants situated Nepal within a wider pattern of youth-led movements in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, with Bangladeshi organizers sharing a fifty-page document warning Nepali counterparts against "political co-optation." Social media enabled transnational coordination but also introduced algorithmic amplification and deepfakes into the March election. Technology platforms have largely stayed silent on their role, even as roughly 300,000 movement-related videos were removed from TikTok after the protests.
Broadly speaking, the panelists observed, somewhat optimistically, that a leaderless movement can topple a government, but also struck a more cautious note: enforcing a reform agenda requires structured leadership and specific demands. Whether Nepal's new government can convert the uprising's energy into durable institutional change remains an open question.
The event was co-sponsored by the Keough School's Liu Institute, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and the Pulte Institute for Global Development, with support from Notre Dame's Democracy Initiative and the Department of Political Science.
This flash panel was part of research funded by Notre Dame's Democracy Initiative, in partnership with researchers from Kathmandu University. Keough School faculty Susan Ostermann, Madhav Joshi, and Mohammad Rashidujjaman Rifat together with Pulte Institute research staff Shriniwas Gautam, Lila Khatiwada, Poulomi Ghosh, and the McKenna Center's Amna Batool are involved in this project.
Originally published by at pulte.nd.edu on April 24, 2026.