Nepal's 'Gen Z revolt' is taking Sri Lanka's path of relative calm to restoring democracy

The protests in Nepal earlier in September that led to the government being ousted bear an eerie resemblance to the events in Bangladesh last year and in Sri Lanka in 2022.

The root cause of all three protests was economic distress. They were led by people’s movements and seemed spontaneous.

In Bangladesh, it was the perceived unfairness in job quotas that lit the spark, in Sri Lanka rising inflation led to the revolt, while in Nepal the immediate trigger was the ban on social media sites. But the root cause was economic stagnation that frustrated the aspirations of youth for quality education and stable jobs.

However, rather than heading for the kind of choppiness that Bangladesh is facing, it seems that Nepal will follow the relative calm of Sri Lanka.

Perhaps that has something to do with the manner in which the Army in these three nations acted in the days after the uprisings. The army played a role in each of the countries but did not fire on the protestors.

In August 2024, the Bangladeshi army helped deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flee the country, but did not protect public property from the wrath of protesters. The Sri Lankan army, on the other hand, ensured that the damage was...

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