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UPSC Issue at a Glance is an initiative by UPSC Essentials aimed at streamlining your UPSC Current Affairs preparation for the prelims and mains examinations by focusing on issues making headlines. This week, we provide an overview of the Nepal’s GenZ Protests and India-Nepal relations from a broader perspective. Let’s get started.
Nepal on September 12 installed former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sushila Karki, 73, as the interim Prime Minister, days after protests over corruption and social media bans rocked the Himalayan nation. Karki is the first woman to head the country’s government. President Ram Chandra Poudel also dissolved Parliament. The country will hold elections on March 5, 2026, to elect the next government and prime minister. Nepal had its last legislative elections in 2022.
Calling Nepal “a close neighbour, a fellow democracy and a long-term development partner”, India welcomed the formation of the interim government. As a neighbouring country of India, Nepal has always played a crucial role in India’s “neighbourhood first” policy. Therefore, it is important to understand the recent events in Nepal from a broader perspective.
UPSC Syllabus Mains Examination: General Studies-II: India and its neighbourhood– relations. Bilateral, regional, and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
From time to time questions have been asked on India and its neighbouring countries in the UPSC mains examination. These questions covered India’s relations with neighbouring nations such as Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China and the Maldives.The focus has been on India’s efforts in maintaining peace and stability, as well as addressing challenges stemming from political crises, terrorist activities, and regional security issues in neighbouring countries. In this context, understanding Nepal’s Gen Z protest becomes essential.
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September 8 and 9 marked two major days in Nepal’s modern political history, which saw a Gen Z-led movement against social media bans and corruption that ended up toppling the government after the mostly leaderless protests spilled over into Kathmandu’s streets. Some of the reasons behind the Gen Z protests in Nepal were:
1. From Social Media Bans to ‘Nepo Baby’ Backlash and Stirring Fears Over Remittances
A couple of months ago, some Facebook pages, including one called Next Generation Nepal, began to post on the grim political situation in Nepal and the massive corruption in high places. No specific individuals appeared to be promoting the posts, but it was clear that most of them belonged to a generation that was born between 1996 and 2012, the cohort known as “Generation Z”, or ‘Gen Z’.
The young people, teens and those in their 20s, expressed their anger and frustration at the corrupt political system — and the immunity that politicians who have run Nepal by turns since the republic was created in 2008 have given themselves from investigation or accountability. The criticism especially targeted the extravagant lifestyles of the children and wards of senior politicians, and expressions like ‘Nepo Babies’ and ‘Nepo Kids’ trended online.
A couple of weeks ago, the government banned 26 social media platforms, including prominent ones like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, X, and YouTube, for failing to register with the authorities by a certain deadline. The digital ban took away the primary avenue that Gen Z was using to vent, comment, and seek solidarity among themselves and greatly aggravated their anger.
The frustration boiled over on September 8, when large numbers of young people came out on the streets in response to a government ban on social media. The ban ignited fears that speech could be curtailed for Nepal’s 30 million people and cut off some two million Nepali workers, a major source of remittances, abroad from their families. Nepal’s economy is heavily reliant on remittances, which amount to over 33 per cent of Nepal’s Gross Domestic Product.
2. Lack of jobs and opportunities
Bhadra Sharma and Alex Travelli (Jobs to inequality to corruption: What lit the fuse in Nepal, NYT) write- “The country’s biggest slow-burning crisis centers on jobs. Getting one is a herculean task in Nepal, a mountainous nation of 30 million sandwiched between India and China. According to the Nepal Living Standard Survey published by the National Statistics Office in 2024, the unemployment rate was 12.6 per cent, more than a point higher than it was five years earlier.
Those figures tend to understate the severity of the problem. They represent only participants in the formal economy, leaving out the majority of Nepalis, who work without officially reported jobs, mostly in farming. And the unemployment is heavily concentrated among younger adults who hold out hope for real jobs.”
3. High Corruption
The social media ban is emblematic of the larger churn in Nepal. The youth, especially, were increasingly frustrated with the same set of 70-plus leaders, all facing corruption allegations, coming in and out of power since the country became a democratic republic in 2008. In 2024, Nepal was ranked 107 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s corruption rankings.
As The Indian Express has reported earlier, almost all senior leaders in Nepal are under some sort of corruption cloud. It has been a practice since 2006 to grant immunity to politicians against investigation if a “policy decision”, which is essentially a decision by the cabinet, is taken to that effect. Thus, scandals, typically involving collusion among elected politicians and supposedly independent officials, feed the resentment of youth.
Thus, social media ban may have been the immediate trigger that lit the fuse, the protests expanded rapidly into a larger campaign against corruption, inequality and unemployment.
The GenZ protests have been drastically different from previous waves since they were loosely organised across multiple cities and did not have a single central organising group. All activity was coordinated through social media platforms, including Discord. ABC News Australia reported that the movement was not prepared for a quick outcome.
The GenZ protesters did not put forth any specific demands other than the lifting of the ban on social media, which was fulfilled on September 8 evening. In more general terms, they sought an end to corruption, social inequality, and the lack of job opportunities.
As the protests intensified, Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli resigned on September 9. The President accepted the resignation and also dissolved Parliament. Former Supreme Court justice Sushila S Karki was sworn in as Nepal’s interim Prime Minister on September 12. The manner of Karki’s appointment has generated curiosity, with protesters flocking to the messaging app Discord to cast an informal vote in her favour.
One Discord server with over 100,000 members became the focal point, watched on Nepalese national TV and livestreamed on news sites. Oli’s resignation on September 9, as well as the removal of the cabinet, created a void that the citizens were eager to fill, and this server was centre stage to the deliberations that followed.
| Discord |
| Discord is an instant messaging platform with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol, or simply Internet calling) capabilities, which allows its users to communicate through text messages, voice and video calls, and media sharing. Users may share messages privately through personal messages, or in virtual community chat rooms called “servers”, which are accessible through invitation links. |
On September 15, Nepal’s Interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki appointed four new ministers to her cabinet, taking its strength to eight. The Nepal constitution provides for a maximum cabinet strength of 25. However, Karki recently suggested that her interim cabinet may have only 11 members. The interim government will run till the next general election scheduled for March 5.
India-Nepal relations are defined by deep-rooted people-to-people links as well as commonalities in religion, language and culture. India and Nepal share a 1,751 km long border (across 5 Indian states of Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand).
The age-old civilizational and cultural ties that exist between India and Nepal are exemplified by the people-to-people link between both the countries. Nepal is a priority partner of India under its ‘Neighbourhood First’ Policy. The India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship (1950) is an important foundation of the bilateral relations. The cooperation between India-Nepal can be seen in various sectors.
1. Defence Cooperation: India and Nepal have long-standing and extensive mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of defence and security. India’s military connection with the Himalayan country goes back to the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh whose army in Lahore enlisted Nepalese soldiers called Lahure or soldiers of fortune.
India and Nepal also have the long-standing tradition of awarding the Honorary rank of General to each others’ Army Chief. The strong relations between both the armies have been further cemented via the Gorkha Regiment. Around 32,000 Gorkha soldiers from Nepal are serving in the Indian Army as of June 2024. Notably, British India raised the first battalion of the Gorkha Regiment as the Nasiri regiment on April 24, 1815.
The Gorkha regiments recruit a large number of troops from Nepal. A citizen of Nepal can take the National Defence Academy or Combined Defence Services exams and join the Indian Army as an officer. Exercise Surya Kiran is the annual Joint military exercise between India and Nepal.
2. Connectivity and development partnership: India has a long history of development cooperation commencing from the 1950s onwards. It is the largest developmental donor of Nepal, with the major portion of developmental assistance focused on large scale infrastructure projects under grants, necessary for the rapid development of Nepal, in the field of priority sectors such as health, education and connectivity. Some of the major projects undertaken and completed with the Government of India grant assistance includes Gauchar Airport (presently Tribhuvan Airport), East West Highway.
3. Cooperation in Power Sector: An important area of cooperation in the India-Nepal bilateral relations is the collaboration in the power sector. This cooperation in the energy sector has been expanded with the commissioning of the Motihari-Amlekhgunj Petroleum Pipeline (MAPL) in 2019, which is the first-ever cross-border pipeline in South Asia. The Joint Vision Statement on Power Sector Cooperation issued on 2 April 2022 also laid out a comprehensive roadmap for bilateral cooperation in the sector. Significant cooperation in the power sector is already visible and the export of electricity from Nepal to India reached around 650 MW in 2023.
4. Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief: India has been a long-standing partner of Nepal during emergencies and crisis situation. India was the first responder when a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal on 25 April 2015 and India carried out its largest disaster relief operation abroad (Operation Maitri). Nepali nationals in conflict zones, have been evacuated along with Indian nationals under Government of India’s evacuation efforts under ‘Operation Ajay’, ‘Operation Ganga’ etc.
5. Economic Cooperation: India is Nepal’s largest export destination, receiving an overwhelming 67.9% of its total exports . Nepal’s exports mainly constitute edible oil, coffee, tea and jute. Nepal’s main imports from India are petroleum products, Iron & Steel, Cereals, Vehicles and Parts, Machinery parts. There are about 150 Indian ventures operating in Nepal engaged in manufacturing, services (banking, insurance, dry port, education and Telecom), power sector and tourism industries.
6. Cultural Exchanges: India and Nepal share an organic cultural link. The Nepal-Bharat Library was founded in 1951 in Kathmandu as the first foreign library in Nepal with the objective to enhance and strengthen cultural relations and information exchange between India and Nepal. The B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation was set up in 1991 to foster educational, cultural, scientific and technical cooperation between India and Nepal.
1. Territorial Dispute: The dispute over the historical accuracy of a geographical territory is one that has been brewing between the two neighbouring countries for the past several decades now. The bone of contention is about a 372-sq-km area that includes Limpiadhura, Lipulekh, and Kalapani at the India-Nepal-China trijunction in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district.
The Nepal-India border was delineated by the Sugauli Treaty of 1816, under which it renounced all territory to the west of the river Kali, also known as the Mahakali or the Sarada river. The river effectively became the boundary. The terms were reiterated by a second treaty between Nepal and British India in 1923. The rival territorial claims centre on the source of the Kali.
Nepal’s case is that the river originates from a stream at Limpiyadhura, north-west of Lipu Lekh. Thus, Kalapani, Limpiyadhura, and Lipu Lekh fall to the east of the river and are part of Nepal’s Far West province in the district of Dharchula.
New Delhi’s position is that the Kali originates in springs well below the pass, and that while the Treaty does not demarcate the area north of these springs, administrative and revenue records going back to the nineteenth century show that Kalapani was on the Indian side, and counted as part of Pithoragarh district, now in Uttarakhand. Both sides have their own British-era maps as proof of their positions.
2. India-China-Nepal: Since the 1962 war with China, India has deployed the Indo Tibetan Border Police at Kalapani, which is advantageously located at a height of over 20,000 ft and serves as an observation post for that area. Nepal calls it an encroachment by the Indian security forces. Nepal has also been unhappy about the China-India trading post at Lipu Lekh, the earliest to be established between the two countries. Shipkila in Himachal followed two years later, and Nathu La only in 2006.
3. Madhesi Protest: India’s tacit support for a blockade of the landlocked country during protests over the new Constitution in Nepal by the Madhesi community was an inflection point in the relationship.
4. Big Brother Syndrome: Indo-Nepalese relations have a history of highs and lows with India offering patronage and Nepal resenting it – a sort of ‘big brother and small neighbor syndrome’. At the same time, the neighbours are bound intimately by civilization, culture, religion, and inter-dependence dictated by geography.
In the backdrop of Nepal’s Gen Z protest and its outcome, a natural question has arisen: what should be India’s policy toward Nepal now? To develop not only a comprehensive but also a balanced approach to this question, we need to understand two different sides of the debate on this topic.
Constantino Xavier writes- “Nepal’s political revolution this week reminds us that, more than any foreign hands, the recent crises in South Asia are symptoms of a massive economic, demographic, and political churning across the region.
India will have to deal with this turmoil, not only by defensively minimising risks but also by actively supporting the transformation of its neighbouring countries. It has done so in Sri Lanka, after its worst financial crisis in 2021. It promises to re-engage with a new leadership in Bangladesh after the elections in 2026. Until then, India must focus all its attention on supporting a crucial transition towards a new, more democratic and developed Nepal…
Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s resignation marks the end of a generation of leaders who have worked both with and against India through every possible constellation and coalition since 2006. Oli’s last incarnation turned out to be particularly difficult for New Delhi.
Thus it marks a turning point also for India-Nepal relations… While it remains unclear who will lead the transition and in what direction, the current context offers an overall opportunity for India to reset its Nepal policy. As it did in the past, whether in 1951, 1990, or 2006, New Delhi can facilitate another step towards the dream of a stable Nepal through a more federal democracy and inclusive development.
To achieve this, India will have to deploy the power of its diplomacy coupled with much political tact to both understand and cater to the aspirations of a new generation of Nepali leaders. Five challenges stand out.
First, India must deepen its engagement with a new generation of Nepali leaders, both within but also beyond the traditional big parties.
Second, India will have to resist the temptation to equate state stability with political personalities.
Third, India will have to show much tact and sensibility to engage with Nepal without being seen to interfere in Nepal. This is a tough task: Since 1947, India has always been perceived by its smaller neighbours as a regional hegemon, an elephant that is capable of both productive and destructive effects, whether through the power of intervention or inaction.
Four, and most important: India will have to double down on economic interdependence with Nepal. As seen in Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, political transitions are usually harbingers of economic slowdown: Whoever takes power in Kathmandu in the next few weeks will be in dire need of financial assistance to keep the economy running and to buy themselves time on the political street. Yet, New Delhi should see this as an opportunity to accelerate its successful connectivity strategy with Kathmandu. For the last few years, India has been able to deliver more, faster, and better support to Nepal’s development aspirations.
Beyond the political, it is this delivery-oriented economic dimension in India’s Nepal policy that will eventually bring the biggest dividends for both sides. Nepal’s ambitions to become a middle-income country rely on more, not less, Indian trade and investments.
To make the relationship truly “special,” as leaders on both sides like to profess, India will have to prove its mettle as a reliable partner to provide Nepal with multiple solutions across the technology and digital domains; the transportation, energy, and climate sectors; and the health and education systems.”
Manjeev Puri writes- ” Nepal has been on the boil the past few days with the protesting youth showing signs of mobocracy, humiliating senior politicians with acts of violence, and torching government buildings. For Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, who appeared invincible only a few days ago, there was little choice but to resign and be whisked away to a safe place by the armed forces.
What next? First, peace needs to be restored on the streets. Balen Shah and other young leaders have appealed for this, as did the Army Chief of Nepal, and the protesters seem to be paying heed, with some people even participating in street clean-ups. The Army has enforced a light curfew and brought major political leaders to the cantonment. It will surely play a critical role in the coming days — they have to restore law and order, but without heavy-handedness.
A default position in Nepali politics is directing ire towards India. In the context of the protesters’ violence, suggestions are being made that the instigators were monarchists, and some have hinted at Indian involvement. New Delhi has rightly issued an appeal for peace in Nepal and underlined the importance of stability, peace, and prosperity in the country.
Nepal needs political leadership, and this must have representation from the youth….Stability in the country should be of utmost importance to its people. That is also critical for India, given its historical ties with Nepal and its people.”
Express View: Quake in Nepal
This is not the first time in the recent past that youth-led movements have toppled regimes in India’s neighbourhood. Last year in Bangladesh, anti-quota protests snowballed into a full-fledged anti-government uprising that ended Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule. In Sri Lanka, in 2022, corruption and economic mismanagement that led to soaring inflation and acute food and fuel shortages sparked a revolt that brought down the Rajapaksa family. India should continue to monitor the situation in its neighbourhood and remain vigilant. In the wake of the turmoil in Nepal, New Delhi should keep a close watch on how the political situation in the country unravels. It should be alert to a Bangladesh-like regime change and be ready to safeguard India’s interests amid the flux.
Prelims
(1) Consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2020)
1. The value of Indo-Sri Lanka trade has consistently increased in the last decade.
2. “Textile and textile articles” constitute an important item of trade between India and Bangladesh.
3. In the last five years, Nepal has been the largest trading partner of India in South Asia.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
2. Consider the following pairs: (UPSC CSE 2016)
| Community sometimes mentioned in the news | In the affairs of | |
| 1. | Kurd | Bangladesh |
| 2. | Madhesi | Nepal |
| 3. | Rohingya | Myanmar |
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 3 only
3. Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura are the disputed territories between:
(a) India and Bhutan
(b) China and Nepal
(c) India and China
(d) India and Nepal
Mains
What is the significance of the India-Nepal relationship? Discuss the key difficulties and prospects in the India-Nepal border dispute.
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Prelims Answer Key |
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(Sources: http://www.mea.gov.in, Nepal PM selected via Discord, what led to the ‘GenZ’ agitation, In Nepal’s remittance-dependent economy, why the social media ban ended up having an outsized impact, India’s military ties with Nepal, Recalling significance of Lipulekh for India, Protests against India in Nepal: The big brother syndrome? First, peace on the streets ,India must reset Nepal Policy Express View: Quake in Nepal)
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