Nepal, for instance, has seen 14 governments in the 17 years since the monarchy was abolished in 2008. Allegations of corruption, nepotism, and economic mismanagement, coupled with a ban on 26 social media platforms, triggered the country’s young people to take to the streets. More than a quarter of Nepal’s population is below the age of 15, the country has a median age of 25 years, and onefifth of its youth are unemployed.

There has been an eerie similarity to recent developments in South Asia. The Generation Z-led protest movement that ousted Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli in Nepal in September echoes the so-called monsoon revolution in Bangladesh in August last year, when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was removed from power, as well as the 2022 aragalaya (struggle) in Sri Lanka that unseated then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The frequency of these “people-power” movements speaks to several structural challenges facing the region , including political dysfunction, economic distress, and demographic pressures.

There has been an eerie similarity to recent developments in South Asia. The Generation Z-led protest movement that ousted Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli in Nepal in September echoes the so-called monsoon revolution in Bangladesh in August last year, when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was removed from power, as well as the 2022 aragalaya (struggle) in Sri Lanka that unseated then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The frequency of these “people-power” movements speaks to several structural challenges facing the region, including political dysfunction, economic distress, and demographic pressures.

Nepal, for instance, has seen 14 governments in the 17 years since the monarchy was abolished in 2008. Allegations of corruption, nepotism, and economic mismanagement, coupled with a ban on 26 social media platforms, triggered the country’s young people to take to the streets. More than a quarter of Nepal’s population is below the age of 15, the country has a median age of 25 years, and onefifth of its youth are unemployed.

These events also raise a question about the degree to which India’s global aspiratio