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Both participants and observers are still puzzling over what happened in Nepal on September 8 and 9th of this year. Plenty of conspiracy theories, simplistic explanations, and instant analyses are on offer: Was it a monarchist plot? Could it have been organized by a distant or neighbouring foreign power? Was it just a nihilistic expression of fury from a social-media-saturated youth angry at the banning of Facebook and WhatsApp and furious at the images they had seen of Nepokids (the children of politicians and the business elite) cavorting in ski resorts while they battled with unemployment?
There may be elements of all these. It certainly seems that much of the arson and violence on the second day was planned, though whether anyone will ever be held to account is very much an open question. How and in what form Nepal’s old political parties will survive also remains to be seen. At the very least they will need a renewal of leadership and some in the parties seem to have grasped this.
A civilian, non-party government was established through the two-day movement and it has been mandated to organize national elections, investigate past corruption, and hold accountable those responsible for the killings on September 8 and the arson attacks on September 9. However, questions regarding its constitutional legitimacy persist. The situation is further complicated by the non-cooperation of political parties demanding the restoration of parliament, as well as by internal divisions and a lack of cohesive leadership among the Gen-Z activists, all of which contribute to a climate of uncertainty.
David Gellner is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology and Emeritus Fellow of All Souls, University of Oxford. He has been doing research on Nepal since 1980. His most recent publication with Krishna Adhikari is the co-edited Nepal’s Dalits in Transition (Vajra, 2024).
Krishna Adhikari is an Affiliate of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford. He was in Nepal during the events of September. He has a Master’s in Social Work from Goteborg, Sweden, and a PhD on the dynamics of social capital in CBOs in Nepal from Reading (2007).
