Singha Durbar, the seat of Nepal’s executive, burns on 9 September 2025. One week, starting with protests against nepotism and corruption, transformed the face of Nepal.[Mj]

The media has been scrambling to cover the events of the past week. But with major media houses like Kantipur burnt down in riots, and no guardrails in online discourse on what is and is not true, Nepal is rife with misinformation, rumours and hearsay. It has not helped that the Gen Z protesters whose demonstration against nepotism and corruption set the whole train of events in motion do not have an official spokesperson or even an official leadership structure. In an information vacuum, fears have run high of a possible army coup, of Indian infiltration, of a return of the monarchy.

Here, I try to provide an overview of the Gen Z protests and the events that have unfolded over the past week. I hope this can serve as a resource for those both inside and outside Nepal seeking to better understand what has happened. 

Let’s begin.

FOR WEEKS before the initial protests on 8 September, young Nepalis had been engaged in an online campaign loosely organised around the “NepoBaby” trend. This began in Indonesia, where mass protests have been ongoing for months, sparked by anger at the former president Joko Widodo and his eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka. Widodo, who once contrasted himself with Indonesia’s old and nepotistic ruling families, the Yudhoyonos and the Sukarnos, faced backlash for steering Gibran into the office of vice president....

Pranaya Rana is a writer and journalist based in Kathmandu. He is the author of ’City of Dreams: Stories’ and runs the newsletter Kalam Weekly.