South Asia's Youth Protests and the Challenge of Political Transformation
From India to Bangladesh, youth-led horizontal movements have shaken political establishments, yet struggle to translate street power into electoral success.
En resumen
- South Asia has experienced organic, leaderless youth protests driven by economic and political anger.
- Despite challenging ruling establishments from India to Bangladesh, these movements often struggle to convert street power into electoral success.
Resumen generado por IA
Por qué importa
South Asian countries have witnessed horizontal youth protests driven by political and economic anger.
As one journalist observed, for the first time since 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office, fear had “switched sides”. The protests began over paper leaks that resulted in the cancellation of the national examination for admission to medical schools. A few months ago, protests of this magnitude – with Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition in Parliament, demanding that Modi resign – were unthinkable.
From Sri Lanka to Nepal, Bangladesh to India, South Asia has seen variants of youth protest movements, each producing its own unique results. The common theme for these protests is that they were essentially leaderless or horizontal movements and had no single political party behind them.
All arose organically, spurred by youth anger over political and economic systems, and often drew on existing networks like unions, student federations and activist groups for on-the-ground organisation. But most had no grass-roots political mobilisation which could convert their street power into an organised political movement and lead to electoral success.
When elections were finally held, the country saw the return of the political establishment, with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Tarique Rahman, the son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, winning.
Preguntas abiertas
- How will future youth movements build lasting political structures?
