The youth do not grow discontented because they dream too much, but because their rulers dream too little. Across South and Southeast Asia, a striking rhythm of uprisings has begun to echo — Sri Lanka in 2022, Bangladesh in 2024, Indonesia in 2025, and now Nepal, the latest to witness its young pouring into the streets. Each country is different in its triggers: food queues in Colombo, job quotas in Dhaka, elite perks in Jakarta, and social-media bans in Kathmandu. Yet the pulse feels the same — a generational impatience with systems that have long promised stability but delivered inequality, corruption and repression.

In Sri Lanka, the Aragalaya movement arose when mismanagement and dynastic arrogance pushed the economy into ruin. Young citizens who had grown up in the shadow of war found their futures stolen not by foreign invaders but by their own rulers. The protests were not just about inflation or fuel shortages — they were a referendum on elite capture of the state.

Bangladesh, by contrast, saw students lead the charge. What began as frustration over employment and quota policies snowballed into a popular uprising against heavy-handed policing and the suffocating dominance of entrenched political families. It was a rebellion not only against bad........

© The Express Tribune