Nepal’s young protesters find an unlikely partner: The Army

South Asia
By Editor_1
Nepali army personnel on patrol in Kathmandu after days of riots and political upheaval, on Thursday (Sept. 11, 2025). After an explosion of popular rage tore through Nepal, its respected army was the only institution left standing. Military leaders are now in talks with the youth-led protesters --Atul Loke/The New York Times

By Aex Travelli

KATHMANDU – When protesters in Nepal torched parliament, the Supreme Court and the homes of five former prime ministers on Tuesday (9), no one seemed to be in charge of a country in anarchy. Then, that night, Gen. Ashok Raj Sigdel, the chief of the Nepali army, appeared in a short video, urging calm in the streets.

His soldiers took control at 10:00 p.m., and violent protests in the capital, Kathmandu, had begun to fizzle. That same night, army officers were sitting down with the young and little-known leaders of the self-declared Gen Z protest movement to hash out a plan for peace.

The Nepali army was the only institution left standing to negotiate with the people behind the uprising. That has put the army, an internationally famous fighting force, in an unfamiliar position. It has never held power on its own and commands respect within the country, but now it is caught in a difficult transition for Nepal.

Harka Sampang, a social activist who serves as mayor to a small city in the east, said he “had come to Kathmandu to talk to the army chief”.  He implied that there was not much choice, “after thousands of people requested it”. Eventually the protest leaders told the general that they wanted Sushila Karki, a former chief justice, as the leader of an interim government.

Whatever comes next, the power vacuum will likely be filled by an agreement between the angry and inchoate youth movement on one side and the military leadership on the other.

Nepal’s existing power structures went up in smoke during two days of violence, with the country’s prime minister fleeing and other top officials resigning. The nation’s president was nowhere to be seen. A similar compromise was forged in Bangladesh just over a year ago when a student-led protest movement and the army chose an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.

“The army will definitely create a secure environment until the election is held,” said Maj. Gen. Binoj Basnyat, who retired from the Nepali army in 2016. When he began his service, it was called the Royal Nepalese Army, and Basnyat shares his pride in the army with most Nepalis, 91% of whom trust it more than any other institution in Nepal, according to a poll conducted by the Asia Foundation in 2022.

The people can trust the army, Basnyat believes, because its leadership is committed to remaining under the civil authorities, he said. It was armed police who fired on Gen Z protesters on Monday (8), he said, not the Nepali army. At least 19 people were killed that day.

The army’s deference to civilians this week is remarkable because, as a royal army, Nepal’s used to answer only to the king, even after Nepal became a multiparty democracy in 1990. During the country’s brutal civil war, fought between the state and Maoist rebels from 1996 to 2006, the soldiers were loyal to the crown in Kathmandu and not their fellow subjects.

Almost 500 years old, the Nepali army flies a battle flag featuring the drums and trident of Shiva, the Hindu god. Nepal’s soldiers had earned such a reputation for courage by the end of the 18th century that British colonial rulers recruited them as a whole unit, called the Gurkhas, into their own armies.

To this day, the United Kingdom and India maintain esteemed Gurkha units manned by native-born Nepalis. The famous Indian Gen. Sam Manekshaw is often quoted as saying: “If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gurkha.”

In modern times, Nepal’s soldiers have become indispensable members of United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere.

Nepal’s army doubled in size during its civil war, said Ashok K. Mehta, a retired Indian general who worked extensively with the Nepali military. Its wartime upgrades, he thinks, won the peace, by forcing the Maoists to the negotiating table in 2005.

But the Nepali army’s transformation is still in progress, Mehta said. Its feudal history has not equipped it to be a natural defender of democracy.

The tumult of the past few days, when Nepal’s civil authorities evaporated, has forced the army into a role it was never meant to fill, according to Mehta. He said the army chief, Sigdel, faces “a very grim” situation: For the first time in the nation’s history, the military is “occupying the pinnacle” of political power.

Mehta does not see the Nepali army as being power hungry, so much as uncertain. Its great mistake, he said, was failing to act sooner on Tuesday, when it could have spared lives and billions of dollars’ worth of destruction by taking the reins faster.

Sigdel himself is something of an unknown. Mehta, who knows him, said he “doesn’t enjoy personality and charisma. He’s not a very effective communicator”.

Such qualities mattered little during most of the Nepali army’s long history. But faced with a bunch of empowered young protesters, Nepal’s generals may find themselves in need of some new tricks.

-New York Times

Editor_1
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