Gen Z Rising: How Youth Anger Is Reshaping Politics Worldwide

It was a lavish wedding that shattered Aditya’s Faith. As the lavish celebrations for a politician’s daughter unfolded, ordinary citizens remained trapped for hours in traffic on the scorching, dust-filled roads of Bhaktapur. Long before this event, public anger had been simmering over the ostentatious displays of wealth by the country’s elite. Images of luxury cars and glittering diamonds flooding social media stood in cruel contrast to the daily struggles of the common citizen, turning poverty into a spectacle.

What began as resentment gradually hardened into rebellion. The tidal wave of demonstrators swept through the capital, dismantling symbols of government authority. At Kathmandu’s Singha Durbar, a striking mural—its paint appearing to drip like molten lava—expressed the collective mood of the nation: “You fought the wrong generation — Gen- Z.”

This surge of youth anger was not confined to Nepal. In Dhaka, police inaction and the prime minister’s flight allowed protesters to seize control of the city within hours. Similar patterns—resembling a modern-day Shiva Tandava—emerged across Sri Lanka, Kenya, and Serbia. From the Arab Spring to Hong Kong, from Thailand to Madagascar, youth-led uprisings have reshaped political landscapes worldwide. The Gen Z movement has triggered reforms in several countries, even toppling governments in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Madagascar. In 2018, a solitary climate protest by a teenage Greta Thunberg outside Sweden’s parliament grew into a global movement, demonstrating how a single voice can ignite worldwide change.

In the digital era, Gen Z mobilises through social media, challenging power structures directly and fearlessly. This resolute generation is often led by those who have been marginalised, ignored, or exploited. Psychologists view its behaviour as a human response to prolonged social and economic stress. Frustration–anger theory explains how sustained pressure transforms into rage, while Viktor Frankl described how material insecurity can produce “existential despair.” Neuroscientists add that constant digital connectivity reduces tolerance for stress, intensifying emotional reactions. Together, these forces help explain why Gen Z appears rebellious, impatient, fearless, yet deeply driven.

Gen Z

To channel this energy constructively, governments must pursue sensible, equitable policies: aligning education with job markets, prioritizing vocational training, fostering startups, improving rural infrastructure, ensuring discrimination-free employment, promoting equal socio-economic opportunities, and expanding accessible mental health services.

In India, youth discontent simmers like a dormant volcano—quiet but alive. A small eruption occurred in Ladakh in September, which social activist Sonam Wangchuk described as “Gen Z madness,” unleashing long-suppressed anger. Time is running out to address these grievances.

Suppressing Gen Z in the name of nationalism would be suicidal. More than 800 million young people—who value lived reality over rhetoric—could unleash immense disruption if pushed toward violence. Without development, destruction becomes inevitable.

Regarding the legitimacy of society’s rebellion against the established order, Friedrich Nietzsche says, “a little chaos is necessary for the birth of a shining star“. In every era, it is the youth who initiate change, becoming the precursors to humanity’s progress.

The current turbulence surrounding Gen Z is not an embrace of terror; it is a demand for dignity, identity, and recognition. This movement is not merely resistance—it is a beacon of hope, a search for a just, humane, and fraternal world that today’s global order sorely lacks.

Alfred Lord Tennyson captured this spirit in poem “Ulysses”, urging humanity “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” In that same spirit, the dream of Gen Z—to build a society rooted in justice, unity, and equality—will definitely come true; there is no doubt about it.

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