The September 8 protest, organised by Gen Z-ers, received greater publicity and support compared to the previous calls for protests in Kathmandu, perhaps because it was called by youths whose frustrations mirrored those of ordinary citizens. The protest, which turned into a full-blown revolution the very next day, shook Nepal and stunned the world. What was initially ignited by the Oli government’s banning of social media also carried widespread corruption as another major cause for the revolution. The world watched as Nepali youths vehemently expressed anger against what they saw as curtailment of their fundamental freedoms, as well as against systemic corruption, nepotism, political cronyism and the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. The dissent was loud; it was angry, and it struck a chord with every ordinary citizen.

However, a month later, the political will that this revolution brought forward is showing signs of fatigue. Cracks are appearing in the will because the reasons for the revolution are getting trivialised by the members of the political class. Conspiracy theories about who “orchestrated” this revolution have started taking rounds. A prominent member of Kathmandu’s chattering class and a media person, in his recent write-up in Nepal Khabar, an online news portal, wrote an otherwise impressive piece, asking who was behind the dismantling of a ‘perfectly functional state’. One needs to be cautious about the threats to democracy and republicanism from residual sources like Durga Prasai and others; however, to call the pre-Gen Z revolution state a ‘perfectly functional’ entity reeks of privilege and apathy, afforded only by a certain class in Nepal.

Yes, generally the collective political memory is short, but the amnesia that seems to set in too soon regarding the sorry state of the state, and that the Gen Z revolution was a reaction to a series of extremely unethical actions by the political class, should be seen as a sacrilege. With over seventy deaths and the scar that this revolt has left on an entire generation, it warrants respect and a serious recognition of why it happened. The message that the revolution carried was that the claimed gains from similar previous movements were not just ‘not enough’ but, in fact, were made spurious by the self-serving political class in the country, and that the system needed to improve and change. However, members of the political class seem to be having a hard time accepting the call for change, and their strategy of resisting change is trivialising this revolution.

Those who are actively trivialising the revolution are the stakeholders of Nepal’s own iron triangle, the entrenched nexus among certain bureaucrats, politicians and businesspeople that seemed impossible to thwart. It was as if the country was trapped in this iron triangle that is impenetrable. The burning became a symbolic refutation of that grip. The torching of Singha Durbar and other bureaucratic agencies, police outlets, Chaudhari Group ventures, the Hilton hotel, and the homes of powerful politicians should be understood as the last resort to upstage this toxically impenetrable iron triangle.

However, the narrative making rounds across Nepal is that the Gen Z revolution is a “mess” or a “fluke” and better yet, an agenda that is driven by foreign powers. Those with vested interests are dismissing the revolution as something that was “unnecessary”. The reports of infiltrations by members of Free Tibet Movement, of this party or that, political “miscreants” and criminals who “torched public properties” on September 9 have managed to strip the revolution of the dignity it deserves. If one talks to members of the political parties and their beneficiaries, one will get to hear how a handful of mischief-makers burned down the public landscape of a well-functioning state.

Violence should not be condoned, and that is an absolute, but in history, the world has had to tolerate it as a last resort in the face of social injustice. Whether one likes it or not, arson plays a provocative, destructive and symbolic role all at the same time during revolutions. It has been used time and again to showcase civil disobedience towards unpopular government and destroy structures that are perceived as oppressive and corrupt. French and Haitian revolutions in the 18th century, Russian and Indian revolutions in the early 20th century, Iranian revolution of 1979, the Arab Springs, and the more recent Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi protests all witnessed a significant number of cases involving arson.

According to the experts, revolutions, by their nature, generate political will. They disrupt the status quo, cash on public support, and force institutions to change. This revolution has also upstaged the old political will and has established a new one, i.e. of ridding the country of corruption. Now, the question is whether Gen Z-ers can sustain the political will they ignited in a system fraught with retainers who have flourished in systemic corruption, nepotism, cronyism and bribery. Will they let the new political will prevail?

The political will that the revolutions create is often raw, emotional and unstructured: Something that appears powerful in the streets, but vulnerable in the corridors of power. A similar pattern is being detected post Gen Z revolution. The Gen Z must know that ‘political will is more than a slogan or a trending hashtag’. It is that factor that turns dissent into policy and outrage into outcomes. However, those who participated in the revolution are not in government to exercise the political will that they generated. Without political will, even the most successful revolutions fizzle out. This is something that Gen Z should pay attention to. They must establish that the Gen Z revolution was not a fluke and that the reason why they revolted was because of the sheer absence of collective good and well-being. They need to reclaim the moral grounds that they stood on to fight the old guard. They need to assert that it was a turning point in Nepal's political history. Nepal’s youth did not burn down the system; they exposed it.