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The Politico-Legality of Naming Resistance: Lessons from Nepal

Monisha Choudhary
The Politico-Legality of Naming Resistance: Lessons from Nepal In September 2025, Nepal experienced one of the quickest “revolutions”* in the history of the world, with the government toppled in less than forty-eight hours. This resistance against corruption was, all consequences considered, the first of its kind- one without a leader, one without specific demands, and one with no concrete plans of sustenance. This sporadic revolution was followed by an outcry for “one representative”, “one leader”, and a list of demands distilled from the ether of Discord conversations, TikTok reels, and Facebook and Instagram-based proclamations. Since its very conception, the events of September 2025 have compelled us to reconsider how to define resistance and negotiate its aftermath. Those part of the resistance have taken up many roles, trying to define and protect it from criminalisation. As the rest of the generations were catching up to September 2025 and attempting to understand the many frustrations and motivations of the Gen-Zs, a rather prominent challenge emerged- naming the events of September 2025. Politically and legally, resistance may be named and remembered as protest, riot, uprising, disobedience, demonstration, insurgency, conflict, and the like. However, the nomenclature of a resistance is barely limited to sensemaking and memorialisation- it also determines their legality and consequences. A barely twenty-five year old democracy, Nepal, has been home to many resistances- some gratified as movements, most dismissed as riots and protests. How are resistances defined? How are they named? Who names them? What is the role of the state in naming and treating resistances? How are the names of resistances remembered? This paper establishes a historical political framework we use to understand different types of resistances, furthers a politico-legal history of past resistances in Nepal, and contextualizes and speculates on the naming and remembrance of the Gen-Z undertaking of September 2025 Nepal- all from the perspective of a Gen-Z who took to the streets. * Here, resistance is used to refer to actions against injustice, an umbrella term that encompasses protests, riots, uprisings, disobediences, demonstrations, insurgencies, conflicts, etc.
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