I was at a conference in Kathmandu this summer, a first visit to Nepal. Coming as I was from Mumbai, I was struck by the contrasts: the widespread under- and unemployment, tourist-heavy economy, and infrastructure breakdown. The most handsome buildings were government-owned and heavily guarded by tall, forbidding walls, lending a sense of restriction and repression. Of course, one can’t really compare two completely unlike cities and economies. But the contrast between the neighbors was thought-provoking. Nothing, however, prepared me for the violent upheavals of September 2025—deeply disgruntled youth wreaking murderous retribution upon politicians viewed as corrupt and nepotistic.
Nepal was the last of five uprisings in South Asia in the last five years. In 2021, there was the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, leading to the violent ascendance of the Taliban. Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh each underwent similar political violence in 2022, 2023, and 2024. In Sri Lanka, youth-led hordes unseated the Rajapaksa government and ransacked the parliament. In Pakistan, Imran Khan still languishes in jail—and in Bangladesh, disaffected young people caused the erstwhile powerful Sheikh Hasina to flee.
Many common threads united the disparate scenarios: widespread malaise and youth hopelessness, high inflation leading to economic collapse and poverty, perceived corruption and dictatorial rule by elites, and social media lighting a volatile, combustible match to quickly unfolding events. Where could such visceral rampages be coming from, and why in these countries? Of course, if one were to dig deeper, one would be reminded that Sri Lanka’s long-running Tamil-Sinhala war was in fact a lesson in brutality, and that the Myanmar military leadership has been engaging in violent suppression for many years now. Beneath a veneer of business-as-usual, South Asia appears to have been seething.
India has faced its own set of problems, including vast and growing wealth inequality and unemployment, but it seems to have avoided significant nationwide protests. The recent farmers’ protest that led to the rescinding of objectionable laws and Manipal’s communal violence were two serious challenges. But the movements never became nationwide and never posed a threat to the fabric of the government and the country, as the other uprisings did.
Despite India’s challenges and divisions over politics, religion, caste, and class, it has been chugging along economically. It is slated to grow at an enviable 6.6% in 2025, according to the IMF, and will become the world’s third-largest economy by 2030. Domestic consumption is strong, and there have been major investments in infrastructure, including bridges, roads, high-speed trains, and subways, over the last few years. While posing a day-to-day nuisance as these transformations take place, Indians have, in general, been approving of the dramatic changes to their cities and lifestyles.
A recent Economist article asked why India has remained immune to the political uprisings in its neighborhood. It points to India’s economic growth trajectory and robust foreign exchange reserves. While young people face high unemployment here as they do in the other South Asian neighbors, surveys reveal that optimism for the future is very high. Political scientists have sought data from different regions to answer whether stability or instability in a country’s immediate neighborhood is likely to spill over and affect the country in question. They have found a strong correlation. Much of their work, though, has relied on data from European countries.
I like to think that India offers a case study of a country with a particular historical context and economic and political traits that are unique to its neighbors and so strong in their trajectories that one is quite sanguine that situations in the countries around it will have little impact on its own path forward. After all, many a scholar wrote about the premature demise of India’s democracy in the aftermath of independence, but Indian democracy and democratic institutions, although under pressure, have still remained in place. Although there are no guarantees, one is hopeful that this will continue to be the case through the challenges that will no doubt continue to come its way.
Tinaz Pavri is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Asian Studies Program at Spelman College, Atlanta. A recipient of the Donald Wells Award from the Georgia Political Science Association, she’s the author of the memoir Bombay in the Age of Disco: City, Community, Life.