Mita Bhatta was asleep when Nepali youth took to the streets of capital city Kathmandu to protest corruption in the government and a recent social media ban.
The following morning, she was in her restaurant in Columbus, chopping vegetables and preparing meat as she watched reports of the rising death toll.
“I was working all day, but all my time (I was checking) the phone,” Bhatta said Thursday, sitting in a booth at Mita’s Himalayan Kitchen. “… I knew the protest was going to happen, so we had our meal, we slept, and in the morning, already 14 people were dead.”
Thousands of Nepal’s Generation Z, aged 13 to 28, gathered Sept. 8 in central Kathmandu near the federal parliament. The protests turned violent once security barricades were breached and police opened fire on the crowd, killing 19 people, according to major news outlets.
The protests were sparked after Nepal’s government banned the use of 26 social media platforms Sept. 4, citing noncompliance with the country’s registration rules. This followed a Gen-Z-led social media movement, which criticized and exposed the lavish lifestyles of politicians and their families.
“They were fighting against corruption,” Bhatta said. “Social media captured the scenario as them fighting just because social media was going to be banned in Nepal. But no, it wasn’t for that. It was against corruption.”
Protestors organized through social media apps Discord and Tiktok, which were not included in the ban.
The government collapsed overnight. The following day on Sept. 9, the parliament building, along with other governmental buildings and politicians’ homes were in flames. Prisoners escaped from Dilli Bazaar jail in the capital city. Looters broke into homes and stores. Bhatta couldn’t reach her mother, who lives in Kathmandu, for several hours.
“I thought maybe someone might have entered the house or stolen something or did something to my mom,” Bhatta said. “I was in a different state of mind, I would say. There were people from all different parties who … took it as an opportunity with the protest and started vandalizing, stealing stuff, breaking into houses, breaking down into governmental offices, burning paperwork.”
Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, who has served as prime minister four times, resigned the same day. The Nepal army took control of the capital that night and began negotiations with protestors and President Ram Chandra Poudel in seeking an interim government.
Sushila Karki, former chief justice of Nepal’s supreme court, was named the interim prime minister on Sept. 12. An official election for a new prime minister has been set for March 5.
Since the protests, which raged for two days, subsided the death toll has risen to 72.
‘I could do nothing for nowhere’
Bhatta, like many of Nepal’s youth, left the country after high school to pursue higher education. She came to Columbus to attend Mississippi University for Women in 2019 and opened her restaurant on Highway 45 in 2023.
The W houses less than five Nepali students now, though former student Dipa Bhattarai said she recalls studying alongside more than 200 Nepali students in 2016.
Last year, Mississippi State University had more than 150 Nepali students enrolled.
Bhattarai, owner of Deeva’s Brows and Lashes in Columbus and Starkville, moved to the United States in 2013 to attend The W. She said she supported the revolution but was “completely divided” as to whether she wanted to be on the front lines as she followed the news.
“I love these countries both with equal portions of my heart,” Bhattarai said. “Sitting in comfort of America and seeing what is happening in Nepal … it does sometimes make me feel glad I am at least in a safe country. … But then the part of me that loves Nepal. I’m sitting here fighting behind my computer, but I’m not there.
“I feel like there’s so much I can do for America,” she added. “I feel like there is so much I can do for Nepal. And at that time, I could do nothing for nowhere.”
Sarthak Khatiwada, member of the Nepalese Student Association at Mississippi State University, came to the U.S. in 2022. Khatiwada said if he was back home, he would have been right alongside his friends at the protest.
“I couldn’t help but think, ‘What if it was me?’” Khatiwada said. “It was that secondhand guilt of being privileged enough to be here and witness everything from a safe distance while my school friends were in the protest and hit with tear gas. … It was definitely a mix of emotions.”
Looking ahead
All three agreed that the revolution was necessary.
“This movement was needed but not in this way,” Bhatta said. “The protest, it was a good decision because enough was enough. … We were hoping something would change, that the government would fail, that there would be a new government rising up. But now so many young people and so many good people, they are dead.”
Bhattarai said she hopes new leadership can bring a more “fair” government.
“We hope that from this revolution, we will be able to hand the power to someone who is a visionary, someone who knows what they are doing, instead of just the old people who were in power just because … their family was in power,” she said.
Since an interim new prime minister, praised by protestors for her anti-corruption stance, has been selected, Khatiwada said he is hopeful things will change.
“This new government does give me hope in a way,” he said. “Seventy-two people are dead. I don’t want their sacrifices to go to waste.”
Bhatta said Nepali residents abroad are pushing the government to find a way to allow them vote in the upcoming election. Only in-person voting is allowed, so citizens living overseas are effectively disenfranchised.
“Whoever is in Nepal, many are all brainwashed with their political influence,” Bhatta said. “They are not even well educated. They don’t even know what’s going to be good … at the time of the election, big parties just throw a lot of money over the people. They feed them good, they go house to house and spend money on them so they can bribe for the vote … so right now they are just brainwashed.
“We are trying to convince (the) Nepal government to give us any kind of opportunity so that we can vote from here,” she added. “… We hope they will agree with that, and … maybe in the next election, we will all vote for the right candidate.”
All three Nepali sources The Dispatch spoke to also said they plan to one day return home.
“If there is a better opportunity and better government, I might just go back and be with my family, be in my country, be in my land,” Bhatta said. “… But it’s not going to happen in the blink of an eye.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 30 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
