Nepal, Oct. 1 -- In September 2025, teenagers in school uniforms made the most powerful argument for civic education in Nepal. A leaderless generation, organised on phones and fueled by anger over corruption, joblessness and the exodus of friends for foreign labour, brought down a government in mere days. Six months later, they voted, peacefully concluding what they had started. In the March 2026 election, voters delivered a decisive mandate to a party founded only in 2022, produced the first single-party majority since 1999, and unseated three-decade veterans, including a former prime minister who lost his own constituency.

This moment was both a vindication and an indictment. The vindication proved what students of democracy have long ...