Article
Understanding
Youth Political
Violence in Nepal
Ramesh Shrestha
1
Bert Jenkins
1
Abstract
Social, economic and political injustice promotes violence among youth. Political
parties involved in Nepali democratic upheavals resort to violence; this is where
youth are portrayed as major actors in performing violent acts. Youths have
always taken part in these political struggles. Political parties have used facts
that relate to people suffering from various miseries as a means of manoeuvring
and mobilizing youth to participate in armed struggles and uprisings. One
would expect these violent episodes to have decreased as the country is now
transitioning from armed conflict towards a sustainable peace, but instead post-
war Nepal has been continuously facing challenges that youth are posing through
their violent behaviours. Addressing issues of unemployment, a corrupt political
culture, nepotism and inappropriate political socialization are factors which
require urgent responses with political commitment to stop youth participation
in political violence. One way to realize this would be to encourage youth
engagement in positive peace-building endeavours in Nepal.
Keywords
Youth, political violence, identity, political socialization, Nepal
I. Introduction
This article sets out to understand from the existing literature that why youth in
Nepal involve themselves in political violence. We are setting out to review the
secondary information before considering other progressive approaches through
field research efforts that could be carried out to find means to mitigate such
Millennial Asia
10(1) 56–75, 2019
© 2019 Association of
Asia Scholars
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DOI: 10.1177/0976399619827118
journals.sagepub.com/home/mla
1
University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia.
Corresponding author:
Ramesh Shrestha, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.
E-mail: rshres21@myune.edu.au