The Rebellion Paradox
The Rebellion Paradox: People, Power and the Way to Peace
By Qudsia Imran
Across Asia and beyond, from Kathmandu to Dhaka to Colombo, the last few years have witnessed a young generation pushing back against economic collapse, political corruption, social exclusion, and censorship. Specifically, in South Asia, we see something new: the mobilization of youth under slogans like “enough is enough,” “stop corruption, not social media,” and “Shut down injustice.” These protests are not isolated; they draw on shared grievances, similar triggers, and modern means of mobilization. They also highlight the recurring paradox of state power: the more rigid and opaque a regime, the more likely it is to face rebellion.
Likewise, the more concentrated and unaccountable power becomes, the more likely it is to provoke rebellion. The youth-led protests in Nepal in September 2025, the massive student uprising in Bangladesh in July 2024, the economic revolt in Sri Lanka between 2022 and 2023, and the ongoing tensions in Indonesia all illustrate this point with striking clarity. In each case, ordinary citizens, often led by students and young professionals, rose against governments they viewed as corrupt, unresponsive, or authoritarian. The Nepalese protests began after the government banned twenty-six social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp, ostensibly to enforce new registration rules but widely perceived as censorship and an assault on free expression. When police responded with live fire, killing at least nineteen demonstrators, the unrest intensified until the ban was lifted and the prime minister resigned. This rebellion was not simply about the internet; it reflected deep frustrations over unemployment, corruption scandals, and decades of political instability that had left young Nepalis feeling excluded from power and opportunity.
The same generational anger animated Bangladesh’s quota reform protests in 2024. When the Supreme Court reinstated job quotas for descendants of the 1971 freedom fighters, students saw this as perpetuating privilege rather than honoring history. Protests erupted across campuses and cities, demanding merit-based hiring and transparency. Social media became the movement’s lifeline, spreading videos of demonstrations and state crackdowns, uniting urban and rural youth, and framing the conflict as one between an entrenched political class and a rising generation demanding fairness. Despite concessions, including a reduction in quota percentages, many students felt the reforms fell short of meaningful change, leaving underlying grievances unresolved.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s crisis, while rooted in economic collapse rather than specific legal decisions, followed a similar trajectory. When foreign reserves dried up, inflation soared, and essential goods disappeared, anger toward the ruling Rajapaksa dynasty boiled over. Under the banner of “Aragalaya,” or “the struggle,” protesters occupied streets, defied curfews, and eventually forced the president’s resignation. What began as outrage over fuel and food shortages soon became a broader demand for accountability, an end to corruption, and structural reforms to prevent future crises. Yet, as with Nepal and Bangladesh, leadership changes did not automatically translate into systemic transformation, raising questions about how to convert revolutionary energy into durable institutions.
These recent uprisings echo earlier waves of rebellion across the globe and resonate with protest waves of the 2010s, most notably the Arab Spring, which swept across Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Yemen between 2010 and 2012. Initially triggered by Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Tunisia, the Arab Spring mobilized millions demanding “bread, freedom, and dignity.” While it toppled regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, it also revealed how authoritarian resilience, foreign interventions, and lack of institutional reform could reverse revolutionary gains, as seen in Egypt’s post-2013 political trajectory and Libya’s descent into civil war. Beyond the Middle East, the 2019 Hong Kong protests against the Extradition Bill, Chile’s uprising over inequality, Iran’s demonstrations for women’s rights, and Sudan’s mass mobilizations for civilian rule highlighted how issues ranging from democratic freedoms to economic justice and gender equality could converge into powerful rebellions challenging state authority.
Historically, this pattern of rebellion stretches back through the late twentieth century, when people power movements transformed political landscapes across continents. In the Philippines, the 1986 People Power Revolution ended the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, while across Latin America, democratic transitions in countries like Chile, Argentina, and Brazil ended decades of military rule. In the Eastern Europe’s 1989 uprisings, including Poland’s Solidarity movement and Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, dismantled communist regimes and symbolized the global democratic wave that followed the Cold War’s end. However, the democratic revolutions of Eastern Europe often left economic inequalities intact under neoliberal reforms
Going further back, the mid-twentieth century witnessed anti-colonial revolutions sweeping through Asia and Africa, as nations like India, Algeria, Kenya, and Vietnam fought for independence from European empires; these movements across Asia and Africa secured independence. These struggles were driven by demands for political sovereignty, economic self-determination, and cultural revival, reflecting centuries of resistance to imperial domination. Similarly, Latin America’s revolutionary left, epitomized by Cuba’s 1959 Revolution and liberation theology movements, sought to combine anti-imperialism with socialist ideals, challenging both domestic elites and foreign intervention, particularly by the United States.
Even earlier, the great revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the American Revolution (1776), the French Revolution (1789), the Haitian Revolution (1791), and the 1848 revolutions across Europe — established the modern vocabulary of liberty, equality, and nationalism. These uprisings overturned monarchies, abolished slavery in places like Haiti, and inspired anti-colonial thinkers worldwide. Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto (1848), emerging amid this revolutionary age, linked political emancipation to struggles against capitalist exploitation, shaping later socialist and communist movements across Russia, China, and beyond. As Martin Luther once stated that, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
The recurrence of rebellion across centuries suggests common dynamics. Political theorists from John Locke to Hannah Arendt have argued that when governments lose legitimacy by denying rights, concentrating wealth, or silencing dissent, rebellion becomes not only likely but morally justified. Modern scholars like Ted Robert Gurr emphasize relative deprivation: people revolt not only when they are poor but when they feel promises have been broken, opportunities denied, and dignity ignored. Economic shocks such as debt crises or food price inflation intensify this sense of betrayal, while triggering events—a police shooting, a censorship law, a corrupt court ruling—often turn passive resentment into active resistance. Digital technology now accelerates this process, enabling rapid mobilization but also prompting governments to experiment with censorship, surveillance, and disinformation, sometimes triggering more unrest rather than less.
The cumulative lesson from these episodes, past and present, is that rebellion signals both political failure and democratic possibility. As Albert Camus famously wrote, “I rebel — therefore we exist,” capturing the paradox that revolt expresses not only anger but also the human demand for dignity, freedom, and collective belonging. Preventing future uprisings, therefore, requires more than temporary repression or cosmetic reforms. Yet rebellion is not destiny. The same states that provoke dissent through injustice can prevent future uprisings by addressing their root causes. First, governments must practice transparency in economic management, public hiring, and lawmaking so citizens trust institutions rather than viewing them as tools of elites. Second, they must invest in youth opportunity—education linked to employment, fair hiring practices, and protection of digital freedoms so young people see peaceful avenues for dissent and participation rather than feeling silenced or ignored. Third, independent courts, free media, and accountable policing are essential to ensure that protests are met with dialogue rather than violence, since repression often radicalizes movements instead of quelling them. Fourth, social safety nets must protect citizens during economic crises, providing food, fuel, and medical security when markets fail, so desperation does not turn into revolt. Finally, governments should institutionalize forums for negotiation with civil society, students, labor unions, and marginalized groups so that conflicts are mediated before they erupt onto the streets.
The rebellion paradox teaches that power breeds resistance when it is hoarded rather than shared, when it excludes rather than empowers, when it answers criticism with force rather than reform. From Nepal to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka to the Arab Spring, history shows that people will endure hardship but not humiliation, poverty but not indignity, authority but not tyranny. The way to peace lies not in suppressing rebellion but in removing its causes through justice, inclusion, and accountability. As Thomas Jefferson once declared, “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” To escape the cycle of revolt and repression, governments must turn duty into dialogue, power into service, and protest into participation, ensuring that the energy of rebellion gives birth not to chaos but to a just and lasting peace.
“People, power and the way to peace” is not just an aspirational slogan but a necessary framework: meaning citizens demand power to be exercised with justice.
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