Transcript:
Welcome to this month’s episode of the Harvest Bridge Podcast. A part of our work here at Harvest Bridge is connecting local leaders in South Asia with people like you, here in the United States. Through our podcast we want to provide a place where you can hear directly from ministry leaders throughout the region.
This fall, Nepal has been gripped by a wave of political unrest unlike anything the country has seen in recent years. In today’s episode, you’ll hear from the country leaders of Harvest Bridge’s ministry in Nepal and on the Nepal-Tibet border. They share their firsthand experiences of what life has been like during this tumultuous time. These are their personal reflections, not official reports, and they themselves acknowledge they may not represent the full picture. That is part of the complexity of this moment – there’s so much misinformation and uncertainty surrounding the government overthrow that it is difficult to know full causes and outcomes of the recent protests. Their stories offer a powerful glimpse into life on the ground during this crisis.
Before we hear from Jandi* and Shalva*, let’s cover some context to understand the gravity of the situation.
On September 8th, Nepal’s political climate reached a boiling point when state forces opened fire on protesters, killing 21 people, 14 of whom were aged 28 or younger. The very next day, chaos erupted across the country. Protesters along with those who many people believe to be bad actors, stormed and set fire to the Prime Minister’s office, parliament, and the Supreme Court. Political leaders were injured, and party offices vandalized.
During what is being referred to as the Gen Z Protests, over the course of a week of unrest, over 70 lives of protestors were lost and thousands were injured. The nationwide turmoil also led to thousands of prisoners escaping jails across Nepal.
To regain control, the Nepali army imposed a curfew. Eventually, negotiations between the Nepali military and the Gen Z leaders led to the appointment of an interim Prime Minister – Sushila Karki, Nepal’s first female prime minister. Elections have been scheduled for early next year.
The protests, unprecedented in their momentum, reflected a deep and growing frustration, especially among young Nepalis, with decades of systemic corruption and poor governance. Nepal currently ranks 107th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer.
All three of the country’s most recent Prime Ministers have faced serious allegations of misusing public funds.In the weekend leading up to September 8th, public anger escalated after the government banned 26 social media apps this September. The move, allegedly to curb misinformation, was widely seen as a blatant attempt to silence dissent. With over 56% of the population under 30, the ban struck a particularly harsh blow to young Nepalis, not only limiting their freedom of expression but also cutting off a potential source of income for many content creators.
The ban also impacted those Nepalis living outside of the country, causing concern that they would not be able to stay in regular touch with their friends and family. Nepal’s youth face staggering unemployment. Each day, more than 2,000 citizens leave the country seeking work abroad. For many, social media offered rare opportunities for expression, connection, and economic survival, making the ban a significant blow. Now let’s hear from Jandi and Shalva, Harvest Bridge’s country leaders, about how this upheaval has impacted their ministries and communities. Again, these are their personal stories and perspectives, and these clips are from September 16th, when everything was still unfolding:
“The situation here is so bad. Everything is burned in Kathmandu. Parliament, you know, Singha Durbar, the pride of the country, has gone to the ashes. So the police, you know, stations, ‘most of the police stations throughout the country’, throughout the country, not one or two, hundreds . . . people are daily against the police and the army. So, the situation is still very bad, and we can’t guess anything. . . very, very bad.”
Shalva paints a grim picture of the chaos in Nepal. He describes a nation in turmoil, with government buildings reduced to ashes, police stations destroyed, and widespread anger directed at both police and military forces. The unrest has left the country reeling, with no clear sense of what might come. Nepal has had protests before, but none quite like this one.
Shalva: “This kind of protest we have seen first time in our life. It was never, never, never happened like this. You know, I saw, I saw, you know, 90s protest. I saw, 2006-7 protests, I see, you know, protests when the government released the Constitution in 2015, I saw that protest. It was not like this. It is totally different, totally different. And here somebody claims that I am the Gen Z leader. Actually, there were no leader. They are divided into 28 groups. There is no leader, but somebody is coming here, ‘I am the leader. I will kill the politician.’ Publicly, they are, you know, telling it. Very lawlessness situation. Very lawlessness situation.
Okay, this politician corrupted the country. Okay. You know, through the law, punish them. There is a law to punish them. You know, you can change the charges, you know, in the these courts, but there is a way to punish them. But they are publicly saying they will kill them. ‘If they come out, I will kill them’. No, but nobody’s stopping them. Very lawless.
Shalva has personally witnessed several protests in years past. But this one is different. He agrees that the politicians are corrupt and should be held accountable, but questions the approach of threatening public leaders. In this heated situation, what will come next for Nepal’s leadership? What do Shalva and Jandi think about the new prime minister?
“She has, you know, been brought by somebody’s interest. You know, actually, that was not supposed to, you know, happen. Actually, interim PM should be a new person. The real Gen-Zs, who did the, you know, this revolution, against the government, and they have not taken any part in the government formation [in the past]. So the people are coming by the other, you know, civic society’s interest. You know, political parties, they are, you know, there trying to take the revenge. You know, it’s a very difficult time, and let’s see. We are praying, but we were very, very fearful. We were – because if they attack the churches, but they did not attack the church.”
Shalva explains that the appointment of the new prime minister has deepened public frustration. Although many support her appointment, they disagree with how she was appointed. The protest leaders chose her via an online poll on a communication app called Discord, which, although efficient, is of course unconstitutional. Many also believe that the opposing political parties to the ousted Prime Minister may have pushed for her election. They believe she may have been chosen for political reasons, rather than genuine representation of the people.
Even as the streets have grown quieter, their fear lingers. Shalva and Jandi are taking extra precautions, avoiding social media and urging other Christians across Nepal to do the same. They know how quickly tensions could reignite. If even a single temple were attacked, they say, it could unleash a wave of violence against churches in retaliation. For now, they are praying, and mourning the young lives lost and hoping peace will hold.
“Then if they break even single temple, then all the churches in the country will go away. Very, very tough situation, and still very, you know, very sensitive, still very sensitive. And we are not posting anything in the Facebook, and we should not write. And we are requesting all the Christian communities throughout the country: ‘do not write anything’ you know, ‘do not write, broadcast any live service or any message or anything.’ You know, this is a very critical time. We should play a constructive role to build up the society, as long as we can do. Otherwise, we should not at this time. We should not expose ourselves, you know, very openly, very openly. But we are, we are praying, we are praying for the families who lost their children. The death toll has crossed 75 and it will increase a little more, and people are expecting that a 100 more – it will cross more than 100.”
The protests have taken a devastating toll. As they’ve reflected on the violence, Shalva and Jandi, along with many others in the country, are questioning who was truly behind it. They find it hard to believe the Nepal police, typically trained to wound, not to kill, would have carried out such precise and deadly shootings. Rumors are circulating that outside forces, possibly from across the Indian border, were involved. Some believe these sharpshooters were brought in by pro-monarchy groups hoping to restore Nepal as a Hindu kingdom. Whether or not that’s true, one thing is certain: the violence has left the nation shaken, and uncertainty still hangs heavily in the air.
“How these sharp shooters came? Nepal police didn’t even, did not hit, you know, to anyone. Nepal police, you know, they were trained only to shoot on the foot, not in the head. But there are sharp shooters, hundreds of sharp shooters, and people are guessing that they are entered from India. So these are, you know, those who are after the king, those group, those who are rebellion, you know, making rebellion for the king, they want to bring the king as a Hindu kingdom. So those people have brought the Hindu, sharp shooters from India, hundreds of them…”
Jandi*: ”We heard like trucks of people came from India. And because our border is open, and nobody stopped them, and it’s like we now we are hearing like it was pre-planned.”
Shalva*: “Yes, it was pre-planned because then they were about their protest. But during that time the shooting started. Then all of a sudden, the 19 people died within a minute… They wanted to establish Nepal as a Hindu kingdom and bring the king back to the throne.There are, you know, Hindu radicals who are for the king, and doing, you know, this kind of protest for the king . . . very difficult time.”
These are just some of early rumors around the protests – that certain Gen Z protestors were targeted for killing, and not randomly killed by police or military. At the time of recording, it is still completely unclear whether that is the case or not.
As the protests raged, prisons across the country were set ablaze, releasing thousands of inmates into the streets. More than 13,000 criminals, including over 5,000 from Kathmandu alone, escaped into the chaos. Shalva describes a country with neighborhoods on fire, windows shattered, cars destroyed, and families unsure if it was safe even to go to the market. What began as a political uprising has now spiraled into widespread unrest.
“And also the people with the bad motives, they also took the advantage. And you know, like criminals… they burned, you know, they burned the big politicians’ houses, and they took the goods. They stole the goods from there, and most of the prisons in the country have been burned. Prison is burned, and that these are prisoners, they were released. All the criminals are now spread all over the country, and they are not back to the prison. And anytime anything [can] happen, and a very risky time – robbing in the societies, even if you want to go to the market, you need to be very careful whether those people will come with a gun and hit you. You know, they’re all criminals. They run away. 13,500 criminals run away. 13,500. More than, you know, 5000 criminals from Kathmandu itself run away, from Kathmandu itself. . . . I think they might go to India. There is no other way, because they have no passport. . . It’s a very difficult time.
We never imagined. You know, no, nobody imagined.
Normal, normal neighborhood, you know, their houses are burned with all the smoke coming into houses. You know, people are, you know, breaking their windows, throwing, pelting stones to their houses, breaking their cars apart in the yard. So many problems.”
Yet even in the midst of this turmoil, Shalva shares a quiet hope. The overthrown prime minister was not popular. So, although many in the country are overwhelmed by the protests and the violence that followed, they are still tentatively hopeful for a new government. Shalva prays that Nepal’s leaders will turn away from corruption and self-interest, choosing instead to serve the good of the people. Only when those in power change their ways, he says, can the nation begin to find peace again.
“If the political parties are changing their strategy, you know, really starting to work for the country’s favor, you know, stopping the corruption. You know, these bureaucrats also, they were so much corrupted. If they, they transform their life, then we can understand peace.”
Next Jandi explains that the newly appointed prime minister has called for national elections, and the skepticism around that. For several days after the violence, the country was effectively leaderless. There was no functioning government, no police presence, and no clear direction. Now, officials have resumed their duties, but they do not know what is changed from the old government.
In the midst of this instability, hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing Nepal to find safety elsewhere. They describe the destruction left behind, with massive shopping centers burned to the ground, some people trapped inside as the flames consumed the structures. The loss is enormous, and the nation’s path forward remains painfully uncertain.
Jandi: “So this Prime Minister announced the date of the election. So let us see. But people are saying, like, ‘there will not be an election’, or like, ‘the same political parties will influence’ So many things are there. So it’s really uncertain, you know. During that first week, last week, it was like for four or five days, no government, no police, nothing, you know. That was the time, and now everybody started their duties. But still, and we have not seen anything changed. So we are just praying. 400,000 people left the country this way. That’s what we are hearing. One mall is, like, a very popular supermarket throughout the country and all those that was super . . .”
Shalva: “It is almost like Walmart, bigger than Walmart. They have a five story building, very big building, five story. All goods they sell. So 29 of that kind of store have been burned, totally burned. All buildings have been gone to the ashes.”
Jandi: “And even some people were burned inside.”
When asked if their own children, who are all young adults, were affected, Shalva and Jandi’s relief is mixed with grief. Their own family is safe, but the violence has struck heartbreakingly close to home. One of their neighbor’s friends narrowly survived when a bullet grazed his chin. Another boy from their neighborhood, just 17 years old, was killed on his way home from a school exam.
Stories like these are everywhere, they say, and each one deepens the sense of loss across Nepal. For now, their family and ministry partners in rural villages remain safer, but those living in the cities continue to face great danger.
“One of our daughter’s friends, the bullet was passed by his chin, just under the ear, just under the ear . . .
One, one young boy was studying in high school. The first person killed was just finished his pre-exam and was coming by walking. He was walking to home, walking from the road, and he, he is from our neighborhood. That’s what we heard . . Yesterday, I met my school friend, and she told that they are her neighbor. Very young boy, 17 year old.
But you know, things are normally going with us and also our missionaries. So they are in the villages, they are safe. Those who are in the villages, they are safe. But those who are staying in the city, it is very risky for them.”
You can read the messages we received from Shalva and Jandi, sent in real time throughout the unrest, on our blog. Their words offer a powerful glimpse into both the pain and resilience of the Nepali people in this challenging time.
In the middle of these hardships, incredible ministry continues to happen across Nepal. Local pastors and leaders supported through Harvest Bridge are offering medical care through village clinics. Churches are forming savings groups that empower families to rebuild. Ministry leaders are responding to natural disasters with compassion and faith. In every act of service, they are sharing the hope of the gospel, a hope that endures, even in the most uncertain times.
All of this ministry happens through the power of God and your continued support. If you want to make a donation to the ministry happening in Nepal, or learn more about these programs, we encourage you to visit our website, HarvestBridge.org.
Thank you for listening to the Harvest Bridge podcast. Follow us on social media, or subscribe to our email list to hear more stories like these as the leaders of Harvest Bridge seek to do much, with little.