The South Asian Spring: flash Social Movements from Sri Lanka to Nepal

Abstract

Between 2022 and 2025, South Asia experienced a series of rapid-onset protest movements that successfully toppled established governments within compressed timeframes. This article examines the protest waves in Sri Lanka (2022), Bangladesh (2024), and Nepal (2025) through the lens of Rauf Arif’s Flash Social Movement theory while critically extending this framework through comparative institutional analysis. These movements demonstrate both the continued relevance of Arab Spring dynamics in contemporary Asian contexts and reveal new patterns wherein digital mobilization intersects with traditional forms of collective action. The analysis reveals how accumulated grievances, digital connectivity, and generational political consciousness converge to create predictable yet powerful challenges to authoritarian governance, while institutional variables (particularly security force cohesion and elite fragmentation) mediate the effectiveness and timing of regime change. By engaging with connective action theory and networked movement scholarship, this article advances our understanding of how South Asian contexts adapt global protest repertoires to regional political cultures.