Christianity in Nepal

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Christianity is, according to the 2021 census, the fifth most practiced religion in Nepal, with 512,313 adherents or 1.8%,^[1] up from 2011 when there were 375,699 adherents or 1.4% of the population.^[2] Many^[3] informed observers have estimated that there are at least 1 million Nepali Christians.^[4] According to some Christian groups, there may be as many as 3 million Christians in Nepal, constituting up to 10% of the country's population.^[5] A report by Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary identified the Nepali church the fastest growing in the world.^[6] The vast majority of Nepali Christians are evangelical Protestants (if evangelical is defined broadly to include charismatics and Pentecostals);^[7] there is also a small Catholic population of roughly 10,000.^[8]

The first Christian mission to Nepal was established in 1715 by Catholic Capuchin friars,^[9] who worked in the Kathmandu Valley.^[10] The Capuchins were expelled following Nepal's unification in 1768-9,^[11] and Christian groups were officially banned from the country for the next two centuries.^[12] After the revolution of 1951, foreign missionaries were permitted to enter Nepal to perform social service work, but proselytization and conversion were still legally prohibited.^[13] It was only after the introduction of multi-party democracy in 1990, and the relaxation of restrictions on conversion,^[14] that the Nepali church began to grow rapidly,^[15] but attempts to convert others remain illegal as of 2023^[update].^[16]

The expansion of Christianity is a controversial subject in Nepal,^[17] and Nepali Christians have been subject to sporadic violence^[18] and widespread social exclusion.^[19] It is frequently reported in Nepali media and political discourse that missionaries offer the poor material incentives to convert, like what's happening in India,^[20] but research has indicated that most Nepali Christians convert for reasons other than contact with missionaries.^[21]

Nepal's constitution-writing process of 2006–15, and the 2007 designation of the country as a secular state,^[22] intensified controversies surrounding Christianity.^[23] The constitution of 2015 re-affirmed secularism but also prohibited proselytism and 'disturbing the religion of other people'.^[24] In 2017, Nepal's parliament passed a bill which prohibited 'hurting the religious sentiment of any caste, ethnic community or class by writing, through voice/talk or by a shape or symbol or in any other such manner'.^[25]