17 Americans arrested in Nepal

 

Nepalese media reported last week that more than a dozen U.S. citizens and one citizen of India were detained and questioned over alleged evangelistic activities in southeastern Nepal. Civil society sources and religious leaders have confirmed the news to International Christian Concern (ICC), specifying the city of Dharan as the location of the incident and expressing alarm at the Nepalese government’s overt attempt to intimidate the Christian community. 

The American Christians, visiting Nepal on tourist visas, were reportedly found helping to construct a building in Dharan. Authorities accused them of sharing their faith with locals, though officials did not elaborate on the concern. 

Nepal’s Anti-Conversion Laws 

Under the National Penal Code of 2017, “No person shall convert any one from one religion to another or make attempt to or abet such conversion.” The Nepalese Constitution, ratified in 2015, contains a similar prohibition, stating in Article 26(3) that “No person shall ... convert another person from one religion to another or any act or conduct that may jeopardize other’s [sic] religion.” 

Together, these laws allow authorities to selectively target Christian religious practice, which prioritizes sharing one’s faith with others more than many other religions. Neighboring India, which has been accused of funding religious extremism in Nepal, has similar laws but only at the state level. 

Anti-conversion laws in India also target “forced” conversion. While the practical impact of this semantic difference is minimal, Nepal’s hardline stance against all conversions makes it an outlier in the region. 

Nepalese authorities released the group after questioning, warning them that they could face further consequences if found continuing to proselytize. Under Nepalese law, authorities could deport and ban the group from reentering Nepal. Local Christians, who are regularly harassed by authorities on charges of proselytization, face three to six years in prison for the offense. 

Legal and Social Harassment 

Though those facing prosecution are often released on bail and later acquitted, this is not always the case. Even when positively resolved, these cases have a dampening effect on religious minorities and their right to share their religion. Some accused report being detained for months while their cases progressed slowly. Many cases stretch on for years before being decided. 

In one famous case, Christian pastor Keshav Raj Acharya was sentenced to two years in prison in November 2021 for proselytizing. Acharya’s trouble with the law stems back to 2020, when he was arrested three times for an online video in which he appeared to claim that God could heal COVID-19, then a relatively new global phenomenon. In addition to COVID-related charges, authorities charged him with attempted religious conversion and offending the religious sensibilities of others — both crimes under Nepalese law, as detailed above. 

Years of legal pressure have not succeeded in diminishing the Christian church in Nepal, which is growing rapidly by all accounts. Still, the country’s legal structure and everyday practices are discriminatory, from their constitution down to the local police. Nepal’s legal structure and governmental practices require significant reform to realign with international human rights standards. 

A widespread problem for the Christian community in Nepal is the matter of community-level ostracism that pushes Christians to the margins. Boycotts of Christians’ businesses by their neighbors can have a devastating impact, especially in remote areas where one’s identity is known to everyone, and the only potential customers are local to that town or village. In some cases, the only option is to relocate. 

In Hinduism, the body after death is considered a hindrance to the soul’s progress toward freedom and is therefore cremated to prevent the soul from lingering near the body. Nepalese Christians tend to bury their dead without first cremating, creating discomfort among their Hindu neighbors who believe that this practice creates haunted areas. Consequently, Christians in certain areas — especially in the Kathmandu Valley — face difficulties accessing land to bury their dead. 

In one well-known communal cemetery, located behind the Pashupati Hindu Temple in Kathmandu, the court ruled against Christians seeking to bury their dead in what had been their traditional local burial ground. When ICC visited the site in 2023, the area was still closed to Christian burials. However, the U.S. Department of State noted in a report published in May of that year that authorities were allowing burials of individuals from indigenous faiths. 

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