Gospel or governance? The political metaphor of Christian conversion in Nepal’s Chepang community

Christianity’s expansion in Nepal’s Chepang community is not merely a religious shift but a structural reconfiguration of governance, sovereignty, and ideological influence. In marginalized regions where state authority is weak or absent, conversion serves as an entry point into transnational faith-based governance networks that regulate resource distribution, political agency, and social legitimacy. Churches do not simply supplement governance, they establish parallel structures of authority, displacing traditional leadership and embedding external ideological frameworks into local institutions. This process fractures indigenous governance mechanisms, redefines state legitimacy, and transforms faith into an instrument of institutional capture and geopolitical intervention. Christianization in Nepal thus exemplifies a broader pattern of religious soft power deployment, where conversion functions as a vector for ideological penetration, governance substitution, and political restructuring, raising critical questions about sovereignty and the evolving architecture of transnational religious governance.