Constitution of Nepal in the context of "Gandaki Province"

Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, and India to the south, east, and west, while it is narrowly separated from Bangladesh by the Siliguri Corridor, and from Bhutan by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world's ten highest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point above mean sea level on Earth. Kathmandu is the nation's capital and its largest city. Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-cultural state, with Nepali as the official language.

The name "Nepal" is first recorded in texts from the Vedic period of the Indian subcontinent, the era in ancient Nepal when Hinduism was founded, the predominant religion of the country. In the middle of the first millennium BC, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in Lumbini in southern Nepal. Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet. The centrally located Kathmandu Valley is intertwined with the culture of Indo-Aryans, and was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala. The Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valley's traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional art and architecture. By the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal. The Shah dynasty established the Kingdom of Nepal and later formed an alliance with the British Empire, under its Rana dynasty of premiers. The country was never colonised but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and British India. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951 but was twice suspended by Nepalese monarchs, in 1960 and 2005. The Nepalese Civil War in the 1990s and early 2000s resulted in the establishment of a secular republic in 2008, ending the world's last Hindu monarchy. The Constitution of Nepal, adopted in 2015, affirms the country as a federal parliamentary republic divided into seven provinces. In September 2025, protests against a social media ban and economic inequality caused riots, resulting in casualties and resignation of the prime minister.

The Provinces of Nepal, officially the Autonomous Nepalese Provinces (Nepali: स्वायत्त नेपाली प्रदेशहरू, romanized: Nepālkā Swayatta Pradeśharū), were formed on 20 September 2015 in accordance with Schedule 4 of the Constitution of Nepal. The seven provinces were formed by grouping the existing districts. The current system of seven provinces replaced an earlier system where Nepal was divided into 14 administrative zones which were grouped into five development regions.

Koshi Province (Nepali: कोशी प्रदेश, romanized: Kōśī pradēśa) is an autonomous province of Nepal adopted by the Constitution of Nepal on 20 September 2015. It covers an area of 25,905 km (10,002 sq mi), about 17.5% of the country's total area. With the industrial city of Biratnagar as its capital, the province includes the towns of Birtamod, Sundar Haraincha, Damak, Dharan, Itahari, Triyuga Municipality and Mechinagar, and Mount Everest, Kangchenjunga and Ama Dablam. Koshi River, the largest river of the nation, forms the province's western boundary. Under the First-past-the-post voting system issued by the Constituency Delimitation Commission, Nepal, the province hosts 28 parliamentary seats and 56 provincial assembly seats.The province is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal to the east, Bihar to the south, and Bagmati Province and Madhesh Province to the west. According to the 2021 Nepal census, there are around five million people in the province, with a population density of 190 per square kilometre. In the 2011 Nepal census, the province had approximately 4.5 million people.

Bagmati Province (Nepali: बागमती प्रदेश, Bāgmatī pradēśa) is one of the seven provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. Bagmati is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest province by area. It is bordered by Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, Gandaki Province to the west, Koshi Province to the east, Madhesh Province and the Indian state of Bihar to the south. With Hetauda as its provincial headquarters, the province is also the home to the country's capital Kathmandu, is mostly hilly and mountainous, and hosts mountain peaks including Gaurishankar, Langtang, Jugal, and Ganesh.

Being the second most populous province of Nepal, it possesses rich cultural diversity with resident communities and castes including Thami (Thangmi) (Shneiderman, 2009, 2015; Turin, 1998), Newar, Tamang,Sherpa, Tharu, Chepang, Jirel, Brahmin, Chhetri, and more. It hosted the highest number of voters in the 2017 election for the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly.

Karnali Province (Nepali: कर्णाली प्रदेश, romanized: Karṇālī pradēśa) is one of the seven federal provinces of Nepal formed by the new constitution, which was adopted on 20 September 2015. The total area of the province is 27,984 square kilometres (10,805 sq mi), making it the largest province in Nepal with 18.97% of the country's area. According to the 2011 Nepal census, the population of the province was 1,570,418, making it the least populous province in Nepal. The province borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, Gandaki Province to the east, Sudurpashchim Province to the west, and Lumbini Province to the south. Birendranagar with a population of 154,886 is both the province's capital and largest city.

Languages of Nepal, referred to as Nepalese languages in the country's constitution, are the languages having at least an ancient history or origin inside the sovereign territory of Nepal, spoken by Nepalis.

There were 124 mother tongues according to the "National Report on caste/ethnicity, language & religion", National Population and Housing Census 2021 in Nepal.

Khas peoples or Khas Tribes, (English: /kɑːs/; Nepali: खस) popularly known as Khashiya are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, in what is now the South Asian country of Nepal, as well as the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and Sikkim. Khas consists of many subtribes like Kshetri, Thakuri, Bahun and Sanyasis and all spread across the Himalayas.

According to the Constitution of Nepal, Bahun, Kshetris, Thakuris, and Sanyasis (Dashnami) who are citizens of Nepal should be considered as "Khas Arya" for electoral purposes.