Christianity in India

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Christians in India
Kadodi, Kannada, Telugu, Bombay East Indian and various Indian
languages
Names in native languages include Eesai, Kristhava, Masihi-Qaum, Nasrani

Malabar region (present-day Kerala) in 52 AD.[3][4][5][6]

The

Nestorians belonging to the Church of the East in India, that used the East Syriac Rite of worship.[13]

Following

western educational system to the Indian subcontinent, to spread Christianity and campaign for Hindu social reforms.[23][24][25]

Among North India's oldest Christians are those of Bettiah, Bihar, formed in the early 1700s.[26][27] The

Indian Protestants who flourished in colonial India. Consequently, these churches are part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, World Communion of Reformed Churches and World Methodist Council.[28][29][30][31][32] Christianity is the largest religion in parts of Northeast India, specifically in Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya.[33] It also is a significant religion in Arunachal Pradesh, where about 30 percent of the state is Christian.[34]

Christians were involved in the

Ancient period

St. Bartholomew

Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History (5:10) states that Bartholomew, a disciple of Jesus, went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. One tradition holds that he preached the Gospel in India, prior to his travels to Armenia,[49] while others hold that Bartholomew travelled as a missionary in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Parthia, and Lycaonia.[50]

St. Thomas

Roman trade with India originated in Ancient Egypt according to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
(1st century).

According to the tradition of

Alexandria, Egypt went to India in AD 190 and found Christians already living in India using a version of the Gospel of Matthew with "Hebrew letters, a mixture of culture."[58] This is a plausible reference to the earliest Indian churches which are known to have used the Syriac New Testament; Syriac being a dialect of the Aramaic language spoken by Jesus and his disciples.[59][56][9][10] Pantaenus' evidence thus indicates that early Christians from the Middle East had already evangelised parts of India by the late 2nd century AD.[56][58]

Another church tradition concerning the birth of Jesus holds that Gaspar, one of the three Biblical Magi, travelled from India to find the infant Jesus along with Melchior of Persia and Balthazar of Arabia.[60]

An early 3rd-century AD Syriac work known as the Acts of Thomas[61] connects the tradition of the Apostle Thomas' Indian ministry with two kings, one in the north and the other in the south. The year of his arrival is widely disputed due to lack of credible records.[62] According to one of the legends in the Acts of Thomas, Thomas was at first reluctant to accept this mission, but Jesus over-ruled him by ordering circumstances so compelling that he was forced to accompany an Indian merchant, Abbanes, to his native place in northwest India, where he found himself in the service of the Indo-Parthian king, Gondophares. The apostle's ministry reputedly resulted in many conversions throughout this northern kingdom, including the king and his brother.[61]

The Acts of Thomas identifies his second mission in India with a kingdom ruled by a certain King named Mahadwa belonging to a 1st-century dynasty in southern India.

Apostolic See credited to the apostolate of St. Thomas.[citation needed
]

Although little is known of the immediate growth of the church in the northwestern regions of India,

Early Christians in India is further substantiated by the records acknowledging the work of Saint Severus of Vienne, a 5th-century missionary of Indian origin who evangelised in Vienne, France.[63][64]

4th-century missions

India had a flourishing trade with

Mediterranean, and the Middle East, both along mountain passes in the north and sea routes down the western and southern coast, well before the advent of the Christian era, and it is likely that Christian merchants from these lands settled in Indian cities along these trading routes.[66] The colony of Syrian Christians established at Muziris (present-day Kodungallur) may be the first Christian community in South India for which there is a continuous written record.[67]

The Chronicle of Seert describes an evangelical mission to India by Bishop David of Basra around the year 300,[68] who reportedly made many conversions,[69] and it has been speculated that his mission took in areas of southern India.[70]

Chera Dynasty, which gave his party and all native Christians socio-economic privileges.[72] The community of Christians that came along with Knai Thoma is called Knanaya Christians.[71][73]

Medieval period

The

Malabar coast in the 4th century. Mar Sabor and Mar Proth arrived in Kollam in the 9th century.[74]

Kollam Tharisappalli or Quilon copper plates (849 CE) commissioned during the reign of Sthanu Ravi Varma, and given to the Syrian Christian leader Maruvan Sapir Iso, granting land for the construction of a Syrian Church near Kollam in Kerala

Nasranis
.

Other references to

Nasrani people by referring to them by the name Essanis.[76] The embassy of King Alfred in 883 AD sent presents to St. Thomas Christians.[77] Marco Polo who visited in 1292, mentioned that there were Christians in the Malabar coast.[78]

The French or Catalan

Modern period

Church of the East and its dioceses and missions throughout Asia, including India

Portuguese efforts to Catholicize Saint Thomas Christians

Edessa, Mesopotamia
at the time.

Historically, this community was organised as the

Archdiocese of Goa administered by Roman Catholic Padroado
missionaries.

The death of the last

Archdiocese of Angamalé for the Saint Thomas Christians; thus created another suffragan see to Archdiocese of Goa and Latinisation of St Thomas Christians started. The Saint Thomas Christians were pressured to acknowledge the authority of the Pope and most of them eventually accepted the Catholic faith, but a part of them switched to West Syriac Rite.[92] Resentment of these measures led to some part of the community to join the Archdeacon, Thomas, in swearing never to submit to the Portuguese Jesuits in the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653. Those who accepted the West Syriac theological and liturgical tradition of Gregorios became known as Jacobites
. The others who continued with East Syriac theological and liturgical tradition stayed faithful to the Catholic Church and later became autonomous eastern catholic church named Syro Malabar Church (suriyani malabar sabha) .

Following the synod, the Indian Church was governed by Portuguese prelates. They were generally unwilling to respect the integrity of the local church. This resulted in disaffection which led to a general revolt in 1653 known as the "Coonan Cross Oath". Under the leadership of Archdeacon Thomas, Nazranis around Cochin gathered at Mattancherry church on Friday, 24 January 1653 (M.E. 828 Makaram 3) and made an oath that is known as the Great Oath of Bent Cross. There are various versions about the wording of oath, one version being that the oath was directed against the Portuguese, another that it was directed against Jesuits, yet another version that it was directed against the authority of Church of Rome.[93] Those who were not able to touch the cross tied ropes on the cross, held the rope in their hands and made the oath. Because of the weight it is believed by the followers that the cross bent a little and so it is known as "Oath of the bent cross" (Coonen Kurisu Sathyam). This demanded administrative autonomy for the local church.

A few months, later Archdeacon Thomas was ordained as bishop by twelve priests with the title

Gregorios Abdul Jaleel of Jerusalem
to India in 1665. He confirmed Thoma I as a bishop and worked together with him to organize the Church. These events led to the gradual and lasting schism among the Saint Thomas Christians of India, leading to the formation of Puthenkūr (New allegiance) and Pazhayakūr (Old allegiance) factions.

Historic divisions among Saint Thomas Christians

The Pazhayakūr comprise the present day

Arrival of Europeans

Cochin
in 1524 and was originally buried in this church

In 1453, the

Sunni Islamic Ottoman Caliphate marked the end of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire), and severed European trade links by land with Asia. This massive blow to Christendom spurred the Age of Discovery as Europeans started seeking alternative routes east by sea along with the goal of forging alliances with pre-existing Christian nations.[100][101] Along with Portuguese long-distance maritime travelers that reached the Malabar Coast in the late 15th century, came Portuguese missionaries who made contact with the St Thomas Christians in Kerala. These Christians were following Eastern Christian practices and under the jurisdiction of Church of the East. The missionaries sought to introduce the Latin liturgical rites among them and unify East Syriac Christians in India under the Holy See. This group, which existed in Kerala relatively peacefully for more than a millennium, faced considerable persecution from Portuguese evangelists in the 16th century.[102][103] This later wave of evangelism spread Catholicism more widely along the Konkan coast.[104][105]

The South Indian coastal areas around Kanyakumari were known for pearl fisheries ruled by the Paravars. From 1527, the Paravars, being threatened by Arab fleets offshore who were supported Zamorin of Calicut,[106] sought the protection of the Portuguese who had moved into the area. The protection was granted on the condition that the leaders were immediately baptised as Christians and that they would encourage their people also to convert to Christianity. The Portuguese in turn wanted to gain a strategic foothold and control of the pearl fisheries. The deal was agreed and some months later 20,000 Paravars were baptised en masse, and by 1537 the entire community had declared itself to be Christian. The Portuguese navy destroyed the Arab fleet at Vedalai on 27 June 1538.[107][106]

Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, began a mission to the lower classes of Tamil society in 1542.[108] A further 30,000 Paravars were baptised. Xavier appointed catechists in the Paravar villages up and down the 100 miles (160 km) coastline to spread and reinforce his teachings.[109] Paravar Christianity, with its own identity based on a mixture of Christian religious belief and Hindu caste culture, remains a defining part of the Paravar life today.[106][110]

Portuguese-Tamil Primer (1554). One of the earliest known Christian books in an Indian language

In the 16th century, the proselytisation of Asia was linked to the

Jesuits, Augustinians arrived with the Portuguese colonisers. The history of Portuguese missionaries in India starts with the Portuguese clergy who reached Kappad near Kozhikode on 20 May 1498, along with the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama who was seeking to form anti-Islamic alliances with pre-existing Christian nations.[112][113] The lucrative spice trade was further temptation for the Portuguese crown.[114] When he and the Portuguese missionaries arrived, they found Christians in the country in Malabar known as St. Thomas Christians who belonged to the then-largest Christian church within India.[113] The Christians were friendly to Portuguese missionaries at first; there was an exchange of gifts between them, and these groups were delighted at their common faith.[115]

Jesuit
missionaries, ca. 1605

During the second expedition, the Portuguese fleet comprising 13 ships and 18 priests, under Captain

St. Francis Church (1506) using stones and mortar, which was unheard of at that time, as the local prejudices were against such a structure for any purpose other than a royal palace or a temple.[116]

In the beginning of the 16th century, the whole of the east was under the jurisdiction of the

Funchal, with a jurisdiction extending potentially over all past and future conquests from the Cape of Good Hope
to China.

The first converts to Christianity in Goa were native Goan women who married Portuguese men that arrived with

Christianisation of Goa, over 90% of the Goans in the Velhas Conquistas became Catholic by the 1700s.[118]

Christian maidens of Goa meeting a Portuguese nobleman seeking a wife, from the Códice Casanatense (c. 1540)

The Portuguese government supported the missionaries. At the same time many

Shudras (12.5%) and farmers (35.5%).[122]

In 1557,

Goa
and its boundaries extended to almost half of the world: from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, to Burma, China and Japan in East Asia. In 1576, the suffragan See of Macao (China) was added; and in 1588, that of Funai in Japan.

The

Diocese of Angamaly was transferred to Diocese of Craganore in 1605, while, in 1606 a sixth suffragan see to Goa was established at San Thome, Mylapore, near the modern Madras, and the site of the National Shrine of St. Thomas
Basilica. The suffragan sees added later to Goa. were the prelacy of Mozambique (1612), Peking (1609) and Nanking (1609) in China. A significant portion of the crew on Portuguese ships were Indian Christians.[123]

The

Goan Inquisition
.

The

Bombay East Indian
Christians who are predominantly Roman Catholics and inhabitants of the north Konkan region.

In

Portuguese Bombay and Bassein
missionary work progressed on a large scale and with great success along the western coasts, chiefly at Chaul, Bombay, Salsette, Bassein, Damao, and Diu; and on the eastern coasts at San Thome of Mylapore, and as far as Bengal etc. In the southern districts the Jesuit mission in Madura was the most famous. It extended to the Krishna river, with a number of outlying stations beyond it. The mission of Cochin, on the Malabar Coast, was also one of the most fruitful. Several missions were also established in the interior northwards that of Agra and Lahore in 1570 and that of Tibet in 1624. Still, even with these efforts, and many vast tracts of the interior northwards were practically unreached.

With the decline of the Portuguese power, other colonial powers namely the Dutch and British gained influence, paving the way for the arrival of Protestantism.

Arrival of Protestant missions

New Jerusalem Church, Tranquebar, built in 1718, is one of the oldest Protestant churches in India

Beginning about 1700 Protestant missionaries began working throughout India, leading to the establishment of different Christian communities across the Indian Subcontinent.

German Lutherans and Basel mission

The first Protestant missionaries to set foot in India were two

Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau. The seat of the bishop, the cathedral and its church house, the Tranquebar House are in Tiruchirappalli
.

German missionary Johann Phillip Fabricius, who arrived in South India in 1740, published the first Tamil to English dictionary and refined the Tamil Bible translation.[126]

Christian Friedrich Schwarz was a prominent German Lutheran missionary who arrived in India in 1750. His mission was instrumental in the conversion of many people from Tamil Nadu to Lutheranism. He died in Tamil Nadu and was buried in St.Peter's Church at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.[127][128][129]

Hermann Gundert a German missionary, scholar, and linguist, as well as the maternal grandfather of German novelist and Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse was a missionary in the South Indian state of Kerala and was instrumental in compiling a Malayalam grammar book, Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam (1859), in which he developed and constructed the grammar currently spoken by the Malayalis, published a Malayalam-English dictionary (1872), and contributed to work on Bible translations into Malayalam.[130][131]

Eugen Liebendörfer was the first German missionary doctor in India as part of the Basel Mission. He built hospitals in Kerala and Karnataka.[132]

Another Basel Missionary Ferdinand Kittel worked in South Indian state of Karnataka in places such as Mangalore, Madikeri and Dharwad in Karnataka. He is renowned for his studies of the Kannada language and for producing a Kannada-English dictionary of about 70,000 words in 1894. He also composed numerous Kannada poems.[133][134][135]

Mangalooru Samachara in 1843.[136]
He was awarded a doctorate for his literary work in Kannada called as Bibliotheca Carnataca. He also translated Kannada literature into German.

Another Lutheran German missionary to South Indian state of Kerala was Volbrecht Nagel, he was a missionary to the Malabar coast of India. Initially associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church, he later joined the Open Brethren, and is remembered now as a pioneer of the Kerala Brethren movement.[137]

William Carey and the Baptists

William Carey, 1761–1834.

In 1793,

Baptist Minister, came to India as a missionary but also as a man of learning in economics, medicine and botany.[138] He worked in Serampore, Calcutta, and other places. He translated the Bible into Bengali, Sanskrit, and numerous other languages and dialects. He worked in India despite the hostility of the British East India Company until his death in 1834. Carey and his colleagues, Joshua Marshman and William Ward, blended science, Christianity, and constructive Orientalism in their work at the Danish settlement of Serampore, near Calcutta. Carey saw the dissemination of European science and Christianity as mutually supportive and equally important civilizing missions. He also supported a revival of Sanskrit science. Carey played a key role in the establishment of the Agricultural Society of India. Ward, beginning in 1806, published important commentaries on ancient Hindu medical and astronomy texts. In 1818 Carey and his fellow missionaries founded Serampore College to nurture a uniquely Indian variety of European science.[139]

Established in 1818, Serampore College is one of the oldest continuously operating educational institutions in India

Other missions

The London Missionary Society was the first Protestant mission in Andhra Pradesh which established its station at Visakhapatnam in 1805.[140] Anthony Norris Groves, a Plymouth Brethren missionary arrived in 1833. He worked in the Godavari delta area until his death in 1852. John Christian Frederick Heyer was the first Lutheran missionary in the region of Andhra Pradesh. He founded the Guntur Mission in 1842. Supported initially by the Pennsylvania Ministerium, and later by the Foreign Mission Board of the General Synod, Heyer was also encouraged and assisted by British government officials. He established a number of hospitals and a network of schools throughout the Guntur region.[141]

The Church Missionary Society (CMS), a mission society working with the Anglican Communion,[142] began sending missionaries to India and established mission stations at Chennai (Madras) and Bengal, then in 1816 at Travancore.[143] The CMS Mission to India expanded in the following years. The successors of the Protestant church missions are the Church of South India and the Church of North India.[142]

The SPG Mission, and the Church Mission Society of Church of England in the early 18th century. British missionary William Carey was instrumental in translating the Bible into the Marathi language.[144]

During the Bettiah Raj of Bihar, the ethnoreligious community of Bettiah Christians was established in India in the 17th century by Christian missionaries belonging to the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, a Roman Catholic religious order.[145] The Capuchins were personally invited to establish the Bettiah Christian Mission by Maharaja Dhurup Singh after the Italian Capuchin priest Joseph Mary Bernini treated his ill wife. Pope Benedict XIV, on 1 May 1742, approved the appointment of the Capuchins at the Bettiah Fort in a letter to Maharaja Dhurup Singh.[146]

Many upper-class Bengalis converted to Christianity during the

During the 19th century, several American Baptist missionaries evangelised in the northeastern parts of India. In 1876, Dr. E. W. Clark first went to live in a Naga village, four years after his Assamese helper, Godhula, baptised the first Naga converts. Rev. and Mrs. A.F. Merrill arrived in India in 1928 and worked in the southeast section of the Garo Hills.[148] Rev. and Mrs. M.J. Chance spent most of the years between 1950 and 1956 at Golaghat working with the Naga and Garo tribes.[149] Even today the heaviest concentrations of Christians in India continue to be in the Northeast among the Nagas, Khasis, Kukis, and Mizos.[150]

Role in the Indian independence movement

Indian Christians were involved even at early stages of the nationalist movement in colonial India, both in the Indian National Congress and the wider Indian independence movement:[36]

Indian Christian involvement in the early stages of the nationalist movement is also reflected in the high levels of participation in the activities of the Indian National Congress. During the period from its inception up until about 1892 all the evidence suggests that Indian Christians enthusiastically supported the National Congress and attended its annual meetings. For example, according to the official Congress report, there were 607 registered delegates at the Madras meeting of 1887; thirty-five were Christians and, of these, seven were Eurasians and fifteen were Indian Christians. Indian Christians alone made up 2.5 per cent of the total attendance, in spite of the fact that Christians accounted for less than 0.79 per cent of the population. The Indian Christian community was also well represented at the next four sessions of the Congress. The proportion of Indian Christian delegates remained very much higher than their proportion in the population, in spite of the fact that meetings were sometimes held in cities such as Allahabad and Nagpur, far removed from the main centres of Christian population.[36]

The

religious freedom for both organisations and individuals; this came to be reflected in the Constitution of India.[35]

Art and architecture

Reliquiary of St. Thomas kept at Kodungallur church, Kerala

There are a large number of items of artistic and architectural significance in the religious and domestic life of Indian Christians.

sacred art of the Indian Christians.[151]

The following artistic elements predate European Christianity and form an integral part of the religious art and architecture of the Saint Thomas Christians:

  • The open-air granite (rock) cross called the Nasrani Sthamba
  • Kodimaram (Dwajasthamba) or flag-staff made of Kerala's famed teak wood and often enclosed in copper hoses or paras
  • The rock Deepasthamba or lampstand.[151]

After the arrival of

St. Francis Church, Kochi is the first European place of worship in India and incidentally also the place where Vasco da Gama was first buried. The Christian art of Goa reached its climax in church building, laying the foundations of Indian Baroque.[151]

Indian Christian architecture during the

Danish influences on Christian art and architecture in India can be seen in their respective colonies.[155]

Kerala Christians have a unique tradition of photographing funerals.[166]

Culture

Pesaha Appam is an unleavened Passover bread made by the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala to be served on Passover night
Goan Catholic
Ros ceremony

While Christians in India do not share one common culture, their cultures for the most part tend to be a blend of Indian, Syrian and European cultures. It differs from one region to another depending on several factors such as the prevailing

Christianised
Jewish elements, along with some Hindu customs.

As a result of the

Mangalorean Catholic culture.[172] Christianity in other parts of India spread under the colonial regimes of the Dutch, Danish, French and most importantly the English from the early 17th century to the time of the Indian Independence in 1947. Christian culture in these colonial territories has been influenced by the religion and culture of their respective colonisers.[173]

Contemporary

Anglican Protestant denominations: Church of South India and Church of North India.[174] Today Christians are considered to be one of the most progressive communities in India.[175] Urban Christians are to a greater extent influenced by European traditions which is considered an advantage in the business environment of urban India; this is given as an explanation for the large number of Christian professionals in India's corporate sector.[176] The Christian church runs thousands of educational institutions
which have contributed to the strengthening of Christian culture in India.

Religion plays a significant role in the daily life of Indian Christians, India ranks 15 among countries with based on

All Saints Day
are also observed by many.

Christian weddings in India conform to the traditional

Demographics

The 2001 census of India recorded 24,080,016 Christians in the country, representing 2.34 per cent of the population.

Oriental Orthodox
etc.

Saint Francis Xavier
Marathi Anglicans in Mumbai
Oriental Orthodox Christians celebrating Palm Sunday
Devotees light candles and pray outside the Sacred Heart Cathedral, New Delhi on the occasion of Christmas

Population by denomination

In 2011, Pew reported 18,860,000 Protestants, 10,570,000 Catholics, 2,370,000 Oriental Orthodox and 50,000 other Christians in India.[2] Other sources estimate the total number of Protestants throughout the country in several hundreds of denominations at 45 million (4.5 crore).[184][185] Several sources estimate Catholic population in India at over 17 million (1.7 crore)[186][187] The largest single denomination is the Roman Catholic Church.[188] Anglicans within the united Church of North India and Church of South India, constitute the second largest group at over 5 million (50 lakh).[189][190]

The

Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church is an Eastern Protestant denomination with 1,100,000 members.[55][195]

Most Protestant denominations are represented in India, as a result of missionary activities throughout the country, such as the

the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission, the Church Mission Society of the Church of England and many other missions from Europe, America and Australia. In 1961, an evangelical wing of the Mar Thoma Church split and formed the St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India which has 35,000 members.[196] There are about 1,267,786 Lutherans,[197] 648,000 Methodists,[198] 2,392,694 Baptists,[199] and 823,456 Presbyterians in India.[200]

The Open Brethren movement is also significantly represented in India. The main Brethren grouping is known as the Indian Brethren (with a following estimated at somewhere between 449,550[201] and 1,000,000), of which the Kerala Brethren are a significant subset. The closely related Assemblies Jehovah Shammah have around 310,000 adults and children in fellowship as of 2010.[201] They are often considered part of the wider Brethren movement, although they were founded by an indigenous evangelist (Bakht Singh) and developed independently of the older Indian Brethren movement, which originated from missionary endeavours.

Pentecostalism is also a rapidly growing movement in India. The major Pentecostal churches in India are the Indian Pentecostal Church of God,[202] the Assemblies of God, The Pentecostal Mission,[203][204] the New Apostolic Church with 1,448,209 members,[202] the New Life Fellowship Association with 480,000 members, the Manna Full Gospel Churches with 275,000 members,[202] and the Evangelical Church of India with 250,000 members.[205]

See main article: List of Christian denominations in India.

Population by region and group

Distribution of Christian population in different Indian states[183]

Christianity is the predominant religion in the North East states of Nagaland, Mizoram Meghalaya, and Manipur, and has substantial populations in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Andaman Nicobar Islands. [218]

A 2015 study estimates some 40,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to Protestantism.[219]

The census of India provides us with the official numbers for Christian population in India. The Indian census has been recorded every ten years since 1871 and has always included religion (along with population, race, rural distribution, and occupation, among others).[220] The most recently published census is from 2011.[221] Subsequent estimates from 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 are also considered reliable.[222]

The native majority of Goa is Christian. According to the 1909 statistics in the Catholic Encyclopedia, the total Christian population in Portuguese controlled Goa was 293,628 out of a total population of 365,291 (80.33%), partly because of centuries long persecution of Hindus and Muslims in Goa.[224] Due to emigration of Christianized Goans (mostly Goan Catholics) from Goa to cosmopolitan cities in India (Mumbai, Bangalore, etc.) and to foreign countries, as well as back migration of Hindus and Muslims to Goa from other states of India since the 20th century, the demographics of Goa have been returning to the historical figures. Less than 50% of Indian residents in Goa are Goan Christians.[225]

Percentage Christian population, India census 2011
Caste demographic data reported by the Sachar Committee on Muslim Affairs in 2006[227]
Religion
Scheduled caste
Scheduled tribe
Other Backward Class Forward caste
Buddhism 89.50% 7.40% 0.4% 2.7%
Sikhism 30.70% 0.90% 22.4% 46.1%
Hinduism 22.20% 9.10% 42.8% 26%
Christianity 9.00% 32.80% 24.8% 33.3%
Islam 0.80% 0.50% 39.2% 59.5%
September 2008 attacks on Christians in Mangalore

Conflicts and controversies

Hindu–Christian conflict

2008 anti-Christian attacks in Orissa

The arrival of European colonialists brought about large-scale missionary activity in

sackings of Goa-Anjediva and Bombay-Bassein are among the first known clashes.[229]

During the 1998 attacks on Christians in southeastern Gujarat, the Human Rights Watch reported that from 25 December 1988 to 3 January 1999, at least 20 prayer halls were damaged or burnt down and Christian institutions were attacked in the Dangs district, and its surrounding districts and at least 25 villages had reported incidents of burning and damages to prayer halls all over Gujarat.[230][231]

On 22 January 1999, an Australian missionary

Keonjhar district in Odisha, India.[232][233] In the annual human rights reports for 1999, the United States Department of State also criticized India for "increasing societal violence against Christians."[234] The report on anti-Christian violence listed over 90 incidents of anti-Christian violence, ranging from damage of religious property to violence against Christians pilgrims. The states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu passed laws placing restrictions on forced religious conversions as a result of communal tension between Christians and Hindus.[235] The legislation passed in Tamil Nadu was later repealed.[235]

In 2007, 19 churches were burned by Hindu right-wingers in Odisha following conflicts between Hindus and Christians regarding Christmas celebrations in the Kandhamal district.[236]

In 2008, there was again violence against Christians, particularly in the state of

2008 anti-Christian attacks in Orissa spilled over and escalated into the 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka state. The acts of violence include arson and vandalism of churches, forced conversion of Christians to Hinduism by threats of physical violence, distribution of threatening literature, burning of Bibles, raping of nuns, murder of Christian priests, and destruction of Christian schools, colleges and cemeteries.[241][242][243]

A program or movement with its roots in

Hindu nationalist groups, facilitates the mass conversion of Christians– and, especially, Muslims –"back" to their supposedly "inherent" or "natural" religion of Hinduism. Organisations which promote Ghar wapasi include the far-right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and the right-wing groups Vishva Hindu Parishad and Dharm Jagaran Samiti. Its support by influential officials within the BJP, the governing party, has led to criticism such that support threatens the secularism and freedom of religion enshrined in India's constitution.[244][245]

India is number 10 on Open Doors' 2022 World Watch List, an annual ranking of the fifty countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution.[246]

Muslim–Christian conflict

Seringapatam

The relationship between Muslims and Christians in India has also been occasionally turbulent. With the advent of European colonialism in India throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, Christians were systematically persecuted in certain Muslim-ruled kingdoms in India, particularly the actions by

Mangalorean Catholics (South Canara). The captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam, which began on 24 February 1784 and ended 15 years later on 4 May 1799, remains the most disconsolate memory in that community's history.[247]

The Bakur Manuscript reports Tippu Sultan as having said:[248]

All Musalmans should unite together, considering the annihilation of infidels as a sacred duty, and labour to the utmost of their power, to accomplish that subject.

Soon after the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784, Tipu gained control of South Canara.[249] He issued orders to seize the Christians in Canara, confiscate their estates,[250] and deport them to Seringapatam, the capital of his empire, via the Jamalabad-fort route.[251] However, there were no priests among the captives. Together with Fr Miranda, all the 21 arrested priests were issued orders of expulsion to Goa, fined Rs 200,000, and threatened with death by hanging if they ever returned.[248]

Tipu ordered the destruction of twenty-seven Catholic churches[

Moodbidri.[252]

An instigating factor that helped spark the

Historian

William Dalrymple notes the religiously imbued rhetoric employed, in contrast to nationalistic sentiment. For instance, when Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar met the sepoys on 11 May 1857, he was told: "We have joined hands to protect our religion and our faith." They later stood in Chandni Chowk, the main square, and asked the people gathered there, "Brothers, are you with those of the faith?"[254] Those British men and women who had previously converted to Islam such as the defectors, Sergeant-Major Gordon, and Abdullah Beg, a former Company soldier, were spared.[255] In contrast, foreign Christians such as the Rev Midgeley John Jennings, as well as Indian converts to Christianity such as one of Zafar's personal physicians, Chaman Lal, were killed outright.[255] Dalrymple recounts that as late as 6 September, when calling the inhabitants of Delhi to rally against the upcoming British assault, Zafar issued a proclamation stating that this was a religious war being prosecuted on behalf of "the faith", and that all Muslim and Hindu residents of the imperial city, or of the countryside were encouraged to stay true to their faith and creeds.[254] He observes that the Urdu sources of the pre- and post-rebellion periods usually refer to the British not as angrez ('the English'), goras ('whites') or firangis ('foreigners'), but as kafir ('infidels') and nasrani ('Christians').[254]

Muslims in India who convert to Christianity are considered apostates and subject to harassment, intimidation, and attacks by Muslims.[256][257] In Jammu and Kashmir, a Christian convert and missionary named Bashir Tantray was killed, allegedly by militant Islamists in 2006.[258][unreliable source?]

List of Christian communities in India

Christian communities

Christianity by state

Notable Indian Christians

See also

References

Citations

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Bibliography

Further reading

External links