Christianity in India

Christians in India
Saint Thomas Christian cross from the 9th century St George's Church, Kadamattom, Kerala
Total population
26 million[1] (2.3%) (2011)
Regions with significant populations
Largest Christian population in Kerala at 6.14 million (18.4% of state population). Majority in Nagaland at 87.92%, Mizoram at 87.16% and Meghalaya at 74.59%. Plurality in Manipur at 41.29% and Arunachal Pradesh at 30%. Significant populations in Goa at 25.10%, Pondicherry at 6.3%, Tamil Nadu at 6.1% & Bombay (Mumbai) at 3.45%.[2]
Religions
Protestant (59.22%), Roman Catholic (33.19%), Oriental Orthodox (7.44%), others (0.15%) etc.[3]
Languages
Malayalam, Syriac, Latin, Bengali, Punjabi, English, Tamil, Hindi-Urdu, Bodo, Khasi, Karbi, Mizo, Rabha, Mushing, Naga, Kuki, Garo, Hmar, Nepali, Assamese, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Kokborok, Konkani, Kadodi, Kannada, Telugu, Bombay East Indian dialect and other Indian languages
Names in native languages include Eesai, Kristhava, Masihi-Qaum, Nasrani
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Christianity in India
Christianity in India
Communities
People
Denominations

Saint Thomas Christian denominations

Syro-Malabar Catholic, Syro-Malankara Catholic, Latin Catholic

Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

Independent Oriential Orthodox

Malabar Independent Syrian Church

Chaldean Syrian

Mar Thoma Syrian, St. Thomas Evangelical

Protestant denominations
Andhra Evangelical Lutheran, Assemblies Jehovah Shammah, Christian Revival Church, Church of North India, Church of South India, Garo Baptist, Indian Brethren, Indian Pentecostal Church of God, Church of God (Full Gospel), North Bank Baptist Christian, Northern Evangelical Lutheran, Methodist Church, Presbyterian, The Pentecostal Mission, Seventh-day Adventist, United Evangelical Lutheran

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    Christianity is India's third-largest religion with about 26 million adherents, making up 2.3 percent of the population as of the 2011 census.[1] The written records of St Thomas Christians mention that Christianity was introduced to the Indian subcontinent by Thomas the Apostle, who sailed to the Malabar region (present-day Kerala) in 52 AD.[4][5][6][7]

    The Acts of Thomas say that the early Christians were Malabar Jews who had settled in what is present-day Kerala before the birth of Christ.[8][9] St Thomas, an Aramaic-speaking Jew[10][11] from Galilee (present-day Israel) and one of the disciples of Jesus Christ, came to India[12] in search of Indian Jews.[9][13] After years of evangelism, Thomas was martyred and then buried at St Thomas Mount, in the Mylapore neighbourhood of Madras (Chennai).[4] There is the scholarly consensus that a Christian community had firmly established in the Malabar region by 600 AD at the latest; the community was composed of Nestorians belonging to the Church of the East in India, who used the East Syriac Rite of worship.[14]

    Following the discovery of the sea route to India, by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in the 15th century AD, Western Christianity was established in the European colonies of Goa, Tranquebar, Bombay, Madras and Pondicherry; as in Catholicism (of Latin and Syriac Rites) and various forms of Protestantism.[6] Conversions also took place through the Goan Inquisition, with the oppression of Hindus and the destruction of mandirs.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][neutrality is disputed] Christian missionaries introduced the western educational system to the Indian subcontinent, to preach Christianity and campaign for Hindu social reforms.[22][23][24][25][26][27] However, the convents & charities of missionaries are being targeted these days, specifically by banning them from getting foreign aid through the Modi administration.[28][29][30][31]

    Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of India's Christians are found in South India, Goa & Bombay.[32] The oldest known Christian group in North India are the Bettiah Christians of Bihar, formed in the early 1700s.[33][34] The Church of North India and the Church of South India are a United Protestant denomination; which resulted from the evangelism and ecumenism of Anglicans, Calvinists, Methodists and other Protestant groups who flourished in colonial India. Consequently, these churches are part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, World Communion of Reformed Churches and World Methodist Council.[35][36][37][38][39] Christianity is the largest religion in parts of Northeast India, specifically in Nagaland, Mizoram & Meghalaya.[40] It also is a significant religion in Arunachal, where about 30 percent of the state is Christian.[41] Along with native Christians, small numbers of mixed Eurasian peoples such as Anglo-Indians, Luso-Indians and Armenian Indians also existed in the subcontinent.

    Christians were involved in the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Indian independence movement, the All India Conference of Indian Christians advocated for swaraj (self rule) & opposed the partition of India.[42][43][44] There are reports of crypto-Christians who keep their faith in secret or hiding, due to the fear of persecution by Hindu extremists.[45][46][47][48][49][50][51] Some Christians have gone through forced conversion to Hinduism by political parties, such as Shiv Sena, the VHP & the BJP.[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59] Various groups of Hindu militants have also caused the demolitions of churches in certain states and territories of India,[60][61][62][63][64] except in Kerala (the Malabar region).[65]

    1. ^ a b "India's population at 1.21 billion; Hindus 79.8%, Muslims 14.2%". Business Standard India. 26 August 2015. Archived from the original on 24 April 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
    2. ^ "Mumbai Suburban District Religion Data – Census 2011". Archived from the original on 15 April 2016.
    3. ^ Hackett, Conrad (December 2011). "Global Christianity A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population" (PDF). Pew–Templeton global religious futures project. pp. 19, 27, 57, 60, 75, 83, 90, 119. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2021. Estimated 2010 Christian Population 31,850,000 (pages 19, 60, 75) Protestant 18,860,000 Catholic 10,570,000 Orthodox 2,370,000 Others 50,000 (pp. 27, 83)
    4. ^ a b Fahlbusch, Bromiley & Lochman 2008, p. 285.
    5. ^ Carman, John B.; Rao, Chilkuri Vasantha (2014). Christians in South Indian Villages, 1959–2009: Decline and Revival in Telangana. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-4674-4205-3. Most Indian Christians believe that the apostle Thomas arrived in southwest India (the present state of Kerala) in 52 C.E. and several years later was martyred outside the city of Mailapur (now part of metropolitan Chennai), on a hill now called St Thomas Mount.
    6. ^ a b Zacharia, Paul (19 February 2016). "The Surprisingly Early History of Christianity in India". Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: India. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
    7. ^ "About Thomas The Apostle". sthhoma.com. Archived from the original on 8 February 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
    8. ^ Curtin, D. P.; James, M.R. (June 2018). The Acts of St. Thomas in India. Dalcassian Publishing Company. ISBN 9781087965710.
    9. ^ a b Puthiakunnel, Thomas (1973). "Jewish colonies of India paved the way for St Thomas". In Menachery, George (ed.). The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India. Vol. 2. Madras: BNK Press. pp. 26–27. OCLC 1237836.
    10. ^ Allen C. Myers, ed. (1987). "Aramaic". The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans. p. 72. ISBN 0-8028-2402-1. It is generally agreed that Aramaic was the common language of Israel in the first century AD. Jesus and his disciples spoke the Galilean dialect, which was distinguished from that of Jerusalem (Matt. 26:73)
    11. ^ "Aramaic language". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
    12. ^ "Benedict XVI, General Audience, St Peter's Square: Thomas the twin". w2.vatican.va. 27 September 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
    13. ^ Slapak, Orpa, ed. (2003). The Jews of India: A Story of Three Communities. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. p. 27. ISBN 965-278-179-7 – via University Press of New England.
    14. ^ Suresh K Sharma, Usha Sharma. Cultural and Religious Heritage of India: Christianity. The earliest historical evidence, however, regarding the existence of a Church in South India dates from the sixth century AD
    15. ^ Salomon, H. P. and Sassoon, I. S. D., in Saraiva, Antonio Jose. The Marrano Factory. The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians, 1536–1765 (Brill, 2001), pp. 345–7.
    16. ^ "'Goa Inquisition was most merciless and cruel'". Rediff.com. 14 September 2005. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
    17. ^ Rao, R. P. (1963). Portuguese Rule in Goa: 1510–1961. Asia Publishing House. p. 43. OCLC 3296297.
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    19. ^ P. Pm Shirodkar (1994). Discoveries, Missionary Expansion, and Asian Cultures. Concept Publishing Company. p. 80. ISBN 9788170224976. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
    20. ^ Langford Louro, Michele; Spodek, Howard (2007). "India in the World; the World in India 1450-1770". Association for Asian Studies. Retrieved 4 January 2024. The Portuguese also sought to convert Indians to Roman Catholicism. Until 1540 the pace was slow and erratic. With the arrival in India of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and its Jesuit troops, however, 'intolerance became the theme.' The Portuguese destroyed all of the Hindu temples in Goa, their Indian Ocean capital, and many in other settlements as well. 'Most Hindu ceremonies were forbidden, including marriage and cremation.' In 1560, the Portuguese instituted the Inquisition, and by 1600 two-thirds of the population of the city of Goa were Christians. Many of the newly converted Christians nevertheless remained quite conscious of their caste position in the Hindu hierarchy. It was not unusual for a person to identify himself as a Goan Christian Saraswat Brahmin.
    21. ^ Saraiva, António José; Salomon, Herman Prins; Sassoon (28 September 2001). The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536–1765. BRILL. doi:10.1163/9789047400868_022. ISBN 978-90-474-0086-8.
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    35. ^ "History". Church of South India. 2010. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 22 August 2020. Being the largest Protestant church in India, the CSI celebrates her life with Indian culture and spirituality and she also raises her voice for the voiceless on matters of justice, peace and integrity of creation.
    36. ^ "History". Church of South India. 2010. Archived from the original on 14 February 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2020. The Church of South India is the result of the union of churches of varying traditions Anglican, Methodist, Congregational, Presbyterian, and Reformed. It was inaugurated in September 1947, after protracted negotiation among the churches concerned. Organized into 22 dioceses, each under the spiritual supervision of a bishop, the church as a whole is governed by a synod, which elects a moderator (presiding bishop) every 2 years. Episcopacy is thus combined with Synodical government, and the church explicitly recognizes that Episcopal, Presbyterian, and congregational elements are all necessary for the church's life.
    37. ^ Watkins, Keith (2014). The American Church that Might Have Been: A History of the Consultation on Church Union. Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-1-63087-744-6. The Church of South India created a polity that recognized Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Congregational elements and developed a book of worship that bridged the liturgical traditions that came into this new church. It set up a plan by which existing ministries were accepted while including processes which would lead to the time, a generation later, when all ministers would have been ordained by bishops in apostolic succession. The Church of South India was important as a prototype for a new American church because two factors had come together: the cross-confessional nature of its constituent parts and the intention to be, in effect, the Protestant Christian presence in communities all across the southern territories of its nation.
    38. ^ IDOC International. IDOC-North America. 1971. p. 85. ...churches that would combine the episcopal, presbyterian and congregational forms of church polity, and would accept the historic episcopate without committing the church to any particular theological interpretation of episcopacy. This is essentially what has been done both in the Church of South India and the Church of North India.
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