![]() Saint Thomas Christian cross from the 9th century Kadamattom Church | |
Total population | |
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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% and Tamil Nadu at 6.1%. | |
Religions | |
Protestant (59.22%), Roman Catholic (33.19%), Oriental Orthodox (7.44%), Others (0.15%) etc.[2] | |
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 and various Indian languages | |
Names in native languages include Eesai, Kristhava, Masihi-Qaum, Nasrani |
Part of a series on |
Christianity in India |
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Christianity by country |
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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 Saint 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.[3][4][5][6]
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.[7][8] St Thomas, an Aramaic-speaking Jew[9][10] from Galilee (present-day Israel) and one of the disciples of Jesus Christ, came to India[11] in search of Indian Jews.[8][12] After years of evangelism, Thomas was martyred and then buried at St Thomas Mount, in the Mylapore neighbourhood of Madras (Chennai).[3] 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 that used the East Syriac Rite of worship.[13]
Following the discovery of a 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 & Pondicherry; as in Catholicism (of Latin and Syriac Rites) and various forms of Protestantism.[5] Conversions also took place through the Goan Inquisition, with the oppression of Hindus & the destruction of mandirs.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][neutrality is disputed] Christian missionaries introduced the western educational system to the Indian subcontinent, to preach Christianity & campaign for Hindu social reforms.[21][22][23][24][25][26]
The oldest known Christian group in North India are those of Bettiah, Bihar, formed in the early 1700s.[27][28] 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 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.[29][30][31][32][33] Christianity is the largest religion in parts of Northeast India, specifically in Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya.[34] It also is a significant religion in Arunachal, where about 30 percent of the state is Christian.[35] Along with native Christians, small numbers of mixed Eurasian peoples such as Anglo-Indians, Luso-Indians & 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) and opposed the partition of India.[36][37][38] There are also reports of crypto-Christians who keep their faith in secret or hiding, due to the fear of persecution by Hindu extremists.[39][40][41][42][43][44][45] Some Christians have gone through forced conversion to Hinduism by political parties, such as Shiv Sena, the VHP & the BJP.[46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53]
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)
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.
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)
The earliest historical evidence, however, regarding the existence of a Church in South India dates from the sixth century AD
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.
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.
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.
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.
...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.
The Church of North India is a united church which came into being as the result of a union of six churches on 29th November 1970. The six churches were: The Council of the Baptist Churches in Northern India, The Church of the Brethren in India; The Disciples of Christ; The Church of India (formerly known as the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon); The Methodist Church (British and Australian Conferences); The United Church of Northern India. ... The Church of North India is a full member of the World Council of Churches, the Christian Conference of Asia, the Council for World Mission, the Anglican Consultative Council, the World Methodist Council and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.
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