Christians
in India †
Indian
101 Christianity
Christianity101 in India
Only about 2.5% of India’s population are Christians. Christianity
arrived in India about the same time it arrived in Europe about
2000 years ago. Christianity originates in Israel and the fact
that the first Christians were Jews - in the beginning Christianity
was seen as a Jewish cult! Most of the Apostles of Christians
worked in Europe to convert Europeans to Christianity. One Apostles
however, St. Judas Thomas arrived in India and converted Indians
to Christianity. St. Thomas was a carpenter and a disciple of
Jesus. He was brought to India to build a temple. St. Thomas made
his way to Keralla in south India in 52 AD and converted many
local Indians to the Christian faith.
His converts were called Syrian Christians. Later other Christian
saints arrived to India as missioners but most of the Indians
were converted to Christianity by missionaries who arrived in
India with European powers from the 15th century. The Europeans
arrived in India for commercial reasons, - especially spices but
they also started converting local Indians to Christianity. Five
Europe countries sent representatives to India, Great Britain,
France, Denmark, Netherlands and Portugal. Of the five European
countries the Portuguese were the most enthusiastic to baptize
Indians. The Portuguese were actually the first European power
to arrive in India. Their first ship was under the leadership
of Vasco DaGama and arrived in southern India in 1498 after it
had circled the whole of Africa - the North, East, South and West
regions.
The Portuguese were inspired by the Pope’s order to baptize
people around the world to not only fight wars against the local
Indian rulers, but even tried to enforced Roman Catholic prayers
on Syrian Christians. The Portuguese were finally defeated by
local rulers and only one big Indian area of control - Goa. Buy
the Portuguese not only fought Indian rulers but also against
other European countries in India - the Dutch and English among
them. Portuguese churches in Kerala were turned into English and
Dutch churches after they were captured.
English missionaries started working in India much later in 1660.
The British, unlike the Portuguese, didn’t allow missionaries
to enter their territory in the beginning. They allowed the missionaries
to enter their territory only from 1813. The British allowed different
churches to establish missionaries in their territory. The missionaries
didn’t only spread the Gospel, but they also did good deeds
giving the needy basic necessities like food and shelter. The
missionaries built schools in India and many of them even now
have Christian or European names. British church missionaries
had less success than Portuguese in converting Indians to Christianity
but unlike the Portuguese who tried to enforce it these Protestant
converts were voluntary! The Portuguese were aware of the Indian
tradition where the wife followed her husband’s faith and
therefore married their men to Indian women.
There are now 30 million Christians in India. The major areas
of Christianity in India are Kerala, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu, Goa
and Manipur. There is a big community of Christians in Mumbai.
The main division of Christians in India is Protestants and Catholic
as it is elsewhere. There are also different denominations - the
Syrian Church, Armenian Church and Anglican Church. Most Indian
Christians were converted by the Portuguese. There is also a large
Anglo-Indian community in India.
Christian Singles & Personals
in India @ Christian advice.net 2004 |
