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Christianity in West Bengal, India, is a minority religion. According to the 2011 census of India, there were 658,618 Christians in West Bengal, or 0.72% of the population. [1] Although Mother Teresa worked in Kolkata (Calcutta), Christianity is a minority religion in Kolkata as well. West Bengal has the highest number of Bengali Christians. Bengali Christians have been established since the 16th century with the advent of the Portuguese in Bengal. Later in the 19th and 20th centuries, many upper-class Bengalis converted to Christianity during the Bengali Renaissance under British rule, including Krishna Mohan Banerjee, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Anil Kumar Gain, and Gnanendramohan Tagore. Aurobindo Nath Mukherjee was the first Indian to be Anglican Bishop of Calcutta.
Bengali Christians are considered a model minority, due to their significant contributions to Bengali culture and society for the past two centuries. They are considered to be among the most progressive communities in Bengal, and have the highest literacy rate, the lowest male-female sex ratio, along with better socio-economic status. [2] Christian missionaries run major social institutions dealing with education and healthcare, such as those run by the Jesuit Catholics, and the dominant Protestant Church of North India (CNI), & some Christian Revival Church also serving.
Christianity has been present in Bengal since the 16th century. The Portuguese established a settlement in Bandel, Hooghly district in the 16th century, and Bandel Church, perhaps the first church in West Bengal, was built in 1599. [3] Burnt down during the sacking of Hooghly in 1632, the church was rebuilt in 1660. The followers of Christianity mainly settled in Barddhmann, Bankura, Kolkata and Hooghly district of West Bengal. Many Bengali Catholics have Portuguese surnames.[ citation needed ]
British missionary William Carey, who founded the Baptist Missionary Society, travelled to India in 1793 and worked as a missionary in the Danish colony of Serampore, because of opposition from the East India Company to his activities in their regions. He translated the Bible into Bengali (completed 1809) and Sanskrit (completed 1818). His first Bengali convert was Krishna Pal, who renounced his caste after conversion. In 1818, the first theological college in Bengal, Serampore College, was founded.
St. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata is the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Calcutta (1813) of the Church of North India. The Roman Catholic ecclesiastical province which has its seat in the Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta (1834).
Other denominations include: [4]
Year | Number | Percentage |
---|---|---|
2001 [5] | 515,150 | 0.64 |
2011 [6] | 658,618 | 0.72 |
# | District | Total population | Christian population | % |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jalpaiguri | 3,872,846 | 186,279 | 4.81% |
2 | Darjiling | 1,846,823 | 141,848 | 7.68% |
3 | South 24 Parganas | 8,161,961 | 66,498 | 0.81% |
4 | Kolkata | 4,496,694 | 39,758 | 0.88% |
5 | Nadia | 5,167,600 | 33,835 | 0.65% |
6 | North 24 Parganas | 10,009,781 | 26,933 | 0.27% |
7 | Dakshin Dinajpur | 1,676,276 | 24,794 | 1.48% |
8 | Paschim Medinipur | 5,913,457 | 23,287 | 0.39% |
9 | Barddhaman | 7,717,563 | 21,220 | 0.27% |
10 | Murshidabad | 7,103,807 | 18,102 | 0.25% |
11 | Uttar Dinajpur | 3,007,134 | 16,702 | 0.56% |
12 | Maldah | 3,988,845 | 13,209 | 0.33% |
13 | Birbhum | 3,502,404 | 10,906 | 0.31% |
14 | Haora | 4,850,029 | 8,666 | 0.18% |
15 | Puruliya | 2,930,115 | 8,646 | 0.30% |
16 | Hugli | 5,519,145 | 7,300 | 0.13% |
17 | Koch Bihar | 2,819,086 | 4,122 | 0.15% |
18 | Bankura | 3,596,674 | 3,865 | 0.11% |
19 | Purba Medinipur | 5,095,875 | 2,648 | 0.05% |
West Bengal (Total) | 91,276,115 | 658,618 | 0.72% |
Census year | % of total population |
---|---|
1951 | 0.70% |
1961 | 0.59% |
1971 | 0.57% |
1981 | 0.59% |
1991 | 6.0 % |
2001 | 0.64% |
2011 | 0.72% |
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Serampore College is located in Serampore, in West Bengal, India. Established in 1818, it is the third oldest college in the country after CMS College, Kottayam and Presidency College Calcutta, and one of the oldest continuously operating educational institutes in India. The college consists of two entities: The theological faculty and a separate college with faculties of arts, science, commerce.
Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in Asia. It has been rated (A) by the Indian National Assessment and Accreditation Council. Students and alumni call themselves "Caledonians" in the name of the college festival, "Caledonia".
William Carey was an English Christian missionary, Particular Baptist minister, translator, social reformer and cultural anthropologist who founded the Serampore College and the Serampore University, the first degree-awarding university in India.
Christians in Bangladesh account for 0.30% of the nation's population as of 2022 census. Together with Judaism and Buddhism, they account for 1% of the population. Islam accounts for 91.04% of the country's religion, followed by Hinduism at 7.95% as per 2022 census.
Bengali Christians are adherents of Christianity among the Bengali people. Christianity took root in Bengal after the arrival of Portuguese voyagers in the 16th century. It witnessed further conversions among the Bengali upper-caste elite during the 19th century Bengali Renaissance.
Hugli-Chuchura, also known by its former names Chinsurah or Hooghly-Chinsurah, is a city of Hooghly district and the district headquarters of Hooghly division in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is one of the densely populated cities of West Bengal. It lies on the bank of Hooghly River, 35 km north of Kolkata, the state capital. It is located in the district of Hooghly and is home to the district headquarters. Chuchura houses the Commissioner of the Burdwan Range. The District Court building of Chinsurah is the longest building in West Bengal. It is a part of Greater Kolkata covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).
Hooghly district is one of the districts of the Indian state of West Bengal. It can alternatively be spelt Hoogli or Hugli. The district is named after the Hooghly River.
Uttarpara or Uttarpara Kotrung is a city and a municipality of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Uttarpara is located at 22.67°N 88.35°E, within 10 km from Kolkata, the capital of the state of West Bengal. It is located along the Hooghly river, across from the Dakshineswar Kali Temple. Uttarpara is home to the Uttarpara Jayakrishna Public Library, Asia's oldest free public library.
Hare School is one of the oldest schools in Kolkata, India, teaching grades one to twelve under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. It is a state government-administered boys school and was established by the Scottish watch-maker, David Hare. The establishment date is not agreed upon, but the official year of establishment is 1818. Thus the school is declared as the oldest western type school in Asia. The school is situated opposite the Presidency University, and is also adjacent to the University of Calcutta and Hindu School. The combined campuses of the Hare School and Presidency College is one of the largest in Kolkata.
The Diocese of Calcutta was established in 1813 as part of the Church of England. It is led by the Bishop of Calcutta and the first bishop was Thomas Middleton (1814–1822) and the second Reginald Heber (1823–1826). Under the sixth bishop Daniel Wilson (1832–1858), the see was made Metropolitan when two more dioceses in India came into being.
Krishna Mohan Banerjee was a 19th-century Indian thinker who attempted to rethink Hindu philosophy, religion and ethics in response to the stimulus of Christian ideas. He himself became a Christian, and was the first president of the Bengal Christian Association, which was administered and financed by Indians. He was a prominent member of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio's (1808–1831) Young Bengal group, educationist, linguist and Christian missionary.
Mutty Lall Seal was a businessman and philanthropist from India. Seal began his life as a bottle and cork dealer and became very wealthy. He donated large sums of his wealth to charity and education. Seal and Ramdulal Sarkar, another shipping magnate, became part of the Bengali folklore as great merchant princes.
The Basilica of the Holy Rosary is one of the oldest Christian churches in West Bengal, India. Situated in Bandel, Hooghly district of West Bengal, it stands as a memorial to the Portuguese settlement in Bengal. Founded in 1599, it is dedicated to Nossa Senhora do Rosário, Our Lady of the Rosary. It is also a parish church, part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta. It is one of the most prominent historical churches in West Bengal as well as in India.
Protestants in India are a minority and a sub-section of Christians in India and also to a certain extent the Christians in Pakistan before the Partition of India, that adhere to some or all of the doctrines of Protestantism. Protestants in India are a small minority in a predominantly Hindu majority country, but form majorities in the north-eastern states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland and significant minorities in Konkan division, Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with various communities in east coast and northern states. Protestants today trace their heritage back to the Protestant reformation of the 16th century. There are an estimated 20 million Protestants and 16 million Pentecostals in India.
The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Calcutta is an ecclesiastical Latin Church territory of the Catholic Church in India.
Bijan Kumar Mukherjea was the 4th Chief Justice of India. He was in his office from 22 December 1954 to 31 January 1956.
William Wallace was an Anglican priest who later became a Roman Catholic priest, member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and Indologist.
Don Bosco School, Bandel is an all-boys, English medium school in Sahaganj, Hooghly, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1978 and run by the Salesians of Don Bosco which is a congregation within the Catholic Church. The school operates under the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations. It is one of the international Don Bosco "family of schools".
Kali Charan Banerjee (1847–1907), spelt also as Kalicharan Banerji or K.C. Banerjea or K.C. Banurji, was a Bengali convert to Christianity through the Free Church of Scotland, the founder of Calcutta Christo Samaj, a Calcutta lawyer, and a founding member of the Indian National Congress.
The Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary in Burrabazar, Kolkata, is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta. It is also known as the Murgihata Church and was founded in 1799.
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