Christianity in West Bengal,India, is a minority religion. According to the2011 census of India, there were 658,618Christians inWest Bengal, or 0.72% of the population.[1] AlthoughMother Teresa worked inKolkata (Calcutta),Christianity is a minority religion in Kolkata as well. West Bengal has the highest number ofBengali Christians. Bengali Christians have been established since the 16th century with the advent ofthe Portuguese in Bengal. Later in the 19th and 20th centuries, manyupper-class Bengalis converted to Christianity during theBengali Renaissance underBritish rule, includingKrishna Mohan Banerjee,Michael Madhusudan Dutt,Anil Kumar Gain, andGnanendramohan Tagore.Aurobindo Nath Mukherjee was the first Indian to be AnglicanBishop of Calcutta.
Bengali Christians have the highestliteracy rate, the lowest male-female sex ratio, along with better socio-economic status.[2] Christianmissionaries run major social institutions dealing witheducation and healthcare, such as those run by theJesuit Catholics, and the dominantProtestantChurch 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 inBandel,Hooghly district in the 16th century, andBandel 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 missionaryWilliam Carey, who founded theBaptist Missionary Society, travelled to India in 1793 and worked as a missionary in the Danish colony ofSerampore, because of opposition from theEast India Company to his activities in their regions. He translated theBible intoBengali (completed 1809) andSanskrit (completed 1818). His first Bengali convert wasKrishna Pal, who renounced hiscaste after conversion.[4] In 1818, the first theological college in Bengal,Serampore College, was founded.
St. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata is the seat of theAnglican Diocese of Calcutta (1813) of theChurch of North India. The Roman Catholic ecclesiastical province which has its seat in theCathedral of the Most Holy Rosary is theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta (1834).
Other denominations include:[5]
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 181,775 | — |
| 1961 | 204,530 | +12.5% |
| 1971 | 251,782 | +23.1% |
| 1981 | 319,670 | +27.0% |
| 1991 | 383,477 | +20.0% |
| 2001 | 515,150 | +34.3% |
| 2011 | 658,618 | +27.8% |
| Source:[6] | ||
| Year | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 2001[7] | 515,150 | 0.64 |
| 2011[8] | 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 | 0.60% |
| 2001 | 0.64% |
| 2011 | 0.72% |
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