Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

are a religious community residing in the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

. As per

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, 4.3% of people in Jharkhand are

. Christians are majority in

Simdega district Simdega district is one of the twenty-four districts of Jharkhand state, India, and Simdega town is the administrative headquarters of this district. This district is the least population density district of jharkhand(2011).This district was carv ...

of Jharkhand.

History

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

is a

minority religion A minority religion is a religion held by a minority of the population of a country, state, or region. Minority religions may be subject to stigma or discrimination. An example of a stigma is using the term cult with its extremely negative conn ...

, a

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Most people in

are followers of

Sarnaism Sarnaism is a religious belief found in India. The belief is based on worship at Sarna, the sacred groves in the Chota Nagpur Plateau region in the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. According to local belief, a ''Gram deoti'' or vi ...

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

. Jharkhand is known for tribals such as Munda,

Santhal Santhal may refer to : Places and jurisdictions * Santhal Pargana division, in Jharkhand state, (north)eastern India * Santhal State, former petty princely state in Mahi Kantha, Gujarat, western India People * Santhal people (part of the Tea ...

, Oraon and Kharia. A

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ranchi The Ranchi Catholic Archdiocese (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Ranchiensis'') comprises the districts of Ranchi and Lohardaga of Jharkhand state, India. It was established by a decree of the Holy See dated 25 May 1927, when it was separated from the ...

exists. St. Mary's Cathedral in

Ranchi Ranchi (, ) is the capital of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern Odisha, western West Bengal and the eastern area ...

has been a cathedral since 1909. The

Church of North India The Church of North India (CNI) is the dominant united Protestant church in northern India. It was established on 29 November 1970 by bringing together the Protestant churches working in northern India. It is a province of the worldwide Anglica ...

has a Diocese of Chota Nagpur with a seat at Ranchi. The Church of North India has a St. Paul's Cathedral in Ranchi.

Gossner Theological College Gossner Theological College is the only Theological Seminary of Jharkhand affiliated to Serampore College. It is owned by Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chotanagpur and Assam. History The German missionaries sent by Fr. Johannes Evange ...

is in

. Many Munda & Kharia are Christians. The then pope visited Ranchi in 1986. The

Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chotanagpur and Assam Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chotanagpur and Assam (GELC) is a major Christian Protestant denomination in India. It has hundreds of thousands of members. It was established on 2 November 1845. It belongs to National Council of Churche ...

has its seat in Ranchi. Dhanbad has

Oriental Orthodox Churches The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 60 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches are part of the Nicene Christian tradition, and represent ...

. Christian missionaries arrived in today's Jharkhand in 1845.

Pre-migration era

By the year 1765 Britishers were successful in their military mobilization to bring Santhal Pargana under British rule. After this conquest, the British colonial planters in India indentured tribal people of the

Chota Nagpur Plateau The Chota Nagpur Plateau is a plateau in eastern India, which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar. The Indo-Gangetic plain lies to the north and east of the plateau, and the bas ...

region into

Northeast India , native_name_lang = mni , settlement_type = , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , motto = , image_map = Northeast india.png , ...

about 150 years ago for the purpose of being employed in the tea gardens industry as workers and came to be known as

Tea tribes The Tea-garden community are multi ethnic groups of tea garden workers and their descendants in Assam. They are officially referred to as ''Tea-tribes'' by Government of Assam. They are the descendants of peoples brought by the British colonial pl ...

. These tribals were influenced by the Christian missionaries who came along with the British. These Christian missionaries worked for the improvement

standard of living Standard of living is the level of income, comforts and services available, generally applied to a society or location, rather than to an individual. Standard of living is relevant because it is considered to contribute to an individual's quality ...

and providing education to the children of the tribals. Nearly 15 decades later missionaries from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

left started their voyage to India in 1844 and reached

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

(formerly

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

) in 1845. These missionaries were initially heading for

Mergui Myeik (, or ; mnw, ဗိက်, ; th, มะริด, , ; formerly Mergui, ) is a rural city in Tanintharyi Region in Myanmar (Burma), located in the extreme south of the country on the coast off an island on the Andaman Sea. , the estimate ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

(formerly

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

) in view of preaching the

Christian faith Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global populat ...

among the

Karen people The Karen, kjp, ပ်ုဖၠုံဆိုဒ်, my, ကရင်လူမျိုး, , th, กะเหรี่ยง ( ), also known as the Kayin, Kariang or Kawthoolese, are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language� ...

or in the areas located in the footsteps of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

. However, on meeting some people from

, they changed their plan and headed for

Chhotanagpur The Chota Nagpur Plateau is a plateau in eastern India, which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar. The Indo-Gangetic plain lies to the north and east of the plateau, and the b ...

and its main town, Ranchi. They reached

on 2 November 1845 and camped on, what is now known as, the 'Bethesda Ground' in

Post-migration era

After India became independent, the missionaries who remained post independence, worked for the improvement standard of living and providing education to the children of the tribals. Evidently many of the tribals emerged as sportsmen especially in the game of hockey and football. Even the first Prime Minister of India, Dr. Jawaharlal Nehru, in his ''

The Discovery of India ''The Discovery of India'' was written by the Indian Independence leader, Jawaharlal Nehru (later India's first Prime Minister) during his incarceration in 1942–1945 at Ahmednagar fort in present day Indian state of Maharashtra by British co ...

'' acknowledges the contribution of the early missionaries for development of tribals dialect stating that ''even laboured at the dialects of the primitive hill and forest tribes...''

Statistics

Demographics

''See article:

Tribes of Jharkhand The tribes of Jharkhand consist of 32 scheduled tribes inhabiting the Jharkhand state in India. In 1872, only 18 tribes were counted among the schedule tribes from which Banjara, Bhatudi, Chik Baraik and Mahli were marked as semi-Hindu aborigina ...

''. The Christians are mostly from the adivasi or tribal communities of the state with the major tribes as below with number of Christians and percentage of Christians in each tribe.

Churches and ministry

The major denominations and church bodies in the state are given below. *

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

having 1,058,812 members in 8 dioceses and 280 parishes. * Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church having 583,960 members in 1,895 congregations. *

North Western Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church North Western Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church (NWGEL Church) is the fourth largest Lutheran church in India. The NWGEL Church has a presence in Nepal. Most NWGEL church members are from indigenous and tribal communities. NWGEL Church became ...

having 135,000 members in 735 congregations. The other smaller denominations are: *

India Pentecostal Church of God The Indian Pentecostal Church of God (IPC) is the largest Pentecostal Christian Denomination in India. It has over ten thousand congregations around the world. Its organisational headquarters is at Hebronpuram, Kumbanad, Kerala, India. IPC chu ...

* Dipti Mission *

Bihar Mennonite Mandli Bihar Mennonite Mandli is a Mennonite denomination of India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous d ...

Gospel Echoing Missionary Society Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

Source:

References

{{Christianity in India by region