Christianity in India

Roman trade with India started from Aegyptus according to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century).

Two ancient testimonies exist about the mission of Saint Bartholomew in India. These are of Eusebius of Caesarea (early 4th century) and of Saint Jerome (late 4th century). Both these refer to this tradition while speaking of the reported visit of Pantaenus to India in the 2nd century.[30][31] The studies of Fr A.C. Perumalil SJ and Moraes hold that the Bombay region on the Konkan coast, a region which may have been known as the ancient city Kalyan, was the field of Saint Bartholomew's missionary activities.[32]

The area of the evangelical work of Saint Thomas is a disputed topic among Christian scholars.[33]

According to Indian Christian traditions, the Apostle Thomas arrived in Malabar Coast presently in the Indian state of Kerala in Kodungallur, established the Seven Churches and evangelised in present-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu.[34][35][36] A historically more likely claim by Eusebius of Caesarea is that Pantaenus, the head of the Christian exegetical school in Alexandria, Egypt went to India during the reign of the Emperor Commodus and found Christians already living in India using a version of the Gospel of Matthew with "Hebrew letters, a mixture of culture."[37] This is a plausible reference to the earliest Indian churches which are known to have used the Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic) New Testament. Pantaenus' evidence thus indicates that Syriac-speaking Christians had already evangelised parts of India by the late 2nd century.

An early 3rd-century Syriac work known as the Acts of Thomas[38][39] connects the tradition of the apostle Thomas' Indian ministry with two kings, one in the north and the other in the south. The year of his arrival is widely disputed due to lack of credible records.[40] According to one of the legends in the Acts, Thomas was at first reluctant to accept this mission, but Jesus over-ruled the stubborn disciple by ordering circumstances so compelling that he was forced to accompany an Indian merchant, Abbanes, to his native place in northwest India, where he found himself in the service of the Indo-Parthian king, Gondophares. The apostle's ministry reputedly resulted in many conversions throughout this northern kingdom, including the king and his brother.[38] The Acts of Thomas identifies his second mission in India with a kingdom ruled by King Mahadwa, one of the rulers of a 1st-century dynasty in southern India. According to the tradition of the Mar Thoma or "Church of Thomas," Thomas evangelised along the Malabar Coast of Kerala State in southwest India, though the various churches he founded were located mainly on the Periyar River and its tributaries and along the coast. He reputedly preached to all classes of people and had about seventeen thousand converts, including members of the four principal castes. According to legend, St. Thomas attained martyrdom at St. Thomas Mount in Chennai and is buried on the site of San Thome Cathedral.[41]

India's oldest church, claimed to be the world's oldest existing church structure and built by Thomas the Apostle in 57 AD,[42] called Thiruvithamcode Arappally or Thomaiyar Kovil as named by the then Chera king Udayancheral,[42] is located at Thiruvithamcode in Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu, India. It is now declared an international St. Thomas pilgrim center.

Although little is known of the immediate growth of the church, Bar-Daisan (AD 154–223) reports that in his time there were Christian tribes in North India, which claimed to have been converted by Thomas and to have books and relics to prove it.[38] Certainly by the time of the establishment of the Sassanid Empire (AD 226), there were bishops of the Church of the East in northwest India, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, with laymen and clergy alike engaging in missionary activity.[38]

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  Saint Thomas Christians or Syrian Christians of Kerala in ancient days (from an old painting). Photo published in the Cochin Government Royal War Efforts Souvenir in 1938.
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  The Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health of Velankanni, in the state of Tamil Nadu, is a great Roman Catholic Latin Rite Marian shrine.
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  St. Mary's Thiruvithamcode Arappally of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in Tamil Nadu founded by St. Thomas the Apostle.
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  Marth Mariam Syrian Catholic Church (Syro-Malabar Rite) at Arakuzha, Kerala is an ancient Nasrani church established in 999 AD.
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  St. Peter's and St. Paul's Orthodox Church, Parumala, the shrine of St Geevargeese Mar Gregorios in Kerala. He is the first Indian to be canonised by Syrian Christians of India.
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  Infant Jesus Cathedral in Kollam city. It is the co-cathedral of India's first diocese, Roman Catholic Diocese of Quilon.
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  The English Baroque style St. Mark's CSI Cathedral, the oldest Christian cathedral in Bangalore. (Old Postcard Re-print), India Post (2014).[43][44]
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  The Neoclassical style Church of South India Cathedral of St. George, Chennai.[45]
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  The Gothic Revival style Church of South India Cathedral at Medak is one of the largest churches in Asia.[46]
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  The Gothic style Church of North India Cathedral of All Saints, Allahabad at night.[47]

The renovated Mar Thoma Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Kodungaloor; the first Christian church in India, built 52 A. D.

India had a flourishing trade with Central Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East, both along mountain passes in the north and sea routes along the western and southern coast, well before the start of the Christian era, and it is likely that Christian merchants settled in Indian cities along trading routes.[48]

The Chronicle of Seert describes an evangelical mission to India by Bishop David of Basra around the year 300;[49] this metropolitan reportedly made many conversions,[50] and it has been speculated that his mission took in areas of southern India.[51]

The colony of Syrian Christians established at Kodungallur may be the first Christian community in South India for which there is a continuous written record.[52] T.R. Vedantham showing his own perspective on Christianity was the first to propose in 1987 that Thomas of Cana was confused with the 1st-century apostle Thomas by India's Syrian Christians sometime after his death, becoming their Apostle Thomas in India.[53]

Conversion of the Paravas by Saint Francis Xavier, in a 19th-century coloured lithograph

The south Indian coastal areas around Kanyakumari were known for pearl fisheries ruled by Paravars. From 1527, the Paravars were being threatened by Arab fleets offshore, headed by the Muslim supporting Zamorin of Calicut.[65] The Paravars sought the protection of Portuguese who had moved into the area. The protection was granted on the condition that the leaders were immediately baptised as Christians and that they would encourage their people also to convert to Christianity; the Portuguese would also gain a strategic foothold and control of the pearl fisheries. The deal was agreed and some months later 20,000 Paravars were baptised en masse, and by 1537 the entire community had declared itself to be Christian. The Portuguese navy destroyed the Arab fleet at Vedalai on 27 June 1538.[66][65]

Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, in 1542 began a mission to the lower classes of Tamil society.[67] A further 30,000 Paravars were baptised. Xavier appointed catechists in the Paravar villages up and down the 100 miles (160 km) of coastline to spread and reinforce his teachings.[68] Paravar Christianity, with its own identity based on a mixture of Christian religious belief and Hindu caste culture, remains a defining part of the Paravar life today.[65][69]

The French or Catalan Dominican missionary Jordanus Catalani was the first European to start conversion in India. He arrived in Surat in 1320. After his ministry in Gujarat, he reached Quilon in 1323. He not only revived Christianity but also brought thousands to the Christian fold. He brought a message of good will from the Pope to the local rulers. In 1329 Pope John XXII, from the Holy See then in Avignon (France), erected Quilon as the first Diocese in the whole of Indies as suffragan to the Archdiocese of Sultany in Persia through the decree '"Romanus Pontifex"' dated 9 August 1329. By a separate bull, that reads "Venerabili Fratri Jordano", the same Pope, on 21 August 1329 appointed the French or Catalan Dominican friar "Jordanus Catalani" as the first Bishop of Quilon.[70] As the first bishop in India, Jordanus was also entrusted with the spiritual nourishment of the Christian community in Calicut, Mangalore, Thane and Broach (north of Thane).[71]

Portuguese-Tamil Primer (1554). One of the earliest known Christian books in an Indian language

In 1453, the fall of Constantinople, a bastion of Christianity in Asia Minor to Islamic Ottoman Empire; marked the end of the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire, and severed European trade links by land with Asia. This massive blow to Christendom spurred the age of discovery as Europeans were seeking alternative routes east by sea along with the goal of forging alliances with pre-existing Christian nations.[72][73] Along with pioneer Portuguese long-distance maritime travellers that reached the Malabar Coast in the late 15th century, came Portuguese missionaries who made contact with the St Thomas Christians in Kerala, which at that time were following Eastern Christian practices and under the jurisdiction of Church of the East. The missionaries sought to introduce the Latin liturgical rites among them and unify East Syriac Christians in India under the Holy See.

In the 16th century, the proselytisation of Asia was linked to the Portuguese colonial policy.

The missionaries of the different orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Augustinians, etc.) flocked out with the conquerors, and began at once to build churches along the coastal districts where the Portuguese power made itself felt.

The history of Portuguese missionaries in India starts with the neo-apostles who reached Kappad near Kozhikode on 20 May 1498 along with the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama who was seeking to form anti-Islamic alliances with pre-existing Christian nations.[74][75] The lucrative spice trade was further temptation for the Portuguese crown.[76] When he and the Portuguese missionaries arrived, they found Christians in the country in Malabar known as St. Thomas Christians who belonged to the then-largest Christian church within India.[75] The Christians were friendly to Portuguese missionaries at first; there was an exchange of gifts between them, and these groups were delighted at their common faith.[77]

Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great (r. 1556–1605) holds a religious assembly in the Ibadat Khana (House of Worship) in Fatehpur Sikri; the two men dressed in black are the Jesuit missionaries Rodolfo Acquaviva and Francisco Henriques. Illustration to the Akbarnama, miniature painting by Nar Singh, ca. 1605.

During the second expedition, the Portuguese fleet comprising 13 ships and 18 priests, under Captain Pedro Álvares Cabral, anchored at Cochin on 26 November 1500. Cabral soon won the goodwill of the Raja of Cochin. He allowed four priests to do apostolic work among the early Christian communities scattered in and around Cochin. Thus Portuguese missionaries established Portuguese Mission in 1500. Dom Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Viceroy got permission from the Kochi Raja to build two churches – namely Santa Cruz Basilica (1505) and St. Francis Church (1506) using stones and mortar, which was unheard of at that time, as the local prejudices were against such a structure for any purpose other than a royal palace or a temple.[78]

In the beginning of the 16th century, the whole of the east was under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Lisbon. On 12 June 1514, Cochin and Goa became two prominent mission stations under the newly created Diocese of Funchal in Madeira. In 1534, Pope Paul III by the Bull Quequem Reputamus, raised Funchal as an archdiocese and Goa as its suffragan, deputing the whole of India under the diocese of Goa. This created an episcopal see – suffragan to Funchal, with a jurisdiction extending potentially over all past and future conquests from the Cape of Good Hope to China.

In 1546, Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier set up the Goa Inquisition in a letter dated 16 May 1546 to King John III of Portugal.[79] The Inquisition office persecuted Hindus, Muslims, Bene Israels, New Christians and the Judaizing Nasranis by the colonial era Portuguese government and Jesuit clergy in Portuguese India.[80] Hindus were the primary target of the 250 years of persecution and punishment for their faith by the Catholic prosecutors.[81] Most affected were the shudras (12.5%) and farmers (35.5%)[82]

After four decades of prosperous trading, the missionaries started the proselytisation around 1540 and during this period, foreign missionaries also made many new converts to Christianity. Early Roman Catholic missionaries, particularly the Portuguese, led by the Jesuit St Francis Xavier (1506–1552), expanded from their bases on the west coast making many converts. The Portuguese colonial government supported the mission. At the same time many New Christians from Portugal migrated to India as a result of the inquisition in Portugal. Many of them were suspected of being Crypto-Jews, converted Jews who were secretly practising their old religion. Both were considered a threat to the solidarity of Christian belief,[83] which is considered a blot on the history of Roman Catholic Christianity in India, both by Christians and non-Christians alike.

In 1557, Goa was made an independent archbishopric, and its first suffragan sees were erected at Cochin and Malacca. The whole of the East came under the jurisdiction of Goa and its boundaries extended to almost half of the world: from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, to Burma, China and Japan in East Asia. In 1576, the suffragan See of Macao (China) was added; and in 1588, that of Funai in Japan.

The death of the last metropolitan bishop – Archbishop Abraham of the Saint Thomas Christians, an ancient body formerly part of the Church of the East[84][85] in 1597; gave the then Archbishop of Goa Menezes an opportunity to bring the native church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. He was able to secure the submission of Archdeacon George, the highest remaining representative of the native church hierarchy. Menezes convened the Synod of Diamper between 20 and 26 June 1599,[86] which introduced a number of reforms to the church and brought it fully into the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. Following the Synod, Menezes consecrated Francis Ros, S. J. as Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Angamalé for the Saint Thomas Christians; thus created another suffragan see to Archdiocese of Goa and Latinisation of St Thomas Christians started. The Saint Thomas Christians were pressured to acknowledge the authority of the Pope and most of them eventually accepted the Catholic faith, but a part of them switched to West Syriac Rite.[86] Resentment of these measures led to some part of the community to join the Archdeacon, Thomas, in swearing never to submit to the Portuguese Jesuits in the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653. Those who accepted the West Syriac theological and liturgical tradition of Mar Gregorios became known as Jacobites. The ones who continued with Latin theological and liturgy tradition and stayed faithful to the Synod of Diamper later Roman Catholic Syrian Christians accept East Syriac (in 1896) liturgy.

The Diocese of Angamaly was transferred to Diocese of Craganore in 1605; while, in 1606 a sixth suffragan see to Goa was established at San Thome, Mylapore, near the modern Madras, and the site of the National Shrine of St. Thomas Basilica. The suffragan sees added later to Goa. were the prelacy of Mozambique (1612) and in 1690 two other sees at Peking and Nanking in China.

Mangalore is another significant region on the west coast which has a huge Christian population. In 1321, the French Dominican friar Jordanus Catalani of Severac (in south-western France), who also worked in Quilon arrived in Bhatkal, a place near Mangalore and established a missionary station there. Many locals were converted to Christianity by Jordanus.[71] The Portuguese were however unable to establish their presence in Mangalore as a result of the conquests of the Vijayanagara ruler Krishnadevaraya and Abbakka Rani of Ullal, the Bednore Queen of Mangalore. Most of Mangalorean Catholics were not originally from Mangalore but are descendants of Goan Catholics who fled Goa during the Portuguese-Maratha Wars and the Goan Inquisition.

The origin of Christianity in North Konkan, was due to the proselytising activities of the Portuguese in the 16th century. The French Dominican friar Jordanus Catalani of Severac (in south-western France) started evangelising activities in Thana.[87] On the occasion of The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the Christians of North Konkan, in Maharashtra who were known as Portuguese Christians discarded that name and adopted the designation East Indians.[88] Marathi Christians are Protestants and are therefore distinct from East Indian Christians who are predominantly Roman Catholics and inhabitants of the North Konkan region. Marathi Christians can be found in the areas of Ahmednagar, Solapur, Pune and Aurangabad. They were converted through the efforts of the American Marathi Mission, The SPG Mission, and the Church Mission Society of Church of England in the early 18th century. British Missionary William Carey was instrumental in translating the Bible into the Marathi language.[89]

Missionary work progressed on a large scale and with great success along the western coasts, chiefly at Chaul, Bombay, Salsette, Bassein, Damao, and Diu; and on the eastern coasts at San Thome of Mylapore, and as far as Bengal etc. In the southern districts the Jesuit mission in Madura was the most famous. It extended to the Krishna river, with a number of outlying stations beyond it. The mission of Cochin, on the Malabar Coast, was also one of the most fruitful. Several missions were also established in the interior northwards, e.g., that of Agra and Lahore in 1570 and that of Tibet in 1624. Still, even with these efforts, the greater part even of the coast line was by no means fully worked, and many vast tracts of the interior northwards were practically untouched.

With the decline of the Portuguese power, other colonial powers – namely the Dutch and British and Christian organisations gained influence.

During the Bettiah Raj of Bihar, the ethnoreligious community of Bettiah Christians was established in India in the 17th century by Christian missionaries belonging to the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, a Roman Catholic religious order.[90] The Capuchins were personally invited to establish the Bettiah Christian Mission by Maharaja Dhurup Singh of the Bettiah Raj after Italian Capuchin priest Joseph Mary Bernini treated his ill wife; Pope Benedict XIV, on 1 May 1742, approved the appointment of the Capuchins at the Bettiah Fort in a letter to Maharaja Dhurup Singh.[91]

Thomas the Apostle is credited by tradition for founding the Indian Church in 52 AD.[34][92][93] This church developed contacts with the Nestorian religious authorities at that point based in Edessa, Mesopotamia.

The local church maintained its autonomous character under its local leader. When the Portuguese established themselves in India in the 16th century, they found the Church in Kerala as an administratively independent community. Following the arrival of Vasco de Gama in 1498, the Portuguese came to South India and established their political power there. They brought missionaries to carry out evangelistic work in order to establish churches in communion with Rome under the Portuguese patronage. These missionaries were eager to bring the Indian Church under the Pope's control. They succeeded in their efforts in 1599 with the Synod of Diamper. The representatives of various parishes who attended the assembly were forced by Portuguese authorities to accept the Papal authority.

Following the synod, the Indian Church was governed by Portuguese prelates. They were generally unwilling to respect the integrity of the local church. This resulted in disaffection which led to a general revolt in 1653 known as the "Coonan Cross Oath". Under the leadership of their elder Thomas, Nazranis around Cochin gathered at Mattancherry church on Friday, 24 January 1653 (M.E. 828 Makaram 3) and made an oath that is known as the Great Oath of Bent Cross. The following oath was read aloud and the people touching a stone-cross repeated it loudly: "By the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that henceforth we would not adhere to the Franks, nor accept the faith of the Pope of Rome."[94] This reference from The Missionary Register of 1822 seems to be the earliest reliable document available. Those who were not able to touch the cross tied ropes on the cross, held the rope in their hands and made the oath. Because of the weight it is believed by the followers that the cross bent a little and so it is known as "Oath of the bent cross" (Coonen Kurisu Sathyam). This demanded administrative autonomy for the local church. Since it had no bishop, it faced serious difficulties. It appealed to several eastern Christian churches for help. The Antiochene Syrian Patriarch responded and sent metropolitan Mar Gregorios of Jerusalem to India in 1665. He confirmed Marthoma I as the bishop and worked together with him to organize the Church.When these churches is also the part of Oriental Orthodox, which is also known as Jacobite Syrian Christian Church and Malankara Orthodox Church

Beginning about 1700 Protestant missionaries began working throughout India, leading to the establishment of different Christian communities across the Indian Subcontinent.

St. Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta – seat of the Diocese of Calcutta (Church of North India), is one of the finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture in India.[95]

The first Protestant missionaries to set foot in India were two Lutherans from Germany, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau, who began work in 1705 in the Danish settlement of Tranquebar. They translated the Bible into the local Tamil language, and afterwards into Hindustani. They made little progress at first, but gradually the mission spread to Madras, Cuddalore and Tanjore. Today the Bishop of Tranquebar is the official title of the bishop of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tamil Nadu which was founded in 1919 as a result of the German Lutheran Leipzig Mission and Church of Sweden Mission, the successors of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau. The seat of the bishop, the cathedral and its Church House the Tranquebar House are in Tiruchirappalli. By 2006, there were three million Lutherans in Tranquebar.[96]

William Carey, 1761–1834.

In 1793, William Carey, an English Baptist Minister came to India as a missionary but also as a man of learning in economics, medicine and botany.[97] He worked in Serampore, Calcutta, and other places. He translated the Bible into Bengali, Sanskrit, and numerous other languages and dialects. He worked in India despite the hostility of the British East India Company until his death in 1834. Carey and his colleagues, Joshua Marshman and William Ward, blended science, Christianity, and constructive Orientalism in their work at the Danish settlement of Serampore, near Calcutta. Carey saw the dissemination of European science and Christianity as mutually supportive and equally important civilizing missions. He also supported a revival of Sanskrit science. Carey played a key role in the establishment of the Agricultural Society of India. Ward, beginning in 1806, published important commentaries on ancient Hindu medical and astronomy texts. In 1818 Carey and his fellow missionaries founded Serampore College to nurture a uniquely Indian variety of European science.[98]

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.[99]

The London Missionary Society was the first Protestant mission in Andhra Pradesh which established its station at Visakhapatnam in 1805.[100] Anthony Norris Groves, a Plymouth Brethren missionary arrived in 1833. He worked in the Godavari delta area until his death in 1852. John Christian Frederick Heyer was the first Lutheran missionary in the region of Andhra Pradesh. He founded the Guntur Mission in 1842. Supported initially by the Pennsylvania Ministerium, and later by the Foreign Mission Board of the General Synod, Heyer was also encouraged and assisted by British government officials. He established a number of hospitals and a network of schools throughout the Guntur region.[101]

The Church Missionary Society (CMS), a mission society working with the Anglican Communion,[102] began sending missionaries to India and established mission stations at Chennai (Madras) and Bengal, then in 1816 at Travancore.[103] The CMS Mission to India expanded in the following years. The successors of the Protestant church missions are the Church of South India and the Church of North India.[102]

During the 19th century, several American Baptist missionaries evangelised in the northeastern parts of India. In 1876, Dr. E. W. Clark first went to live in a Naga village, four years after his Assamese helper, Godhula, baptised the first Naga converts. Rev. and Mrs. A.F. Merrill arrived in India in 1928 and worked in the southeast section of the Garo Hills.[104] Rev. and Mrs. M.J. Chance spent most of the years between 1950–1956 at Golaghat working with the Naga and Garo tribes.[105] Even today the heaviest concentrations of Christians in India continue to be in the Northeast among the Nagas, Khasis, Kukis, and Mizos.[106] Jehovah's Witnesses began their activity in India in the year 1905 when an Indian returned home after spending some time in Bible study with Charles Taze Russell.[107]

Mormon missionaries, or missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) including Hugh Findlay and Joseph Richards, arrived in Bombay and Pune in the early 1850s, but did not meet with much success.

Today, there are two LDS missions in India: The Bangalore Mission and the New Delhi Mission. Due to the growth of the church in India and the restrictions on missionary visas for foreigners, most missionaries serving in the Indian missions are Indian nationals. As of 2015, the church has over 12,000 LDS members in 43 congregations across India.[108] On 1 April 2018, LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson announced plans to build a temple in Bangalore.[109]

The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as the Community of Christ, was first established in India in July 1964 when William Samuel Jesudawson, an independent Protestant minister, affiliated with the church along with his congregation in Madras in South India. The church experienced sporadic growth and instability in South India due to corruption among church ministers, lack of funds for outreach, and lack of identity formation and commitment to the church among new members. Since 1998, more capable and committed leadership has been in place, which has led the church to expand with congregations in Uthamapalayam, Chennai, and Madurai all in Tamil Nadu.[110]

In Odisha, the Community of Christ has experienced significant growth since the first members were baptized in November 1965. The American leadership of the church including Apostle Charles D. Neff believed that the gospel of Jesus Christ had to be indigenized in its own way by Indians, just as Americans had done with Christianity themselves. In this way, the church focused its teachings on physical and spiritual healing and well-being with the goal of improving people's lives here and now. In particular, the church has found success among the Sora people, oftentimes with whole villages converting to Christianity. The church has also found success among the Kui people many of whom had no contact with Christianity previously. As of 2015, there are 5,700 baptized members and 7,000 more people who identify as Christians who attend 102 Community of Christ congregations in Odisha.[110]

By the 1970s, the church began to be established in Andhra Pradesh. A sewing center has been built to teach local community members basic skills with both Hindus and Christians invited to attend classes. Unlike in Odisha, most converts have been single individuals and not whole communities. The majority of these converts are women and many regular members have not officially joined due to family concerns but still actively participate. By 2015, there were 25 congregations in Andhra Pradesh.[110]

The Community of Christ recently celebrated their 50th anniversary of being established in India with a conference that included a gathering of 14,000 people and a visit by Community of Christ's Prophet/President Steve Veazey.[111]

Since 1996, small communities of Eastern Orthodox Christians in India were placed under ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the newly formed Orthodox Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia that was set up by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.[112] In 2008, the Diocese was divided, and India came under jurisdiction of newly formed Eastern Orthodox Metropolitanate of Singapore and South Asia.[113]

Church at Yercaud

See main article: List of Christian denominations in India.

The arrival of European colonialists brought about large-scale missionary activity in South India and North-East India. Hindus, notably those living in Portuguese India, were converted to Christianity.[177]

A church that has been burnt down during the 2008 religious violence in Odisha

There has been an increase in anti-Christian violence in recent years, particularly in the state of Odisha, which is usually perpetrated by opposition to Christianity.[178] The acts of violence include arson of churches, converting Christians to Hinduism by force and threats of physical violence, distribution of threatening literature, burning of Bibles, raping of nuns, murder of Christian priests, and destruction of Christian schools, colleges, and cemeteries.[179][180][181]

During the 1998 attacks on Christians in southeastern Gujarat, the Human Rights Watch reported that from 25 December 1988 to 3 January 1999, at least 20 prayer halls and Churches were damaged or burnt down and Christians and Christian institutions were attacked in the Dangs district and its surrounding districts and at least 25 villages had reported incidents of burning and damages to Prayer halls and Churches all over Gujarat.[182][183]

On 22 January 1999, an Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burnt to death by Dara Singh (Bajrang Dal) while sleeping in his station wagon at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district in Odisha, India.,[184][185] In the annual human rights reports for 1999, the United States Department of State also criticized India for "increasing societal violence against Christians."[186] The report on anti-Christian violence listed over 90 incidents of anti-Christian violence, ranging from damage of religious property to violence against Christians pilgrims. The states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu passed laws placing restrictions on forced religious conversions as a result of communal tension between Christians and Hindus.[187] The legislation passed in Tamil Nadu was later repealed.[187]

In 2007, 19 churches were burned by Hindu right-wingers in Odisha following conflicts between Hindus and Christians regarding Christmas celebrations in the Kandhamal district.[188] In more contemporary periods, Hindu-Christian amity continues to exist.

In 2008 after the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda, who was a Hindu monk, by Indian Maoists (communist insurgents), tensions flared between the two communities in 2008. Christians were blamed and attacked in the state of Odisha with 38 killed and over 250 churches damaged while several thousands of Christians were displaced. Sitting BJP MLA Manoj Pradhan was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for six years by a fast track court for a murder during the 2008 communal riots in Odisha's Kandhamal district.[189][190][191]

A dungeon at Seringapatam. Those Christians who refused to embrace Islam were imprisoned in such dungeons.

The Jamalabad fort route. Mangalorean Catholics had travelled through this route on their way to Seringapatam

General Lord Cornwallis, receiving two of Tipu Sultan's sons as hostages in the year 1793.

In spite of the fact that there have been relatively fewer conflicts between Muslims and Christians in India in comparison to those between Muslims and Hindus, or Muslims and Sikhs, the relationship between Muslims and Christians has also been occasionally turbulent. With the advent of European colonialism in India throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, Christians were systematically persecuted in a few Muslim-ruled kingdoms in India.

Among the anti-Christian acts of persecution by Muslims was that committed by Tipu Sultan, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore against the Mangalorean Catholic community from Mangalore in the erstwhile South Canara district on the southwestern coast of India. Tippu was widely reputed to be anti-Christian. The Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam, which began on 24 February 1784 and ended on 4 May 1799, remains the most disconsolate memory in their history.[192]

The Bakur Manuscript reports him as having said: "All Musalmans should unite together, considering the annihilation of infidels as a sacred duty, and labour to the utmost of their power, to accomplish that subject."[193] Soon after the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784, Tippu gained control of Canara.[194] He issued orders to seize the Christians in Canara, confiscate their estates,[195] and deport them to Seringapatam, the capital of his empire, through the Jamalabad fort route.[196] However, there were no priests among the captives. Together with Fr Miranda, all the 21 arrested priests were issued orders of expulsion to Goa, fined Rs 200,000, and threatened death by hanging if they ever returned.[193]

Tippu ordered the destruction of 27 Catholic churches, all intricately carved with statues depicting various saints. Among them were Nossa Senhora de Rosario Milagres at Mangalore, Fr Miranda's Seminary at Monte Mariano, Jesu Marie Jose at Omzoor, the Chapel at Bolar, the Church of Merces at Ullal, Imaculata Conceiciao at Mulki, San Jose at Perar, Nossa Senhora dos Remedios at Kirem, Sao Lawrence at Karkal, Rosario at Barkur, and Immaculata Conceciao at Baidnur.[193] All were razed to the ground, with the exception of the Church of Holy Cross at Hospet, owing to the friendly offices of the Chauta Raja of Moodbidri.[197]

According to Thomas Munro, a Scottish soldier and the first collector of Canara, around 60,000 people,[198] nearly 92 percent of the entire Mangalorean Catholic community, were captured, of which only 7,000 escaped. Francis Buchanan states the numbers as 70,000 captured, from a population of 80,000, with 10,000 escaping. They were forced to climb nearly 4,000 feet (1,200 m) through the jungles of the Western Ghat mountain ranges. It was 210 miles (340 km) from Mangalore to Seringapatam, and the journey took six weeks. According to British Government records, 20,000  of them died on the march to Seringapatam. According to James Scurry, a British officer, who was held captive along with the Mangalorean Catholics, 30,000 of them were forcibly converted to Islam. The young women and girls were forcibly made wives of the Muslims living there.[199] The young men who offered resistance were disfigured by cutting their noses, upper lips, and ears.[200] According to Mr. Silva of Gangolim, a survivor of the captivity, if a person who had escaped from Seringapatam was found, the punishment under the orders of Tippu was the cutting off of the ears, nose, the feet and one hand.[201]

The Archbishop of Goa wrote in 1800, "It is notoriously known in all Asia and all other parts of the globe of the oppression and sufferings experienced by the Christians in the Dominion of the King of Kanara, during the usurpation of that country by Tipu Sultan from an implacable hatred he had against them who professed Christianity."[193]

Tipu Sultan's invasion of the Malabar had an adverse impact on the Saint Thomas Christian community of the Malabar coast. Many churches in the Malabar and Cochin were damaged. The old Syrian Nasrani seminary at Angamaly which had been the center of Catholic religious education for several centuries was razed to the ground by Tippu's soldiers. A lot of centuries old religious manuscripts were lost forever. The church was later relocated to Kottayam where it still exists to this date. The Mor Sabor church at Akaparambu and the Martha Mariam Church attached to the seminary were destroyed as well. Tipu's army set fire to the church at Palayoor and attacked the Ollur Church in 1790. Furthernmore, the Arthat church and the Ambazhakkad seminary was also destroyed. Over the course of this invasion, many Saint Thomas Christians were killed or forcibly converted to Islam. Most of the coconut, areca nut, pepper and cashew plantations held by the Saint Thomas Christian farmers were also indiscriminately destroyed by the invading army. As a result, when Tippu's army invaded Guruvayur and adjacent areas, the Syrian Christian community fled Calicut and small towns like Arthat to new centres like Kunnamkulam, Chalakudi, Ennakadu, Cheppadu, Kannankode, Mavelikkara, etc. where there were already Christians. They were given refuge by Sakthan Tamburan, the ruler of Cochin and Karthika Thirunal, the ruler of Travancore, who gave them lands, plantations and encouraged their businesses. Colonel Maculay, the British resident of Travancore also helped them.[202]

The British officer James Scurry, who was detained a prisoner for 10 years by Tipu Sultan along with the Mangalorean Catholics

His persecution of Christians also extended to captured British soldiers. For instance, there were a significant amount of forced conversions of British captives between 1780 and 1784. Following their disastrous defeat at the battle of Pollilur, 7,000 British men along with an unknown number of women were held captive by Tipu in the fortress of Seringapatnam. Of these, over 300 were circumcised and given Muslim names and clothes and several British regimental drummer boys were made to wear ghagra cholis and entertain the court as nautch girls or dancing girls. After the 10-year-long captivity ended, James Scurry, one of those prisoners, recounted that he had forgotten how to sit in a chair and use a knife and fork. His English was broken and stilted, having lost all his vernacular idiom. His skin had darkened to the swarthy complexion of negroes, and moreover, he had developed an aversion to wearing European clothes.[203] During the surrender of the Mangalore fort which was delivered in an armistice by the British and their subsequent withdrawal, all the mesticos and remaining non-British foreigners were killed, together with 5,600 Mangalorean Catholics. Those condemned by Tipu Sultan for treachery were hanged instantly, the gibbets being weighed down by the number of bodies they carried. The Netravati River was so putrid with the stench of dying bodies, that the local residents were forced to leave their riverside homes.[193]

Historian William Dalrymple asserts that the rebels were motivated primarily by resistance against a move (use of the Enfield Rifle-Musket) by the East India Company, which was perceived as an attempt to impose Christianity and Christian laws in India.[204] For instance, when Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar met the sepoys on 11 May 1857, he was told: "We have joined hands to protect our religion and our faith." They later stood in Chandni Chowk, the main square, and asked the people gathered there, "Brothers, are you with those of the faith?"[204] Those British men and women who had previously converted to Islam such as the defectors, Sergeant-Major Gordon, and Abdullah Beg, a former Company soldier, were spared.[205] On the contrary, foreign Christians such as Revd Midgeley John Jennings, as well as Indian converts to Christianity such as one of Zafar's personal physicians, Dr. Chaman Lal, were killed outright.[205]

Dalrymple further points out that as late as 6 September, when calling the inhabitants of Delhi to rally against the upcoming British assault, Zafar issued a proclamation stating that this was a religious war being prosecuted on behalf of 'the faith', and that all Muslim and Hindu residents of the imperial city, or of the countryside were encouraged to stay true to their faith and creeds.[204] As further evidence, he observes that the Urdu sources of the pre and post-rebellion periods usually refer to the British not as angrez (the English), goras (whites) or firangis (foreigners), but as kafir (infidels) and nasrani (Christians).[204]

In modern times, Muslims in India who convert to Christianity are often subjected to harassment, intimidation, and attacks by Muslims.[206][207] In Jammu and Kashmir, the only Indian state with a Muslim majority, a Christian convert and missionary named Bashir Tantray was killed, allegedly by militant Islamists in 2006.[208] However, there are cases in which a Muslim will adopt Crypto-Christianity, secretly declaring his/her conversion. In effect, they are practising Christians, but are legally Muslims; thus, the statistics of Indian Christians does not include Muslim converts to Christianity.

• Spliesgart, Roland, and Klaus Koschorke, eds. A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450-1990: A Documentary Sourcebook (2007)