India has one of the oldest continuous Christian traditions in the world dating back to AD 52. Christianity is India's third-largest religion with 28 million adherents, who make up 2.3 percent of the population, according to the 2011 census. Kerala has the largest Christian population in India. Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of India's Christians are found in South India, Goa and Mumbai (Bombay). Christianity is the major religion in parts of Northeast India, specifically in Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya. Christians are also a significant plurality in Manipur.
The written records of St Thomas Christians mention that Christianity was introduced to the Indian subcontinent by Thomas the Apostle, who sailed to the Malabar region (present-day Kerala) in 52 AD. The writings of Eusebius of Caesarea and of Jerome record that Bartholomew the Apostle evangelised India, particularly in the Konkan. The Acts of Thomas say that the early Christians were Malabar Jews who had settled in what is present-day Kerala before the birth of Christ. St Thomas, an Aramaic-speaking Jew from Galilee (present-day Israel) and one of the disciples of Jesus Christ, came to India in search of Indian Jews. After years of evangelism, Thomas was martyred and then buried at St Thomas Mount, in the Mylapore neighbourhood of Madras (Chennai). Ambrose of Milan, in his commentary on the Psalms, noted that Thomas the Apostle preached the Gospel to the Indian people. There is the scholarly consensus that a Christian community, had firmly established in the Malabar region by 600 AD at the latest; the community was composed of Nestorians or Eastern Christians, who belonged to the Church of the East and used the East Syriac Rite of worship.
Following the discovery of the sea route to India, by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in the 15th century AD, Western Christianity was established in the European colonies of Goa, Tranquebar, Bombay, Madras and Pondicherry; as in Catholicism (of Latin or Syriac Rites) and various kinds of Protestantism. The Church of North India and the Church of South India are a United Protestant denomination; which resulted from the evangelism/ ecumenism of Anglicans, Calvinists, Methodists and other Protestant groups who flourished in colonial India. Consequently, these churches are part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, World Communion of Reformed Churches, and World Methodist Council. Christian missionaries introduced the western educational system to the Indian subcontinent, to preach Christianity and to campaign for Hindu social reforms like the Channar revolt. The oldest known Christian group in North India are the Hindustani-speaking Bettiah Christians of Bihar, formed in the early 1700s through a Capuchin mission and under the patronage of the Bettiah Rajas during the Moghal Empire. Along with native Christians, small numbers of mixed Eurasian peoples, such as Anglo-Indian, Luso-Indian, Franco-Indian and Armenian Indian Christians also existed. Also, there is the Hindu Khrista Bhakta movement, who are unbaptised followers of Jesus Christ and St Mary, mainly among Shudras and Dalits.
Christians were involved in the Indian National Congress (INC), which led the Indian independence movement, the All India Conference of Indian Christians advocated for swaraj (self rule) and opposed the partition of India. There are reports of crypto-Christians who keep their faith in secret or hiding, due to the fear of persecution; especially Dalit (Outcaste) or Adivasi (Aboriginal) Christians resort to crypsis, because reservation and other rights are denied on conversion. Some Christians have gone through reconversion to Hinduism by Hindu extremists, such as Shiv Sena (SS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Various groups of Hindu extremists have also attacked churches, or disrupted church services in certain states and territories of India. Convent schools and charities are being targeted under the Modi administration, particularly by banning missionaries from getting donations from abroad, while anti-Christian and pro-hindutva groups have been raising foreign funds.
Ancient period
Apostolic age
Saint Thomas
According to the traditional account of Saint Thomas Christians, Thomas the Apostle came to Kodungallur (Cranganore) in the present day Kerala in 52 AD, and established the Ezharappallikal (Seven Churches) in or near ancient Jewish colonies by preaching among local Jews and Brahmins. According to St Thomas Christian tradition, Thomas the Apostle did the first baptism in India at St Thomas Syro-Malabar Church, Palayur, this church is therefore considered an Apostolic See credited to the apostolate of Thomas. After some years of evangelisation in South India, Thomas was martyred at the St Thomas Mount in Chennai (Madras) in 72 AD. The neo-Gothic Cathedral Basilica of San Thome now stands on the site of his martyrdom and burial. 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 in 190 AD and found Christians already living in India using a version of the Gospel of Matthew with "Hebrew letters, a mixture of culture".Eusebius of Caesarea, Historia Ecclesiastica5. 9–10. Pantaenus, who was known by Clement of Alexandria (Eusebius Historia Ecclesiastica 5.11.1–2; 6.13.2) and Origen (Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 6.14.8), was certainly a historical person. This is a plausible reference to the earliest Indian churches which are known to have used the Syriac New Testament; Syriac being a dialect of the Aramaic language spoken by Jesus and his disciples. Pantaenus's evidence thus indicates that early Christians from the Middle East had already evangelised parts of India by the late 2nd century AD.
Another Christian tradition concerning the birth of Jesus holds that Gaspar, one of the three Biblical Magi, travelled from India to find the infant Jesus along with Melchior of Persia and Balthazar of Arabia.
An early 3rd-century AD Syriac work known as the Acts of Thomas connects the tradition of the Apostle Thomas's 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. According to one of the legends in the Acts of Thomas, Thomas was at first reluctant to accept this mission, but Jesus over-ruled him 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.
The Acts of Thomas identifies his second mission in India with a kingdom ruled by a certain King named Mahadwa belonging to a 1st-century dynasty in southern India. Niranam Pally, also known as St Mary's Orthodox Syrian Church, is believed to be one of the oldest churches in India. The church was founded by St Thomas in 54 AD. On his way from Kollam (Quilon) in the northeast direction, he arrived at Niranam "Thrikpapaleswaram" by sea. The church was reconstructed several times with some parts dating back to a reconstruction in 1259. The architecture of the church bears a striking similarity to Hindu temple architecture.
Saint Bartholomew
Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History (5:10) states that Bartholomew, a disciple of Jesus, went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. One tradition holds that he preached the Gospel in India, prior to his travels to Armenia, while others hold that Bartholomew travelled as a missionary in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Parthia, and Lycaonia.Encyclopædia Britannica, Micropædia. vol. 1, p. 924. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1998. . The writings of Eusebius of Caesarea and Jerome record that Bartholomew the Apostle evangelized in ancient India.
Later antiquity
Although little is known of the immediate growth of the church in the northwestern regions of India, Bardaisan (154–223 AD) reports that in his time there were Christian tribes in North India that claimed to have been converted by Thomas and had books and relics to prove it.A. E. Medlycott, India and The Apostle Thomas, pp. 18–71; M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament, pp. 364–436; A. E. Medlycott, India and The Apostle Thomas, pp. 1–17, 213–97; Eusebius, History, chapter 4:30; J. N. Farquhar, The Apostle Thomas in North India, chapter 4:30; V. A. Smith, Early History of India, p. 235; It is believed that by the time of the establishment of the Sassanid Empire around 226 AD, there were bishops of the Church of the East in northwest India, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, with laymen and clergy alike engaging in missionary activity. The Syriac Chronicle of Edessa describes a "church of the Christians" in India around 200 AD.
India had a flourishing trade with Central Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East, both along mountain passes in the north and sea routes down the western and southern coast, well before the advent of the Christian era, and it is likely that Christian merchants from these lands settled in Indian cities along these trading routes. The colony of Syrian Christians established at Muziris may be the first Christian community in South India for which there is a continuous written record.K.S. Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity, 7 vols., London, 1940–1949.
The Chronicle of Seert describes an evangelical mission to India by Bishop David of Basra around the year 300, who reportedly made many conversions, and it has been speculated that his mission took in areas of southern India.
From various records of travelers we know the existence of Christian communities in India already by the year 345.
Thomas of Cana, a Syriac Christian merchant, brought a group of 72 Christian families from Mesopotamia to Kerala in the 4th century. He was granted copper-plates by the Chera dynasty, which gave his party and all native Christians socio-economic privileges. The group of Christians that came along with Thomas of Cana (Knai Thoma) are called Knanaya Christians.
The existence of Early Christians in India is further substantiated by the records acknowledging the work of Severus of Vienne, a 5th-century missionary of Indian origin who evangelised in Vienne, France.
Medieval period
The Saint Thomas Christian community in Kerala was further strengthened by the arrival of various waves of Syriac Christians from the Middle East. This also resulted in the establishment of Knanaya colonies in Kerala during the 4th century. Babylonian Christians settled on the Malabar Coast in the 4th century. Mar Sabor and Mar Proth arrived in Kollam in the 9th century.
Saint Thomas Christians seem to have enjoyed various rights and privileges as well as a high status as recorded on copper plates, also known as Cheppeds, Royal Grants, Sasanam, etc.Syrian Christians of Kerala- SG Pothen- page 32-33 (1970) There are a number of such documents in the possession of the Syrian churches of Kerala which include the Thazhekad Sasanam, the Quilon Syrian copper plates (or Tharisappalli Cheppeds), Mampally Sasanam and Iraviikothan Chepped, etc. Some of these plates have been dated to around 774 AD. Scholars have studied the inscriptions and produced varying translations. The language used is Old Malayalam in Vattezhuthu script intermingled with some Grantha, Pahlavi, Kufic and Hebrew scripts. The ruler of Venad (Travancore) granted the Saint Thomas Christians seventy-two rights and privileges which were usually granted only to high dignitaries. These rights included exemption from import duties, sales tax and the slave tax. A copper plate grant dated 1225 AD further enhanced the rights and privileges of Nasranis.