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 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.
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.[4] 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:[5]
| 2001[6] | ||
| 2011[7] | ||
| District | Total population | Christian population | % | ||
| 1 | 3,872,846 | 186,279 | 4.81% | ||
| 2 | 1,846,823 | 141,848 | 7.68% | ||
| 3 | 8,161,961 | 66,498 | 0.81% | ||
| 4 | 4,496,694 | 39,758 | 0.88% | ||
| 5 | 5,167,600 | 33,835 | 0.65% | ||
| 6 | 10,009,781 | 26,933 | 0.27% | ||
| 7 | 1,676,276 | 24,794 | 1.48% | ||
| 8 | 5,913,457 | 23,287 | 0.39% | ||
| 9 | 7,717,563 | 21,220 | 0.27% | ||
| 10 | 7,103,807 | 18,102 | 0.25% | ||
| 11 | 3,007,134 | 16,702 | 0.56% | ||
| 12 | 3,988,845 | 13,209 | 0.33% | ||
| 13 | 3,502,404 | 10,906 | 0.31% | ||
| 14 | 4,850,029 | 8,666 | 0.18% | ||
| 15 | 2,930,115 | 8,646 | 0.30% | ||
| 16 | 5,519,145 | 7,300 | 0.13% | ||
| 17 | 2,819,086 | 4,122 | 0.15% | ||
| 18 | 3,596,674 | 3,865 | 0.11% | ||
| 19 | 5,095,875 | 2,648 | 0.05% | ||
| West Bengal (Total) | 91,276,115 | 658,618 | 0.72% |
| 1951 | 0.70% | |
| 1961 | 0.59% | |
| 1971 | 0.57% | |
| 1981 | 0.59% | |
| 1991 | 6.0% | |
| 2001 | 0.64% | |
| 2011 | 0.72% |