Christianity in Assam

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The church at Tezpur

Christianity is a third largest religion in Assam, a state of India in the north-eastern region. The population of Christians in Assam is 1,165,867 making up 3.74% of state population as of the 2011 census report, and it is also the second-fastest growing religion in Assam after Islam. The largest concentration of Christians in Assam can be found in Dima Hasao District where Christian population is about 30% and Karbi Anglong district where Christian population is about 16.5% as of the 2011 census report.

Two Portuguese Jesuit missionaries, Cabral and Cacella — the first Christian Missionaries to set foot in Assam — reached Hajo and Guwahati on September 26, 1626. They were en route to Tibet from Hooghly. There is no record of significant sharing of the gospel in Assam at this point.

The start of sustained missionary work in Assam seems to come with the arrival of Nathan Brown along with Oliver Cutter in 1836. They previously had been Christian missionaries in Burma. They carried a printing machine with them and first arrived in Sadiya, easternmost part of Assam. They started schools in Assamese and Khaamti languages and authored text books. They also started the translation of the New Testament into Assamese. But in 1839, due to Khamti rebellions, Brown along with Cutter left for Jaipur, India. They kept publishing in Assamese from there. The complete translation of the New Testament was first published in 1848 as 'Amaar Traankorta Jisu Christor Natun Niyom'. In 1854, he published 'Christor Biworon and Xhubho Bartaa'. He also translated a few prayers to Assamese. Brown started the translated of Bible he was finally completed in 1903 with other missionaries efforts.[citation needed]

Oliver Thomas Cutter was born in United States in 1811. He started his journey towards east in 1831 along with his wife Harriet Cutter. He first landed in Burma (Myanmar) and from there he crossed Patkai to reach Assam in 1836 along with Nathan Brown's family. He together with Browns started a printing press in Sadiya. They started to print books in Assamese, Khamti and Singfou language from there. They also started school and authored some text books for the schools. But due to Singfou[clarification needed] rebellions, they were forced to leave Assam and go back to Jaipur. But they kept on publishing books from Jaipur. After few years, Cutter's family came back to Assam and this time settled down in Sibsagar. Miles Bronson came to Assam with friend Jacob Thomas in 1836. He first started his works in Sadiya, Jaipur and Naamsang. He started interacting with Naga tribes and first compiled 'East Naga' Thesaurus. According to historian Mccangie, no European after or before Bronson could get so close to Nagas. But he soon felt ill working with Nagas, so he finally came down to Nagaon via Sibsagar. In Assam, Bronson started working in both Christianism and local education. During the period from 1848 to 1851 and 1867 to 1871, he took vacation from his works and went back to New York. Miles Bronson was the main leader of the movement against government enforcing Bengali language as the official language in courts, school in Assam. In 1867, using Jaduram baruah's scripting, he published the first Assamese and English dictionary. The dictionary contained around 14 thousands words and published from Baptist Missionary Press, Sibsagar. This dictionary was another strong step in support of Assamese language. Bronson also started the translation of Bible to Assamese. Nidhiram Keot, the first native convert of the whole Northeastern region of India from the indigenous Keot(Kaibarta) community (an aboriginal tribe Sanskritised to a low position in the caste hierarchy), was baptised by Bronson on June 13, 1841 and took up the name Nidhi Levi Farewell.[citation needed]

Khasi and Garo are notable ethnic groups with a large Christian population. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Himalayan States has an Assam diocese since 2003, which used to be the .[1] Among the large Bengali population of Assam, there are few Christians.[2]

Population[]

Christians in Assam
Year Number Percentage
2001[3]
986,589
3.70
2011[4]
1,165,867
3.74
Historical Christian Population in Assam[5]
YearPop.±%
1901 13,638—    
1911 22,817+67.3%
1921 41,686+82.7%
1931 79,025+89.6%
1941 37,599−52.4%
1951 160,438+326.7%
1961 263,134+64.0%
1971 381,010+44.8%
1981 534,572+40.3%
1991 744,367+39.2%
2001 986,589+32.5%
2011 1,165,867+18.2%
Source: census of India

Trends[]

Percentage of Christians in Assam by decades[6]

Year Percent Increase
1901 0.41% -
1911 0.59%

+0.18%

1921 0.9%

+0.31%

1931 1.42%

+0.52

1941 0.56%

-0.86%

1951 2%

+1.44%

1961 2.43% +0.43%
1971 2.61% +0.18%
1981 2.96% +0.35%
1991 3.32% +0.36%
2001 3.7% +0.38%
2011 3.74% +0.04%

Population by district[]

Christian population in Assam (2011)[7]
# District Total population Christian population %
1 Karbi Anglong 956,313 157,789 16.50%
2 Sonitpur 1,924,110 138,166 7.18%
3 Udalguri 831,668 110,215 13.25%
4 Kokrajhar 887,142 101,091 11.40%
5 Goalpara 1,008,183 77,862 7.72%
6 Tinsukia 1,327,929 76,877 5.79%
7 Dima Hasao 214,102 63,310 29.57%
8 Dibrugarh 1,326,335 52,968 3.99%
9 Golaghat 1,066,888 50,582 4.74%
10 Chirang 482,162 49,747 10.32%
11 Lakhimpur 1,042,137 46,217 4.43%
12 Cachar 1,736,617 37,635 2.17%
13 Kamrup 1,517,542 3,3297 2.19%
14 Sivasagar 1,151,050 33,147 2.88%
15 Baksa 950,075 27,076 2.85%
16 Nagaon 2,823,768 26,844 0.95%
17 Jorhat 1,092,256 21,051 1.93%
18 Kamrup Metropolitan 1,253,938 18,810 1.50%
19 Karimganj 1,228,686 11,990 0.98%
20 Dhemaji 686,133 8,711 1.27%
21 Hailakandi 659,296 8,480 1.29%
22 Bongaigaon 738,804 5,924 0.80%
23 Dhubri 1,949,258 4,107 0.21%
24 Darrang 928,500 1,688 0.18%
25 Barpeta 1,693,622 1,020 0.06%
26 Morigaon 957,423 834 0.09%
27 Nalbari 771,639 429 0.06%
Assam (Total) 31,205,576 1,165,867 3.74%

Population by Tribes[]

Christian population in Assam by Tribes (2011)[8]

Tribes Christians Percent
Garo 1,54,353 95.63%
Boro 1,36,869 10.05%
Karbi 75,883 17.63%
Kuki 31,573 94.53%
Naga 19,924 66.93%
Hmar 15,557 98.81%
Khasi 13,956 87.58%
Rabha 9,845 3.32%
Mising 5,984 0.88%
Lalung 2,808 15.38%
Sonowal 1,416 0.56%
Dimasa 1,144 1.11%

List of denominations[]

Martin Luther Cathedral, Gossaigaon

Sources[9] [10][11][12]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ [1] Archived March 10, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Regional Updates - Gospel for Asia". Gfa.org. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
  3. ^ "Total population by religious communities". Censusindia.gov.in. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  4. ^ "Indian Census 2011". Census Department, Government of India. Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  5. ^ http://www.cpsindia.org › BlogsPDF Web results The Christianisation of the Northeast - Centre for Policy Studies
  6. ^ http://www.cpsindia.org › BlogsPDF Web results The Christianisation of the Northeast - Centre for Policy Studies
  7. ^ Population by religious community: Assam. 2011 Census of India.
  8. ^ blog.cpsindia.org/2016/09/religion-data-of-census-2011-xxix.html
  9. ^ World Christian Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., 2001 Volume 1, p. 368-371
  10. ^ "EACI". Eacinet.org. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
  11. ^ [2] Archived February 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-01-04. Retrieved 2014-01-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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