Christianity in Odisha

The Cathedral Of The Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic cathedral belonging to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rourkela and one of the oldest church buildings in Rourkela.

Followers of Christianity are a significant minority in Odisha state of India. According to the 2011 Census, Christians make up about 2.77% of the population (about 1,160,000 people).[1] Kurukh, Sora, Kharia and Panos are notable ethnic groups with a significant Christian population.

History

Bible translations into Odia

The first version in the Odia language of India[2] was translated by William Carey in 1808 and was distributed among pilgrims at Puri to introduce them to Christianity. Then came the standard version by Amos Sutton in the 1840s.[3]

Demographics

Christianity in Odisha
YearPop.±%
1951 141,934—    
1961 201,017+41.6%
1971 378,888+88.5%
1981 480,426+26.8%
1991 666,220+38.7%
2001 897,861+34.8%
2011 1,161,708+29.4%
Source: [4][5][6][7][8][9]

According to the 2011 Census of India, Odisha had 1,161,708 Christians, constituting 2.77% of the state's population. Odisha had the eighth-largest Christian population among India's states and union territories, accounting for approximately 4.18% of India's total Christian population of 27,819,588. Of Odisha's Christian population, 83.93% lived in rural areas and 16.07% lived in urban areas. The Christian population had a sex ratio of 1,035 females per 1,000 males, compared with 978 females per 1,000 males for Odisha's total population.

Christian population by district in Odisha, 2011
District Population Christian population Christians (% of district population) Share of Odisha's Christian population
Bargarh 1,481,255 11,744 0.79% 1.01%
Jharsuguda 579,505 10,462 1.81% 0.90%
Sambalpur 1,041,099 50,637 4.86% 4.36%
Debagarh 312,520 14,518 4.65% 1.25%
Sundargarh 2,093,437 385,011 18.39% 33.14%
Kendujhar 1,801,733 9,141 0.51% 0.79%
Mayurbhanj 2,519,738 15,008 0.60% 1.29%
Baleshwar 2,320,529 6,434 0.28% 0.55%
Bhadrak 1,506,337 745 0.05% 0.06%
Kendrapara 1,440,361 1,423 0.10% 0.12%
Jagatsinghapur 1,136,971 1,604 0.14% 0.14%
Cuttack 2,624,470 11,985 0.46% 1.03%
Jajapur 1,827,192 1,623 0.09% 0.14%
Dhenkanal 1,192,811 727 0.06% 0.06%
Angul 1,273,821 3,383 0.27% 0.29%
Nayagarh 962,789 383 0.04% 0.03%
Khordha 2,251,673 12,527 0.56% 1.08%
Puri 1,698,730 4,239 0.25% 0.36%
Ganjam 3,529,031 23,975 0.68% 2.06%
Gajapati 577,817 219,482 37.98% 18.89%
Kandhamal 733,110 148,895 20.31% 12.82%
Boudh 441,162 522 0.12% 0.04%
Subarnapur 610,183 2,374 0.39% 0.20%
Balangir 1,648,997 16,271 0.99% 1.40%
Nuapada 610,382 1,778 0.29% 0.15%
Kalahandi 1,576,869 11,160 0.71% 0.96%
Rayagada 967,911 84,916 8.77% 7.31%
Koraput 1,379,647 68,550 4.97% 5.90%
Malkangiri 613,192 10,039 1.64% 0.86%
Nabarangpur 1,220,946 32,152 2.63% 2.77%
Odisha 41,974,218 1,161,708 2.77% 100.00%
Christianity among social group of Odisha, 2011 census[4][10]
  1. Scheduled Tribes (70.3%)
  2. General (incl. converted Scheduled Castes) population (29.7%)

The Christians are mostly from the adivasi or tribal communities of the state with 816,981 (70.33%) Christians among STs. The major tribes are as below with number of Christians and percentage of Christians in each tribe.[10]

Tribe Christians Percent
Munda 1,74,119 31.1%
Khond 1,59,783 9.8%
Oraon 1,49,866 41.8%
Soura 1,36,369 25.5%
Kharia 87,069 39.1%
Sabar 37,933 7.3%
Kisan 25,675 7.7%

Places with the largest proportions

The figures indicate percentage of Christians within the districts:[11]

Denominations

Church of God (Anderson), Evangelical Missionary Society in Mayurbhanj and Jeypore Evangelical Lutheran Church are among the Protestant denominations of Odisha.[12] Christ Church the full Gospel Church, Gospel Outreach Ministries, India Evangelistic Association, Orissa Baptist Evangelistic Crusade and The Pentecostal Mission are among the non-Catholic denominations of Odisha as well.[13] [14] The Church of North India is present in Odisha as well with the dioceses of Cuttack, Phulbani, and Sambalpur. The diocese of Chota Nagpur also serves a small part of Odisha.[15]

Roman Catholic Church

The archbishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar is Archbishop John Barwa. Its suffragan dioceses are:

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Indian Census 2011". Census Department, Government of India. Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  2. ↑ Subhakanta Behera Construction of an identity discourse: Oriya literature and the ... 2002 - this work misspells Carey from Odia script back into English as "William Kerry"
  3. ↑ Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions - Page 652 Gerald H. Anderson - 1999 The first Odia conversion was recorded in 1828. Sutton devoted himself to grammatical work on the Odia language and Bible translation. In 1841 he began training the first three Odia evangelists at Cuttack. By 1846 there were eight students"
  4. 1 2 "C-01: Population by religious community (2011)". Census India. Retrieved Sep 9, 2024.
  5. ↑ "C-01: Population by religious community (2001)". Census India. Retrieved Sep 9, 2024.
  6. ↑ "C-9 Religion (1991)". Census India. Retrieved Sep 9, 2024.
  7. ↑ "Portrait of Population - Census 1981" (PDF). Retrieved Sep 12, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Census Atlas, Vol-XII-Part IX-A, Orissa - Census 1961" (PDF). Census India. Retrieved Sep 13, 2024.
  9. ↑ "General Population, Social and Cultural and Land Tables, Part II-A, Tables, Volume-XI, Orissa - Census 1951" (PDF). Census India. Retrieved Sep 13, 2024.
  10. 1 2 "ST-14 Scheduled Tribe Population By Religious Community - Odisha". census.gov.in. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  11. ↑ Census India 2011
  12. ↑ World Christian Encyclopedia, Second edition, 2001 Volume 1, p. 369
  13. ↑ World Christian Encyclopedia, Second edition, 2001 Volume 1, p. 369-370
  14. ↑ "Archived copy". Retrieved 2012-05-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  15. ↑ "The Dioceses - The Church of North India". The Church of North India. Archived from the original on 2010-06-19. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
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