Christianity in Gujarat

St Paul's Church, Diu

Christianity is a minority religion in Gujarat, a state of India. Hindus form the majority in the state. A Diocese of Gujarat of the Church of North India exists. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Ahmedabad, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gandhinagar, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baroda, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Rajkot and the Orthodox Diocese of Ahmedabad have their seat in the state. The state has anti-conversion legislation.

History

Missionaries included John Taylor M. D. (d. 1821), Joseph Taylor (d. 1852), his son J. V. S. Taylor (d. 1881) the translator of the Gujarati Bible "Old Version" (1861, rev. 1899), and his grandson George Pritchard Taylor (b. 1854) author of a Gujarati grammar. Missionaries established schools in the first half of the 20th century. Doot is Gujarati Catholic monthly published from Anand, Gujarat since January 1911.

Many of the Gujarati Christians carry the surname Parmar and Solanki. This relates back to the Rajput clan origin of many Christians in Gujarat. A lot of Rajput converts have given up their own land as a contribution to the Christian mission work. Such as building of schools, hospitals and churches. Typical example is in Nadiad, Gujarat where huge lands were donated by Christian landlords for the development of Christian societies. In giving up the land, these Rajputs have left the old lifestyles of the rajputs, and as Christians do not believe nor follow the caste systems anymore.

Conflict

Christian's have time and again been attacked by the right wing activists. The acts of violence include arson of churches & burning of bibles. Christian missionaries occasionally face threats of physical violence.