Christianity in India

Christianity in India, in fact, is as old as Christianity itself. And the traditions say that it was brought to India by a disciple of Christ himself. The traditions say that St. Thomas came to India in 52 A.D. ,and landed at Kodungallur, Kerala. He preached the gospel and many people received faith.
There are 25 million christians in india which id just below 2% of the total population of the country. I think it is slightly more than the entire population of some countries in Europe. There are parts of India as heavily Christians as any part of Europe or America, eg., Kerala, Goa, Misoram. Kerala has the large number of Christians among all other states in India.

Christians including Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants from the third largest group in India. It is estimated that about 73% of the Christians in India are Catholics. And the catholic church in India is composed of three individual churches, Latin, Malabar and Malankara churches, with their own independent hierarchies. Diversity of Christians is noticeable: Syrian Christians, Knanaya Christians, Goan Christians, Tamil Christians, Anglo-Indians, Naga Christians, etc. They differ in language, social customs and economic prosperity. Christians Occupy high positions: cabinet ministers, governors of states, high court judges, University vice-chancellors, top-ranking officers, etc. Christians also have been the main contributors to education in India. Their contribution in the social work is out of all proportion to their numbers.

Kerala is the cradle of Christianity in India. There the Christians play a decisive role in the fields of education, social work and even in politics. In 1959 it moved Pundit Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India, to remark (on the occasion of the dismissal of the Communist Government of Kerala) that the Christians of Kerala are a power to be counted on. 22% of the population of Kerala is Christian. In the educational field, the work of the Christians of Kerala has been noteworthy and it is due to their efforts together with that of the government and of other religious and cultural groups that Kerala became the leading state in India for literacy