Buddhism had disappeared from India long before the East India Company
gained a foothold in the country, and at the present day there are
very few Buddhists in India proper. Of the 9,476,759 enumerated in the
census of 1901 all but some three hundred thousand were in Burma. The
greater part of the remainder are found in Bengal on the borders of
Burma, on the borders of Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan, and in the Spiti,
Lahul and Kanawar districts of the Punjab Himalayas, where many of the
inhabitants are of Tibetan origin.
More than two-fifths of the Jains in India are found in Bombay and its
native states, including Baroda. They are proportionally most numerous
in central and western Rajputana and in Gujarat and Central India.
The Parsees, though influential and wealthy, are a very small
community, numbering only 94,000, of whom all but 7000 are found in
Bombay. The remainder are scattered all over India, but are most
numerous in Hyderabad, the Central India Agency, and the Central
Provinces.
The Christian community numbers 2,923,241, of whom, 2,664,313 are
natives and the remainder Europeans and Eurasians. Of the native
Christians about two-fifths are Roman Catholics and one-eighth Uniat
Syrians; one-ninth belong to the Anglican communion, one-eleventh are
Jacobite Syrians, and one-twelfth are Baptists; while Lutherans,
Methodists and Presbyterians are also represented. Nearly two-thirds
of the total number are found in the Madras Presidency, including its
native states. In Cochin and Travancore, where the Syrian church has
most of its adherents, nearly a quarter of the entire population
profess the Christian faith. More than four-fifths of the Christians
in Madras proper are found in the eight southernmost districts, the
scene of the labours of St Francis Xavier and the Protestant
missionary Schwarz. The adherents of the Syrian church, known as
"Christians of St Thomas," in Malabar, Travancore and Cochin are the
most ancient Christian community in the south. After these come the
Roman Catholics, who trace their origin to the teaching of St Francis
Xavier and the Madura Jesuits. The Protestant churches date only from
about the beginning of the 19th century, but their progress since that
time has been considerable. As is to be expected in the case of a
religion with a strong proselytizing agency, the growth of
Christianity is far more rapid than that of the general population.
Taking native Christians alone, their numbers increased from 1,246,288
in 1872 to 2,664,313 in 1901, and the rate of increase in the thirty
years was even greater than these figures would show, because they
include the Syrian church, whose numbers are practically constant. The
classes most receptive of Christianity are those who are outside the
Hindu system, or whom Hinduism regards as degraded. Amongst the Hindu
higher castes there are serious obstacles in the way of conversion, of
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