Christian population registers growth in UP, many wonder how

The fastest population growth registered by Christians as a religious community during the last one decade in Uttar Pradesh has led to many questions.

Is it due to the alleged largescale conversions being organised by the missionaries that has swollen the Christian population or is there an altogether different factor working at it?

Against Hindus and Muslims who grew at 18.9% and 25.2% respectively and Sikhs who registered a negative growth of -5.15%, the Christian population increased by a whopping 67.7% between 2001-2011 as their number went up from 2,12,578 in 2001 to 3,56,448 in 2011.

State BJP president, Laxmi Kant Bajpai predictably indicated that a higher decadal population growth registered by Christians could be because of various factors including conversions.

The sociologists, however, reject the conversion theory on the ground that Christian population has not grown at the allIndia level.

“The fact that the population has not grown at all at the all-India level during the last decade demolishes the very hypothesis of conversion of other communities to the Christianity or conversion of Christians to other religions even if their population has grown at a faster pace in some states including UP,” a sociologist and professor in the Lucknow University, Rajesh Mishra claimed.

He said the Christian popu- lation could not have increased largely in two cases. First, if a large number of them had migrated to other countries and the second their birth rate had declined significantly. “But the two factors do not seem to have existed which clearly shows that conversion in case of Christians is more a myth than the reality,” he said. Another prominent sociologist, Badri Narayan currently teaching in the JNU also agrees with Mishra.

Then, what has made the Christian population grow in UP?

Prof Mishra attributes all this to the globalisation that the state has witnessed over the years.

“Many hospitals and nursing homes have been set up in the state during last one decade,” he said, adding, “All of these have in general engaged Christian girls and women as nurses and their husbands as ward boys who have all migrated from other states like Kerala to UP with their families. I think this is the main reason for the remarkable growth the Christian population has registered during the last one decade.”