Christianity is the second-largest religion in Punjab Province of Pakistan comprising 1.9% of its population. Most Christians (81%) of Pakistan live in Punjab province. There are 2,458,924 Christians in Punjab province as of 2023, up from 1,699,843 in 1998.About 90 to 95% of Punjabi Christians are Dalits from the Chuhra caste who converted from Hinduism.
The churches in Lahore include Cathedral Church of Resurrection, Sacred Heart Cathedral, Lahore, St. Andrew's Church, Lahore, St. Anthony's Church, Lahore and St. Joseph’s Church, Lahore. Lahore and Faisalabad have more Christian population than any other city in Punjab. Most Punjabi Christians are converts from the Hindu Chuhras and Mazhabi Sikh castes to Christianity during the British Raj in colonial India.Alter, J.P and J. Alter (1986) In the Doab and Rohilkhand: north Indian Christianity, 1815–1915. I.S.P.C.K publishing p196
History
Pre-colonial era Armenians have been visiting the Indian subcontinent, especially the Punjab region, for trading purposes since the early part of the 2nd millennium. There are sparse records existing that document Armenians settling in the region prior to the reign of Akbar. In the mid-16th century, Akbar invited the Armenian merchant Hakobjan, who was based out of Lahore to settle in Agra, and asked him to convince other Armenians based in Punjab to also move to the imperial city. By the 1570s, there was a regular presence of Armenian merchants in the city of Lahore, whom specialized in high-value and low-quantity goods with Persia and Central Asia. In the early 16th century, there was an Armenian colony established in Lahore. There was an Armenian quarter of the city, enclosed by a wall of the city fort. There were interactions between the Armenians and Jesuits, as recorded in the letters left by the Jesuits. The Armenian archbishop died on his way to Lahore via a Persian land-route in 1599, with his belongings being looted. Some of the looted books of the deceased Armenian archbishop came into the possession of the Jesuit Emmanuel Pinheiro, which upset the Armenians. In a letter dating to 6 September 1604, Jerome Xavier records that the Armenians in Lahore could practice their Christian faith freely due to a royal decree (firman) issued by Akbar. Emmanuel Pinheiro, writing on 12 August 1609, states that the Mughal governor threatened to exterminate the Christian religion from the city of Lahore, spooking the Armenians, causing some of them to flee the city, as the Armenians did not have the desire to become religious martyrs. The Jesuits attempted to convince the Armenians of Lahore to convert to Catholicism. Mirza Iskandar, the father of Mirza Zulqarnain, left behind a will bequeathing a sum of 2,000 rupees to the church and Christians of Lahore. Additionally, a sum of 600 rupees was for a Christian cemetery of Lahore.
The Armenians were hesitant to get on the bad side of the Jesuits, as the Jesuits were close with the Mughal viceroy and held political sway as a result. François Valentyn recorded that on 10 December 1711 when a mission of the Dutch East India Company led by John Jeshua Kettler reached Lahore, they were greeted by an Armenian bishop and some Jesuits. The existence of an Armenian bishop in Lahore in 1711 points to the existence of an established church or chapel in the city to cater to a large congregation.
In 1735, the Jesuit Emmanuel de Figueiredo wrote that the elite Mughal military units stationed in Lahore consisted of many Christian members in its officer-classes.
After the second Durrani Afghan invasion of Punjab, Ahmad Shah Durrani is said to have taken all of the Christian gunners who were in the service of Mir Mannu, the viceroy of Lahore province, back to Kabul. In 1757, during the third Durrani invasion of Punjab, the Armenian quarter of the city of Lahore still existed, as Armenian and Georgian soldiers who were employed in the Durrani military protected it from the Afghans, sparing it and its inhabitants from being pillaged and destroyed like much of the surrounding city. An Armenian is said to have cast the famous Zamzama gun in Lahore in 1761.
Jesuits arrived in the region in the 16th century during the Mughal period but their nascent mission was temporarily shut-down during the reign of emperor Shah Jahan. The Jesuit mission in the Indian subcontinent began in 1545, which was marked by the arrival of Francis Xavier in Goa. In 1578, Akbar requested for two Jesuits to explain the Christian religion to him at his court in Fatehpur Sikri. Antoni de Montserrat, whom had arrived in the Indian subcontinent several years earlier in 1574, and Rodolfo Acquaviva, were selected for the task. The pair left Goa in November 1579 whilst being accompanied by a Persian convert named Henriquez, who would act as their translator at the Mughal court, and the group were also chaperoned by a member of Akbar's court. After three months of travel, the two Jesuits and their group arrived at Akbar's court, where they were warmly received and would spend much time in-dialogue with court officials and members of other religions. In 1581, Montserrat accompanied Akbar on a military campaign to the northwestern regions, including Punjab, reaching as far as Kabul, with Montserrat producing an early map of the northwestern region of the subcontinent. In 1595, Bento de Góis travelled to Lahore and Agra as a companion of Jerome Xavier, paying a visit to Akbar's court.
In 1606, Jerome Xavier was in Lahore during the execution of the fifth Sikh guru, Guru Arjan, with Xavier recording an eyewitness testimony of the incident.Father Jerome to Father Gasper Fernandes, (British Library Add MS 9854, ff. 38-52), 1617, in Sicques, Tigers or Thieves: Eyewitness Accounts of the Sikhs (1606-1809). Eds. Amandeep Singh Madra and Parmjit Singh. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p. 7. Jerome Xavier, in appreciation of the courage of Guru Arjan, wrote back to Lisbon, that Guru Arjan suffered and was tormented.
According to Ilay Cooper, Christian murals were painted in a Sedari pavilion located on the North Wall of Lahore Fort during the reign of Jahangir in circa 1618.
Colonial era
Christianity became established in the Punjab Province of British India in 1834.News18 website The Christian Mission in Ludhiana set up in the first Sikh Gurmukhi printing press the following year.Newsclick website
The Christians of colonial India were active in the Indian National Congress and wider Indian independence movement, being collectively represented in the All India Conference of Indian Christians, which advocated for swaraj and opposed the partition of India.
The meeting of the All India Conference of Indian Christians in Lahore in December 1922, which had a large attendance of Punjabis, resolved that the clergymen of the Church in India should be drawn from the ranks of Indians, rather than foreigners. The AICIC also stated that Indian Christians would not tolerate any discrimination based on race or skin colour.
S. K. Datta of Lahore, who served as the principal of Forman Christian College, became the president of the All India Conference of Indian Christians, representing the Indian Christian community at the Second Round Table Conference, where he agreed with Mahatma Gandhi's views on minorities and Depressed Classes.
On 30 October 1945, the All India Conference of Indian Christians formed a joint committee with the Catholic Union of India that passed a resolution in which, "in the future constitution of India, the profession, practice and propagation of religion should be guaranteed and that a change of religion should not involve any civil or political disability." This joint committee enabled the Christians in colonial India to stand united, and in front of the British Parliamentary Delegation "the committee members unanimously supported the move for independence and expressed complete confidence in the future of the community in India." The office for this joint committee was opened in Delhi, in which the Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University M. Rahnasamy served as president and B.L. Rallia Ram of Lahore served as General Secretary. Six members of the joint committee were elected to the Minorities Committee of the Constituent Assembly.
Post-independence era Following the partition of colonial India, the Catholic Union of India granted independence to its branches in Sind and Baluchistan in its Second Annual General Meeting in Bangalore in October 1947, which was presided by Ruthnasamy.
21st century The number of Christians in the state is seen to be rising.Hindustani Times website Estimates of Christian followers vary, mainly due to Dalits not being included in several surveys.The Print India website
Punjab is considered a province with persecution of Christians. The high-profile Asia Bibi blasphemy case was a famous example of this. Bibi was arrested in Punjab in 2009 under the blasphemy law in Pakistan, found guilty and sentenced to execution.NPR website After ten years in prison, and an international campaign, she was acquitted and she and her family moved to Canada, then on to France. The governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, was assassinated for his defence of Bibi.BBC website
In 2022, Freedom House rated religious freedom across the country as 1 out of 4.Freedom House, Retrieved 2023-04-25
In April 2023, Pentecostals in Punjab started a new political party, named the United Punjab Party.Newsclick India websiteChristianity Today website
Geographical distribution 2023 Census According to the 2023 Census of Pakistan, 602,431, or 24.5% of total Christian population in Punjab, lived in the Lahore District, forming 4.64% of the district population. Other districts with significant population include Faisalabad (308,580 person or 3.40%), Gujranwala (207,782 persons or 3.49%), Sialkot (154,884 persons or 3.46%), Sheikhupura (148,784 persons or 3.67%) and Rawalpindi (112,822 persons or 1.96%).
Colonial era At the district level in the western portion of British Punjab province, as per the 1941 census, the largest Christian concentrations existed in Sheikhupura District (Christians formed 7.04 percent of the total population and numbered 60,054 persons), Gujranwala District (6.67 percent or 60,829 persons), Sialkot District (6.37 percent or 75,831 persons), Lahore District (4.14 percent or 70,147 persons), and Lyallpur District (3.72 percent or 51,948 persons). + Christians in the administrative divisions that compose the contemporary Punjab, Pakistan region (1881–1941)District or Princely State188119011911192119311941 Lahore District 4,644 7,296 21,781 46,454 57,097 70,147 Rawalpindi District 3,822 7,614 8,320 9,286 7,486 9,014 Multan District 1,861 1,964 2,441 6,006 9,924 14,290 Sialkot District 1,535 11,939 48,620 62,266 66,365 75,831 Jhelum District 416 271 450 430 672 893 Gujrat District 255 460 570 2,373 3,097 4,449 Gujranwala District 194 2,748 16,215 27,308 49,364 60,829 Montgomery District 93 66 581 10,408 17,245 24,432 Dera Ghazi Khan District 82 152 76 47 31 87 Muzaffargarh District 33 33 60 356 246 227 Shahpur District 29 91 8,616 11,270 11,294 12,770 Bahawalpur State 13 83 199 283 1,054 3,048 Jhang District 11 38 201 449 494 763 Shakargarh Tehsil 4 900 3,486 3,733 4,487 4,779 Lyallpur District 8,672 32,023 42,004 45,518 51,948 Mianwali District 44 168 369 380 358 Biloch Trans–Frontier Tract 0 0 0 0 0 Attock District 707 557 710 1,392 Sheikhupura District 23,431 49,266 60,054 Total Christians 12,992 42,371 144,514 247,030 324,730 395,311 Total population 7,942,399 10,427,765 11,104,585 11,888,985 14,040,798 17,350,103
Notable people Sunita Marshall, actress Sidra Sadaf, cyclist Group Captain Cecil Chaudhry, academic, activist, and fighter pilot for the Pakistan Air Force Nazir Latif, former Air Commodore of Pakistan Air Force Shahbaz Bhatti, former member of Pakistan National Assembly, and Pakistan Peoples Party