DINAJPUR, DIOCESE of. - Erected by apostolic brief of 25 May 1927 through the dismemberment of the diocese of Krishnagar (India), it has an area of 45,383 sq. km. and a population of approximately 10 million inhabitants, of whom 33,000 are Catholics, 23,000 Protestants, 6.5 million Muslims, and more than 3 million pagans.
It is entrusted to the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions of Milan. Twenty-three Italian and 9 native priests work there, together with 367 catechists and a considerable number of foreign and native nuns. It is divided into 15 districts, 4 rural deaneries, 15 quasi-parishes, 15 principal stations and 268 secondary ones; there are 6 churches and 195 chapels. The elementary schools are attended by approximately 5,000 pupils, the secondary schools by about a thousand young people, and the vocational schools by 150. The diocese also possesses 8 orphanages with a total of 211 orphans, a poorhouse, a leper colony, and a rural credit bank. There is no seminary, but some young men prepare for the priesthood in the seminaries of neighbouring dioceses. The diocese of D. is suffragan to Calcutta and, after the political partition of India, a large part of its territory, including the episcopal city, lies in East Pakistan, while the other part is situated in India. Ecclesiastically, it borders on the dioceses of Patna, Krishnagar, Dacca, Shillong, and the apostolic prefecture of Sikkim.