HYDERABAD, DIOCESE of. — The present diocese of H. is merely a reduction of the former apostolic vicariate of the same name, established on 16 March 1845 and definitively erected on 30 May 1851, with territory taken from the then apostolic vicariate of Madras (India). It lies entirely within what until a few years ago was the Native State of H., except for the part north of the Godaveri River and that south of the Kistna River. It consists of a large plateau, which slopes gradually eastward from the Western Ghats.
Its area is 43,689 sq. km. It borders the dioceses of Bellary, Nellore, Bezwada, Nagpur and Vizagapatam. The population amounts to more than 7 million souls and includes 47,000 Catholics, 16,500 Protestants, 942,000 Muslims and approximately 6 million pagans. Evangelization was entrusted to the missionaries of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions of Milan from 1854 onward. In addition to Muslims, the mission territory is inhabited by Indian peoples belonging to various groups: Tamils in the towns, relugu throughout the territory but especially in the eastern part, and Marathas in the north-east. The soil, more fertile in the northern and north-eastern region, which is volcanic in nature, and less so in the south and east, where limestone and granite rock abound, produces cotton, millet and rice. In 1933 the eastern districts were detached to form the sui iuris mission of Bezwada, later (1937) erected as a diocese, and in 1932 those of the south were detached to form the present diocese of Bellary. Twenty-seven fathers of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions and 20 Indian priests, 10 Brothers of St Gabriel and approximately 226 sisters (more than half of them indigenous) work there. There are also 191 catechists, 5 of them women, 123 male teachers and 190 female teachers. About 20 churches and 168 chapels are scattered among the various mission stations. Forty-five aspirants study at the preparatory school for the Seminary; 10 seminarists in sucris study at the major Seminaries of Bangalore, Nellore and Kandy. The diocese maintains 35 primary schools with more than 7,000 boys and girls, 10 middle schools with about a thousand students, 7 secondary schools with 175 pupils and students, 10 vocational schools, 18 dispensaries, 6 orphanages with 79 boys and 453 girls, 1 almshouse with 161 old people, 1 leprosarium with 18 residents, and 1 printing press, where the monthly Catholic message is published. Confraternities and pious associations are numerous.