Indore, Apostolic Prefecture of. – An ecclesiastical circumscription of south-central India erected on 11 March 1935 from territory detached from the dioceses of Ajmer, Allahabad and Nagpur. It is entrusted to the missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word and is suffragan to Agra. It borders to the east on the Apostolic Prefecture of Jubbulpore, to the south on the dioceses of Nagpur and Poona, to the west on the archdiocese of Bombay and the diocese of Ajmer, and to the north also on the latter.
It covers an area of 110,000 square kilometres and has a population of about six and a half million inhabitants, divided as follows: 4,500,000 Hindus, 2,000,000 Muslims, 9,400 Protestants and about 17,000 Catholics.
The missionary personnel, according to the latest statistics (1930), consists of some thirty fathers and about ten lay brothers of the Society of the Divine Word, all foreigners, together with two Indian secular priests, about seventy sisters—thirty belonging to the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of St Mary of the Angels, seventeen to the Servants of the Holy Spirit (of Steyl), and fourteen to two indigenous congregations—and 58 male and 5 female catechists. The prefecture is divided into four districts: Indore, Jhabua, Khandwa and Itarsi. There are five parishes, fifteen primary stations, 245 secondary stations with chapels and sixteen dispensaries.
Instruction and education are provided in fifty-one elementary schools attended by 700 pupils, three middle schools with 430 pupils and three high schools with nearly 1,700 students. The mission maintains four hospitals with fifty-eight beds; in two public hospitals Catholic sisters provide nursing care. There are also three orphanages with about a hundred boys and girls. The teaching staff comprises about sixty male and forty female teachers. The groundwork for missionary activity is prepared by fifty-eight male and five female catechists. Recently a minor seminary has been established, already having twenty seminarians. Some young clerics pursue studies in philosophy and theology at the major seminary of Bombay. The prefecture also has a printing press and several confraternities and pious associations.