RANCHI, DIOCESE OF. – More often called the Mission of Chota Nagpur after the name of one of its principal regions, it was detached from the Archdiocese of Calcutta (India), of which it is a suffragan, erected as a diocese on 25 May 1927 and entrusted to the Jesuits.
Situated in north-eastern India to the west of Calcutta, it embraces the territory of three States, namely Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, with an area of 107,488 sq. km and a population of about 8 million, of whom 3,525,000 are Hindus, 3,542,000 animists, 400,000 Muslims, 160,000 Protestants. The Catholics number 354,230, with 17,250 catechumens. It has 51 quasi-parishes or districts and more than 1,000 secondary stations. There are 172 priests: 124 foreign and 48 Indian; 240 sisters: 66 foreign and 174 Indian. There is a major and a minor seminary. Catechists number 592. Instruction is given in 841 elementary schools, 51 middle schools, 15 high schools, 2 university colleges, 18 vocational schools and 6 normal schools. There are also 6 hospitals, 32 dispensaries and a printing press, where, among other things, two monthly periodicals of respectable circulation are published. Various pious associations of Catholic Action and Marian congregations flourish.
About 70 years ago there were barely 2,000 Catholics. The impetus to the conversion movement was given by Fr. Lievens, a Belgian Jesuit, who in 8 years brought 60,000 individuals into the Church. His confrere Fr. Hoffman, by founding in 1909 the *Chotanagpur Catholic Cooperative Credit Society*, succeeded in raising the economic level of the aborigines. In addition to the above-mentioned cooperative, which now includes 23,000 heads of families in 700 groups, there functions a *Catholic Labour Bureau*, a kind of employment office, and a *Grains Bank* with many branches, capable of supplying rice to farmers even in times of famine and scarcity.
On 14 June 1951 a portion of its territory was detached to form part of the Diocese of Sambalpur (v.) and on 13 December 1951 another area for the erection of the Diocese of Raigarh-Ambikapur. On the same date the Diocese of Ranchi passed to indigenous clergy.