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    India Click here for the India Newsroom

    15,224

    Total Church Membership

    1-in-

    4

    Stakes

    45

    Congregations

    21 Wards
    24 Branches

    20

    FamilySearch Centers

    20

    2

    Missions | 3 Districts

    History

    The restored gospel reached India in 1849 through tracts from Orson Hyde and preaching by Latter-day Saint sailors. The first missionaries arrived in 1851. Over 300 Europeans and Indians joined the Church before the mission closed in 1856. A few members remained in the subcontinent into the 1930s, and three later missions to British India took place.

    The first baptism in independent India took place in 1961, when Elder Spencer W. Kimball baptized Mangal Dan Dipty in New Delhi. Though a mission was not established at the time, people continued to find their way into the Church, “one of a city, and two of a family,” in different parts of the country (Jeremiah 3:14). For example, S. Paul Thiruthuvadoss was converted by a pamphlet he found in a used book store in 1954, and he began preaching the gospel near Coimbatore. In 1978 Edwin and Elsie Dharmaraju, expatriate Indians called as missionaries to their homeland, established a branch in Hyderabad.


    In 1993 a mission in India was finally organized. Reactivation efforts, leadership development, and conversions led to a rapid increase in the number of branches. Visa restrictions limited the number of foreign missionaries, but local members helped carry the work forward, and Church membership in the country increased tenfold in the next 20 years, even as many members emigrated. The first stake in India was organized in Hyderabad in 2012.

    For Journalist Use Only

    Annie Wong
    Wan Chai,
    Hong Kong
    Phone: 852-2910-2940

    Africa

    Total Church Membership

    Members
    Congregations

    849,568

    Members

    2,721

    Congregations

    Missions

    45Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    423

    Temples

    6Temples

    Asia

    Total Church Membership

    Members
    Congregations

    1,298,181

    Members

    2,113

    Congregations

    Missions

    45Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    402

    Temples

    10Temples

    Europe

    Total Church Membership

    Members
    Congregations

    507,748

    Members

    1,296

    Congregations

    Missions

    35Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    663

    Temples

    14Temples

    North America

    Total Church Membership

    Members
    Congregations

    9,637,503

    Members

    18,423

    Congregations

    Missions

    175Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    3,054

    Temples

    120Temples

    Oceania (Pacific)

    Total Church Membership

    Members
    Congregations

    599,065

    Members

    1,308

    Congregations

    Missions

    17Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    318

    Temples

    11Temples

    South America

    Total Church Membership

    Members
    Congregations

    4,320,129

    Members

    5,629

    Congregations

    Missions

    97Missions

    FamilySearch Centers

    1,355

    Temples

    25Temples