ABSTRACT
John Rooney states that the decline in the Persian church consequent to the conquest of Persia by Muslims must have also contributed to the disappearance of Christianity from Pakistan. The next episode in the history of Christianity in Pakistan comes with the efforts of Jesuit missionaries to convert Akbar, the Mughal emperor, on the premise that the conversion of such a great emperor will result in the conversion of the masses in his empire. The arrival of British armies and the railway to the Punjab and Sind was the catalyst for Christian presence in the Pakistan region in the nineteenth century. The churches received grant in aid from the British government for teaching in and running the Railway schools, and with this income established their own schools and orphanages. Many Catholic Bengalis are said to have migrated to Bangladesh consequent on the declaration of independence of East Pakistan and secession from Pakistan.
