Jhansi diocese is in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. It has an area of 29,418 square kilometers with seven civil districts: Jhansi, Lalitpur, Jalaun, Banda, Chitrakoot, Hamirpur, and Mahoba.
Important cities in the diocese are: Jhansi, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Banda and Hamirpur.
There are 4,535 Catholics, representing 0.046 percent of 9,389,886 people in the territory as of 2016. Followers of other religions are Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.
The diocese has 28 parishes and mission stations.
Most of the Catholics are migrants and are railway employees, who live in the towns. Local Catholics are few.
People in the diocese speak Hindi, Urdu, Bhundelkhandi and English.
The diocesan territory, which belonged to the Allahabad diocese, was detached in 1929 and was entrusted to the Maltese Province Capuchins, who were working in Allahabad diocese.
Though the area was declared a prefecture on Jan. 12, 1940, it remained without its prefect due to World War II. On Jan. 21, 1946, Msgr. Francis Xavier Fenech, O.F.M. Cap, was appointed its prefect apostolic.
On July 5, 1954, the prefecture was raised to a diocese and Msgr. Fenech became its first bishop.
Msgr. Baptist Mudartha was appointed its auxiliary bishop in 1963. He succeeded Msgr. Fenech as its first Indian bishop in August 1967.
On Feb. 10, 1999, civil districts of Bhind, Datia, Gwalior, Morena, Shivpuri and Sheopur, belonging to the neighbouring Madhya Pradesh state, were detached from Jhansi diocese to form the diocese of Gwalior.
Most of the people in the region belong to the middle class, backward community and they are farmers. They cultivate wheat, paddy, gram and groundnut.
