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MANGALORE: Protestantism is one of the major divisions within Christianity and in the undivided Dakshina Kannada district they form the largest Christian population after Roman Catholics.

The Basel missionaries, who came with an intention to spread Gospel here in 1834, realized the local population needed more than just the God’s word. So, along with spreading Gospel, they helped locals develop employment and vocational skills. Thus, Mangalore flourished as an education and industry hub and became a centre for trade. It was during the time of Basel Mission cotton weaving, tile manufacturers and vocational educational institutions were established here.

Many Billavas embraced Protestantism in search of social equality and economic betterment by breaking out tentacles of caste system. They believed Protestantism ensured freedom and equality, according to Ramanath Kotekar, who wrote the book ``Billavaru Mathu Basel Mission-Ondu Adhyayana’’ (Billavas and Basel Mission-A study). In fact, he notes that for every ten persons who got converted by the Basel Missionaries in 1850s, nine were Billavas. Ramanath deduces that Billavas who had been deprived of education and equality probably yearned for better future for self and their future generations.

As of now, the population of Protestants under Church of South India which has jurisdiction over Diocese of Dakshina Kannada , Udupi, Kodagu, Chamarajanagar, Mysore and Hassan is only 34,000.

Their traditions are derived from local population and fish curry rice is their favourite food.

Famous personalities among Protestants are Ferdinand Kittel, who learnt Kannada, Tulu and Sanskrit. His main contributions to Indological studies was his Kannada-English Dictionary, first published in 1894, and the Grammar of the Kannada Language in English, published in 1903.

He also composed a number of Kannada poems.

Hermann Friedrich Mogling is credited to be the publisher of the first ever newspaper in the Kannada language `Mangalooru Samachara’ in 1843. He was awarded a doctorate for his literary work in Kannada, Bibliotheca Carnataca. The founder-principal of BEM Theological Seminary (now Karnataka Theological College), also translated Kannada literature into German.

Rev A Manner is another notable personality who published the first Tulu-English Dictionary in 1886. Plebot is another famous missionary who established the first tile factory known as Basel Mission tile factory in 1860, after he found large deposits of clay by the banks Gurupura and Nethravathi Rivers.

It was located near Morgan’s Gate on the banks of the river Nethravathi.