Afghan Church

The Church of St. John the Evangelist, better known as the Afghan Church (Marathi: अफ़ग़ान चर्च) is an Anglican Church in Mumbai, India, built by the British to commemorate the dead of the First Afghan War and the disastrous 1842 retreat from Kabul. Memorials and laid up regimental colors displayed at the rear of the nave also record casualties from the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

The church is located in Navy Nagar in the Colaba area of South Mumbai (Bombay).

History

The first Anglican church in the Navy Nagar district began as a small thatched chapel a kilometre south in what was then known as the "Sick Bungalows" (now the INHS Asvini, the Indian naval hospital). There were no chairs, and patrons had to bring their own. Later, the government released a new patch of land for the setting up the church with the hope that the church's spire would serve as a useful landmark for ships in the harbour.

The construction of a new more permanent church in the 1840s was led by the Rev. George Piggot, Chaplain to the Hon. East India Company in Bombay. The immediate impetus for fundraising and construction was for the church to serve as the principal memorial to the casualties of the First Anglo-Afghan War. The retreat of the British forces from Kabul in 1842 was described at the time as the worst disaster suffered by the British in India. Many of the casualties of the conflict came from the East India Company's Bombay Army and military establishments located in proximity to the present church site.