Short History of Hindustan Bible Institute & College

The ministries of Hindustan Bible Institute & College (HBI) was founded in 1952 by Dr. N. Paul V. Gupta in response to the challenge of developing national leadership for the church and mission, when India was transitioning out of colonialism into nationalization. The passion and strategy God placed in the founder’s heart was to reach the unevangelised by equipping one Indian to reach another Indian for Christ. The program focused on a practical training that developed skills in evangelism and preaching God’s word and Spiritual emphasis that developed Biblical values, vision and faith.

By 1978 it became the largest theological college in Asia. In 1979 HBI expanded its mission by extending its leadership development focus from evangelism to discipleship and church planting.

In 1985 it recognized the need to enhance the formal leadership training to include the non-formal and informal methods of training to further increase its effectiveness in fulfilling its mission.

In 1995 it further enhanced its strategy with a focus in building cross cultural missionaries.

In the year 1998 it recognized the need to decentralize its training with an effort to contextualize leadership development to further increase its effectiveness in developing indigenous leaders for a complex nation like India and by 2000 it started its first training center in North India.

Today, HBI trains through its formal, non-formal and informal efforts an average of 4,000 a year. It has training centers in 5 locations of India and its vision is to establish 15 Regional centers and 1,100 training units to equip and develop 200,000 indigenous leaders all over India.