HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA 1. APOSTOLIC ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA Remember, St. Thomas came to India when many of the countries of Europe had not yet become Christian, and so those Indians who trace their Christianity to him have a longer history and a higher ancestry than that of Christians of many of the European countries. And it is really a matter of pride to us that it so happened. (Dr. Rajendra Prasad, President of India, 18 December, 1955) On 27 September 2006 pope Benedict XVI stated that the apostle Thomas preached the gospel in northwestern India, that is present day Afghanistan and Pakistan from where Christianity reached also south India, which means, he did not take the gospel to south India personally. This caused an uproar in India. Two months later, the Vatican responded with a corrective statement that the apostle himself had proceeded to preach the gospel in south India. LG 13, 9 of Vatican II quotes from a sermon of John Chrysostom who preached between 387-397 in Antioch, extolling the world wide community of Christians constituting one mystical body of Christ. “The Christians of Rome know that the Christians in India are their members. Is there anything else like this community which has Christ as the head of all?” It is significant that Chrysostom could evoke in the same breath the Christians in Rome and those in India. There are several such references to Indian Christianity in the patristic and post patristic literature. Some of them do not mention the apostle Thomas as the founder of the church in India. Few of them mention another apostle of Jesus Christ, Bartholomew, as the apostle who came to India. But most of them say that Thomas the apostle is the founder of Christianity in India. All these lead to the historical question whether St. Thomas evangelized India so as to merit the title, the apostle of India. Most western scholars do not think that the apostle Thomas ever went to India or a positive answer can be given to this question by the historian. But Indian scholars think that he did. Moreover it is the firm belief of six million Christians in India that they received their faith from St. Thomas, the apostle, in the first century. The Thomas Tradition is one of the oldest and strongest traditions in the entire Church history. It is passionately defended by the Thomas Christians and is approved even by such famous modern non Christian historians, like K.M. Panikkar, A.L. Bashan, Romila Thapar etc. Our concern here is to try to study this question and attempt to give an answer. Sources of the Thomas Tradition Patristic Sources 1. Pantaenus The first known visitor from the west to India who bore witness to the presence of Christians in India was Pantaenus. He was the head of the catechetical school of Alexandria. He visited India 1

from 189-190. He did not leave behind anything in writing. His visit is reported by the church Fathers Eusebius and Jerome. Eusebius wrote: “Pantaenus is said to have gone among the Indians, where as is reported he found the gospel according to Matthew among some people there who had already acquired some knowledge of Christ before his arrival. For Bartholomew, one of the apostles had preached to them and had left them this writing of Matthew in the Hebrew language, which they had preserved till then.” Jerome adds a few details: “Pantaenus a stoic philosopher renowned as an outstanding scholar was sent to India by Demetrius bishop of Alexandria to preach Christ to the Brahmans and the philosophers of that nation. And he found there that Bartholomew one of the twelve apostles had preached the coming of our lord Jesus Christ according to the gospel of Matthew.” Pantaenus does not tell anything about Thomas but it is interesting to note that there is mention of Christianity in India in the second century. Who preached it there, Thomas or Bartholomew, we need to find out. 2. Origen (186-c. 255) Origen associates the apostle Thomas with Parthia in his commentary on Genesis. “As regards the holy apostles and bishops of our savior they were dispersed all over the world. Thomas as tradition has it obtained Parthia by lot; Andrew Scythia, John Asia and he stayed there and died in Ephesus, but Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome under Nero.” We shall need to clarify an objection raised by western historians that one of the earliest witnesses, Origen does not mention India as the field of the mission of Thomas but Parthia. But it is important to note that this is the first written record about the apostolate of Thomas. He says that Parthia was assigned to Thomas. He does not say that he evangelized there or that was the only place he evangelized. Where is Parthia? According to our present knowledge, Parthia was identical with the Persian empire which extended from the Indus river in the east to the Tigris in the west, from the Caspian sea in the north to the Persian gulf in the south. We also know that part of this kingdom which was ruled by a king called Gundaphar was also called Parthia or Indo Parthia or simply India. It corresponded to the Mauryan empire of Indian history comprising of northwest India (Punjab), Pakistan and Afghanistan and parts of Iran. This king appears in the apocryphal work Acts of Thomas written in Syria a few years after Origen. So Parthia could also very well mean India. 3. Acts of Thomas (3rd century) It was written originally in Syriac, most probably in Edessa, today‟s Urfa in Turkey, and is dated 230 AD. A work in 14 chapters it has been translated into several languages. It is the oldest narrative about a church outside the Roman empire.

2

In it the apostle Thomas is called Judas Thomas or the Twin. Judas was probably Thomas‟ real name and since there were two other Judases among the twelve, he might have been called the Twin. Thomas is not a common Jewish name. The apostle Thomas is sold by Jesus as a slave and sent to evangelize India. He is sold to Habban the emissary of king Gundaphar of India. And the background of this sale is Thomas‟ reluctance to go to the Indians depicted with a hype as a difficult people to reach and evangelize. In the company of Habban Thomas reached Sandaruk or Andrapolis. There during a marriage feast Thomas sings a beautiful nuptial hymn, an ode to Sophia, on the union of the soul to wisdom. Upon reaching the realm of Gundaphar Thomas is symbolically employed as a carpenter to build a palace for the king. Thomas builds a heavenly palace. The miraculous vision of this heavenly palace results in the conversion of the king and many others. At that time we disciples were all in Jerusalem . . . and we divided the regions of the world that each one of us might go to the region which fell to his lot . . . India fell to Judas Thomas, who is also Didymus [Twin]; but he did not wish to go, saying that through weakness of the flesh he could not travel, and "How can I, who am a Hebrew, go and preach the truth among the Indians?" . . . And . . . the Saviour appeared to him by night and said . . . "Fear not, Thomas, go to India and preach the word there, for my grace is with thee." But he would not obey and said, "Send me where thou wilt – but somewhere else! For I am not going to the Indians." (AT 1:1) And as he thus spoke and thought, it happened that a certain merchant was there who had come from India. His name was Abban and he had been sent by king Gundaphorus and had received orders from him to buy a carpenter and bring him back to him . . . While the apostle Thomas was proclaiming the word of God in all India, a certain captain of king Mazdai (Misdaeus) came to him and said to him: "I have heard concerning thee . . . " Thomas then moves out into the kingdom of Mazdai where he heals the sick, casts out devils, raises the dead and performs many other miracles. Finally he converts the queen to continence which angers the king who orders his execution. Thomas dies as a martyr. After his death they open his tomb but his remains were not found because they had been secretly carried to the west. Thus the book narrates the story of the arrival of Thomas in north India in the kingdom of Gundaphar, and in another kingdom, the kingdom of Mazdai, the location of which is not clear from the Acts. 4. Clementine Recognitions (3rd century) This is an apocryphal work in Greek probably written between 222 and 325. It is supposed to have been written by clement of Rome which is not true. It mentions a letter written by the apostle Thomas to the Christians from Parthia. “Finally as Thomas wrote to us in a letter among the Parthians to whom he preached the gospel, the custom of polygamy is on the decrease.” This is an information about the decrease of polygamy among the Parthians as a consequence of the preaching of the apostle Thomas in Parthia. 3

5. The doctrine of the apostles (3rd century) This is an apocryphal work written in Syria and says that the Christian priesthood in India is traceable directly to the apostle Thomas. “India and all its own countries, and those bordering on it, even to the farthest sea received the apostle‟s hand of priesthood from Judas Thomas who was guide and ruler in the church which he built and ministered there.” The document was produced by a Jewish Christian in the first half of the third century and claims to represent the catholic doctrine which means, the tradition reaching back to the apostles and opposing the deviant innovations of the heretics. The doctrine further mentions the custom of reading in the churches letters written by the apostles: “What James had written from Jerusalem, and Simon from the city of Rome, and John from Ephesus, and Mark from the great Alexandria and Andrew from Phyrgia and Luke from Macedonia and Judas Thomas from India.” Naturally all the letters written by the apostles have not been included in the New Testament but that does not mean that they were not written for the purpose of reading in the church. 6. Eusebius of Caesarea (260 ca 340) Eusebius quotes Origen and says Parthia fell to Thomas in the division of world mission and also he mentions Pantaenus‟ visit to India as we have seen. 7. Ephrem (d. 373) Known as the harp of the Holy Spirit he sings the praise of the apostle Thomas in several hymns in which he praises India as the field of the mission of Thomas and his death and burial there. The One-begotten his Apostles chose Among them Thomas, whom he sent To baptize peoples perverse, in darkness steeped A dark night then India's land enveloped Like the sun's ray Thomas did dart forth There he dawned, and her illumined. He also gives the contemporary living tradition in his city of Edessa on the relics of the apostle Thomas. He speaks of the transfer of the relics of the apostle from India to Edessa. He was victorious in person in India but he is also present in Edessa through his relics. The evil one laments, woe unto me where shall I flee from the just one To evade his blows I instigated them to kill the apostle But now after that murder I am in more torments The apostle whom I slew in India has forestalled me in Edessa Now here he is, in full power, as there he was I went there and there he was Here as well as there I run into him to my grief 4

The casket of Thomas is slaying me For a hidden power from it is tormenting me The merchant has made a profit and become a great commander His treasury has made me extremely poor For to Edessa it is now open Enriching the great city thanks to his help The casket and the merchant refer to the transfer of the relics of Thomas from India and to the fact that he died in India. The devil‟s mention to have instigated the murder speaks of the martyrdom of the apostle. In another hymn Ephrem again extols the city for the relics of Thomas. “Blessed are thou, o thrice blessed city, that has acquired this pearl, none greater doth India yield.” Edessa was indeed known as the city of pearls. 8. Gregory of Nazianzen (ca 329-390) In a sermon preached in Constantinople in 380 against the Arians the saint eulogizes the apostles who evangelized foreign countries but were unaffected by the peoples bad and decadent mores. In this connection he says: “Were not the apostles aliens among the many nations and countries committed to them? Let alone Judea, the country of Peter. What had Paul in common with the gentiles, Luke with Achaea, Andrew with Epirus, John with Ephesus, Thomas with India, Mark with Italy? What had all the others not to mention each of them by name, with the people to whom they were sent?” 9. Cyrillona (d. 396) He was the successor of Ephrem in Edessa. In one of his hymns he sings: “Behold in India Thomas teaches, and in Rome preaches Simon.” He pairs Simon and Thomas and gives the respective traditions equal authority. 10. Ambrose (ca 333-397) In his teaching on the facilitation of the world mission by divine providence, he says: “When the lord Jesus said to the apostles, go and teach all nations, even the kingdoms that had been shut off by rugged mountains lay open to them as India to Thomas, Persia to Matthew.” He gives no other examples but it is interesting that Thomas and India is the first example that comes to him. This must have been well known to his hearers. 11. John Chrysostom (347-407) There are many references to Thomas in the homilies of Chrysostom “The apostles erected altars everywhere in the territory of the Romans, of the Persians, of the Scythians, of the Moors, of the Indians.” So according to him, the gospel was preached in India and the Christian worship was inaugurated there by one of the apostles. Who that apostles is, he does not say. Again in another homily on Isaiah 65,25, (the wolf will graze with the lamb) he says that this prophecy was fulfilled with the evangelization of wild peoples of barbarians, that is, the non 5

Greek speaking peoples: “Scythians, Thracians, moors, Indians, Sauromans, and Persians became Christians.” How did the apostles overcome the language barrier to preach to all these peoples? He says through the gift of tongues: “Someone might ask, how could the apostles who knew only one language, namely Hebrew, draw all these peoples to the faith? How were they able to preach in languages such as the Scythian, the Indian, and the language of the Saura? It was surely because the holy spirit had given them the gift of many tongues.” To ask which language the apostle used in India is pointless because the saint is not interested in that but in stating that he is sure that India was evangelized by an apostle of Jesus Christ. He does not name that apostle because it is all too well known. This is surely Thomas because before him Gregory of Nazianzen who was bishop of Constantinople had preached about it where Chrysostom is now patriarch. Chrysostom says about the teaching of Jesus Christ which has spread throughout the world through his apostles: “This man utters his voice everywhere, not among his own countrymen alone but also among Parthians and Medes and Elamites and in India, and in every part of the earth and to the extremities of the world.” He also alludes to the tomb of Thomas in India. “We do not know where the tombs of Aaron, Daniel, Jeremiah and many apostles are. But the burial places of Peter, Paul, John, and Thomas are well known.” Just as there was no need to mention that the tomb of Peter was in Rome, there was no need to mention that the tomb of Thomas was in India. It was well known. So according to Chrysostom, the patriarch of Constantinople, Thomas preached the gospel in India, died there and was buried there and his tomb is well known like the tombs of Peter and Paul in Rome. 12. Gaudentius of Brescia (d. ca 410) He was bishop of Brescia in north Italy. In a sermon preached in 402 on the occasion of the dedication of a church there he spoke of the relics of several saints deposited there. “We have here the holy relics of these four men, who preached the kingdom of God and his righteousness and were put to death by unbelieving and wicked people. But the miraculous power of these relics shows that they are alive unto God. It is said that John finished his course at Sebaste, a town in the province of Palestine, Thomas among the Indians, Andrew and Luke in the city of Patras in Achaea.” 13. Rufinus of Aquileia (ca 345-411) Rufinus was a translator of Eusebius and as such he repeats Eusebius‟ assertion that Thomas got Parthia for evangelization by lot.

6

14. Jerome (ca 345-419/420) In his Lives of Illustrious Men he says: “The apostle Thomas as it has been handed down to us by tradition, preached the Lord‟s gospel to the Parthians, the Medes, the Persians, Carmans, Hyrcanians, the Bactrians, and the Magians. He slept in the city of Calamina which is in India.” Jerome speaks of several peoples who were evangelized by Thomas. In fact in the list Thomas is listed first, even before Peter since he has evangelized more peoples than Peter. Again in his letter to Marcella he speaks of the presence of the Lord Jesus in his apostles. “He (Jesus) was present in all places with Thomas in India, with Peter in Rome, with Paul in Illyria, with Titus in Crete, with Andrew in Achaea (Greece) with each apostle in each and all countries.” 15. Asterius of Amasea (330/335-420/425) He was a bishop of Amasea in Pontus, northwestern turkey. In a homily he mentions Thomas along with Peter and Paul as the leading martyrs. In the context of some refusing to venerate martyrs he says: “See how with your single impudence you dishonor so many: John the Baptist, James called the brother of the Lord, Peter, Paul and Thomas – these I regard as the leading martyrs – add to them the immense multitude of those who died for the sake of life. He does not say where Thomas died as he also does not mention also the places of Peter or Paul because it was well known. 16. Paulinus of Nola (353-431) He was the bishop of Nola in France and in a poem he wrote in 405 on St Felix of Nola he extols the healing providence of God. He recounts the mission of the apostles to the various countries of the world, starting with Peter and Paul, and continues: So God bestowing his holy gifts also on the other lands, Sent his own apostles the world over to the great cities Thus he gave the care of Patras to Andrew To John that of Ephesus along with Europe and Asia Their dire darkness to dispel with the brightest light Parthia embraces Matthew as India does Thomas Libyans get Lebbaeus and Phyrgians Philip Crete took Titus, Boeotia Luke the physician 17. Socrates Scholasticus (380-440) He was a resident of Constantinople and translated the church history of Rufinus of Aquileia from Latin to Greek and follows Origen and Eusebius who say that Thomas got Parthia by lot for evangelization and makes Bartholomew the missionary to India. 7

“As the apostles were setting out for the nations indicated by lot, Thomas received the mission to the Parthians, Matthew got Ethiopia, and Bartholomew was allotted the India adjoining it: whereas the interior India where dwell several barbarian nations using different languages was not illumined by the world of Christianity before the time of Constantine. 18. Arnobius of Sicca A North African Christian convert and apologist wrote during the persecution of Diocletian (303311) in which he affirms that like many other peoples, the Indians abandoned paganism and accepted Christianity after seeing the miracles performed by the heralds of Christ. “For the deeds can be counted and numbered which were done in India, among the Seres, Persians, and Medes, in Arabia, Egypt, in Asia, Syria, among the Galatians, Parthians, Phyrgians, in Achaea, Macedonia, Epirus, in all the islands and provinces on which the rising and setting sun shines, and finally, in Rome, too the mistress where though there are men who give themselves to king Numa‟s arts and superstitions there was yet no tarrying in abandoning the ancestral traditions and identifying oneself with the truth of Christianity.” 19. Jacob of Sarug (451-521) A famous theologian of the Persian church, he sings about the mission of Thomas in several homilies. But since these hymns have close similarities with the Acts of Thomas historians say that he has used it as a source. 20. Gregory of Tours (538-594) He cites a certain history of the martyrdom of Thomas in India. “It is stated in the history of his martyrdom that the apostle Thomas suffered martyrdom in India.” Then he continues: “His blessed body was disinterred after a long time and transferred to a city called Edessa by the Syrians and was interred there. In that part of India where it first rested stands a monastery as well as a church of striking dimensions, exquisitely decorated and structured. Now it is in this edifice that God shows a great miracle. The fire kept burning there before the tomb of the apostle shines without fail day and night by divine will without anyone supplying oil or twig. This has been narrated to me by Theodore who personally visited the place.” Gregory also adds that the annual feast of the apostle was celebrated in the month of July for a month with great concourse of people from different regions. Body in this context means relics and therefore part of the body. Preservation and transfer of relics were common practices in the early church. Other patristic sources also speak about the transfer of his relics to Edessa but Gregory agrees with many Fathers about the death of the apostle in India. 21. Gregory the Great (590-604) He refers to the apostle in a liturgical context. “The Lord appeared to Thomas at night in a vision and told him: don‟t fear to go to India.” In another place he depicts an eschatological scene in which the apostles of Jesus Christ present themselves before him with their trophies. 8

“Peter will appear there (before the judgment seat of Christ) with Judea, which he has drawn behind him as converted. There Andrew leads in the presence of his king Achaea converted, John Asia, Thomas India.” 22. Isidore of Seville (560-636) He gives a list of countries known to him as evangelized by Thomas. “This Thomas preached to the Parthians, the Medes, the Persians, the Hyrcanians, and the Bactrians and to the Indians of the oriental regions and sealing his preaching by his passion he died transfixed with a lance at Calamina, a city in India, and there he was buried with honour.” 23. Pseudo Doretheus (after 600) The writer is unknown but has used the name of the bishop of Trier from the 3rd-4th centuries and published a work called the “Seventy disciples and twelve apostles of the lord.” There we read: “The apostle Thomas preached the gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Germans (could be Carmans) Bactrians, and to the Magians (could be Margians) and died as a martyr in the city of India called Calamita.” (could be Calamina). 24. Bede the Venerable (672-735) The first church historian of the English people repeats the usual story of the allotment of the various regions of the world to the apostles and India is allotted to Thomas. “The apostles of Christ who were to be the preachers of the faith and teachers of the nations received their allotted charges in distinct parts of the world. Peter received Rome, Andrew Achaia, James Spain, Thomas India, John Asia. In his Martyrologium he writes: “On 21 December the feast of blessed Thomas the apostle, who preached the gospel to the Parthians and the Medes and suffered martyrdom in India. His body was transferred to a city which the Syrians call Edessa and it was buried there with due honour.” 25. The codex of Fulda (early VIII century) It is an anonymous list of the places where the apostles and the evangelists had their tombs. “Blessed apostle Thomas rests in Aemina in the India of the Saracens.” Aemina is a corruption of Calamina mentioned many times over by the Fathers. India of the Saracenes refers to the fact of the presence of Muslims in India who at that time controlled trade. 26. Nicetas of Paphlagonia (second half of 9th century) Nicetas was the bishop of Paphlagonia and in a homily dedicated to all the apostles he praises Thomas as follows: “Evangelizing the whole of Parthia and Hyrcania and Bactria, he brought them to Christ.” There is no mention of India but Parthia stands for Indo Parthia or India. 27. Odericus Vitalis (1075-after 1143) An english monk wrote a church history bringing the account up to his own days. Regarding the mission of the apostle Thomas he wrote: 9

“Thomas preached the gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Hircanians and Persians, Bactrians and Indians and was crowned with martyrdom in the city of Calamina on 21 December under king Mesdeus. Not much later his body was translated to the city of Edessa where he was famous for his miracles.” 28. Dionysius bar Salibi (d. 1171) He was a versatile west Syriac writer and gives a short account of all the apostles. About the apostle Thomas he writes: “Thomas was from the tribe of Juda. He preached to the Parthians, to the Medes, to the Indians. Later he was pierced with a lance in the city of Calamina upon the order of king Mazdai. His body was taken to Edessa.” 29. Michael the Syrian He was the patriarch of Antioch from 1166-1199 and wrote in his church history: “Thomas of the tribe of Juda preached to the Parthians and to the Medes and was crowned with martyrdom at Calamina, a city of India. His body was taken to Edessa.” 30. Mar Solomon of Basora (1222) Metropolitan of Path Maishan in Antioch wrote: “He, Thomas was buried in Mahlup, a city in the land of the Indians.” Mahlup is the Arabic form of Mylapore. He is the first one who refers to Mylapore as the place of burial of the apostle. 31. Bar Hebraeus alias Gregorios Abu’l Oharag (1226-1286) Outstanding Syriac writer from Antioch wrote in his church history about the mission of the apostles. About Thomas he wrote: “Thomas preached the gospel to the Parthians, and Medes and was crowned with martyrdom in Calamina, a city in India.” 32. Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos (ca 1256-ca 1335) A priest at Constantinople and later a monk, in his ecclesiastical history he writes about Thomas: “With his miracles and astounding wonders he aroused the admiration of the Parthians, the Medes and the Indians and even of the Ethiopians. Further he illumined with the ministry of the word those in the far east unto the last shore of the ocean as well as the island called Taprobane and the Brahman caste. He erected great temples everywhere, settled carefully matters pertaining to them, and was finally pierced on the side with a spear and reached him whose side he had touched.” There are also other anonymous texts which do not add anything substantial to the information that we have. The patristic texts on Thomas can be divided into three groups:

10

Those which associate the apostle Thomas with Parthia only, those which associate Thomas with India only and those which associate Thomas with Parthia, India and other nations. There are also three texts which bring in the apostle Bartholomew. The wide ranging patristic texts far from being discordant are best understood if the apostle Thomas is seen to have first evangelized Parthia or Indo Parthia in the northwest and then moved on to evangelize other peoples, ending with south India, where he preached the gospel and died as a martyr. Indian Tradition Acts of Thomas and the Kingdom of Gundaphar The Acts of Thomas mentions the apostle travelling to the kingdom of Gundaphar. For a long time people thought that Gundaphar was a legend but now it is clear that he is a historical person. He was an Indo Parthian king. It is called Indo Parthia because the territory of his kingdom also included parts of India (Punjab), Pakistan, Afghanistan, and parts of Iran today. He was governor of Arachosia, which was the 20th satrapy of the Persian or Parthian empire, corresponding to south Afghanistan today and conquered the northwestern part of India and founded an independent Indo Parthian kingdom recorded in modern historiography. But the writers of old called this kingdom variously as Parthia (Origen), or India (Acts of Thomas). But they meant the same geographical area. His reign has been dated 19 AD to 45/46 AD. According to the Cambridge history of Iran, the only other information preserved about the king is “his connection with the tale of the voyage of the Christian apostle Thomas to India.” It says that the appearance of Gondophares in the Acts of Thomas is therefore chronologically convincing. According to historical information, the capital of the kingdom was Taxila which lies in ruin about 50 kms northwest of Rawalpindi. What has Taxila to say about Thomas and Indian Christianity today? Taxila was the capital of the northwestern province of the Mauryan empire. Asoka in his youth resided there and ruled this province as its governor. It was a multicultural city, where Greeks, Persians, Indians, Jews, etc resided and Persian, Sanskrit Greek and Aramaic were spoken as languages. It was the home of the great Sanskrit grammarian Panini. The university of Taxila rivaled that of Athens. Asoka made it a leading centre of Buddhist studies. It was the capital of Gundaphar. His other names are Gundaphorous, Gondophares, Gondopharnes, Vindapharna, Gudnaphar, Hindopheres, Undophares, Guduphara, etc. His kingdom was destroyed by the Kushans and he died in the year 51 AD. The destruction was so thorough that nothing remained and he went into oblivion. Only archaeological excavation in the 19th century resurrected him and Taxila. In 1833 coins were discovered bearing the image of the king Gundaphar. So the Parthia of Origen and some other church fathers and the Indo Parthia of the Acts of Thomas are historically the same. The Acts of Thomas linked the apostle Thomas with this forgotten king because there might have been a tradition in Persia about it when he wrote the Acts of Thomas. The journey of Thomas to his kingdom seems tenable. He is a historical person. His reign corresponds to the post resurrection mission of the apostles. The south Indian mission of the apostle begins in 11

AD 52 and that corresponds to the end of the kingdom of Gundaphar through the Kushan invasion. His death was in 51 AD. The attack of the Kushans which destroyed the kingdom of Gundaphar might have forced the exit of the apostle from there and his journey to the south or the kingdom of Mazdai as reported in the Acts. Unfortunately there is no Christian community which claims apostolic origin in Pakistan. In 1935 a cross was discovered near the ruined royal palace at Taxila which is preserved in the Anglican cathedral of Lahore. It has been dated second century AD and is called the Taxila cross. It may suggest the presence of Christianity in the second century in Taxila which cannot be accounted for by Nestorian Christianity which is later than second century. In 1970 the Taxila cross was adopted as the symbol of the United Church of Pakistan to show the ancient origin of Christianity there. Taxila is hardly mentioned by historians but it deserves a better place in Christian history. Great cities were the first preferences of the apostles for their mission. So if Rome was preferred by Peter and Paul, Taxila was chosen by Thomas. This has been attested by the fathers, starting with Origen. Recently the Christians of Pakistan have started the practice of gathering at Taxila on 24 October to honour St Thomas as their founder. Other north Indian traditions There are scattered communities of people in northwest India claiming a historical link with Thomas. There is a living tradition in a village called Gar Thoma close to Sirkap in the district of Islamabad. The tradition says that while he was in the village a violent earthquake devastated everything except the village. As a sign of gratitude the village was named Karm Toma which became corrupted and came to be known as Gar Toma or Gar Thoma. Another example is Tatta in Sindh at the mouth of the river Indus where a community calls itself Bnai Thoma, an Aramaic word meaning sons of Thomas. They claim to be descendants of Christians baptized by the apostle Thomas called by them Thum Bhagat or Saint Thomas. There were many other communities outside Malabar throughout the Indian subcontinent about which travelers and missionaries have reported. For example in 1321 the Dominican missionary Jordan Catalani said that he visited small communities of Christians in Broach, Thana, and Sopora in the northwest coast where the apostle St Thomas had preached. They claimed to have been evangelized by St Thomas the great. These and many other communities came to extinction for various reasons. One of the reasons was lack of pastoral care. Destruction through wars might have been another reason. Central Indian tradition It is refers to a Sanskrit inscription found in what is now a Hindu temple built in the 11th century and is listed by the ASI as a national monument. The temple is situated in Udayapur, a small town of Madhyapradesh in central India. The inscription is incised on the stone doorposts of the main entrance of this temple. In the 19th century it was translated and interpreted in two ways, in a Hindu way by a Brahmin named Kamala Kanta and in a Christian way by Benedict Burthey, a French Jesuit missionary. According to the Jesuit, the inscription speaks of Jesus Christ and “his holy apostle who arrived among us.” According to the inscription, the temple was originally a Christian church. It speaks of the arrival of an apostle of Jesus Christ in India. After that the church fell into ruins and was rebuilt in the 12

eleventh century and dedicated with a solemn liturgical ceremony and the inscription points to this but later it was converted into a Hindu temple for the Vaishnavite cult. Udayapur was a once a flourishing city, the capital of the king Udayaditya of the Paramara dynasty. According to the inscription Christ is the divine orient and his “holy apostle arrived among us.” It is not clear whether his arrival was in Udayapur itself or elsewhere in India. It is also not clear who the apostle was, whether it was Thomas or Bartholomew. South Indian tradition 1. The Tomb of Thomas in Mylapore About the tomb of Thomas the patristic tradition names two places, Calamina and Mahlup but the Indian tradition places it in Mylapore. So far only India has claimed the tomb of Thomas and the place has been Mylapore. No other tradition has been known so far in India about the tomb of Thomas. There is a tradition of the transfer of the relics of Thomas to Edessa but his burial place itself has not been in question. If the tomb is genuine, it presents a clear proof for the mission of Thomas in India. Since antiquity Mylapore was a pilgrimage centre. Many Fathers write about pilgrims who have visited the tomb of Thomas. Ambrose speaks about a pilgrim Museus, bishop of Doleni, who visited Kodungallor and visited the tomb. Greogry of Tours writes about a pilgrim Theodore who went on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Thomas in India. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle writes about king Alfred, the Great of England, sending in 883 two emissaries with offerings to the tomb of Peter and the tomb of Thomas in India. In the 9th century the Muslim writer Muhammadari mentions the testimony of sailors that there is a place called Betuma, means, house of Thomas, in Mylapore. In the second millennium there are plenty of reports about the visit to the tomb of Thomas, Marco Polo 1293, John of Montecorvino 1292-93, John Marignolli 1349, Nicolo Conti 1430, Oderic of Pordenone 1324-25, etc. So the Portuguese wanted to ascertain the veracity of the tomb. They had believed in the tradition that Thomas had preached in India, died there and was buried there. So they wanted to find the tomb of the apostle. In 1517 they identified a tomb at Mylapore as that of the apostle Thomas. They conducted excavations at the site of the tomb in June 1523 and in 1524. Their findings are as follows. In 1523 they found a grave under three concrete layers, ten spans deep, some bones in a very decayed state, a piece of iron and an earthen vessel filled with earth. Limited excavations were conducted in 1729 and in 1893 to 1896 when the present cathedral was built. Again in 1903 there was an excavation. In 1970 there was another one by Fr. Edward Hambey SJ. All these later ones did not shed further light on the tomb. So some critics say that there has been no real conclusive proof as to whether this is the tomb of Thomas. Such doubts exist also regarding the tomb of Peter but that does not prevent the church from believing that it is the place of his burial. Some doubt whether the Portuguese identified the tomb of Thomas because at that time it was taken care of by a Muslim. It is clear that the tomb was neglected for a long time as there was no Christian community to take care of it. That was perhaps the reason why a Muslim was taking care of it. 13

But the fact is that the tomb was no ordinary tomb. It was built with three layers of concrete and two tombstones. It was about three and a half meters deep, like the tombs of kings buried in the vicinity. Perhaps a rich benefactor made such a tomb available for the burial of the apostle. It must have been some one of the royalty or a roman official. The bricks are identical to the bricks used to build the first century Roman trading station at Arikamedu close to Mylapore which were discovered in 1945. According to findings, the main building at Arikamedu was built in the second half of the first century and a close study of the bricks showed that they are identical with those of the apostle‟s tomb at Mylapore. According to tradition, the death of the apostle took place in 72 AD and this coincides with the warehouse construction of Arikamedu. The Roman ships used to bring bricks as ballast and unload them and took back Indian cargo. This was used to build warehouses for the Roman settlements. Arikamedu was such a roman settlement. A coin of Augustus dated 14 AD was also discovered from that place. Roman coins, bricks, and potteries have also been discovered in Kerala. The use of the first century Roman bricks dates Mylapore tomb as not earlier than the first century. Mylapore does not figure as such on any ancient Indian geographical map or in historical documents. Instead there are references to it in foreign literature. But Ptolemy‟s geography mentions a port city called Maliarpha on the Coromandal coast to be located about the present day Chennai. It was a flourishing city harbor much frequented by Roman ships in the 1-3 century. Other names are Manarpha and Manaliarpha. This appears in various travel and other documents later as Malpuria, Maliarfa, Meliapur, Meliapor, Mirapur, Mirapolis, Milapur, Mirapur, Maliapur, Molephatam, Mahluph, Meilan, Mayluph, Mirapor, Malepur, Malpuria, Meliapur, etc. The origin of the word is traced to the Tamil word mayil and would mean city of peacocks. Another explanation is that it is the corrupted form of mayurasuttapattanam a city in which Budhaghoshan in the fifth century AD wrote his book Prapancasudani. Another explanation says that the word derives from Mahabalipuram which was a renowned port city in the first century AD on the Coromandal coast, later sucked into the bay of Bengal falling prey to geological phenomena for which the coast is well known. The Fathers of the church do not mention this name in any place. Many of them mention instead a city called Calamina. What about that place mentioned by several Fathers? Apparently no town or city by such a name was known either to Indian tradition or western geographers. The suggestion is that it is a corrupted form of cholamandalam or cholamannu, the land of the Cholas where the apostle met his death and not refering to a particular place. To the fathers this was more available than Mylapore and it is more in keeping with the historical situation of south India in the early Christian era. It is as simple as saying that one is from India when one is abroad since one‟s place of birth or place of work may not make much sense to people there. This might have been the case with Calamina too. Mylapore is a small place which does not figure in any standard map of India even today. It was an abandoned place for most of the Christian centuries except for the pilgrims who visited the tomb of St. Thomas. So Mylapore would have made little sense and therefore it was more meaningful to say that the tomb of Thomas is in the chola country or chola mannu. Coromandal is the western form of it. It is true that Mylapore does appear in one ancient document, in Ptolemy‟s Geography Book VII as Maliarpha but after that it appears for the first time only in 1222 in the writings of Solomon of Basora. In the meanwhile the word Calamina was used. The small town of Mylapore must have passed into oblivion but not the tomb of Thomas. 14

So it is reasonable to suspect that the fathers who used this name were using it as a name referring indeed not to a city or town but to the kingdom of the Cholas where the grave of the apostles was known to be situated. The Portuguese believed that it was the tomb of Thomas and built a church there. In conclusion we can say that tradition, western as well as Indian is positive, uniform and constant that the tomb of Thomas is in India. The Mylapore tomb is the only tomb of the apostle Thomas ever known to history, a tomb without rival, like that of Peter in Rome. Archaeological evidence that this tomb was built with first century bricks may not by itself be a clinching argument. But within the whole setting of the Mylapore tradition it poses a question to those who demand contemporary documentary evidence about the mission of Thomas to India. The nearly bimillennial tradition of pilgrimage, both foreign and Indian, enhances the credibility of the tomb traditionally venerated at Mylapore. 2. The death of the apostle According to tradition Thomas died as a martyr. “We have as good authority that apostle Thomas died in India as that apostle Peter died at Rome”, wrote Claude Buchanan, the Anglican scholar. The death of the apostle also might have taken place a Mylapore although the exact location is a matter of some controversy. Some place it on the little mount called chinnamalai in Tamil, a hill or cliff on the southern bank of the river Adyar. Others have identified the location three kms west of the little mount, on the big mount called periamalai also called St Thomas Mount about twelve kms south west of Chennai. During the 1440-1500 a great battle was fought between the Muslims and Christians whose last stand was on the mount. The Christians were defeated and driven out. So the place was left desolated and this might have led to a Muslim custodian taking care of the tomb when the Portuguese came. It is clear that a community existed there from ancient times but its fortunes suffered because of persecutions, natural calamities, etc. Of persecutions of Christians on the East coast we hear from the beginning. In 293 some Christians from the Vellala caste migrated to Kollam from Kaveripattanam, the capital of the Chola kingdom to escape persecutions. But the tradtion about the tomb of Thomas persisted, as can be seen from the pilgrims who visited the place. The Acts of Thomas say the apostle was martyred on a hill outside the city. The Acts place the place of the martyrdom in the kingdom of Mazdai who is called in subsequent documents with various names, such as, Misdaios, Misdeos, Misdaia, Masdeus, Misdeus, Mesdaeus, Mastius Masteh, etc. in different languages. Who this person is not clear. It is said that it is the corrupted name of a south Indian dynasty Mahadev of the Cholas. It was both a proper name and a common noun designating a dynasty. The date of the death of the apostle is 72 AD 3 July. It was celebrated as a great feast, called Dukhrana (memory) and it was also celebrated with a chattham, a meal. Usually such a meal is celebrated in Kerala in honour of dead parents or grandparents. So Thomas was the father in faith of the Christians. Moreover July is not a time for celebrations in Kerala since it is the time of the great Kerala monsoon but this celebration had continued which shows that it was special. 3. Manner of his death According to the Acts of Thomas he was stabbed to death on a hill outside the city. 15

Rambanpattu, a Thomas Christian ballad tells the story of the Brahmins who invited Thomas to worship in their temple but he not only refused but with a sign of the cross caused the temple to go up in flames at which they killed him with a spear thrust. Another tradition says that Thomas was accidentally shot by a hunter who had aimed his arrow at a peacock. We know nothing historically certain about his death. This is not to deny that he died as a martyr. South Indian Tradition: The Palayur Tradition One of the ancient traditions about Thomas is around a place called Palayur in Kerala. The specialty of this tradition is that it is both Christian and Hindu. It involves Brahmins who recognize that their ancestors were converted to Christianity by the apostle Thomas, while several dispersed families trace their first Christian origins to the ministry of the apostle at Palayur. Palayuer is situatied 28 kms north west of Thrissur and 3 kms south of Guruvayoor due north of Kondungalloor, the traditional landing place of the Apostle and the most famous sea port of Kerala in ancient times. Palayer was connected to Kondugalloor through a canal and tradition speaks of the landing of Thomas from a boat there. There are also remnants of a Jewish settlement called Judakunnu. Palayur is mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy as a safe port called Palura. This name also appears as Palur, and Palaiyur. Its antiquity is proved from the discovery in its vicinity at Eyyal on 29th October 1945 of an earthen pot containing gold and silver coins bearing the images of Augustus, Mark Anthony, Tiberius, Claudius and Nero. In a letter written by four Persian bishops in India to the Patriarch in Persia in 1504 they mention Palayur as one of the three most important Christian centres along with Kodungalloor and Kollam. Palayur has the pride of place among the traditions about the apostle Thomas. He is said to have performed a miracle in a water tank adjoining the Siva temple where some Brahmins or Nambudiris were performing their ritual bath. Thomas told them that if their gods accepted the water they were throwing up in propitiation, it should not fall down into the tank. They said that this was impossible. He answered that for the God he worshipped nothing was impossible. They made a bet that they would worship his God if he demonstrated that his God had such power. Thomas accepted the bet, went down into the tank, invoked God and threw up some water. It stayed hovering up in the air like shining bubbles. The Brahmins were wonderstruck, accepted the new way of Thomas and received baptism in the same water tank. Thirty four of the forty families are said to have become Christians at Palayur. The others rejected Thomas as a magician and cursed the place and quit for another location (except one family) some six kms away called Venmenad, called also Vembanattu or Vemmanatt. From that historical curse the place got the name Sapakkad, that is the place of sapa or curse or accursed place. It became Chapakkad and later Chavakkad. It was called Chowgatt by the English. Today it is a flourishing city of which Palayur is a peripheral ward. The place to which the Brahmins moved is called today Pudumanassery (place of the new mana or lodge). The one Brahmin family that neither went with the others nor became Christian was given the name Orumanayur (place of the single mana) Some of these families reportedly possess ancient palm leaves reporting the departure from Palayur. For example the Kalathur Mana possesses a document called Nagara grantha variyola which 16

contains a note saying that “in the year 3155 of Kali (52 AD), a foreign sanyasi called Thomas came to our village, preached there causing pollution. Therefore we came away from that village.” Though the Palyur tradition is damaging to the self esteem of the Hindus, they do not deny it. The Rambanpattu says that the apostle preached in Palayur for a whole year and baptized 1050 persons. The curse of the Brahmins must be understood in the context of the caste system. Even today no orthodox Brahmin would eat any food at Palayur or Chavakkad. In fact they do not even chew pan from that locality. The temple became the Christian church of Palayur and close by is the ancient water tank called thaliyakulam. In memory of the baptism conferred by the apostle every year a feast is celebrated on 15 July called Mar Thoma Tharpanam and it is an auspicious day for receiving baptism at the Palayur water tank. Even from other localities children are brought to Palayur to be baptized there on the Sunday after the tenth of every month. It is both oral and written tradition, and is shared by both Hindus and Christians. It affords a singular Thomaschristian tradition regarding the apostolate of Thomas. It is attested by a Hindu document although this document has not been subjected to the kind of study and criticism that are common in the west regarding ancient documents. There is no basis in saying that the Thomas Christian traditions of the Indian Christians are legendary, merely oral, based on the Acts of Thomas, and have no historical value. The South Indian Tradition: The seven churches The Indian tradition holds in special honour a group of seven churches or communities that are regarded as founded by Thomas. Do we mean communities or church buildings? Difficult to say. The tradition of constructing church buildings began later than the apostolic times. The churches are Palayur, Kodungalloor, Kottakkavu or Paravur, Kokkamangalam or Pallipuram, Chayal or Nilakkal, Niranam, and Kollam. Why two names are used for some churches is that some times lesser known villages were replaced with better known places. Seven is a hallowed number in the biblical as well as Indian tradition. The tradition also says that he erected crosses as well. Even this is a backward projection since crosses came to be used openly only after Constantine. Whether Thomas had done this cannot be verified. Some of these churches were Hindu temples which became churches after the people were converted to Christianity. Many of the places mentioned are ancient cities referred to in ancient documents, like Kodungalloor, Niranam, Quilon etc. The common features about these churches are: All of them are situated in the ancient trade centres of the spice cultivation and trade except Chayal or Nilakkal which was in the western ghats on the route to Tamil Nadu. The apostolic foundation of these churches was not disputed by any other community although in course of time some of them became less important and other communities became famous like the ancient churches of Kuravilangadu and Ramapuram in Kerala. But none of these later churches have claimed apostolic foundation. Some of these seven churches lie in ruins today without communities due to historical vicissitudes. Only Palayur, Paravur and Niranam have sizable Christian communities. Kodungalloor, the landing place of the apostle, is not a Christian centre any more. 17

Many families in these places have written records about their Christian origin from St. Thomas. At least four more churches in Kerala date before the year 350: Pallipuram, Ambazhakad, Aruvithara, and Kuravilangadu. This dating has been arrived at after studying the materials in the church but perhaps they need to be analyzed further. The seven churches traditionally attributed to St. Thomas the apostle as their founder do not furnish decisive evidence of their foundation by St. Thomas, except in the case of the tradition surrounding the Palayur church. Archaeology has not provided the final proof. However, it remains a lively tradition without being challenged by many other prestigious communities of Kerala. The south Indian tradition: The Ballads or songs They constitute the oral tradition of the community. The veeradian pattu is sung even today by certain low caste Hindus called Panans and therefore also called pananpattu. They were traditionally sung on the occasion of Christian weddings and other such festivities, mostly to earn a living. It is possible that they were composed by some Christian panan poets during the Sangham era, before the 5th century. The songs celebrate the arrival, work and death of the apostle Thomas. Margam kali pattu (song of the way) It is a ballad sung during a popular dance called margam kali on special occasions like a marriage or a feast. It narrates the arrival of the new way or margam introduced by Thomas in India. According to it, he first arrived in Mylapore, the capital of the Chola rulers and preached the faith in several places. From there he arrived at Malyamkara and set up crosses in seven places. There are two versions of it, one of the southist community and the other, of the northist community. The written forms may date from the 17th century. Rambanpattu It is also known as Thomaparvam (ballad of Thomas). It is the longest and most important of the ballads. It is called Rambanpattu because it is composed by a priest Thomas Ramban and is dated 1601. It is in accordance with the custom in south India to commit history to writing in songs. It has 448 lines. We have neither the original script or the text nor do we have a critical edition of the various texts in circulation. It is mentioned also that it is an abbreviated form of a detailed history written by Thomas Ramban, the second priest of the family of Maliekal, that means a second generation priest in the priestly succession from the Apostle Thomas, and is now made into a song by another Thomas Ramban, the 48th priest in the same family. So according to this note, the original is to be dated around 100 AD. The content tells the story of the apostle setting sail from Arabia with Aban, an emissary of the south Indian king Chozhan Perumal. Thomas lands at Maliankara in December 50 AD. The apostle spent eight days there and established the Way there. Then he proceeded to Mylapore and preached the gospel for four and a half months and then journeyed to China. The idea of the mission to China seems to derive from the Persian church which had such a tradition. After that the apostle returned to Mylapore and then set sail for Maliankara again in December 51 AD. The royal family received baptism together with the king and was named Andrews. And the 18

king‟s nephew was baptized as Kepha (Peter) and accompanied the apostle to Qilon. The Ramban pattu mentions several journeys of the apostle during which he implanted crosses, worked miracles, and baptized a great number of people including nambudiri Brahmins. He founded several churches ordained ministers and preached on the Coromandal coast. He revisited the churches and ordained ministers and teachers. At Mylapore the king and his brother also received baptism with 2000 people. Thomas was requested by some Brahmins at the little mount at Mylapore to worship the goddess kali in her temple. He refused and on being challenged set up her temple in flames. Forthwith they manhandled him and one of them stabbed him to death with a spear. It was July 72 AD. The Perumals took the body of the apostle in royal possession with all honours and buried it in the church he himself had built. His disciples mourned him for ten days and at the end of ten days the apostle himself appeared to them and promised blessings on those who visited his tomb. According to the song, the total number of people converted by the apostle is given as 17,480. Of them 6850 were Brahmins, 2950 were Khsatriyas, 3780 were Vaisyas and 4280 were Sudras. The miracles were also impressive: 29 dead persons were made alive, 210 possessed, 230 lepers, 250 blind, 220 epileptics, and 20 dumb were healed. The caste system did not become operational in Kerala before the 8th century. So this is to be seen as an addition if at all. Similarly the numbers are also not to be taken historically. These songs cannot be presumed to be presenting a fully reliable history of the arrival of Thomas in India. By the nature of their literary genre ballads are not historical records. Ballads cater to the aesthetic sense of the people and foster faith and devotion. Although the three ballads of the Thomaschristian tradition do not provide fully reliable historical details about the missionary work of the apostle, nevertheless they are not pure fiction. They witness to and reinforce the tradition that regards St Thomas as the first apostle of India who died as a martyr in Mylapore. General assessment of the south Indian tradition As distinct from the other two Indian traditions, the northwestern and central Indian tradition, the south Indian tradition is a living tradition consisting of several constituent elements, of which the Mylapore tomb deserves special consideration, given its archaeological underpinning. At Palayur both Christians and Hindus share the same tradition about the arrival of Thomas in India which is therefore of special historical value. If we consider all the elements carefully, they furnish valuable information about the historical origin of Christianity in India through the apostle Thomas. We have seen the western or patristic tradition and the Indian tradition about the mission of the apostle Thomas in India. As I noted at the very beginning, the vast majority of western authors as well as some Indian authors do not take any of these as proof for the mission of Thomas in India. They have raised several objections about it. Perhaps some of you also might raise these objections. So let us deal with some of them and see how tenable they are. Objections of western scholars 1. There was no clear idea about the geographical entity India In the ancient world the term India was sometimes employed to refer not only to India proper but to Ethiopia, Arabia, Parthia, and vaguely to the eastern regions stretching to the end of the world. In short India was in antiquity the broad equivalent of the vague east or orient used by certain writers today. But the historian Herodotus (484-425 BC) and the geographer Ptolemy (87-150 AD) have 19

clearly shown India was known to the ancient world. Strabo (63 BC – 21 AD) another Greek historian and geographer also clearly distinguished between India and other countries. The Greek meaning of the word Ethiopia literally means a person with a burnt face, that means dark in colour, a coloured person. So all the Ethiopian people are black and it could be that it was used also to mean the dark skinned people of India. That is why the Latin poet Virgil (70-19 BC) calls the Ethiopians Indians. But Cyrus the Younger, Alexander the Great, etc. knew where India was and where Ethiopia was and Alexander conquered India and not Ethiopia. The sailors of ancient times knew that India was not Ethiopia. According to Strabo 120 ships set sail in BC 26 from Egypt on the Red Sea to Muziris on the west coast of India. This trade increased further after the discovery of the monsoon winds by the Egyptian sailor Hippalus in AD 45. Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) says in his Natural History, that Muziris is the premier Indian emporium from where there was an annual import of Malabar pepper, ginger and other Indian spices worth 5500000 sesterces to let the Romans indulge their gluttony. Roman exports included according to Strabo, costly silver vessels, quality wine, musical instruments, singing boys, and shapely maidens for royal pleasure. There is also mention in some documents of Interior India and Exterior India. This was in accordance with ancient western geography which believed that the river Ganges flowed from north to south and divided India into two, the western part was interior India and the eastern side was exterior India. The trade relations between India and the west is well known and shows that the land was known to the west as India and not as any other country (Esther 1:1). The Periplus of the Erythraen Sea, a mariner‟s manual written about 60 AD describes sea routes, ports and emporia, the monsoon winds and tides that rendered easy the voyage to India. It is also attested by the fact that Roman warehouses were discovered together with coins, pottery and building materials from many places in south India. Moreover, the Fathers of the church had no such confusion. They knew not only India geographically but also culturally. The Fathers of the church knew India. Tertullian died in 220 wrote in his apology: “We live together with you, we have the same nourishments, the same clothing, the same lifestyle. We are not Brahmins or the gymnosophists (Jain monks) of India.” Bardaisan d. 222/223 wrote about the laws of India, where the Brahmans had one law but another law was enforced for others. Origen, whose rival in learning in antiquity was only Augustine, speaking of the learned and the wise people of various countries mentions the Egyptians, Persian, Syrians and Indians. He definitely did not mistake India for Ethiopia which was next door to his country, Egypt. Ambrose of Milan wrote about the laws of the Brahmins of India, a country which a fellow bishop Museus of Doleni had visited. He mentions a Theban scholar sailing from the Red Sea reaching India “after a voyage of many days with favourable winds; he disembarked at Muziris, the emporium of all India on this side of the Ganges.” Chrysostom distinguished between India and Ethiopia since he mentions them separately: “Syrians and Egyptians and Indians and Persians and Ethiopians and other countless nations have translated the teachings of Jesus into their own languages. Thus barbarians have learnt to become philosophers.” 20

For Jerome “Britain or Scythians in the north, the Atlantic ocean in west, Ethiopia in the south and India in the east marked the farthest extents of the world.” He spoke of Brahmins of India near the Ganges and about the law of sati among the Indians according to which the dearest wife is cremated with her dead husband. Orosius, a contemporary of Ambrose and Augustine wrote in his world history: “In this region of Asia is India, to the west of which is the river Indus, which flows into the Red Sea. Between the river Indus in the east and the river Tigris in west there are the following countries …… In the first part Africa bordering on Egypt are Libya… after that right up to the southern sea are to be found the people of Libya, Ethiopia and Garmantes.” There are several other references to the above subject and there is no need to dwell on this problem any further and we can say that the early church and the Fathers of the church had no problem in distinguishing India and other countries. 2. The Acts of Thomas is not a historical work Some western authors maintain that the Acts of Thomas which is an important source for the Thomas tradition is an apocryphal work and therefore is devoid of any historical value. We have already seen how the Acts is not a totally fictional work because of its connection with king Gondaphares of Taxila who was a historical person situated in ancient Indian history. So a fictional vest can hide a historical figure. Indeed myths and legends have often been a way of narrating history in Antiquity. The author of the Acts would not have written in Mesopotamia something which would have seemed too improbable to his countrymen sufficiently informed of what was happening in India. So he used the information that had its source in the Indo Parthian area and with his imagination to create a story for his readers. The Acts rest on a widely diffused tradition which is comparable to the tradition about the other apostles like Peter, Paul, Andrew, John, etc. 3. Apostles Bartholomew is the apostle of India This argument originates from the visit of Pantaenus to India mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome. The place of his visit is not mentioned anywhere although the consensus is that it was south India but where exactly is not known. Given the close contact with Alexandria and India, a visit by Pantaenus is not impossible. He is the first known witness about the apostolic origin of Christianity in India. He is the first Father of the church to visit India personally and testify in the second half of the second century to have met with Christians in India who claimed to have been evangelized by an apostle of Jesus Christ. Moreover, it speaks of a community in India, who sent a delegation to the bishop of Alexandria and the target of the mission was an elite group, Brahmins and philosophers. The Christians claimed that they were given a copy of the gospel of Matthew by the apostle Bartholomew. So the conclusion is that they were Christians converted by Bartholomew. But this stands against the massive witness in south India about Thomas being the apostle of India. Where did Bartholomew evangelize in India if he did at all? Some authors have said that Kalyan near Mumbai could be a place of his work. This is because there is evidence of the existence of Christian communities in this area already from the 6th century. How to reconcile these things? There are many hypotheses put forward but none satisfactory.

21

Perhaps it is reasonable to say that Bartholomew was a second apostle in India and there is no need to pit him against Thomas. India was large enough to be evangelized by two apostles of Jesus. The only problem is that there is no living tradition in India which links Bartholomew with India unlike the Thomas tradition, except the remarks by a few church Fathers. It is hard to believe that a church would forget its foundation by an apostle of Jesus Christ easily. In any case, there is no reason to say that Bartholomew is the apostle of India and not Thomas. There is no reason to exclude the mission of Thomas in India. But in any case, it points to the apostolic origin of Christianity in India. 4. Apostle Thomas is mistaken with Thomas of Cana The argument is that apostle Thomas is mistaken for another Thomas, Thomas of Cana, head of a group of Syrian Christians who migrated from Persia to India in the 4th century. He was a resident of Kinay in south Mesopotamia in the Persian empire and therefore he is also called Thomas of Kinayi or Knai Thomman. Therefore, Christianity in India is not earlier than that. But we know that in all probability there were Christians in India before that period. Besides, the man who came from Persia was no apostle of Christ but a layman and they met with Christians in Kerala when they arrived. Some Christians in Kerala even today regard themselves as descendants of this group of migrants and are called southists. They are also known as Knanaya Christians. The rest of the community known as northists keeps some sort of a distance from them. The time of the Persian immigration is 345 and is linked with the persecution of the Christians in the Persian empire under the Sassanid ruler Shapur II which gathered momentum from 342. Therefore this migration could be historical. As the two communities of Thomas Christians in Kerala exist with their own theories of origin and safeguard their traditions jealously there is no possibility of such a mistaken identity. The communities have never confused the two Thomases except some western authors who engage in fanciful imagination. The southists till today have many customs and traditions which they claim, have been handed over to them by Thomas of Cana. They would not allow their founder to be mistaken even for an apostle given the pride they have in being his descendants. There is no tradition among the Christians of Kerala that the origin of Christianity in India is linked with Thomas of Cana. They all have the unanimous tradition of Apostolic foundation by Thomas. So the two Thomases, are quite different personalities in the consciousness and in the traditions of both the communities. The separate social and ecclesiastical history of these two communities shows that there never was any identification or confusion between the two Thomases in the Indian tradition. It is a theory which merits no further attention. 5. Christianity in India is of Persian or (East Syrian or Nestorian) origin. It is true that when the Portuguese came to India, they found a church in India which was dependent on the Persian church for bishops and used Syriac as the language for its worship. But when did this dependence begin? Before the fourth century there is no historical evidence of the dependence of the Church in India on the Persian church except the migration of the Christians mentioned above. The Persian church did not have significant number of Christians before the third century deportation of Christians from Rome nor did it have an organized hierarchy before the fourth century. In fact, it was only in the fifth century that the Persian church got organized and centralized and undertook a massive missionary activity which took it as far as China and definitely to India. 22

India had Christians before this period. The Indian Christians used to have their bishops consecrated in Persia and sent to India but this began later. Moreover, that does not mean that it is a daughter church of the Persian church or that it was founded by it which is historically not tenable although this seems to be the prevailing position in the west today. The first known bishops in India came from the Persian church but after four centuries. What form of government did the Indian church have before the arrival of Persian bishops? What arrangement was made by Thomas for the governance of the church? There is no mention of a bishop from India in the first four ecumenical councils. Could it be that the church was governed by the yogam or the popular organ of self government that was practiced in south India which has in some form remained till today? First mention of bishops from Persia comes from Cosmas Indicopleustes in the 6th century. How this happened is not to be explained. Probably after the arrival of the Persian migrants official contact was established with the Persian church and the office of bishop was introduced in India. Another explanation is that it was necessitated by the implementation of the canons of the council of Nicea that bishops should be appointed in churches elected by three bishops and confirmed by the Metropolitan. But from this one cannot deduce the introduction of Christianity in India by the Persian church. The existence of Christianity in India before the arrival of the Persian migrants refutes this argument. Archeological proof of a pre Persian cross found in Kerala in 1888 also proves that there was Christianity in India before the Persians arrived. Conclusion The cumulative evidence that we have gathered is substantive. The world mission of the apostles without any one of them talking about India is like talking today of contemporary international politics leaving out America or Russia. In the case of Rome its socio political eminence was the reason why Peter and Paul went there. Likewise ancient India‟s fame as a leading economic power and premier eastern trade partner was well known and it would be surprising if an apostle of Jesus Christ did not set out for India. And Thomas did that. But still some will say it is not certain, it is only possible, probable, very probable, not proven, etc. But historical certainty today is not according to the norms of historicism but like a jury convicting on the basis of circumstantial or forensic evidence in spite of the lack of eye witnesses. That means a convergence of clues and indices can lead to a clear and certain inference. So for example the landing of the apostle in Muziris or Kodungalloor in 52 AD is a good starting point because it coincides with the end of the Indo Parthian kingdom of Gundaphar in northwest India which made the exit of the apostle from there necessary and he travels to south India. Added to that are the massive patristic witness and the Indian tradition with its various strands. Putting all these together the Indian mission of the apostle Thomas can be deemed historically certain. There can be no reasonable doubt that he evangelized India. How did these Christians live? The first three centuries of the history of the Thomas Christians is generally called the Indian Period, about which we have little information. We have no knowledge about the inner life of the Christian community, its structures or cult, except for stray references like the following:

23

Theophilus the Indian, visiting India around the year 354 as an emissary of the emperor Constantius says that the Indians "listened to the reading of the Gospel in a sitting posture " and he apparently tried to reform this custom and other repugnant things done by them which were against divine law. If not anything, it shows that the Christians had regular worship service conducted under some leaders. In the list of bishops who attended the Nicene Council in 325, a certain bishop, John the Persian, is mentioned who signed on behalf of the churches in the whole of Persia and Greater India. This does not say much about the church structure in India itself, if greater India is indeed India. For the sake of convenience we can say that the arrival of the Persian merchant Thomas of Cana in 345 may be considered the beginning of the relationship between the Indian church and the Persian Church. It inaugurated the so called Persian period Indian church history which lasted till 1600. The Persian period introduced the Persian liturgy in India celebrated in the Syriac language and the community came to be looked after by bishops from Persia. That is why when the Portuguese came to India they found a prosperous, indigenized and numerically strong Christian community looked after by bishops from Persia and celebrating their liturgy in the Syriac language according to the East Syrian rite. The Persian church, the church in the Persian empire (also known as Chaldean, Assyrian, Babylonian church etc), began in Edessa (today Urfa in eastern Turkey), the capital of the kingdom of Orshoene, on the western border of the Persian empire. It is perhaps the first Christian kingdom and there was erected the first known church building. According to tradition, Christianity was introduced in the first century itself. It was neither Latin nor Greek but Semitic in origin, and used the Aramaic or Syriac language for its worship. In the second half of the second century, the NT was translated into Syriac, the first translation of the New Testament. The East-Syrian liturgy originated here probably around the year 200. Slowly the Church organized itself in Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanid empire. Relationship with the Greek and Roman Christianity was weak because of the enmity between Rome and Persia. With the revival of Zoroastrianism there were also persecution of Christians (340-410) started by Saphor II (309-379). It also produced great theologians like Aphrahat the Persian and Ephrem. To face the challenges from persecution and the Christian Gnostic sect Manichaeism, the Persian church organized itself under the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. In 410 he was declared Catholicos or Patriarch of the Persian church and in 424 it proclaimed independence from all other churches. The schism between Persia and the West was caused by the Nestorian controversy from which it also got the later name, Nestorian Church. At the fourth general synod of the church in 486 it officially accepted the “Nestorian” theology as taught by Theodore of Mopsuestia and Nestorius, which was condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431, as its official theology. Probably this step had more political reasons than theological.

24

It also began a tremendous missionary movement which took it even as far as China already in 635 as recorded in the Hsian Fu Tablet erected in 738. It is probably this missionary thrust which brought it into an effective contact with the Indian church. Cosmas the Indian Navigator (525) In his Christian Topography says: Even in the Island of Taprobane [usually taken to refer to Ceylon] in inner India, where also the Indian sea is, there is a church of Christians, clergy and believers. I do not know whether there are Christians even beyond Taprobane. The same is true in the place called Male, where the pepper grows, and in the place called Kalliana (Kalyan?), and there is a bishop appointed from Persia. [It is also interesting to note that Cosmas mentions a number of Indian trading centres: Indus, Saurashtra, Kalyan, Goa, Mangalore, Valapattanam, Puthupattanam, Marawar, Kaveripattanam, and other places which are difficult to identify. It is possible that in some or all of these places there were also Christian communities.] By 660, possibly during the patriarchate of Ishoyahb III ( 650-660) an independent Metropolitanate for India was created and the Patriarch of Persia assumed full responsibility for the church. Patriarch Timothy I (780-823) addressed a letter to the archdeacon, the head of the community in India and warned him about abuses that have crept into the community which shows juridical dependence of the Indian church on the Persian church. There are evidences to show that at times candidates for the priesthood were sent from India to Persia for study. In such a situation it is natural that theology, liturgy and even language of liturgy would now be that of the Persian Church.Thus the apostolic church of India established dependency on a foreign church or the other way round, the Persian church established its control over the Indian church. The Second Persian Migration and the Arrival of Sapor and Prot (823) A Syriac manuscript written in the 18th century speaks about a second Persian migration, the arrival of two bishops, Sapor and Prot with the merchant Sabrisho around the year 823. Groups of Persian Christians surely came to India and settled down in various parts of the country, especially on its western coast at regular intervals. But this migration was special in that we have written records about it. They landed at Kollam and approached the ruler of the place for land where they built a church and founded a town of their own. This migration might have been caused by the growing expansion of the power of Islam in Persia. The famous Copper Plates which are still in the possession of the Christians of Kerala refer to this migration and subsequent events and the privileges granted to them. They probably date from 849 and have been granted during the reign of Stanu Ravi Varma Kulashekara, by the rulers of Venad, Ayyanadi and Ramanadi. There is a second set of Copper Plates from the thirteenth century called the Veera Raghava Pattayam, the privileges granted to the Christian leader Iravi Kortan around 1225 by king Veera Raghavan. The Persian Cross: There has been discovery of stone crosses with Pahlavi (old Persian) inscriptions in various parts of south India and Sri Lanka: Aniruddhapuram in Sri Lanka, Mylapore, Kottayam, Muttuchira, Kadamattam, Alengad, and Goa. The one found in Mylapore in 1547 seems to be the oldest. It is possible that copies of the cross of Mylapore were made and used by churches of Malabar and other parts of India. The dating is not definitive but generally tends to be the 9 th century. Then the explanation could be that it was brought to India by the members of the second 25

Persian migration. It only points to the fact that there were Persian Christian communities in many parts of coastal India and there might have been considerable interaction between the local Christians and the migrating Christians. It would therefore be possible to state that the St. Thomas Christians can no longer be considered a monolithic group but a community with many layers in its composition. The mainstream consists of the descendants of those who received the Gospel from St. Thomas. However about the exact ethnic composition of this group there is still no clarity. There were people who migrated from the Coromandal coast due to persecutions there. There must have been some Christians from among the foreign colonies of Greeks, Romans and Jews who were to be found in south India in the early years of the Christian Era. And the immigrants from West Asia, who later settled down in India at different phases of history, and who got intermingled with and later merged into the mainstream of Thomas Christians, constituted another significant layer of the community. From the use of Pahlavi on the crosses and some other documents, some historians have suggested that there was a period when the Indian Christians were familiar with this language rather than Syriac which came to be the liturgical language at a later date (probably 11th century). This seems to be plausible when we study the inner developments in the Persian church with its two main centres in Cetsiphon (Mesopotamia or today‟s Iraq) and Rew Ardashir (Persia or today‟s Iran) both of which were associated with the Indian church. How did these Christians Live? The sources of this information are Portuguese records, and reports of Portuguese missionaries and others who studied the life of these Christians in detail. They lived a life in two worlds: geographical, political and social world of Malabar and the ecclesiastical world of Persia. In the words of Placid Podippara, a historian of the Thomas Christians, “Hindu in culture, Oriental in worship, and Christian in faith”. Structures of the Community: unique structures, neither western nor eastern, but Indian. Metropolitan: The full title of the Metropolitan was The Metropolitan and Gate of all India. He was consecrated by the Patriarch of Persia (Catholicos of the East). There were long spells without a bishop, and at times there were more than one bishops. Often a delegation had to go and request for bishops. They did not know the language. Their role was to be present where a bishop had to be present, such as ordination, blessing of a church etc. He was the spiritual head of the community in the true sense of the word, and generally an ascetical figure. Archdeacon: In practice, the Archdeacon was the head of the entire community and was solemnly recognized as such by the civil authorities. He was called Archdeacon of All India. According to the East-Syrian canon law, it was a sacred order, inferior to the episcopate, but superior to the presbyterate. He was the chief priest. The office was permanent and hereditary. In India he had a special role because the bishops were foreigners and he represented them in all matters. He enjoyed great authority. He presented the candidates for the priesthood to the bishop, supervised the collection of tithe, transacted business with local rulers, communicated with the patriarch, etc. Local Clergy: Known as cathenars were plentiful, ordained not for a diocese but for a community. The senior most priest assumed the leadership of the local community. Candidates for priesthood 26

were trained in the community following the ancient gurukula system by Malpans or learned, elderly priests who were set apart for the purpose. The community presented the candidate for ordination. They were generally married. There was no daily mass, not even on every Sunday, except on the Sundays of Lent. No special dress was worn by them although some say they wore a white habit. They performed other liturgical actions for the community, for example, at marriages, funerals, srardhams or chathams (meal for the diseased), rites connected with the birth of a child etc. Sometimes minors were also ordained because the bishop was not always available. The cathenars were not educated and were poor in theology. There seems to have been also monks and nuns. Communities always had deacons and priests. Evangelization seems to have been not a priority, mainly because of the rigid caste system which they practised! Laity: The laity played an important role in the life of the community. They had voting rights in all matters pertaining to the community. At the Synod of Diamper, there were 600 lay people present with voting right. These assemblies were called Yogams. There were yogams of the local community called palliyogams which decided upon matters pertaining to the community and yogams of the whole community pothuyogams under the leadership of the Archdeacon with the representatives from all the communities which decided upon matters of general interest. It was a local structure, probably based on the village assembly of the Dravidians called Manram. The local communities were autonomous and self-supporting. Beliefs: There were influences of Hinduism. The Synod of Diamper criticized them for believing in rebirth and fatalism (karma), belief in magic, fortune telling, etc. The Synod also criticises the idea that one could be saved by one‟s own religion which shows that this belief might have been prevalent among the Christians. They believed in the Trinity and incarnation, but the Christological expression was Nestorian as interpreted by the Persian church. Mary was called the mother of Christ. The Council of Ephesus was rejected as the work of Cyril of Alexandria. Nestorius, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Deodore of Tarsus who were condemned by the Council of Ephesus were venerated as saints at mass and in the breviary. The Patriarch of Seleucia-Cetsiphon was commemorated at mass as universal pastor. Liturgy (qurbana) was East-Syrian, according to the liturgy of Addai and Mari, the founders of the East Syrian church, and was celebrated in the Syriac language. Baptism, Holy Order and Eucharist were the sacraments. They used fermented bread and practised, according some reports “the heresy” of communion under both species. Some authors mention the abominable error of consecrating the sacrosanct body and blood of Christ in cakes of rice and wine of the palms. There were no images but only crosses in churches which had an important place in the life of the Christians. Confirmation as a separate sacrament was unknown to them. Neither individual, auricular confession nor anointing of the sick was practised. Marriage was celebrated at home. Baptism and marriage had a number of local customs added to them, so also birth, death, and funeral: for example, giving the new born babe powdered gold mixed with honey, giving boiled rice to the child when it is eleven months old, mothers being not allowed to enter the church for 40 days after child birth, the use of tali or minnu for marriage christianized with a cross of 21 minute beads on it, the thread for tying the tali being made out of the mantrakodi or bridal veil, not serving food in the house of a deseased till after the burial, celebration of the srardham (chatham) or the funeral meal etc. Understandably, for the Portuguese missionaries, these were all errors and abominations 27

and had to be corrected and the Christians needed to be brought into the “Catholic” church which meant the Latin church. Social Life: The Portuguese discovered in India a Church, which was to all appearance an indigenous church, a church which was quite well adapted to the Hindu, non-Christian environment. In the social hierarchy the Christians stood equal to the Nayars, that is, in the second place. In everything except faith, they resembled their non-Christian neighbours. But this adaptation was so complete that they constituted themselves into a noble caste. This in turn made them enjoy a number of privileges. The result was lack of contact with members of the lower castes. This evidently stifled the missionary spirit. Their main occupation was pepper cultivation and chose their settlements accordingly. They also served in the military. They also seemed to have had a king of their own, the Villarvattom Royal family. When this royal family ceased to exist they were under the special protection of the king of Cochin. Later, they seemed to have chosen the protection of the Portuguese which proved to be disastrous. So Christianity in India, which was an apostolic church came under the church of Persia, most probably for practical reasons. They were attached to the Persian prelates and the Syriac liturgy and language. It is asked why they never tried to develop a liturgy of their own, or chose the language of the place and never bothered to have indigenous bishops. Dr. Percival Spear, a famous historian maintains that it was a mechanism for self-preservation. In the midst of a predominantly Hindu population, living almost like a Hindu caste in everything, a foreign liturgical language and affiliation were means to preserve their Christian identity and Christian faith. Others see it as Persian ecclesiastical colonialism, the deliberate transplantation of the East-Syrian church on to the Indian soil. Thus a double exclusivism was practised by the Indian Christians: Sanskritization led to the introduction of the caste system into the church, and Chaldeanization prevented it from developing into a genuine Indian church. 3. THE BEGINNING OF WESTERN/LATIN CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA Latin Missions in India in the Middle Ages The contact of India with western Christianity in the first millennium is minimal. Europe had its own problems although Christianity expanded into the entire continent during this time. But there was very little contact with the rest of the world. But that changes in the second millennium with the missionary journeys that were undertaken by the Mendicant Orders as part of their Mongol mission. Mongol conquest of Persia in 1220 reopened the Persian Gulf to European missionaries and travellers. A vast territory was now open for missionary activity, especially Mongol China and Central Asia. On their way to Mongol China and Central Asia the missionaries and travellers also visited India. There are references to Mylapore (tomb of Thomas), Kollam, Kodungalloor, Cape Comorin, Thane etc. in their reports, where there were Christian communities. Thus we have persons like Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller who gives an account of his visit to the tomb of St. Thomas at Mylapore in AD 1292. A whole chapter of his Travels is devoted to a discussion about the place “where lieth the body of St. Thomas the Apostle, and the miracles thereof.” Christian pilgrims would gather red earth from the place where the Apostle had been killed for use in curing the sick.

28

John of Monte Corvino, the Franciscan friar who reached Peking in 1294 at the invitation of the Kublai Khan and who became the first archbishop of Peking in 1307, reached India in 1291 and remained there for 13 months. He says: “I remained in the country of India wherein stands the church of St. Thomas the apostle for 13 months and I baptized in different places about one hundred persons.” However, as far as missionary activity in India is concerned, the person who is of interest to us is the Dominican, Jordan Catalani of Severac who landed at Thane probably in 1321 with four Franciscan companions who were on their way to China. There were few Christians there in the midst of a predominantly Hindu and Muslim population. His companions were martyred (Franciscan Martyrs of Thane) and Jordan now decided to move down South and took up his residence at Kollam, a prosperous city with a flourishing community of Christians. But according to his accounts, he baptized some idolaters and Saracens before moving to the south. Jordan was hopeful that he could evangelize this region. In 1329 he undertook a journey to Europe and informed the pope about the prospects in South India. Pope John XXII erected the diocese of Kollam in 1329 and Jordan was appointed its first bishop. The Pope gave him a number of letters to the Christians in various parts of India (Konkan coast, Gujarat, Mylapore, and the leader of the Thomas Christians (dominus Nascarinorum) admonishing him to keep the orthodox faith and to keep obedience to the universal pastor, the Roman Pontiff. Then we completely lose track of Jordan. We are not even sure whether he reached India and took possession of his diocese. The medieval Latin diocese of Kollam languished and the Latin Christian community in India disappeared for the time being. Around 1325 Friar Odoric of Pordenone visited India and wrote about the Palm Sunday services he had attended in Kollam. He found that “all the world‟s pepper that was being produced and shipped to other countries came from Quilon.” About the church of St. Thomas at Mylapore he wrote: “His church is filled with idols and beside it are fifteen houses of the Nestorians, that is to say, Christians but vile and pestilent heretics.” A quarter century later, in 1349 a Franciscan Friar named John de Marignolli also on his way to Rome from China stopped at Quilon and he also reported that the whole world‟s pepper was produced and controlled by Christians of St. Thomas” and that he had been “carried on the shoulders of their chiefs in a palanquin like Solomon.” Finally in 1440 Nicholas de Conti, a venetian who had been to India wrote about the people who worshipped “where the body of St. Thomas lies honourably buried in a large and beautiful church” and about a “congregation of over a thousand Nestorians who identified themselves with the Apostles.” The Arrival of the Portuguese C.R. Boxer, quoting the economist Adam Smith says, "The discovery of America and that of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good hope are the two greatest and the most important events recorded in the history of mankind" Why did the Europeans undertake navigational explorations, especially Portugal and Spain? Their motives may be summed up in these words: crusade, curiosity, commerce, conversion, conquest and colonization. Two main motives of the Portuguese were: 29

1) to open up a sea route to the East due to the fall of Constantinople 2) to break the Muslim hold on the holy land On May 17th (21st ) 1498, Vasco da Gama landed with three small ships at Kappad, a small village, 13 kilometres north of Kozhikode, the kingdom of the Samorin, the most powerful ruler in South West India. Two Muslim traders from Tunisia met them at the market place and asked what brought pfarangi ships so far and they replied: “We come to seek Christians and spices.” The team parangi or pfarangi or farangi is the local word for Frank, the standard designation for Europeans at the time. They had absolutely no idea where they were and what religion these people professed. The encounter with Muslim traders points to the presence of Muslims in the area. One of the members of the team reported: “When we arrived they took us to a large church, and this is what we saw:- The body of the church is as large as a monastery, all built of hewn stone and covered with tiles... In the centre of the body of the church rose a chapel, all built of hewn stone.... within this sanctuary stood a small image which they said represented Our Lady... We did not go into the chapel, for it is the custom that only certain servants of the church called quafees should enter. These quafees wore some threads passing over the left shoulder and under the right arm, in the same manner as our deacons wear the stole... Many other saints were painted on the walls of the church wearing crowns. They were painted variously, with teeth protruding an inch from the mouth and four or five arms.” It is clear that they had made their way into a Hindu temple. They also thought that the people were Christians. “This city of Calicut is composed of Christians, who are men, and some of them go about with large beards, and long hair on the head, and others have shaven heads. And they have topknots on their crowns, as a sign that they are Christians, and moustaches with their beards. And they have their ears pierced, and in the holes wear much gold, and they walk about naked up to the waist, and below they wear certain delicate cotton cloths.” The relation with the Samorin was initially friendly. The ships returned after three months full loaded with spices. In 1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral arrived with a larger group of 13 ships and 19 missionaries, after discovering Brazil. Soon after conflict began with the Samorin, instigated by the Muslim traders. In the wake of a conflict he bombarded the city of Kozhikode and massacred 600 people in retaliation for the killing of some Portuguese. He then moved to Cochin under the protection of Unni Goda Varma. There he came into contact with the Thomas Christians of Kerala because a delegation of Christians came to meet with him. He, in fact, took two of them with him, Joseph and Matthias to Europe. Joseph would later on become famous as Joseph the Indian, the author of The Travel Narratives of Joseph the Indian, for many years the primary authority for the affairs of the Thomas Christians at the beginning of the sixteenth century. We have a detailed report about the various events that followed as well as the meeting with the Portuguese from a letter written to the Patriarch in Persian by Mar Jacob, in the name of the four bishops who were looking after the Thomas Christians at that time. “May you also know Fathers 30

that from the Occident powerful ships have been sent to these countries of India by the king of the Christians who are our brethren the Franks.” About their meeting with the strangers he says: “We went to them and told them that we were Christians, and told them our story. They were pleased with us gave us beautiful garments, with twenty drachmas of gold; for the sake of Christ they honoured in an extraordinary way our state of being strangers. We remained with them two and a half months, and they ordered us one day to say mass at which they were greatly pleased with us. After that we left them and went to our Christians who were eight days distant. Their king is Emmanuel. May Emmanuel protect them.” In 1502 Vasco da Gama arrived a second time. This time, too, a delegation of the Thomas Christians under the leadership of Mar Jacob came to meet him in Cochin. They proposed an alliance between them and the Portuguese because of the fact that they were all Christians. The Christians were also being harassed both by the Hindu rulers as well as Muslim traders and they thought that this would put an end to it. In return, the Christians would supply the Portuguese with enough pepper. In 1503 Afonso de Albuquerque was received by the Christians at Kollam. It was he who laid the foundation for Portuguese power in India. He was appointed governor-general of the Portuguese possessions in the East in 1509. He wanted to establish a strategic, permanent presence of the Portuguese in India and the East. For this he chose Goa and occupied and annexed it in 1510. Secondly, he also wanted a Latin Christian population in India because the Thomas Christians were for all practical purposes heretical Christians. Thus mission also became a priority for the Portuguese. Portuguese missionary activity Kerala The first conversion by the Portuguese occurred in 1500 at Kozhikode, of a brahmin by some Franciscans who had come with Cabral. But the conflict with the Samorin forced the missionaries to shift their activities to Kochi. Therefore, the history of Latin Christianity in India in the modern period begins in Kochi where the Portuguese erected a fort and a church already in 1503. The Raja of Kochi gave them a warm welcome because of the enmity between him and the Samorin. But soon difficulties began. The Portuguese were wholly unaware of the manners and customs of the people and were slow to learn. In a letter written by Raja Rama Varma to the King of Portugal narrating the wrongs the viceroy had committed, he mentions the greatest of all crimes: “The Viceroy has ordered the slaughter of many cows ... and this is the greatest dishonour which can befall in our country". By this unfortunate action they had stamped on themselves and their posterity the mark of their position in the social scale. Only the outcastes or the untouchables ate beef and now Christians and all those who were associated with them were considered untouchables and outcastes. They were given the nick name parangis (from “Franks” meaning foreigners) which came to mean outcastes. A fatal association had been formed between becoming Christians and eating beef. Christians were even forbidden to walk in the streets of Kochi One way of increasing the Christian population advocated by Afonso the Albuquerque was intermarriages. This was especially helpful in order to legalize illegal sexual relations entered by the Portuguese soldiers with the local woman. To these converts financial incentives were offered. The high cast people came rarely because then they would lose their caste. The Raja of Kochi opposed 31

conversion, especially of high caste Hindus. Afonso de Albuquerque tried even to convert the Raja, but without success. It was in Cochin that the first school in India was established where children irrespective of their caste could study. There was also a hospital. The first missionaries were Franciscans. In other places of Kerala, Kannur, Kozhikode and Kollam had small communities of Christians. It may be concluded that the Latin rite Christians of Kerala have their origin in the missionary activity of the Portuguese in the 16th century among the various sections of the Muslim and Hindu population of Kerala. The first nucleus was formed in Cochin. The mixed group formed through intermarriages came to be called Mesticos, Topazes, Paranghis or munnuttikar. The others who hailed from various castes and classes came to be called the ezhunnuttikar. This was the case in Cochin, where the caste distinctions were blended quite well and they distinguished themselves from the large number of fisher caste converts later on, who were called the anjuttikar. Some members from both these groups also claim that they are descendants of the Thomas Christians who accepted the Latin rite for various reasons. Tamil Nadu The first place the Portuguese came to know in Tamil Nadu was Mylapore in 1517. There they conducted excavations at the supposed tomb of St. Thomas and discovered the Persian cross. A new church was built and a new community was founded. When Francis Xavier arrived in Mylapore, he found there a prosperous Christian community comprising of Indians and Europeans. But the greatest achievement of the Portuguese in Tamil Nadu was doubtlessly the conversion of the Paravars (Bharatas) of the Pearl Fishery Coast extending from Cape Comorin to Rameshwaram and there to Mannar, off the coast of Sri Lanka. In the 16th century these people comprised of 22 villages. They were oppressed by the Muslim and other middlemen and now the Portuguese were attracted too. This led to tensions in the community. At this point in time, a convert from Kozhikode, John of the Cross came into contact with these people and promised them the protection of the Portuguese and also spoke to them about Christianity. They decided to receive baptism and in 1536/37 mass baptisms took place. Practically the entire community was baptized. Persecution too began immediately. In 1544 the raja of Jaffna massacred some 600 Tamils in the Mannar island for embracing Christianity. Five years later Antonio Criminali the first Jesuit was martyred in Vedalai on the Indian mainland. Impressed by the way in which their neighbours the Paravars had acquired social strength and protection by becoming Christians, the Mukkkuvas of Kanyakumari accepted Christianity in 1544. This was facilitated by Francis Xavier. Goa In the history of Indian Christianity Goa and its Christians deserve a special place. Goa was called the Rome of the East and it was a Portuguese colony form 1510-1961. It was thought to be the best place to control trade, the prime aim of the Portuguese and Afonso de Albuquerque captured it from the kingdom of Bijapur in 1510 with help of the Hindu feudal landlords. A counter attack with the help of the Muslims in the following year failed but that led to a brutal massacre of Muslims in Goa (8000) and they were seen as the infidels of the crusades. “I am determined to permit no Muslim to live in Goa”, he said. Goa consisted originally of five islands in the present state of Goa. The society consisted of various Hindu castes. The language was Konkani, which though derived from 32

Sanskrit, had many similarities with dravidian languages. There were also Arabic and Persian Muslims living in Goa. It became the administrative capital of the Portuguese in 1530. Already in 1533 it was made a diocese and in 1557 an archdiocese, and remained an important ecclesiastical centre in Asia for centuries. Christianization of Goa Methods For some time the policy of tolerance if not equality of religions was followed, although sati was immediately forbidden. But the Portuguese did not keep their promise of freedom of religion for long. Partly because of the ideological faith of the king of Portugal, partly through pressure from ecclesiastics in Goa itself, they became obsessed with making Goa a Christian land. The first means for this was inter-racial marriages between Portuguese soldiers and sailors with the women captured from the vanquished Muslims and Hindu women. It was a policy expressly ordered by the King which Albuquerque also encouraged everywhere. The political motive behind this move was that the progeny was bound to be attached to and defend Goa as their motherland. It was also an excellent means to legitimate the illegal sexual contacts that would naturally take place. This was encouraged by granting dowry, gifts etc. by the state. The first generation of Goan Christians came from this. Celebration of mixed marriages was a common event in the churches. They were known as the casados. Another early group of Christians were former slaves. By law a baptized slave could no longer belong to a Hindu master. He had to be bought by a Christian and was often freed. Interracial marriages and Christianization of slaves led only to individual conversions So there was need for stricter methods. Rigour of Mercy: The European missionaries were accustomed to the maxim cuius regio eius religio - the religion of the people must be the same as the religion of the ruler. They found it difficult to accept that Goa, now a colony of the Christian king, should still remain largely Hindu. Since Portugal was a Catholic country, the colonies belonging to it should also have Catholicism as the official religion. The clergy especially found it difficult to accept the policy of religious tolerance practised by the administration. In one of the complaints of these clergymen, we read: “Regarding the people of Goa they have in the island their temples decked out with figures of the enemy of the cross and statues and they celebrate their feasts every year. These feasts are attended by many Christians, our own people as well as recent native Christians. It is a big mistake to continue to show favour to their idolatry. It would be to the service of God to destroy in the island alone these temples and to raise in their stead churches with saints. And let him who wants to live in the island become Christian and he shall possess his lands and houses as he has till now done. If not, let him leave the island.” So they started a new policy around 1540 called rigour of mercy. The catholic faith had to be imposed on the population through all sorts of pressure short of physical force. It involved many things like punishing criticism of Christians, a rigorous policy against Hindu religious places and religious ceremonies; destruction of temples and preventing new ones from being built; not allowing the performance of their rites in public, prevention of making of idols, not allowing the entry of Hindu priests from out side into Goa, making them forcibly donate the income 33

of the temples to the churches, etc. The slaves of the non-Christians were not allowed to convert to their faith. Government jobs were taken away from the Hindus and given to the Christians. Christians were never to be deprived of inheritance. Hindu orphans were taken away and given Christian education, not baptism, although that was the goal. Hindus were asked to attend catechism classes every Sunday where the priests refuted the Hindu religion. Anyone who hindered another from becoming a Christian would be exiled and his property confiscated. Many Hindus fled the island. By the end of the 16th century only 20,000 out of 150,000 Hindus seemed to have remained. They became a minority. So for the time being Goa seemed to have become a Christian colony. Destruction of temples also took place in Salette and Bardez. Can it be called forced conversion? The Portuguese does not seem to have advocated physical force. At the first provincial Synod of Goa in 1567 physical force was officially forbidden and this prohibition was reinforced by subsequent synods. But we have to ask: By bestowing all sorts of favours upon Christians and putting restrictions on the Hindus, were the Portuguese not doing violence to the conscience of the people?. Is using moral force by attracting people with gifts and privileges to Christianity justified? They excluded physical violence not moral pressure. While they did not convert at the point of sword they made use of various inducements to attract people to Christianity and placed all types of obstacles in the way of non-Christians. In any case, two of the practices were highly objectionable. The destruction of temples, and taking away of orphans. When a child under 14 lost its father, it would be forcibly taken away form its mother and kept in a Christian orphanage, and given Christian education. If it was under the age of discretion, it was baptized straight away. Otherwise, the child decided later on which it did almost always in favour of Christianity. One of the signs that Goa was considered a Christian state was the establishment of the Inquisition or the Tribunal of the holy office in 1560. Its task was to preserve the faith in its purity. It lasted till 1812. The roots of the Inquisition are to be found in European history. It came into being at a time when the southern countries of Europe were deeply concerned about heresy or some doubtful features that had crept into traditional religion and about the New Christians who were politically forced to convert but had secretly continued their old religious practices, generally Jews and Muslims. The Inquisition in Goa was a Christian institution and it was not in its purview to judge or punish members of other communities, Hindu, Muslim or any other. Its task was to improve morals and to punish heathen practices, censorship of books, fighting heresy, apostasy, schism, check out favour shown to heretics, prevention of reading of heterodox books, detecting blasphemy, irreverence shown to the Blessed Sacrament, superstition, bigamy, sodomy etc. Every Catholic was bound under pain of excommunication to report these cases. This was one of the reasons why many Hindus fled to Bombay when it was acquired by the British. The proceedings of the inquisition have been destroyed. More than the number of people put to death which might have been small, it was simply this display of ecclesiastical power that has done the greatest harm to the cause of Christianity in India. It planted in the Indian mind a profound misunderstanding about the nature of Christianity. The Portuguese was a typical medieval European Christian whose faith was strong, fanatic, militant, practically unaffected by the modern movements in Europe owing to geography. The whole nonChristian world was in darkness, practising idolatry, a heinous crime. They had to be converted by all means. Only in Goa could they execute this since it was a colony. No adaptation, but giving 34

people Portuguese names, imposing on them their customs, offending the sensibilities of the people. Even the language of the place was suppressed in 1684. From reports it is clear that the moral life of the people, including both the clergy and religious was lax; they were avaricious - one reason why often only the rich were punished by the inquisition. The religious moreover saw each other as enemies. But there was another side to the story as well. They also had institutions to do good to the people. One such institution was the Confraternity of the Holy Faith or the Miserecordia founded in 1541. They built churches, hospitals, schools and undertook other charitable activities, like visiting the sick and the abandoned, helping the poor, taking care of the orphans, and providing the rites for the dead. It also saw to it that the rigour of mercy was implemented. Perhaps the most important work of the confraternity was in the field of education. The college of St. Paul founded in 1542, which was officially meant for the training of priests can be considered the first Jesuit school in the world. Out of it the educational structure of the Jesuits developed. It became also the site of the first printing press in India. Despite their assimilation into Portuguese culture, the Goans did not enjoy all the privileges of the Portuguese. The Portuguese were always more equal. They continued to remain the dominant social group and practised a fair amount of racial discrimination. The discontent of the people gave birth to the second anti-colonial revolt in history, in Goa in 1787 (the first was the American War of Independence). The plot was however, foiled. However, one should not also forget the numerous fruits and vegetables that were brought to India by the Portuguese. The Arrival of the Jesuits The Franciscans were the first to arrive in India in the wake of the arrival of the Portuguese. But soon there was another group of missionaries who would play a major role in the history of Christianity in India, as far as the Thomas Christians were concerned, not so felicitous, the Jesuits under the leadership of Francis Xavier (1542) who is considered the founder of Jesuit missions in the East. The Dominicans came in 1548 and the Augustinians in 1572. On 6th May 1542 Francis Xavier and a small party of companions landed at Goa and the Jesuits arrived fulfilling the wishes of Ignatius to undertake world mission. Born in 1506, he met Ignatius in 1529 and in 1534 he took the vows in the Society of Jesus. King John III of Portugal wanted some excellent priests for overseas and heard about the Jesuits. Francis Xavier was chosen and therefore, he was a specially commissioned envoy of the King of Portugal and the legate of Pope Paul III, vested with immense power. In 1549 Francis Xavier was appointed the first Provincial of the third province of the Society of Jesus. In 1542, at his arrival at Goa, he wrote. “After more than four months we arrived in India, at Goa, a city wholly inhabited by Christians, a sight really worthy to be seen. There is a convent with many friars of the order of St. Francis, and a splendid cathedral with many canons, and many other churches. It is a thing for which great thanks ought to be offered to God, that the name of Christ flourishes so in such distant lands and among so many unbelievers.” Francis had miscalculated. In 1542 there were not so many Christians in Goa. There were many Hindus, and Muslims in Goa. He was appalled by the state of the Christians in Goa, their ignorance, and vice. The Portuguese had other priorities than building up the church. Ignatius might have expected Francis to lay the foundation for the Jesuit enterprises in the East but administration was not his strength. He was a 35

missionary. He thus moved to the Coromandal Coast. In October 1542 he landed at Manappadu on the Fishery Coast and made his way to Tuticorin on foot. He wrote: "As soon as I had disembarked on the coast I proceeded to the various villages where they live and baptized all the children who had not received the sacrament. The boys besieged me in such crowds that I had no time to say my office or to eat or sleep. They clamoured to be taught some prayers. I found them very quick and bright and if they had someone to instruct them properly in our holy faith I am sure they would make fine Christians". He began organizing the church baptized all the children born after 1537, built churches, translated the prayers into Tamil, and instructed the people. “When we had completed the translation in their language and knew it by heart, I went through all the area with a bell in my hand and gathered as many men and boys as I could; and, having gathered them, I taught them twice a day. At the end of a month I had taught them the prayers, and instructed the boys that they must pass on to their fathers and mothers and to all others in their homes and to their neighbours what they had learned in school. On Sundays, I gathered all the inhabitants of the quarter, men and women, great and small, to repeat the prayers in their own language. They showed much pleasure and came very gladly.” As helpers, he appointed catechists called Kanakkappillai. With them he travelled form village to village and instructed and baptized. Many more villages accepted Christianity. Xavier gave them their Christian identity, a pride in their Christian faith, and a great attachment to it. In 1544 he made mass conversions of the Mukkuvas on the Travancore coast. He also reached out to Vasai, and indeed other places of Asia, like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan. His theology and piety were medieval. He was a man of his time. Mass baptisms of whole villages were common. In December 1544 he baptized 10,000 people on the Travancore coast. According to Jesuit records he baptized 700,000 people. He had no respect for Hinduism. “There are the most perverse people in the world... they never tell the truth, but think of nothing but how to tell subtle lies and to deceive the simple and ignorant people, telling them that the idols demand certain offerings, and these are simply the things the brahmans themselves invent, and of which they stand in need in order to maintain their wives and children and houses... They threaten the people that, if they do not bring the offerings, the gods will kill them, or curse them to fall sick, or send demons to their houses, and, through fear that the idols will do them harm, the poor simple people do exactly what the brahmans tell them.... If there were no brahmans in the area, all the Hindus would accept conversion to our faith.” With such distrust he could hardly reach out to the higher castes of India which he did in Japan. 4. THOMAS CHRISTIANS AND THE PORTUGUESE The Thomas Christians had been living for centuries in their small world between the mountains and the sea in almost total isolation from the rest of Christendom. Only occasionally did some visitors come; they were mostly bishops from Persia. A few missionaries and other travellers had visited them on their travels to China and other regions beyond India. Therefore, when they heard about Christians from the West arriving in Kerala they were very happy. The thought there could be alliance between them and the Portuguese and it was in fact formally made in 1503. For the first 15 years, the relationship of the Christians with the Portuguese was commercial. They sold them their pepper. When needed they would even accept spiritual help from the Portuguese as happened in Kollam where they even allowed the missionaries to celebrate mass in their church. 36

Gradually the Christians realized that the promising harmony of the earlier days was not going to continue. Tensions began which would last for centuries. The reason for the tension was increased activities of the Portuguese missionaries and their attempt to bring them into conformity with the Latin practices. There was a conflict of attitudes. The Portuguese believed that these Christians were living in error. They believed that they possessed a superior form of Christianity, language, rite etc., and others should conform to this. The Christians of St. Thomas could not understand that their Christianity was in any was inferior, and they would not give up their traditional faith. They were convinced that their church was an apostolic church. They were strongly attached to the east Syrian bishops. They considered the Patriarch the head of their church. The Portuguese underestimated this attachment. The Christians were also not happy with the Portuguese because they were not helped when they were oppressed by some local rulers although this was agreed upon. The one who began the process of Latinization was a priest called Alvaro Penteado who came to India in 1510/11 and was sent to Cochin to care for the Thomas Christians. He was the wrong man in the wrong place. Nobody in history has a good word to say about him. He got into conflict both with the Latin and Eastern ecclesiastical authorities. But he still was convinced that the Christians should be brought under obedience to the Portuguese and must be introduced to the Latin rite. Another priest Vincent de Lagos had another idea. Although not so fanatic as Penteado, he also wanted to bring the church under Latin rule. He devised another method, that is, training the priests for the Thomas Christians. For this purpose the College of St. James was founded at Kodungalloor in 1541. Its objective was to replace the old Cathenars by a new race of Indian priests raised according to the Latin customs. It was true that the Cathenars were poorly trained. They could hardly say Mass. The idea seemed appealing even to the bishop Mar Jacob. Also Francis Xavier was full of praise for it. But the idea of a new race of priests was based on a fatal error. It was believed that by Latinising a group of boys it would be possible to Latinise the whole church which had its age old traditions, and that it was good and proper to do so. Years later, we would see, that there was no art or device of man by which the community could be Latinised. These priests were wholly unacceptable to the people and they disowned them because they did not follow their ancient customs. Two of these priests from Paravur were not allowed to say mass in their churches, and separate churches had to be built for them. Isolation of the Bishop Mar Jacob Among the many bishops present among the Thomas Christians when the Portuguese began their activities in India, we have information only about bishop Jacob who guided the destinies of the community at a critical period in its history. He had an open mind about many suggestions made by the missionaries, better training for the clergy, the abolition of fee for baptism, introduction of auricular confession, etc. But the missionaries wanted more than that. They wanted a Portuguese church and abolish all the usages and customs of the people. They also wanted to isolate the bishop and the community from the Patriarch of Persia. In 1543, Mar Jacob was forced to retire to the Franciscan monastery where he died in 1552. He did not resist the Portuguese because he realized his helplessness. The isolation of the bishop was with a view to cutting off the relationship with the 37

church of Persia. The Portuguese were now convinced that the Christians of Kerala were under the protection of the King of Portugal and thus under the bishop of Goa and not a Persian bishop. They were also determined to prevent the arrival of any bishop from Persia. With bishop Jacob‟s death the Portuguese hoped to have brought the church of the Thomas Christians under Latin rule. Arrival of the bishop Joseph In 1556 two bishops Mar Joseph, and Mar Elias, were sent by the Catholic Patriarch of Persia (reunion of the group had taken place in 1553) to India. The Portuguese detained them at Goa with the help of civil authorities and accused them of being Nestorians. They were told that the bishop of Goa was the bishop of Malabar and of whole of India. After 18 months they escaped to Malabar. From then on we loose track of Elias. Mar Joseph was welcomed by the Christians but was arrested by the Portuguese because he was suspected of unorthodoxy, was brought back to Goa, and shipped to Lisbon. There he proved his orthodoxy and returned in 1565. In 1567 he was arrested a second time and was sent to Portugal and to Rome where he proved his orthodoxy a second time and was about to return to India when death came to his rescue in 1569 and thus avoiding a third capture. Arrival of Bishop Abraham Meanwhile the Nestorian Patriarch also had sent a bishop to India in 1556, named Mar Abraham. The Portuguese arrested him accusing him of perverting the pepper country. He escaped and went to Persia and joined the Catholic Patriarch, got appointed to India, travelled to Rome to prove his orthodoxy, and returned back to Malabar in 1568. On arrival he was detained because he had no letter from the king of Portugal. He escaped and travelled to Malabar and declared himself the sole metropolitan of the Thomas Christians and set up his quarters at Angamaly. From the outset he was suspicious of the Portuguese. He warned the Patriarch that his authority was in danger in India. He turned to the Jesuits for help because they seemed to him better than the others. But this was not the case, because they too considered Latin Christianity better than any other form of Christianity. In fact they became the champions of Latinization. From 1548, the Jesuits were in Cochin and had contact with the Thomas Christians. They had grand plans to evangelize the area. They founded a seminary at Vaipicotta. The seminary imparted good training, not wholly alienated from the culture of the people, and not extremely Latinised. It taught also Syriac. One of the teachers was a brahmin convert from Quilon, Perter Luis, who later became the first Indian Jesuit. Mar Abraham was happy with this seminary and was in favour of sending students to it and of introducing some reforms in the church, like anointing the sick, confirmation, abolition of communion under both species etc. In 1583 the Jesuit fathers persuaded the bishop to call the synod which could decide on further reforms to be introduced in the church: correction of liturgical books; removal of the names of Nestorius and his disciples from the liturgy; marriage of the clergy to be declared invalid; confession and communion once a year to be made compulsory; the feasts of the Roman church and the Gregorian calendar were to be introduced. In 1585 the Third Provincial Council of Goa ordered Mar Abraham to attend this council and forced him to accept more reforms in the church. Ten decrees have been issued dealing with the Thomas 38

Christians. The clear and unmistakable Latinization imposed by the later synod of Diamper is conspicuous in the decrees of this council. It clearly demanded celibacy of the clergy, use of priestly dress and tonsure, introduction of the decrees of the Council of Trent and the constitutions of the Archdiocese of Goa in the church, translation into Syriac of the Latin Missal, breviary and the rites of other sacraments, further correction of liturgical books and removal of errors in them etc. It also said that the archbishop should have a learned and religious person (obviously a Latin cleric) as his helper, whom he should make use of, for the execution of these decrees. Did the bishop affix his signature willingly? It is clear that he was threatened and bullied as reported by Fr. Alessandro Valignano, the Jesuit visitor to the East. He was also asked to reordain all the priests he had ordained in Kerala, because he had omitted a Latin custom in the ordination ritual, namely, handing over the chalice and the paten to the candidate. He was also asked to start a seminary for training the priests. He promised that after returning to Malabar, he would put into practice all the resolutions of the Council, after consulting the archdeacon. He was warned that he would be denounced to the Inquisition if he went back on his word. Soon after his arrival, he ignored the directives of the Council. He refused to get the liturgical books corrected by the appointed person, Francis Roz, a Spanish Jesuit. He feared that if these reforms were carried out, their church would cease to exist. The Jesuit fathers now accused him of the heresy of Nestorianism, simony, etc. In 1593 Francis Roz wrote to the General of the society expressing the hope that the pope would send an Inquisitor to proceed against bishop Abraham. In 1594 he was formally accused of being a Nestorian and was charged that he had departed from the faith. The charge is difficult to prove. The Jesuits were determined to get him out of the picture for another reason. The bishop was now favouring the Franciscans and this in true tradition of the Religious, the Jesuits did not like. The Franciscans were defending the bishop against the accusations of the Jesuits. With all the complains pouring into Rome, pope Clement VIII ordered an inquiry into the orthodoxy of Mar Abraham. In 1595 he authorized the archbishop of Goa to conduct an inquiry into the life and orthodoxy of bishop Abraham and to keep him in honourable confinement, in case he was found to be guilty and to appoint a vicar apostolic to govern the diocese until the Holy See should provide. The archbishop of Goa did not hold any formal trial of the bishop. All that was done was a secret inquiry made through the Jesuits of Vaipicotta. The result of this inquiry was sent to Rome. Before this report could reach Rome, the pope sent another instruction in 1597 authorizing the archbishop to appoint a vicar apostolic for the See of Angamaly after the death of Mar Abraham. He was to govern the diocese until Rome should appoint a person. When this instruction reached Goa, bishop Abraham was dead several months. At his death the archdeacon George of the Cross took over the administration of the church according to the ancient custom and the express wish of the deceased bishop. The Synod of Diamper (1599) The archbishop of Goa Alexis de Menezes now wanted to take control of the church. Since he was authorized by the pope to appoint an administrator he hastened to appoint Fr. Francis Roz to this post and thus set aside the appointment of the dead bishop. He finally refrained from doing this because he sensed that it would lead to serious repercussions. The archdeacon was well accepted by the community. But he wanted to establish his authority in the church because he was convinced that he was the supreme ecclesiastical authority in the country. But the Archdeacon did not recognize this although he made a profession of faith as demanded by the archbishop. The distrust 39

between the two however grew. To establish his authority in the community of the Thomas Christians, Menezes planed a visitation of the Thomas Christians. He set out on 27th December 1598 to visit all the churches of Malabar, to purge them of their heresies and errors, to teach them the catholic doctrine, to destroy the heretical books and to finally convoke a Synod. He spent four months visiting the different communities, excommunicating everyone who uttered the name of the Patriarch at mass declaring that the he was a schismatic and heretic which was not true because the patriarch in question, Simon Denha IX was in full communion with Rome. He won over the local rulers against the archdeacon, even threatening military action, ordained many priests, which was quite unlawful. He impressed the people with his charm and charity and won over some communities and thus creating a division in the community. He then forced the Archdeacon to cut off all relationship with the Patriarch and threatened him that if he failed, he would appoint his nephew as the new Archdeacon. He also asked him to acknowledge the authority of the archbishop and to assist him in calling and organizing a synod of the church. The archdeacon agreed to all this because he was aware of the power of Menezes and afraid that the community would be divided. The Archdeacon wanted the proposed synod to be held at Angamaly the seat of the bishop then, but Menezes rejected the suggestion and wanted it at Udayamperur (Diamper) because it was closer to Cochin. It began on 20th June 1599. All the priests and 4 lay representatives from each parish making up a total of 153 priests (100 priests were from among the newly ordained ones by Menezes), 660 lay people, and other ecclesiastical dignitaries from Cochin were present at the synod. A profession of faith had to be made by all, in which they had to say that they "condemn, reject and anathematize the patriarch as being Nestorian, heretic and schismatic". The archdeacon and the people were indignant and protested but it went unheeded. Menezes was determined to go ahead and was not prepared for any compromise. The synod issued some 200 decrees in nine sessions dealing with almost all aspects of the Thomas Christian community. Some sample decrees Objectives of the Synod (Session I, decree I) My beloved brethren, you the venerable priests, and my most dear sons in Christ, you the representatives and procurators of the people, does it please you, that for the praise and glory of the holy and undivided Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and for the increase and exaltation of the catholic faith, and Christian religion of the inhabitants of this bishopric, and for the destruction of the heresies and errors which have been sown therein by several heretics and schismatics, and for the purging of books from the false doctrines contained in them, and for the perfect union of this church with the whole church catholic and universal, and for the yielding of obedience to the supreme bishop of Rome, the universal pastor of the church, and successor in the chair of St. Peter, and vicar of Christ upon earth, from whom you have for some time departed, and for the extirpation of simony, which has been much practised in this bishopric, and for the regulating of the administration of the holy sacraments of the church, and the necessary use of them, and for the 40

reformation of the affairs of the church and the clergy, and the customs of all the Christian people of this diocese; we should begin a diocesan synod of this bishopric of the Serra . . . Law of Thomas (Session III, decree VII) The synod is with great sorrow sensible of that heresy and perverse error, sown by the schismatics in this diocese, to the great prejudice of souls; which is, that there was one law of St. Thomas, and another of St. Peter, which made two different and distinct churches, and both immediately from Christ: and that the one had nothing to do with the other; neither did the prelate of the one owe any obedience to the prelate of the other; and that they who had followed the Law of St. Peter, had endeavoured to destroy the Law of St. Thomas . . . Many social customs of the St. Thomas Christians which they had in common with non-Christians were prohibited: For example, regarding the Onam festival (Session IX, decree IV): . . . in the feast of heathen, called Onam which is celebrated in August, in which they go out to one against another with bows and arrows, and other arms, in which conflicts some are killed, and more wounded; and some Christians, unmindful of their obligations, living among them, and communicating much with them, do go forth with them, and armed as they are to do the said feasts, and are thereby liable to the same disasters. Condemnation of heathen errors (Session II, decree IV) Belief in transmigration, fate and the possibility of salvation through other religions. The third is, that everyone may be saved in his own law; all which are good, and lead men to heaven. Now this is a manifest heresy; there being no other law upon earth in which salvation is to be found, besides that of our Saviour Christ, for that he only teacheth the truth; so that all that live in any other sect, are out of a state of salvation, and shall be condemned to hell . . . The synod led to the total Latinization of the church/liturgy - severed all relations with the EastSyrian church - Thomas Christians were brought under the authority of the Inquisition and the Portuguese Padroado Some of the changes introduced by the Synod: The sacraments were fixed as seven. The rites were changed. The Missal was corrected. The liturgy of the Eucharist of the Thomas Christians was unique in that it had no words of consecration. That was supplied from the Latin rite. The language was retained but only a skeleton of the original liturgy remained. The names of the eastern theologians/saints were removed from the breviary, and missal. All Syriac books containing Nestorian ideas were burnt. Filoque was added to the creed. All the theological doctrines were defined according to Tridentine canons, like the Trinity, incarnation, Mary, original sin, purgatory, saints, veneration of images, the church and its 41

organization, the canon of the bible etc. The rosary was recommended and also crucifixes were introduced into the church. Warned the faithful against non-Christian influence like belief in transmigration, fatalism, witchcraft, fortune telling, auspicious days, polygamy, child marriage etc. There were not to be two laws, one of Thomas and one of Peter. There is only one Christ and one vicar of Christ. So the pope is the universal pastor not the Patriarch. All the ecumenical councils of the western church were enjoined upon the Thomas Christians. Celibacy was introduced for the clergy and also a common dress. The diocese was divided into parishes. They were asked to work for the conversion of non-Christians of all castes. It was a turning point in the history of the community. It totally Latinised the church. It surely removed many abuses arising out of the ignorance of the people. It helped clarify the catholic doctrine. But it totally changed the face of an ancient church. After the synod, the archbishop undertook another visitation of the diocese to implement the decisions of the synod. This he did meticulously. A lot of books were destroyed during these journeys which could have shed a lot of light on the Thomas Christians. Before he concluded the visitation he formally appointed the archdeacon as the administrator of the diocese and he was given two priests as helpers without whose help he was not to take important decisions. Critical questions to the Synod Almost all the authors, even the most conservative, agree that the archbishop of Goa acted in a high handed and intolerant manner in changing so radically the customs and practises of an ancient church. Three questionable points: 1)

Was the Synod legitimately convoked? Had he the authority? The Pope had authorised him to appoint a vicar apostolic after the death of Mar Abraham, and not to interfere in the affairs of the church while the diocese was vacant. Still less was he authorized to convene a synod. Also questionable was the mass ordinations undertaken by him. Many canonists would say that he acted illegally. The Pope recognized the metropolitan authority of Goa over the people but that did not give him any right to the things he did. Ordination of priests was done usually at the request of the community.

2)

Was it rightly conducted? Did the people know what they were doing? Did the people have the freedom? Were they adequately consulted? Francis Roz wrote in 1603 to the General of the Jesuits: “For to tell you the entire truth, some of the canons of the above mentioned synod were added by the archbishop himself after the synod had ended. Not a single canon was discussed or altered... They heard them without understanding what was being said, as I can myself bear ample witness, as also can the other Fathers who understand the language. His excellency said many a time that the synod was intended merely to show them the way of their salvation without obstacles.”He adds that the Malayalam text was much shorter than the Portuguese. If this is true it casts a sinister light on the proceedings. The Malayalam text 42

was the official text. The Portuguese text was a special edition. It and other western editions have 35 decrees more. For example the decrees subjecting the Thomas Christians to Goan inquisition, reference to Onam festival, permission to give only Christian names etc. were only in the Portuguese text. 3)

Another objection was that it was not approved by a higher authority. There was merely a letter of congratulation from the Pope. Since it was a diocesan synod, it was perhaps not necessary. A letter was sent to Rome by the Archdeacon praising the Synod and requesting the authorities to appoint Menezes as the bishop of the Thomas Christians. One does not need much intelligence to see that someone else wrote this letter. It is unlikely that the archdeacon wrote such a letter.

Implications of the Synod The Synod was not merely a pastoral attempt to apply the decrees of the council of Trent to the church of the Thomas Christians and to purify it from Nestorianism but also a political plot to execute Portuguese hegemony over Malabar thus ensuring the monopoly of trade and commerce. It was done with a lot of show of Portuguese military power to the local rulers and to the Christians themselves threatening them with dire consequences. The archdeacon feared elimination from the scene. It was convoked by the archdeacon to give it the semblance of a traditional yogam of the Thomas Christians but it is never referred to as such. It is called a synod and it was conducted as one. But in law the legislator of a diocesan synod is the diocesan bishop and Menezes was not the bishop of the diocese nor was he the apostolic administrator. As for the application of the directives of Trent, most of the decisions had to do with Latinization and not with the content of the faith and therefore we call it Latinization rather than Catholicization. One of the aims of the synod was to purge the church of Nestorianism. The joint declaration on 11 November 1994 on Nestorianism by pope John Paul II and Patriarch Dinkha IV says that historical Nestorianism professed the same true faith as contained in the christological dogmas defined by the ecumenical councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon in spite of the theological expressions which caused misunderstandings and gave rise to mutual anathemas. Historical Nestorianism is Nestorianism as professed and explained by its adherents and its councils and synods and its theologians. Theological Nestorianism is that caricature of it found in the manual of its opponents, in the writings of outsiders, manuals of traditional theology and church history, and in council anathemas. In short Nestorianism as professed by the East Syrian church was unfairly condemned as a heresy and how far could the synod claim that it had to purge the church of Malabar from this heresy which never existed? Of course we cannot fault archbishop Menezes for not possessing the knowledge we have today after four centuries. But he lacked another piece of knowledge that at the time of the Synod, the Christians of Malabar were not even professing historical Nestorianism. They were in Catholic communion. The East Syrian Patriarch John Sulaqa had made the profession of the Catholic faith before pope Julius III in 1553 and renounced Nestorianism. But pope Pius IV left the affairs of the church in Malabar in the hands of the Patriarch and even suggested patriarch Abdisho, the successor of Sulaqa in 1565 to divide the community into two dioceses and he also wrote to the archbishop of Goa in the same year to respect the jurisdiction of the Chaldean patriarch in Malabar. So there was papal recognition of the jurisdiction of the Patriarch in Malabar. Was the archbishop of Goa 43

ignorant of this fact or was it ignored to exclude the bishops from Persia in order to facilitate Portuguese imperial designs? The first Latin bishop of the Thomas Christians Francis Roz stood for the invalidity of the Synod and conducted a synod himself in 1605 where some of the decisions of the Diamper synod were annulled. These are called the Rozian Statutes. Positively the synod was a liberation from Persian nongovernance and its consequences which lasted many centuries. The contact with the Persian church was minimal and this had adversely affected the church. Those bishops who came from Persia were figure heads and not pastors. If it were not for the synod, the dark ages of the church could have gone further. But remedy turned out to be worse that the disease. The synod has been hailed as a great achievement and condemned as a great tragedy. In between these two extremes lies perhaps the truth. It was a watershed in the history of the community but not an unmitigated evil. It paved the way for the permanent division of the community but it also removed some unhealthy practices prevalent in the community. But let us look at this Synod from a wider angle. What are some of the consequences of this synod? Ever since the publication of the proceedings of the Synod in Europe in 1606 as the Jornada of Gouvea, the faithful historian of Menezis, the idea about the Thomas Christians in the West has been that they were a group of heretical Christians and that they have been reunited with the catholic church at the synod of Diamper. That is the stand of standard church history written by Western church historians and Indian Latin church historians. But the Thomas Christians in their writings have been eager to establish their identity by attempting to free themselves from Latin control. A typically western Latin Catholic point of view and also of Latin Catholics of India, especially of Kerala is that the practices of the Thomas Christians were paganism at its worst and therefore they consider Menezes as a social reformer. Sabeena Raphy in Christian Heritage of Kerala by K.J. John says: “The decrees passed in the synod against caste system, untouchability, polygamy, bharadevata worship, slavery sorcery and the likewise were the first of its kind. Dom Menezes, convenor and chairman of the synod is to be rightly top-listed among the social reformers of Kerala.” K.M. Panikkar a secular historian says: The catholic church has sent two great men to India. St. Francis Xavier and Dom Alexis Menezes. But the Thomas Christians consider the synod a great injustice. It did not express their wish for their church. It was for them an unwarranted intrusion into the traditions of an apostolic church. They rejected the synod and the period after was marked by continuous protests, rebellions and divisions. It was an encroachment by western colonialism on the religion and social life of the native Christians. The main points of their contention: The Law of Thomas meant way and lineage of Thomas. Religion as a way of life was an ancient Christian expression and a Hindu concept but unintelligible to the Portuguese. It meant the sum total of the life of the community, social, cultural, religious, theological, liturgical, and ascetical. The synod forced them to give up this way. They were forced to accept the law of Peter which was Latin customs rather than the content of the faith. 44

The Law of Thomas had some unique features, which were typically Indian. It was an Indian model of Christianity, neither western nor Persian. In fact the expression Syrian Christians, given by the West, has veiled the true nature of this Indian Christianity. What are some of the features of this Indian model? It was a Christian republic. It was a church of the people. The bishop was only the spiritual head. Temporal administration was in the hands of the archdeacon who functioned in consultation with the people through the yogams.. The yogam was the most significant element of the Thomas Christian identity expressing a democratic worldview. In its place now statutes and rules from above were introduced. The priests were trained and ordained by and for the community. The training of priests had a lot of lay participation as it happened in the community after the model of the ancient Indian Gurukula system. They were married. The new law of celibacy radically changed the life style of the priests. In the western system, the loyalty of priests shifted from the community to the bishops. In the community there was a true unity among the priests with the eldest being the head of the community. This now changed with the appointment of a parish priest by the bishop. The power now came be to concentrated in the hands of the bishop. The archdeacon who was virtually the head of the community was now reduced to a vicar general of a Latin diocese. He resented it and this resentment had a lot to do with the revolt of the Thomas Christians against Latin rule. Living in the midst of the Hindus they had developed a unique theology of religion. They believed that the religion of their fellow citizens was able to lead them to salvation. This was condemned by the synod as a heresy. The expression Syrian Christians has obscured the specifically Indian characteristics of this community and sees them even today in a negative light. The colonial hegemonic idea that their faith was deficient and heretical has been maintained even today, even by Indian Christians. The history of the relationship between the different churches in India will clearly show this. 5. REVOLT OF THE ST. THOMAS CHRISTIANS (1653) - DIVISION There was great resentment in the Thomas Christian community toward the Portuguese and the Jesuits after the Synod of Diamper for various reasons. The first bishop to be appointed under the new dispensation was Francis Roz (1601-1624). He was highly qualified for the post because of his long acquaintance with the place and the language. He was appointed bishop of Angamaly which now was reduced to a suffragan diocese of Goa and the king of Portugal was given patronage over the diocese. When the news of the lowering of the status of their church was known, there was great protest against it. In 1608 the decision was reversed and title of archbishopric was restored to Angamaly. Another reason for the ill feeling towards the new bishop was the shifting of the headquarters of the diocese to Kodungalloor. However a more serious problem was his strained relationship with the archdeacon who was deprived of his traditional powers and was made a vicar general. Roz tried to mitigate some of the decision of the synod at a new synod called at Angamaly in 1603 and by compiling a diocesan statute book in 1606. He also undertook a pastoral visit of his diocese. But relationship between the two deteriorated. In 1609 the archdeacon was excommunicated and was denounced to the inquisition but later Roz withdrew the excommunication. Roz made everything possible to irritate the archdeacon. For example, in 1618 during his absence from the diocese he appointed the rector of the Jesuit seminary as administrator of the diocese. The archdeacon rebelled against it and gave a general ban on the Jesuits from entering the churches. The unfriendly relationship continued till Roz‟s death in 1624. Only days 45

before his death did he arrange that after his death, till another bishop is appointed, the arch deacon will be the administrator. The next bishop of the Thomas Christians was Stephen Britto SJ (1624-1641). In the beginning the relationship was good. However, the archdeacon was not happy with the Jesuits. They seemed to have foiled his plan for founding an indigenous contemplative order (The Congregation of St. Thomas the Apostle at Idappally) and prevented its approbation by Rome. Although the idea was wholeheartedly supported by the bishop later the Society of Jesus grew suspicious of the intentions of the archdeacon and it tried to suppress it at any cost. The archdeacon now began to be friendly with the Dominicans which made the Jesuits very angry. From 1630, the relationship was bad. The archdeacon died in 1640 and was succeeded by his nephew Thomas Parambil (Thomas de Campo) and the next year Britto followed him to the grave. The next bishop was Francis Garcia SJ (1641-1661) and conflict between the archdeacon and the archbishop was pre programmed. Fr. Joseph Thekkedath who has made the most extensive study of this period says: "Between the harsh and intransigent Garcia and the unscrupulous and resolute Thomas there was hardly any possibility for a reasonable and lasting compromise". In the 12 years between the accession of Garcia and the Revolt of 1653, there was almost continuous tug of war between the two. Garcia was determined to rule his archdiocese without much help from the archdeacon. The Archdeacon was determined to maintain his traditional rights. The quarrel reached such a situation that in 1645 the viceroy of Cochin had to mediate a compromise. The archdeacon now decided to ignore the Archbishop altogether and get help from Rome and wrote letters to Rome saying that he is not given his powers by the Jesuits but no reply came. In 1648-49 he wrote to the eastern Patriarchs in communion with Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and the Nestorian patriarch of Babylon asking for a bishop. 1652: Arrival of Mar Ahatallah (Atallah) As a response to the letters of the Archdeacon in 1652, Mar Ahatallah, a metropolitan of the SyroAntiochean Patriarchate, who had passed over to the Catholic church in 1631 arrived in Goa. Since the Portuguese authorities were suspicious of the orthodoxy of all who came from West Asia, he was at once caught and interned at the Jesuit college at Mylapore and was waiting to be handed over to the inquisition. There were three minor clerics from Malabar at that time in Mylapore and he sent a letter through them to the archdeacon that he was Ignatius, Patriarch of the whole of India and China, sent by the Pope. It is clear that he was a bishop in communion with Rome. It was unlikely that he had been sent by the pope. The archdeacon published this news far and wide. At a general yogam at Udayamperur it was decided to bring him to Malabar. Archbishop Garcia said that without the permission of the king of Portugal he would not allow it. The people rose up against him calling the Jesuits schismatics, who rebelled against the Pope himself. Meanwhile the news spread that the ship carrying Ahatallah was on the way to Goa to hand him over to the inquisition. Thomas and a large number of Christians went to Mattancherry to meet him. Garcia moved against all attempts of the Christians to come into contact with the bishop and the captain of the ship fearing the worst did not even touch Cochin. At this a rumour was spread that Ahatallah was drowned by the Portuguese. Their anger knew no bounds. They issued a warning to Garcia to come and meet them. Otherwise they would not regard him as their pastor and would choose another one. Garcia refused. 46

On 3rd January 1653 priests and people assembled at the church of Our Lady at Mattancherry and took a solemn vow in front of a crucifix, lighted candle, and the gospel, renouncing their allegiance to the archbishop and the Jesuits and a month later they elected the archdeacon as the governor of the archdiocese with four counsellors. This is the famous Koonan Cross Oath (referring to the open air Cross which stands outside the church at Mattancherry). It was not a revolt against the pope but the Jesuit bishops. It is clear from the manifesto they issued stating that they rejected Garcia and the Jesuits because they disobeyed the pope and removed from them the patriarch sent by the pope. The priests and the people also wrote to the captain of Kochi that they were ready to accept any religious as bishop sent by the pope provided he knew Syriac and was not a Jesuit. On 22nd May 1653 Archdeacon Thomas was ordained bishop by 12 priests on the strength of a letter claimed to have been written by Ahatallah. It was a forgery produced by one of the priests of the Thomas Christians, Angilimootil Ittithomman. The people believed it although the ordination was clearly invalid. He took the name Mar Thoma I. The Goan authorities were unable to do anything. Rome was asked to intervene. It sent some Carmelites to the secene. In 1657 Joseph of St. Mary (Sebastiani), an Italian Carmelite reached Kerala with three companions. They with the help of some priests managed to convince a considerable number of communities that Thomas the archdeacon was not a legitimate bishop. At the death of Francis Garcia in 1659 Sebastiani was appointed bishop of the Thomas Christians. Several communities submitted to him but the archdeacon remained rebellious with the backing of some communities. In 1663 Kochi fell to the Dutch. Sebastiani was ordered to leave Kerala as the Dutch were anti Catholic. Before he left he consecrated Alexander (Chandy) Parambil, the cousin of the archdeacon as Vicar apostolic of the archdiocese of Angamaly. He is the first indigenous bishop of the Thomas Christian community and remained so till 1687. Thomas and Alexander were related but belonged to two opposing camps. Thomas was slowly losing support as many were convinced of the fact that his ordination was invalid. He himself was willing to make an honourable come back. In fact he had entered into negotiations with Alexander with the help of some Jesuits. At that time he heard that Mar Gregory, a bishop sent by the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch had arrived at Kozhikode (1665). Thomas threw all intentions to come back to the wind and welcomed him and told the people that he was sent by the Pope. Cathenar Ittithomman produced another forged letter to support this claim. Mar Thoma I hoped to get a valid episcopal ordination from him. Thus the Monophysite faith of the Jacobite church was subtly introduced into Kerala and also the Antiochian rite. Some of the customs abolished by the synod of Diamper were reintroduced. So the people believed him. The Jacobite church of India considers him a saint, one of the founders of the church, together with Mar Thomas I. They consider them the restorers of the true faith although it is not sure even today whether Mar Thoma I ever received valid episcopal ordination. Gregory died in 1671. Thomas died in 1673 and was succeeded by his nephew under the name Mar Thomas II. In 1680 Mar Thoma II tried a reunion but it was not successful, thwarted by Alexander. Thus the division of the Thomas Christians into Catholic and Jacobite was now complete and permanent. Causes of the Revolt of 1653

47

1. The main cause of the revolt can be traced to the Synod of Diamper of 1599. It severed the longstanding relationship with the Persian church to which the people had tremendous attachment. The missionaries underestimated the attachment of the people to Chaldean bishops. The imposition of Latin bishops was not liked by them. Arbitrary changes were made in their liturgy and their traditional way of life was changed. 2. Imprudence and tactlessness of the Jesuit bishops. It was but natural that most of the odium of the new and unwanted arrangements should fall on the Jesuits and their archbishops. They were not liked because they supported the Latinization process, were instrumental in keeping away Persian bishops, tampered with the rights of the Archdeacon. Then any imprudence on their part would aggravate the situation. Such acts of imprudence were unfortunately not lacking. The Jesuits also kept away other religious. Not that the others were better. The Jesuits were comparatively better. But the rigorous exclusion of others left little room for the Archdeacon and the community and created considerable ill feeling. 3. The character of Garcia and archdeacon Thomas played an important role in bringing about the rebellion. 4. The immediate cause of the rebellion, however, was the arrival of the Ahatallah. Thus the division was not due to any doctrinal conflict but was the result of clash of personalities and questions of personal prestige. The communities considered themselves parts of the same community. Churches were shared, families maintained their relationships with each other, crossed over to the other side when and where it suited them. There were attempts at reunion like the one by Mar Thoma I in 1665, Mar Thomas II in 1680, Dionysius I in 1799, who in fact, was reunited for a brief period but after six months returned to the Jacobite church. The Thomas Christians in subsequent centuries 1. The Roman Catholic Faction Alexander Parambil remained as bishop of the Thomas Christians till 1687. Instead of appointing a native, they appointed a Portuguese born in Cochin, Raphael Figueredo Salgado because the Carmelites did not want a native a bishop. The new bishop was such an incompetent man that Rome dismissed him in 1694. The next bishop of the Thomas Christians came in 1701, the Carmelite Angelo Francis who was appointed by Rome as the vicar apostolic of Malabar. The Carmelites effectively ruled Malabar till 1887 with their centre at Varappuzha. This effectively brought the conflict between the Padroado and Propaganda (Portuguese authority and the authority of the pope) into India. As the Padroado bishops of Kodungalloor and Kochi refused to ordain Angelo Francis, they approached a Chaldean bishop Mar Simon who arrived in Kerala in 1701 to ordain him. However, after that he was not allowed to perform any ministry in Kerala and was kept under house arrest in Pondicherry till his death in 1720. The Padorado-Propaganda conflict and the resulting enmity between the Jesuits (Padroado party) and the Carmelites (Propapganda party) made life difficult for the community. 1708 another bishop from Persia, Mar Gabriel arrived in Kerala and some people accepted him. Because of the opposition of the Carmelite missionaries, they later joined the Jacobites. Unhappy with the Carmelites, the people decided to send a delegation to Rome under the leadership of two priests, Joseph Kariattil and Thomas Pareamakkal in 1778. One of their concerns was also to take the desire for reunion by the Jacobite bishop Dionysius I to Rome. They 48

wanted to inform the authorities in Lisbon and Rome about the problems in their church and wanted to request for bishops from their own community. In Rome Kariattil was appointed archbishop of the community. However, he died in Goa in 1787 on his way back to Kerala. Thomas was appointed the administrator of the diocese. In 1787 at a meeting held at Angamaly the people wanted him to be appointed bishop of the community. This was not granted. He died in 1799. Thus the desire for a bishop of their own was not fulfilled in the 18th century. Thomas‟ travel narrative Varthamanapusthakam is the first of its kind in an Indian language. The persecution by Tippu Sultan (1790) destroyed many communities and many were forcibly converted. The efforts to obtain bishops from the community bore fruit only 1896, although already in 1886, the double jurisdiction in the community was abolished at the creation of the Indian hierarchy by pope Leo XIII. One of the important events in the 19th century was the beginning of the Syrian Carmelite order in 1831 which later became the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI). Its founder Kuriakose Elias Chavara was a very influential ecclesiastical personality of the 19th century Kerala. Towards end of the 19th century, there arrived two more bishops from the Chaldean Patriarchate Mar Rokos and Mar Mellus whose activities created further divisions in the community. The communities that accepted them were forced to separate from the Catholic church and they continue till today as the Church of the East (Nestorian) with their headquarters in Trissur, Kerala. 2. The Jacobite Faction The first division in the church took place in 1772 when a group of people separated themselves from the community and called themselves the Malabar Independent Syrian Church. It is confined to Kunnamkulam in Kerala and has about 10000 faithful. The Mar Thoma Syrian church originated as a result of the activities of the British missionaries from the London Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society in Kerala. They began their work among the Jacobites and decided to effect reforms in the church. However, there was opposition to the move and at the Synod of Mavelikara of 1836 it rejected the undue interference of Protestant missionaries in the affairs of the church and decided to follow their own old traditions. They had no reason to trust that the British would be better than the Portuguese two centuries before. That led to a division within the church, between the conservatives and the progressives. One of the priests from the progressive section, Abraham Malpan still wanted to effect some reforms in the Jacobite church. He wanted to reform the liturgy and in fact produced a reformed liturgy. He was banned by the bishop. So he wanted to get a bishop for his own group. He sent his nephew Matthew to Antioch. There he was ordained bishop in 1842 and returned to Kerala in 1843. This led to the conflict with the legitimate bishop and led to the excommunication of the new bishop in 1875. The conflict ended with a court judgment in 1889 in favour of the mother church and it may be considered the founding year of the Mar Thoma Syrian church. In 1961 a group of people separated themselves from the Mar Thomas Syrian church and founded the St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India. In 1971 this group split into two with the formation of the St. Thomas Evangelical Fellowship of India. The next division within the Jacobite church took place in 1912. A group of Jacobite Christians did not want the control of the Anthiochian patriarch in all matters of the church in Kerala, especially in the finances and they founded a Catholicate in Kerala independently of the Patriarch of Antioch in 1912 leading to the division within the church. In 1934 it adopted the name Orthodox Syrian Church. Thus there arose the division between the Bishop’ party and the Patriarch’s party. The 49

Patriarch‟s party called itself the Syrian Orthodox Church. It was from the Bishop‟s Party that in 1930 a group was reunited with the Catholic church, which became the Syro-Malankara church. The conflict between the two groups led to prolonged litigation. In 1958 the two churches came together but in 1975 they were separated once again. In spite of several court verdicts including that of the Supreme Court, the conflict continues unabated even today. 6. THE SPREAD OF THE LATIN CHURCH FROM THE 17th TO THE 19th CENTURIES In the 17th century the Mughal emperors held dominion in India. Akbar had established this dominion by the time of his death (1605) and by 1690 the whole of India except the South was under the three Mughal emperors - Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzib and then the Mughal empire declined. The rise of Sikh militancy under Guru Govind Singh (d. 1708). The rise of the Marathas under Shivaji (d. 1680) and his successors Into this situation came new European powers The Dutch - centre at Pulicat, - Quilon, Cranganore, Cochin; English - Agra, Surat, Ahmedabad, Bombay, Madras, Hoogly; Calcutta The Danes , Serampore, Tranquebar French - Surat, Pondicherry Taken as a whole, the European presence in India consisted of a few trading centres. But slowly one of these powers, Britain, captured political power in India and colonized it till 1947. As a result, for the first time India was confronted with a culture totally different from its own, in an all pervasive way. There had been trade between Europe and India since time immemorial but very little exchange of culture. This happened with the ascent to power of Britain in India. The reason for the British ascent to power was: the Mughal rulers had no worthy successors in the 18th century. The Marathas had no worthy successors to Shivaji. In 1738 Nadir Shah from Afghanistan attacked India and the Deccan and Bengal became practically independent. In 1759 Ahmad Shah from Afghanistan attacked India and in 1761 at the battle of Panipat defeated the Marathas. This brought home to the English the message that there was no Indian power that could stop it. So after completing the conquest of the South from the French, the English turned their attention to the North, especially, the richest of all provinces, Bengal. At the battles of Plassey, 1757 and Buxar, 1764 Bengal was taken and from then on they began to dethrone local rulers and captures territories. Thus the East India Company which came for trade became rulers of millions of people. Religious policy of the British In the beginning, they practised strict neutrality, not because they were less pious. They had chaplains to take care of the needs of the British. But theirs was not a missionary movement. No active mission in India was allowed nor interference in the religion and culture of the people. On the contrary, they had the commission to protect the religions and institutions of the natives.

50

The Spread of Christian communities 1. Kerala The Latin Christian communities lived along the coastal areas. Some important centres were Kannur, Thalassery, Mahe, Kochi, Kollam and southward along the Travancore coast. Arthungal, Purakkad were two other important centres. They belonged to the diocese of Kochi, the second most ancient Latin diocese in India (1558). They belonged to three social groups: the fisher folk of Malabar, a mixed group of other castes, and the topazes, ie Europeans of Portuguese descent. A number of nayars also seemed to have received baptism in Kollam and Kochi. The ecclesiastical life of the Christians was influenced by European customs brought by the Portuguese. The clergy largely belonged to the topazes. The Oriental and Latin Christians had very little social contact and the relationship between them was marked by strong communal feelings. 2. Tamil Nadu The church in Tamilnadu today has its origin in the colonial mission inaugurated by the Portuguese. At the Pearl Fishery Coast, as a result of the consolidation of the community by Francis Xavier, and his successor Henry Henriques, there was a flourishing Christian community by the middle of the 16th century. But in the 17th century, quarrel between the bishop of Cochin and the Jesuits; attacks by neighbouring rulers (Madurai); civil war within the community from 1623-25; Dutch control from 1658 who were anti-Catholic, etc., disturbed the community violently. There were Christian communities in the coastal areas of Kanyakumari district, coastal areas of Thanjavur, South Arcot districts like Nagapattinam, Tranquebar, Cuddalore, Pondicherry, San Thomé ( Mylapore), Madras, etc. The Madurai Mission and Robert de Nobili One of the famous examples of Jesuit missionary experimentation in the 17th century in Asia was the Madurai mission of Robert de Nobili. The Jesuits were there in since 1595. Goncalo Fernandez, a Jesuit priest lived in Madurai looking after a few paravar Christians and some Portuguese Christians. He was a good man but a typical Portuguese who believed in the superiority of the Europeans. He never understood why the Hindus called the Portuguese (Christians) Parangis, a title associated with the lowest level of pollution and degradation. They were considered outcastes. This had to be changed and the man who realized this vision was Robert de Nobili, nephew of Robert Bellarmine, an aristocratic Italian Jesuit. De Nobili and other Jesuits to the East like Matteo Ricci, Alexander Rhodes, and several others brought a new way of understanding the church. They were all champions of the need to learn and understand Asian cultures. They became experts in the local language. Some of them wrote valuable classics in those languages. All initiated a policy of dialogue as they understood it at that time. De Nobili arrived in India in 1606. He realized that as long as he identified himself with the Portuguese and the low castes, there was no chance of any contact with the higher castes. If 51

Christianity had to be present at the heart of the Hindu world, its representatives had to accept the cultural conditions that the place demanded. So he set out to work accordingly. De Nobili‟s activities can be divided into four phases. 1. 1606 - 1610 Beginning 2. 1610 - 1623 Controversy 3. 1623 - 1645 Extension of mission 4. 1645 - 1656 Last years 1. First Phase After mastering the Tamil language in seven months, by the end of 1606 he moved to Madurai and began a career marked by originality surpassed by no one before him. He realized that the reasons for the lack of success among the Hindus was that they had contempt for the Portuguese and the Christians who associated themselves with them. The reason for this was that almost everything the Christians did was objectionable to the Hindus, leather shoes, eating with knife and fork, drinking wine, eating meat (beef) etc. De Nobili decided that all these must stop. He left the mission of his fellow Jesuit, built a mud house in the brahmin quarter of Madurai, began living like a sanyasi - in food, dress, customs and habits; he wore a long robe, put on sandals, ate only rice and vegetables cooked by a brahmin, and refused to mingle with the lower castes including the Christians of Madurai. He just became a brahmin. His small hermitage became an ashram. He also taught himself Sanskrit. Eventually he convinced some of his companions to follow the same way of life. He aimed at a cultural pluralism within the church. His next problem was to see which social customs were tenable with the Christian life. How could one become a Christian without jeopardizing his/her social position, caste. etc Practices like sandal paste on the forehead, long hair (kudumi) ceremonial bath, punl (the thread of the twice born), tli at the marriage etc., were declared harmless social customs. These practices were Christianized with Christian prayers, blessings etc. Their marriage ceremonies, funeral ceremonies, the Pongal feast etc. too, were Christianised. Christian hymns were composed for the occasion. In 1607 the first (conversions took place and from then on, a few every year. He proved to them that to become a Christian did not mean giving up their caste or becoming outcastes. He also brought home to them that conversion does not bring any material gain. He also allowed the separation of the low caste from the high caste in the church. He himself did not mingle with the low caste Christians. 2. Second Phase 1610-1623 Opposition was the most natural reaction. The first one came from Fr. Fernandes who objected to the concessions he made to the higher castes and the separation of the lower castes from the higher castes. He wrote to the General of the Jesuits that in his conversation with some of the converts, de Nobili did not mention the name of Jesus Christ even once. The Franciscans said that he had become a Hindu. So also felt the bishop of Cochin. The brahmins of Madurai saw him as an intruder. Some converts rebelled because of a rumour that by putting salt in the mouth during baptism they lost their caste. Besides they also came to know that they were fellow Christians of the 52

Parangis and that de Nobili had contact with low caste Christians. They accused him of lying. His fellow priests rebelled because they could not adapt to the rigorous way of life. From 1610-16 he was badly calumniated and was not allowed to baptize. De Nobili defended himself by publishing his famous manifesto. He wrote to Pope Paul V in 1619 in defence of his move. Rome ordered an inquiry and a meeting and de Nobili had to appear before the Inquisition in Goa in 1619. As could be expected, except the Jesuits all were prejudiced against him from the beginning. However, the Grand inquisitor decided in his favour, and basing on this report, the Pope Gregory XV approved De Nobili‟s methods in 1623 in his brief Romanae Sedis. “Taking into consideration human weakness in as much as it is permissible without sin and without scandal, desirous to favour the conversion of these peoples, who do not wish to give up the tuft of hair, the cord, the baths, the sandal, by which are indicated their nobility, caste and office, after diligent study and discussion, after having heard the opinion of various cardinals, till we decide otherwise, by our apostolic authority, we allow to brahmins and others to be converted the use of the cord, and the tuft of hair, which serve to distinguish the various castes, and are a sign of nobility and social standing and office. Further the sandal, which is an ornament of the body, is permitted, and so are the baths, for health and cleanliness.” 3. Third phase 1623-1645 This was a period of extension. He now realized that he had to go out of Madurai and spread the faith. He travelled far wide, to Tiruchirappalli, Selam, Sendamangalam, Moramangalam etc. As usual he did not like to associate himself with the low castes. There were at the same time a lot of people wanting baptism. His companion Emmanuel Martin found a way out, baptizing them at night. But this arrangement of high caste mission during the day and low caste mission during the night would not work. Another solution had to be found. The institution of the Pandaraswamis was the answer. They were priests who observed less severe asceticism and who would observe not so rigid rules like the sanyasis. They could move among the people of the lower castes as the sanyasis could not do that. They were not Sanskrit scholars, not so strict vegetarians, not expected to fast every day. They became more popular. They did excellent work. Beschi, Britto etc. belonged to this group. The number of brahmins converted in the area in the 45 years De Nobili was active might have been a few hundred. The Pandaraswamis baptized about 40,000. Fourth Phase 1645-1665: By 1644, he was not able to work and became blind. In 1645 he was sent to Jaffna and then to Mylapore. He died there in 1656. During these years he had to endure much suffering, hostility, and cruelty. Removal from Madurai to Jaffna was a cruelty at the age of 70. From there after three years he was ordered to move to Mylapore. The vow of obedience of the Jesuits always prevailed and he obeyed. No record of the place of his burial has been preserved. De Nobili was perhaps the greatest missionary of his time. His principles of mission were: 1.

Adaptation to the life of the people by the missionary.

2.

Adaptation of harmless customs and practices and ceremonies. He was ready to go to any extent as far as these were concerned. But he never compromised on faith. The Tridentine theology and counter reformation piety marked his faith. However, the adventurous path he 53

chose calls for admiration which makes him a great figure in the history of adaptation. He wanted to make people Christians without making them less Indians. Considering the spirit of his time this was a revolution. 3.

Study of languages. He said Christianity should be Indian in its language, and therefore coined words for theology and translated the names of the saints into Tamil. The Christian message must become incarnate in Tamil. De Nobili was a master of Tamil and Sanskrit. His contributions to Tamil literature are prodigious.

But he was a child of his time too. Essentially he was a controversialist and an evangelist. All the doctrines of the non-Christians were considered delusions, their gods were devils, there was no salvation in them. There was only one system of truth, the Christian system and all should accept it. One serious criticism that is still levelled against him is his adaptation to the caste system and that in this way he perpetuated the caste system in the church. According to his critics, the basic question was not how many brahmins were converted but whether Christianity was a religion for all. In a way that was de Nobili‟s argument too, that Christianity was not be a religion of the dalits but of all social classes, without loss of their social identity. He is accused of having compromised the essential character of the Christian faith, which is the equality of all human beings before God. De Nobili never denied the dignity and equality of all human beings. But he also affirmed the dignity of every culture and its right to exist, though after correcting the evils that have crept into it. He treated caste, perhaps too lightly, as a social arrangement. He thought that what was not according to the Gospel in this social structure would change under the impact of Christian faith as lived by the community. Malabar Rites Controversy The story of de Nobili is incomplete without mention of the Malabar Rites controversy. It has nothing to do with the St. Thomas Christians of Malabar but is related to the adaptation and accommodation practices permitted by de Nobili and the Jesuit missionaries to the converts of the then Jesuit Province of Malabar (Madurai) which comprised the whole of India during the first half of the 18th century. The Rites were each of the local practices which were adapted by de Nobili and his successors and the local converts. They were widely practised also by the Jesuits in Mysore and the Carnatic mission. De Nobili had thought that the question about the adaptation of Hindu social customs had been settled by Pope Gregory XV in 1623. That was not to be. It was to surface a century later under the name The Malabar Rites controversy. There were three independent causes for this: 1.

A similar dispute was going on in China where other religious congregations rallied against the accommodation practices of Matteo Ricci and were complaining to Rome.

2.

The Spirit of the counter reformation in Europe had produced a spirit of conservatism in Rome, and intolerance towards other cultures and religions.

3.

Hostility of the civil and religious authorities in India towards the Jesuits.

It began in Pondicherry. The Capuchins drew up a list of 36 objectionable practices by the Jesuits (Questions proposed to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda on the pagan ceremonies which 54

certain missionaries allow the Malabar Christians) and submitted the list to the Propaganda in 1703. Rome found it the appropriate moment to take action. It was contemplating action against the Jesuits in China where the Chinese Rites controversy had irrupted and thought of tackling both the problems together. The Rites in question were: The sacred thread blessed by the priest, from which a cross or a medal was hung; marks painted with sandal paste on the forehead, the bust and the upper arms, and later on also with ashes, all blessed by a priest; baths as symbol of inner purification; tuft of hair for men; the use of the tali for married women, i.e., a string of beads to which was attached a cross or a medal, whereas the Hindus had a picture of a deity; omitting the use of saliva and of insufflation (the latter was, however, done in private) during baptism. Charles Thomas Maillard de Tournon (a Piedmontese aristocrat) was appointed legate of the Pope Clement XI to the East Indies. He was only 33 years of age and lacked both the patience and the diplomacy of a legate. He was also of imperious character. In 1703 he arrived at Pondicherry and remained there for a year. He drew up a list of 16 practices and ordered their prohibition thus reversing the decision of the pope in 1623 and at every point making judgements against the Jesuits. Some of these rites mentioned by him were never practised. The Jesuits felt that if they followed the directions they would not be able to do any work there. They petitioned the Pope with some success. They were told that if some points in the decree were in conscience contrary to the greater glory of God they could omit them. This was interpreted quite liberally and some missionaries went on as usual. But this was challenged by their opponents and the quarrel went on for 40 years. In 1744 in the bull Ommium Sollicitudinum Benedict XIV who was not very favourable to the Jesuits made his decision, agreeing with the recommendations of the legate. The Jesuits had to submit because it was said that if not executed immediately, completely and forever, they would be excommunicated. All the missionaries of Madurai and Canara had to take an oath. It caused widespread distress in the missions. Some seem to have apostatized. With the suppression of the society of Jesus in 1773 the communities completely languished. It was abolished only in 1940 by Pius XII. “Rome had now put the clock back by a thousand years. Matthew Ricci and Robert De Nobili had made bold, and at certain points undoubtedly imprudent, experiments in adapting the divine seed to the recalcitrant soils of non-Christian worlds. Instead of commending their zeal and gently restraining their extravagances, Rome had declared that everything must be done after the high Roman fashion, that there must be no variation and no experiment.” (Stephen Neill) One of the famous missionaries of the Madurai mission was the martyr John de Britto who played a leading role in attracting the people of Ramnad to Christianity. He had been persecuted and expelled several times but in 1693 he was executed at Oriyur. Joseph Constantius Beschi was an Italian who came to the mission in 1707. He mastered the Tamil language like no other foreigner and composed many hymns and poems. His famous epic Tembavani is a classic of Tamil literature. Martyrs were not lacking also in the 18th century. The story of Neelakandan who became Devasahayam Pillai and died for his faith in 1752 at Aralvaimozhi about 12 kilometres from 55

Nagercoil fascinates the people of the place even today. The Devasahayam Nataham continues to hold the village people in thrall. Catholic communities were established also in the interior of Tamil Nadu: Tiruchirapalli and central Tamil Nadu; the kingdom of Thanjavur; the Northwestern regions like Coimbatore, Satyamangalam, Dharmapuri, Salem; Gingee and Arcot regions; the kingdom of Ramnad or Marava country (where John de Britto suffered martyrdom in 1693); southern Tamil Nadu like Tirunelveli etc. Pondicherry and Karaikal which were under French control were also evangelized during this period. 3. Karnataka In the coastal regions of Karnataka, Mangalore, Honavar, and Kundapur had large Christian communities by 1600, great majority of whom were emigrants from Goa. The Portuguese captured Mangalore in 1568 and that led to the founding of the church there and in the neighbouring areas, the so-called Kanara coast. It was not an indigenous church. Majority of the Christians were emigrants from Goa. The reasons for their arrival were famines, epidemics, attacks by unfriendly neighbours like the Marathas, the Bijapur Sultan, the Dutch etc., and the inquisition of Goa and its rigorous policies. Many newly converted people in Goa wanted to continue with some of the social customs but the inquisition viewed this with suspicion. So they migrated to Mangalore. The local converts, if any, came from the lower castes. The church progressed so much that in 1674 a separate Vicariate of Kanara was erected but the bishop could not function because of the opposition from Goan authorities. If the Goans had migrated to escape persecution, their successors would be sorely disappointed. In 1784 Tippu Sultan inflicted severe sufferings on these Christians. In the Anglo-Mysore wars Tippu suspected that the Christians sided with the British. In the ensuing persecutions some 80,000 Christians were compulsorily resettled in Srirangapatnam. Many were forcibly converted to Islam. In southern Karnataka, the centre of activity was the kingdom of Mysore where Christianity was brought in 1649 by an Italian Jesuit Leonard Cinnami who followed the adaptation methods of de Nobili. Tippu Sultan's anti-Christian policies stagnated the church here in the second half of the 18th century. In northern Karnataka there were communities in places like Karwar, Ankola, Raichur etc. 4. Andhra Pradesh The first Christian presence in Andhrapradesh began in 1530 when a Franciscan priest, Luis de Salvador was sent to Vijayanagar as ambassador of the Portuguese. As a missionary he was not successful. In 1559 two Jesuits obtained permission from the raja of Chandragiri to do missionary work there but after sixty six years the Jesuits left after having baptized 12 adults. The first successful attempt to bring Christianity to Andhra Pradesh was made by the Augustinians and Theatines form 1640 in the Kingdom of Golconda in Masulipattnam and Bimlipatnam. Other centres were Vishakapatnam and Srikakulam. Altogether they had around 400 Christians. In the 18th century, the initiatives of the Jesuits of Pondicherry were responsible for the spread of Catholicism in to the rest of Andhra Pradesh (Carnatic Mission). The faith spread among the respected castes, including some members of the Reddy and Kamma castes. They too followed the adaptation methods of de Nobili successfully. By the end of the 18th century, the present districts of Chitoor, Anantapur, Cuddapah, Nellore, Kurnool, Ongole and Guntur had Christians but the number was not large. 56

5. Western India Goa was almost totally Christian by 1600, with only 20,000 Hindus remaining on the island out of a total population of 150,000. It was a purely Portuguese Church with Portuguese as the language because Konkani was suppressed in 1684. The organization of the church in the Portuguese territories was after the Portuguese model. The archbishop of Goa was the supreme ecclesiastical authority. The Provincial Councils of Goa in 1567, 1575,1585, 1592, and 1606 regulated ecclesiastical life according to the directives of the Council of Trent. Administration was in the hands of the Portuguese. There were plenty of native clergy but they were kept subordinate to Portuguese clergy. The Inquisition of Goa established in 1560 took care of preserving the purity of faith in the entire East. North of Goa, there was an important nucleus of localities where the Portuguese installed themselves. First there was the fort of Chaul, in Ratnagiri district. Eventually they were reabsorbed into their old religion. Farther north there were the settlements around the present-day city of Mumbai: the islands they called Salsette and Bombay and the fort of Vasai (Bassein). Still farther north on the Gujarat coast were the townships of Daman and the island of Diu. Vasai remains important to this day, especially because many of its considerable Christian population migrated to Bombay and formed there one of the most numerous and important Christian communities in the country. The flourishing Christian community of Mumbai extended to Pune and other nearby cities, like Surat and Ahmedabad. Padroado-Propaganda Conflict (Conflict between Portugal and Rome) A conflict that lasted 500 years. Padroado means patronage rights granted to Portugal by Popes Eugene IV in 1443; Nicholas V in 1452 and 1455 and Sixtus VI in 1481. The kings of Portugal wanted Papal approval for their enterprises overseas. The Popes were glad to give it provided they also undertook evangelization because the secular rulers had greater resources than they had. Thus, there began an arrangement of convenience. In 1443 Pope Eugene IV transferred to Prince Henry the Navigator the right of patronage to all the conquests and discoveries which had been made or which were to be made in Africa and the East. In 1452, Pope Nicholas V gave the king of Portugal and his successors full authority to invade, subdue and subject all kingdoms and territories of the unbelievers, and to reduce these people to perpetual subjection as a sign of triumph of the Catholic faith over its enemies through the might of the king of Portugal. In 1455, the same Pope authorized the king to found in all the provinces conquered or yet to be conquered, churches, monasteries, and other place of pious usage, and to appoint ecclesiastical persons to these places. The Pope also appointed the king of Portugal his vicar for the whole region of the east, with almost unlimited jurisdictional powers. 1481 Pope Sixtus IV summed up all these privileges in the following words: Navigation in the oceans of recent discovery is restricted to Portuguese ships; the Portuguese are the true lords of the lands discovered and yet to be discovered; the Portuguese may freely trade with unbelievers; the Portuguese crown may found and erect churches and other places of pious usage; spiritual power and authority in all the conquered territories belong to Portugal in perpetuity; it may nominate bishops and other ecclesiastical personnel; it has the duty to maintain the institutions of the church 57

Armed with these powers, the Portuguese arrived in India. They were determined to safeguard these rights at any cost. They also tried to do whatever possible to evangelize the people. Shortly after 1600, it became clear that Portuguese missionary enterprise was exhausting itself. It was not capable of fulfilling the responsibilities enshrined in the Padroado. Rome decided to act. On 6 th January 1622, Pope Gregory XV called into existence the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide) so that all the religious and also other countries could be called to do missionary work. This naturally brought Rome into conflict with the Padroado, because Portugal stubbornly refused to yield its rights although it was not able to do much work. However, the Papacy wanted to assert its power and to show that it was serious about missionary activity. Therefore, the present conflict was a conflict between two structures of government in the church. These structures did not originate with the Indian church but affected them indirectly. Instead of directly interfering in the Portuguese prerogative, the Propaganda tried to work indirectly through the institution of Vicars Apostolic. These were titular bishops directly responsible to the Pope. The propaganda erected vicariates in territories outside Portuguese control and sent them there. Portuguese protested saying that the whole of the East was under their control and refused to accept any document from them without the royal placet since the king was the patron of missionary activity in India. This led to conflict. Rome also wanted by this measure to bring up a native episcopate. The first Indian vicar apostolic of the Propaganda was Matthew de Castro, a brahmin convert born near Goa 1594/1604. He wanted to become a priest but the archbishop of Goa refused to accept him saying that he would not ordain brahmins. In 1625 he reached Rome and the Propaganda was happy to welcome him. He was asked to study philosophy and theology and was ordained in 1629. In 1633 he reached Goa. The authorities refused to accept his documents, saying that they were forged. They simply could not understand how a brahmin could become a priest with so many degrees and faculties. It was pure prejudice. Since he was not allowed to work there he returned to Rome in 1635 and Rome erected the vicariate apostolic of Bijapur in 1637 and consecrated him bishop and appointed him vicar apostolic there. In 1638 he left Rome but the archbishop of Goa refused to give him any help and made life difficult for him. In 1643 he left for Rome a third time and returned in 1651. By this time everyone had turned against him. In 1658 he left for Rome for the last time. He died there in 1677. Rome tried to maintain this institution of native vicars apostolic in India. In 1669 Custodio de Pinho, was appointed successor to Matheo de Castro but soon after that the Marathas destroyed the mission. In 1696 it was handed over to the Carmelites, renamed the Vicariate of the Great Mughal and later the vicariate of Bombay. Earlier in 1663 Alexander Parampil was appointed vicar apostolic in Kerala for the Thomas Christians as an emergency measure because of the rejection of the Padroado authority by the people. In 1674 the Vicariate of Canara was erected with Thomas de Castro as its bishop. All these experiments lasted only for a short time. Thus both the aims of creating a native episcopate and of coordinating missionary activity in India bypassing Portugal were not achieved because of the opposition from the Padroado. In 1672 the king of Portugal ordered the viceroy of Goa to seize any bishop or missionary sent by the Propaganda and to send him back. Meanwhile the Padroado dioceses (Goa, Cranganore, Cochin, Mylapore) declined further. The suppression of the Jesuit in 1773 dealt a deadly blow to the Indian mission. In 1832, 58

Portugal expelled all the religious from its territories. The dioceses remained without bishops for long periods. Rome decided to act under an energetic Pope Gregory XVI (1765-1846). Between 1834-36 Gregory created four new vicariates: Madras, Calcutta, Pondicherry, Madurai. The Portuguese saw this as an infringement upon the Padroado rights. The newly appointed bishops could do no work because they were seen as intruders both by clergy and laity. In 1838, Pope Gregory acted a second time through his famous apostolic letter Multa praeclare. He dissolved the Padroado dioceses of Cochin, Cranganore, and Mylapore and affirmed that he had full jurisdiction over all the churches in India and the vicars apostolic had full power over the Catholics in their territories. The power of the archbishop of Goa was curtailed to a great extent. he had no suffragan dioceses. The Padroado declared the document as a forgery because it had no royal placet and rejected it. That was the beginning of the so-clled Goan Schism. The Padroado clergy under the leadership of the archbishop of Goa refused to accept this arrangement. The archbishop issued a letter asking his priests to reject it. The result was a scandal. The place most affected was Bombay. Bombay had many Goan Christians who had Padroado sympathies. The archbishop of Goa had never recognized the Vicar Apostolic of Bombay. The most notorious incident was the siege of St Michaels church in Mahim and the construction of a second church. A reconciliation took place In 1857, and a Concordat was signed in which Rome had to give in in many respects. The Padroado rights were restored and the Propaganda rights were curtailed. Portugal even managed to obtain the right to found additional Padroado dioceses. It was only under Leo XIII that a new concordat was signed in 1886 which practically ended the age old rights of Portugal to exercise a free hand in the appointment of bishops in India. He reorganized the Indian church and created the Indian hierarchy. But it was only in 1953 that Portugal renounced its right to appoint bishops except in Goa. The period between1838-1857 is called the Goan Schism. Both Padroado and Propaganda were responsible for it. The Padroado complained that they were not informed in the proper way and that they never had the intention of separating from Rome. This may be true. Portugal had broken off diplomatic relations with Rome and thus communication with Portugal had been broken. Portugal had also expelled all the religions from its territories. It was effective in Goa from 1835. So the religious were angry against the Padroado. And Rome relied on the Religious for information and vicars apostolic were mostly from religious orders. In any case it was a scandal. It caused grave injury to the reputation of the church in the eyes of the Protestants, non-Christians, and the civil authorities. The Goan church produced an outstanding missionary in the seventeenth century, Blessed Joseph Vaz (1651-1711). He first revived the Catholic faith in Karnataka, and later on in Sri Lanka which was suffering from the persecution of the anti-Catholic Dutch. Vaz devised ways of inculturating the Christian faith in Sri Lanka, promoted local leadership, founded a fully indigenous religious congregation and founded a hospital in Kandy. He was a mystic, taught the way of meditation and lived by the rules of the Hindu and Buddhist renouncers. He was beatified in 1995. Another Indian missionary was St. Gonzalo Garcia (1557-1597). Born in Vasai district, he died in far away Japan as a martyr in 1597 and was declared a saint in 1862.

59

6. North India One of the exciting stories of the period from north India was the presence of Christian missionaries at the court of Akbar, the Mughal emperor. He was in a sense the founder of the north Indian Christian mission. His is a rare case where Christian community owes its existence to an invitation from the local authority. It was part of the court style developed by Akbar to have discussions with different religious leaders. Akbar readily allowed the practice of other religions around him. This climaxed in Akbar‟s attempt to found a new religion, the Din-i-Ilahi, the divine monotheism. Akbar was attracted to Christianity because of a trivial incident. Akbar on a visit to Bengal heard of a priests at the Portuguese garrison at Satgaon who refused to give sacraments to the Portuguese there who were cheating in paying taxes due to the emperor. He wanted to know more about this religion which demanded such moral purity from its followers and asked for Jesuit priests to be sent from Goa. The missionaries entertained great hopes about the mission, even that of converting the emperor. First mission: 1580 (Rudolf Aquaviva, Antony Montserrate, Francis Henriques). The mission failed in its attempt to get Akbar converted. He had never said, that he wanted to get converted. But they were well treated and the emperor did discuss religious matters with them. But slowly the missionaries grew tired and returned one by one. The last to return, Aquaviva ( 1583) was to be one of the martyrs of Cuncolim, in Salsette near Goa, as a result of a serious misunderstanding between the missionaries and the local population. Seven years later, Akbar again asked for some missionaries. In 1591 two priests and a bother were sent from Goa but they met with severe opposition at the court and they were withdrawn the same year. Four years later, Akbar dispatched another message for some more priest. In 1595, Jerome Xavier, grand-nephew of Francis Xavier, Emmanuel Pinheiro, and Benedict de Goes were sent. One of the reasons why Akbar insisted on having Christians in his court was his artistic temperament. There was a cultural exchange taking place. Europeans visiting Mughal India between 1590 and 1660 were surprised to see mural paintings depicting Christ, the Virgin Mary, and Christian saints adorning the palaces and tombs of the emperors. The atmosphere around the court at the time of Akbar and in most later periods was liberal so that a few conversions were made. Akbar allowed his subjects to convert to Christianity. The missionaries were given freedom to preach their religion. The interest in artistic production was inherited by his son Salim, who became Jehangir (1605-1627). He was however, erratic in his religious policies. In 1610 he allowed the three sons of his brother to be baptized but after three years asked them to apostacize. Shah-Jahan (1627-1658) was an orthodox Muslim. Aurangzib (1658-1707) was an orthodox Muslim, too, but fanatic; he charged the jazia or poll-tax on nonMuslims and there was no freedom to convert to Christianity. The suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773 dealt a lethal blow to this mission and as someone remarked, the mission founded by a heathen emperor was exterminated by the pope. The last two Jesuits in the area were the famous geographer Josef Tieffenthaler (d. 1785) and Frances Xavier Wendel, an astronomer (d. 1803). That year the English captured Delhi and for all practical purposes the Mughal dynasty came to an end. Christian communities could be found in Agra, Delhi, Lahore, Udaipur etc. 7. Eastern India There were also western Christians on the eastern coast of India. They, in Bengal and Orissa, were intimately connected to the mission posts in Kochi and Goa. Already in 1574 Christianity came to these places. These are probably the beginnings of Christianity in Bengal and Bangladesh. The 60

centres were Hoogly-Bandel, Balasore, Chinsura, Chandernagar, Kolkatta, Dacca, Chittagong etc. In the Northeast, there was a Christian settlement in Rangamati, in western Assam. There was a persecution of Christians in Bengal because of a war between Shah Jahan and the Portuguese. Thousands of Christians from Bengal were brought to Agra and forcibly converted to Islam. Each state and each region has its own story to tell about the beginning of Christianity there. It would be difficult to narrate them all here. Some of them will be dealt with when we study mass conversion movements and the Protestant churches. One could give a few more examples. In the 18th century the Capuchins were responsible for taking the Christian message to Tibet and Nepal and to several other parts of north India. The Mission to Tibet lasted from 1707-1745 and to Nepal from 1745-1769. The Jesuits had started a mission in Tibet but it came to an end in 1641. Tibet was a fascination for many adventurers. The Capuchins were able to maintain a mission station at Lhasa although the hold of Buddhism was very strong and the success very poor. In 1742 a persecution broke out because a new convert refused to receive a blessing from the Dalai Lama and do other practices like the saying of the Buddhist prayer for the king. In 1745 they had to leave. On their way, some of the missionaries entered Nepal but in 1769 they had to leave Nepal too. Only in 1952, Nepal was opened to other religions. One of the other centres was Patna where there was a mission from 1714. One of the priests there Joseph Mary once happened to meet the Rajput raja of Bettiah and he invited him to his capital. He was impressed by the way of life of the missionary and wanted them in his kingdom. He wrote a letter to the pope asking him to send missionaries to his kingdom and in 1742 two Capuchins were assigned to the job but neither made it to the kingdom. The mission was started by Joseph Mary in 1745 and that was the beginning of the Bettiah Mission. In 1769 a group of Catholics from Nepal arrived at Bettiah fleeing the persecution there, thus augmenting the population. They were settled in the village of Chuhari, nine kilometres from Bettiah. In course of time they seemed to have merged with the Christians of Bettiah. Another interesting story is the story of Christianity in Sardhana, in present day Meerut. Sardhana was the territory awarded to the European mercenary Walter Reinhardt who passed into Indian history as Samru, by the ruler of Delhi Najaub Khan for his services to him. His wife, Begum Samru accepted the Catholic faith in 1781 and took the name Johanna. She was an able ruler who allowed her subjects to practice the religion of their choice and had a Christian population of 2000. The famous church she built, the Basilica of Sardhana, is even today a pilgrimage centre in the diocese of Meerut. Sardhana was even made a vicar apostolic and a bishop appointed but after the death of the Begum in 1836, the entire story took a different turn. The British annexed the territory and the diocese ceased to exist. To sum up: By the 19th century Latin Christian communities could be found all along the West and East coast of the country. In the interior of the country there was little success. Most of them belonged to the territories under the Portuguese. 80% of the Christians lived in Malabar, Goa, Fisher Coast and Madurai.

61

Characteristics of Latin Christianity Generally there was no attempt to adapt Christianity to the culture of the people. The reception of baptism meant abandoning one's cultural ties, name, family name and adopting a Portuguese name and other Portuguese customs. The Madurai, Mysore and Carnatic missions were exceptions. Most missionaries were ordinary men trained in post-Tridentine seminaries. They saw idolatry and superstition even in the most harmless social customs. Everything that differed form their customs was to be condemned. Generally there was no openness to other religions and cultures. All adaptations were officially banned. The church had European leadership. The experiment with native vicars apostolic did not succeed because of opposition from the Padroado. The religious did not recruit locals. In 1549 Francis Xavier seemed to have written to St Ignatius that he did not consider Indians fit for perpetuating the Society of Jesus in India! Other orders thought likewise. Native clergy were plentiful in some places like Goa but they were given only subordinate positions. This prompted Pascal da Costa, a Goan priest to found a native congregation in 1628 which later on became the Oratory of Philip Neri under Joseph Vaz. In 1685 Joseph vas joined this congregation. The archbishop of Goa opposed it saying that Indians lacked perseverance. So Vaz moved to Ceylon and became the “apostle of Ceylon.” Towards the end of the 18th century the Catholic church in India declined as has been the case worldwide. The causes of this decline were manifold. 1.

The disintegration of Portuguese power, and the Mughal empire. The regional warfares which resulted from this disintegration helped the rise of the British, a Protestant power.

2.

Lack of a central ecclesiastical authority in India. The Propaganda was highly unsuccessful in coordinating the missionary activity bypassing the Padroado.

3.

The decline in the number of European missionaries due to the social and political upheavals in Europe: the Enlightenment, Secularization, French Revolution, and the inability of the local clergy to replace them.

4.

The Malabar Rites Controversy and the prohibition of the Malabar Rites in 1744

5.

The suppression of the Jesuits in Portugal by Marquis de Pombal. Already in 1759 he had secured from the King an anti-Jesuit decree that in future no Jesuit might live in Portugal and in Portuguese territories. Majority of the Jesuits in India were Portuguese subjects and lived in areas under Portuguese control. All the Jesuits whom the Portuguese could get hold of were rounded up and brought to Goa. Pressure was brought to bear upon them to quit the society. A few did. Their properties were confiscated and redistributed among other religious orders who happily accepted them. The Jesuits were divided among the different religious houses to be kept till their deportation. In 1760 the deportation of the Jesuits to Portugal began under most shameful conditions; many died on the way. On their arrival they were imprisoned. Foreigners were sent back to their countries. Only those Jesuits who lived in areas under the control of other European 62

powers survived the deportation. The missions of the Jesuits were entrusted to other religious orders and also the Padroado clergy, who according to the Europeans, were useless. In any case the disappearance of the Jesuits was a serious blow to the Catholic Church in India. 6.

Dissent and conflict in the Malabar church between the Carmelites and the Thomas Christians. This conflict leaves us with a church which maintained the status quo without any dynamism.

7.

The invasions of Tippu Sultan from 1790 of the Kanara Coast and Kerala.

9.

Prejudice against women religious. In 1738 the first women religious, the Ursulines of Angela Merici arrived at Pondicherry, the first female order to undertake missionary activity outside Europe and in India. The bishop was so opposed that they had to return in 1741. Women religious came to India again only in 1827 (Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny).

During the 18th century, there were some outstanding Christians who contributed to the development of Indian languages and culture. Even before this period, such contribution had begun. For example, an English Jesuit in Goa, Thomas Stephens (1549-1619), produced in 1616 a masterpiece in Marathi called the Krista Purana, a biblical epic in 10,962 stanzas which remains a Marathi classic even today. John Ernst Hanxleden (1681-1732) who is fondly called Arnos pathiri by the Malayalees was a German Jesuit who rendered tremendous services to the Malayalam and Sanskrit languages. He had outstanding knowledge of Sanskrit, Malayalam, and Syriac. Two of his poems in Malayalam are of great philological merit and are sung even today by the Christians of Kerala. He produced a Sanskrit-Malayalam-Portuguese dictionary and a Malayalam grammar. According to experts, he is surpassed only by the famous Malayalam poet Ezhuthachan. Joseph Constantius Beschi (d.1747) called viramamunivar swami wrote the Thembavani, an epic on St. Joseph. He worked in the Madurai mission from 1710. His fame rests upon his extraordinary knowledge of the Tamil language, which is considered unique among all Europeans. He is considered the first European who grasped the nature and intricacies of a Dravidian language, and produced four grammars of Tamil. He is considered the founder of literary prose in Tamil. He wrote mostly apologetic works against the Lutherans/Protestants and the Hindus. Gaston Coeurdaux (1711-1799) was a French Sanskrit scholar who is supposed to have researched into the close connection between Latin, Greek and Sanskrit and discovered a common source for them. He presented his finding to Paris but for some reasons they did not publish it. Therefore the credit for this discovery went to the famous Protestant missionary, William Jones and the poor Jesuit priest was robbed of the acclaim which he had earned by his philological acumen. Jerome Xavier was the creator of the first Persian Christian literature in India. This is the period of the beginnings European Indology, critical study of Indian scriptures and other ancient writings. Many missionaries were experts in natural sciences, geography, astronomy, etc.

63

7. PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA Two phases: 1706-1858 From 1858

under East India Company Under the British Crown

Until 1706 - Protestant Christianity was not represented in India. Reasons: 1. Strengthening their position in Europe against the Counter Reformation. 2. Lack of missionary means, like colonial support, personnel like the Religious Orders in the Catholic church. Individual initiatives were there which founded organizations like Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) 1698, Society for Promotion of the Gospel (SPG) 1701 etc. Chaplains always accompanied the ships of the East India companies. But the first organized mission was begun by the German Lutherans who landed at Tarangambadi (Tranquebar), a Danish colony, 150 miles south of Madras, in 1706. Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Plütchau were asked by the Danish King, Frederick IV, who took his religion seriously and wanted to undertake missionary activity overseas. Since he did not find willing Danes, he turned to the Germans. That is the beginning of Protestant Christianity in India. Ziegenbalg is considered the founder of Protestantism in India. The first Indians to accept their message were the domestic workers and local helpers and some orphans the missionaries collected for a Tamil school they started. We owe to Ziegenbalg among other things the first Indian translation of the Bible, in 1715 the New Testament and in 1728 the Old Testament. He rejected Hinduism as idolatry but pioneered the study of Hinduism which opened for him a new world. At that time he was criticized for this by his companions who said that “missionaries were sent out extirpate heathenism and not to spread heathenish nonsense in Europe.” So his enormous correspondence with his friends back in Germany and his various writings remained unstudied till recently and he is considered the forerunner of the Orientalists who began the study of the classical religions of India. He was also a master of the Tamil language. One of the important catalysts of mission was the schools called charity schools or orphan school (in Tamil Dharmapallikkudams) which became the model for modern schools. One difference with the Jesuit missions in Madurai which was considered elitist, was that these were for open to all. Other famous Protestant missionaries of the time were Benjamin Schulz, Johann Philip Fabricius, and perhaps the most famous among them all, Christian Frederick Schwartz also known as the Protestant Francis Xavier. By the end of the century, 40,000 converts from Tarangambadi and neighbouring places like Madras, Tirunelveli, Tiruchirapally, Palayamkottai, South Travancore, Thanjavoor etc were gathered. The Tranquebar mission laid the foundation for Protestant missionary work in India which continued by numerous missionary societies. The most important step taken by these missionaries was to bring literacy to the people in their mother tongue. A second contribution was the recorded description of biological, geological, meteorological, cultural, social, political, religious, and historical observations about the land and its people. Their contribution was the building up of a 64

native leadership for the communities in the form of helpers who numbered more than 6000 by the end of the 18th century. By the end of the 18th century India was practically under British rule and many Christians in England now wanted Christianization as a priority of the British in India. A strong Anglican presence too began to be felt especially in big cities like, Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. The British now found themselves masters of a large sub continent. Quite many of the rulers were committed Christians who wanted to Christianize India because they believed that the spread of Christianity and western knowledge would be very effective in ruling India. They were also generally convinced of the inferiority of Hinduism as superstitious, erroneous, and irrational. It needed enlightenment. This was seen as a responsibility. It was even claimed that the lack of progress in India was because of its decadent religious systems. So a Tract published by an advocate of mission by Britain was called: Observations on the state of society among the Asiatic subjects of great Britain particularly with respect to morals and on the means of improving it. (Charles Grant) With this aim, there began to arrive different Protestant churches, organizations and societies in India. By the beginning of the 19th century there were about 500 Protestant missionary societies in India. There were powerful movements in England which supported this missionary movement like: Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham and J.S. Mill: an ethical doctrine which said that those actions are right which bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number of peoples. Christian ethics was considered the ideal utilitarianism. Evangelicalism in the Church of England. It was an awakening in the Church of England which stressed personal conversion, salvation by faith etc. by going back to the original spirit of the Reformation. It was a renewal movement. Many missionary societies belonged to this movement and they stressed the importance of missionary activity. Two persons who were leaders of the Christianization drive were William Wilberforce and Charles Grant who maintained that India cannot be ruled without Christianity. In 1793 Charles Grant wanted the inclusion of the Pious Clause in the charter of East India Company. It meant not only the right to send missionaries to India but also the duty to initiate social change that would alter the existing social order in India with colonial support. The company was initially uniformly hostile to Christian missionary activity, especially to the presence of missionaries and missionary activity. The British parliament rejected this for two reasons. (1) The Hindus will resent any favouritism shown to the Christians. (2) The liberal ideas of Christianity are dangerous to the survival of the Company. “The paramount power which we now possess in India imposes upon us the necessity to protect the native inhabitants in the free and undisturbed profession of their religious opinions, and to take care that they are neither harassed nor irritated by any premature or overzealous attempts to convert them to Christianity” Moreover, in 1806 there took place the Velloor Mutiny. The cause of the Mutiny was not religion although it was rumoured that it was missionary activity that had cased it. Only under political pressure from missionary interests in Britain did the policy was changed. In 1813, after another passionate plea by the Evangelicals, the East India Company allowed missionaries to work in India by the inclusion of the Missionary Clause in its charter. The 65

arguments were clumsy. They were right in saying that they had to work for the welfare of the Indians. However, they assumed that Christianity was the best means by which that well-being could be achieved. They stressed the moral decadence, ignorance and superstition of the Indians without mentioning the evils that existed in their own country, about which we now know. The entire view was unduly patronizing. The British officially justified this action by taking recourse to the principle of equality of all religions before law. But from that time, British government and Christianity came to be associated with each other by the Indians.. In 1833, at the revision of the Charter, this freedom for the missionaries was renewed. Ultimately they hoped that it would secure British interests. From now on there was extraordinary spread of Protestant Christianity in India with the help of the missionary societies which began pouring into India. Protestantism spread to different parts of India. Their main activities were: Social reforms: 1. Abolition of Sati 1829 by William Bentick. 2. Suppression of the Thags in 1846. 3. Law against human sacrifice. 4. Action against slavery and it was banned in 1860. 5. Law against female infanticide in 1852. 6. The inhumanity of the caste system But this gave rise to reactions from the India society, especially the elite whom the British had cultivated and on whom they depended on the construction of British Raj, and upon whom they depended for its stability. When this was forgotten or the services of the elite were taken for granted, mutiny and rebellion were the result and the 1857 revolt was the most consequential. Education: Of all the decisions taken by the British this may have been the most important. Christian missionaries and Christians in general are considered educators even today. Christianity really became associated with education, especially English education. The question asked by the advocates of English education was: should India remain an Asian country sunk in its own great traditions and vices or should it become an enlightened country and emerge into the international scene, by learning English. The matter concerned English in higher education. The missionaries were champions of English education, although there were also persons who were convinced of the quality of the classic languages like Sanskrit, Persian and Urdu and native languages, the Orientalists like William Jones. But the Anglicists won the day. The whole argument was based on the decadence of the local language. It was formulated by Lord Macaulay in his Minute on Education in 1835. “We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern - a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the western nomenclature 66

and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population. I have no knowledge of either Sanskrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their value. I have read translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanskrit works. I have conversed both here and at home with men distinguished by their proficiency in the Eastern tongues. I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library is worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.” English as language for education was adopted in 1835. Public funds were to be spent only for English education. The Christian missionaries were the principal beneficiaries of the new policy. Mission schools sprang up in many places. Bengal was the centre of this movement. It is true that the Anglicists had the backing also of many natives, the Indian elite who wanted to join the British administrative services for which English was essential. They were also interested in the new ideas from the west, be it in philosophy, science or in any field and wanted to absorb them. It may be incorrect to say that the establishment of English was a British imposition. It also the result of persistent efforts by the dominant class in India to preserve or enhance their dominance within India and also to hold at bay people from the lower orders whose missionary education and literacy was in the beginning in the vernacular. One person has played an important role in introducing English higher education in India, the Scottish missionary Alexander Duff (1806-78), the Pioneer of higher education in India in the sense that he began not merely teaching of English as a subject but he began teaching the subjects in English. While Duff settled down in Calcutta where he was instrumental in founding the Calcutta University, his colleagues in the enterprise were John Wilson in Bombay who was instrumental in establishing the Bombay University, and John Anderson in Madras was founder of the the prestigious Madras Christian College and the Madras Women‟s Christian College. Alexander Duff was the originator of the government grant in aid to private schools which gave enormous boos to missionary educational institutions in India. The number of educational institutions that emerged from this effort of the Protestant missionaries is numerous which are famous even today. 1.

Introduced English as the language of education. He also taught Western philosophy and science together with the Gospel. He believed that before the rational order of western philosophy and science, the irrationalities of Indian thought would fade away. “By the time the English language has been mastered the student is tenfold les the child of pantheism, idolatry, and superstition than before.”

2

Christian teachings should be uncompromisingly included in the curriculum.

3.

Conversions is not the purpose of the schools but can be expected. He was convinced that any religious or social change in India required a high standard of intellectual education. This paved the way for the Bengal Renaissance. He had the support of one of the famous personalities of Bengal at that time, Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833). There were prominent Hindus who got converted to Protestantism as a result of this: Krishna Mohan Banerjee (1813-85), was the first Indian to be ordained in the Anglican Church. He is also called the founder of Bengali Christian literature and can be considered one of the founders of Indian Christian Theology. Lal Bihari Day (1824-94) was another famous convert who converted to protest against high caste oppression and fought for equality in the Church as well. Madhsudan Datta (1824-73) was another famous Bengali convert. Two other famous 67

converts were Kalicharan Banerji (1847-1907) and his nephew Bavani Charan Banerji who became famous as Brahmabandab Upaddhyay (1861-1907). Sushil Kumar Rudra (18611925) was not a convert in that it was his father who was baptized by Alexander Duff. He was the first Indian to become principal of the prestigious St. Stephen‟s College in Delhi. Nehemia Goreh or Nilakantha Goreh (1825-95) was from Maharashtra. So also Pandita Ramabai Saraswati (1858-1922) and Narayan Vaman Tilak (1862-1919). So we see that there was an array of important people who were converted to Christianity by Protestant missionaries. As a result a mutual penetration of European and Asian cultures began to take place, especially because of a common language. Christianity became, at least for some Indians, intellectually respectable. This was possible through the realization that the prime aim of education cannot be conversion which was not possible and not happening. The Christian taks was not so much to convert people of India as to permeate Indian society with Christian values. Conversion as such was not deemed to be a worthy goal. Of course there were missionaries who considered this theological liberalism not acceptable and continued the goal of conversion, although these came from lower castes and classes. Another Protestant missionary who deserves mention is the famous Baptist Missionary William Carey (1761-1834), the founder of the Serampore Mission. In 1793, he arrived at Calcutta with his family and learned the language. The British were not particularly happy with the Baptists. In 1799 he moved to Serampore which was under Danish control with two British colleagues Joshua Marshman and Willaim Ward. One of his lasting contributions was the translation of the Bible into a dozen north Indian and Asian languages. The first convert of the missionaries was Krishna Pal. Principles of Baptist Mission 1.

Non-Christians must be approached in their own language. The missionary should learn the language.

2.

The missionary must acquaint himself with the mind and customs of the people among whom he dwells. He should learn the religion of the people.

3.

The primary task of the missionary is the spread of the gospel.

4.

The Word of God must be made available to the people in their own language.

5.

Conversion only after reasonable knowledge of Christianity. He tolerated no caste distinctions.

6.

The church must be an Indian church, with Indian leadership.

7.

Education must be an important activity of the missionary.

Some other important Protestant Evangelical Societies which came to India Church Missionary Society Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society Church of Scotland Welsh Calvinistic Methodists Basel Missionary Society 68

Irish Presbyterians Free Church of Scotland American Baptists American Presbyterians Basel Mission Gossner Mission Leipzig Missionary Society The extent and breadth of the educational effort of Christian agencies in India in the last two centuries have no parallel in any other country. It is also known that the Christians took a lead in the education of girls and women and of people from the lower sections of the society, dalits and the tribals. Equally strong is the investment in health care and other social service activities. Christians were also in the forefront of social awareness programmes, social reforms and fighting against social discrimination. The struggle of the Nadar women of Tirunelveli in the form of the Upper Cloth Revolt in the 19th century is a well known example. 2. Protestant Christianity from 1858 This period is a memorable one in Indian history: creation of the British empire, the Indian Renaissance, and the National Movement. For the Protestant churches this period is a period of expansion and numerical growth, the success of ecumenism and various attempts at indigenization of Christianity. Expansion and numerical growth followed the colonial flag and British imperialism. The British crown took direct charge of India in 1858. The missionary societies consolidated their position. Missionaries were given access to the whole country. As a rule, they followed the policy of individual conversion. Some educated Hindus accepted Christianity. But the majority of Hindus used Christian education to challenge and reform their own religion. For them Christianity was not a substitute for their religion but an ally of British rule. It was foreign and denationalizing. Because of this attitude, the missionaries began concentrating on the lower classes and they came to Christianity in large numbers. The main chunk of them came from the depressed classes and the tribals, like the tribals of Bengal, Bihar, North East India, the depressed classes in South Travancore, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, North-West India etc. Today the Protestant community is largely made up of these converts. This work was indeed commendable. These people were either living a semi-human existence or they were exploited. It was a liberation at least for the time being. Social Action: During the first half of the 19th century, Protestant churches were increasingly engaged in the sphere of social reforms. After the revolt of 1857, the policy was changed. The government was unwilling to meddle in the affairs of the religions of the natives. At least one of the immediate causes of the uprising of 1857 was the rumour about the greased cartridges. So now emphasis shifted to social action and philanthropic activities, schools, orphanages, hospitals, leper asylums, agricultural and technical institutes etc. Pastoral care of the newly converted and their economic and social upliftment became a priority rather than reforming Hinduism and society at large. Building up of a Christian church with a strong economic social and educational basis became the chief concern. Rural education, women‟s education, medical education etc. became 69

important. In all these activities the goal of evangelism was there but it was placed side by side with other gospel values and nation building. Inter Church cooperation and the Ecumenical Movement The Protestant missionary societies competed with each other. Denominational differences also meant theological differences. This was a scandal and many Protestants began to reflect on this to see whether in spite of denominational differences there was an underlying spiritual unity. In 1877, the famous Bengali Christian Kali Charan Banerji founded the Christo Samaj to unite all Indian Christians without denominational barriers for the propagation of the Christian truth and the promotion of Christian union. Only the apostle‟s creed was to be its basis. In 1886, Parny Andy, a south Indian Christian founded the National Church in India. in Madras. He said that it was irrational for Indian Christians to blindly follow western denominationalism. These attempts did not succeed because of opposition from the missionaries who were unable to give up their loyalties. Moreover, Indian Christians were dependent on the parent churches in the West for financial support. The foreigners also feared that they would lose their position. These movements are the real starting points for the Ecumenical Movement. In the 20th century two important unions took place. The Church of South India in 1947 The Church of North India in 1970 These unions were of historic significance and had their resonance throughout the world although they were not unions according to the dreams of the pioneers of ecumenism. There was no indigenous church but a reconciliation of Western denominationalism in India. There was no Church of India with Indian ethos, language, addressing the pressing problems of the Indian church like the caste system. But there were positive elements. For the first time they broke denominational rigidity effectively. The Church of South India It was the first union world wide of non-episcopal ministries within the structure of an episcopal church. The churches which came together were Anglican, Methodist, and the South India United Church which was a union of Presbyterian and congregational churches made in 1908. The basic principle of union was the realization that all the churches preached the same gospel and that it challenged them to manifest this in a visible unity. The result was the International Missionary Conference at Tranquebar in 1919 where it was said: “We face together the titanic task of the winning of India for Christ - one fifth of the human race. And yet, confronted by such an overwhelming responsibility, we find ourselves rendered weak, and relatively impotent by unhappy divisions, divisions for which we are not responsible.” The union was based on the so-called Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888, adopted by the Lambeth conference in 1888. 1. The Holy Scriptures Old and New Testament contain all things necessary for salvation. 70

2. The Apostles‟ Creed and the Nicene Creed 3. The two sacraments baptism and the Lord's Supper 4. The Episcopate. Though it was to be a union of Indian Christians, the varied traditions of the different churches they professed could not be ignored. The most tricky problem was that of episcopal ministry. Some churches did not have an episcopal ministry. At the end, all the ordained ministers were accepted as ministers of the new church and the new church would be henceforth an episcopal church and all new ordinations would be through the episcopal laying on of hands. Two important characteristics of the church 1.

No form of worship which before the union has been in use in any church shall be forbidden, nor shall a new form be imposed which transgresses the long established traditions of a member church.

2.

There shall be no overriding of conscience by church authorities or majority decisions in imposing alien traditions whether in administration or in worship.

The membership in the Church today is 1.5 million The Church of North India In 1924, a union of various Presbyterian and congregational churches in North India formed the United Church of North India. This effort continued and bore fruit in 1970 when the Church of North India was formed with the Anglicans, the United Church of North India, the Methodists, some Baptists, the Church of the Brethren, the Disciples of Christ etc. The ministries were given by the CSI ministers and thus these two churches have a unified ministry. The membership of the Church of North India is 700,000. There is effort towards the union of the two and other churches into a national church in India. There is full co-operation and intercommunion between the two churches. In 2004, the Mar Thoma Syrian Church and the Churches of South India and North India established Intercommunion, forming the Communion of Churches in India (CCI), another step towards a national church. Today the apex body of the Protestant churches in India is the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), founded in 1979 at Nagpur. IMPORTANT PROTESTANT CHURCHES IN INDIA The Lutheran churches Began in India 1706. In 1926 the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India was formed. In 1975, nine Lutheran churches from different parts of India formed the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches of India. There are about 1.5 million Lutherans. A union with the CSI was proposed but has not taken place. The Lutherans have no historical episcopate. Only one order of clergy, elected by the people and organized in synods.

71

The Baptists: India has the third largest concentration of Baptist churches in the world, particularly concentrated in North East India, Bengal, Orissa, Andhra etc. It was brought to India by William Carey in 1793 and was centred at Serampore. It originated in Anglicanism by John Smith ( died in 1612) as a reaction against episcopacy and other practices. They advocate adult baptism through immersion - therefore the name Baptists. They are basically congregational churches, (churches which see the local congregation as the supreme authority. They do not see the need of even presbyters. Christ is the head of the church. In theology they are Calvinists. They are more evangelical in character). Accordingly, for the Baptists, church is a confessing community and exits fully in every local congregation and they emphasize personal profession of faith. Baptism, Eucharist etc., have only symbolic character. Each congregation is independent, no episcopacy or ordination. Pastors are elected by the people. The leadership is poorly trained and controlled by the people. There are about 16 Baptist churches in India. Some joined the CNI in 1970. Generally against unity. Presbyterians follow Calvinist theology. Presbyterianism originated in Scotland, the expression derived from presbyters, who are elected by people. The presbyters get authority not through the laying on of hands but through the commission of the people. Popularized by John Knox (1505-72). In 1894 Presbyterians began work in North East. The membership is about half a million. The South Indian Presbyterians joined the CSI. Some also joined the CNI, but some remain independent. The Mennonite Brethren (Church of India) founded by Menno Simons (1496-1561) in Holland. Believes in adult baptism, congregational structure, and the rejection of real presence. No ordained ministry. No military service and public oath, public office, etc. Came to India in 1890 to Andhra Pradesh. The Methodists: Started by John Wesly (1703-91). Because of the insistence on the correct (methodical) follow up of prayer and study of the Bible, they were called Methodists. Prayer, fasting, breaking of bread, alms giving etc. are emphasized. It was a protest movement against the Anglican church. Led by superintendents or elders, without historical episcopate. They came to India in 1856. Some Methodist churches in North India joined the Church of North India. The South Indian Methodists joined the CSI. Membership is about six lakhs. Salvation Army: An international, multi-racial Christian movement. William Booth (1829-1912) a Methodist pastor founded it in 1865. Salvation through Christ is proclaimed without bishops, priests, sacraments churches etc. They use a creed adjusted from the Nicene creed. No baptism or Eucharist. It was started in India in 1822 by Frederick Tucker, who took the name Fakhir Singh. There are bout 500,000 members in 6 regions of India. It is more of a charitable organization than a church. The Brethren: Originated in the 19th century in England as an assembly of people who were against the episcopal system of the Anglican church and the Presbyterian system of Calvinism. Study of the Word of God, distance from the traditional churches, baptism of faith etc. are main features. No central authority, no pastors or ministers. They came to India in 1833 and started work in Bihar, then moved to Andhra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka but without much success. But in Kerala they managed to gain a lot of converts and provided the base for the Pentecostal movement in Kerala. 72

Seventh day Adventists: The Adventist church was founded by William Miller in 1831. Believe in the second coming of Christ interpreting the apocalyptic passages in the bible. They were antiCatholic and also anti-Protestant. As his prophecies about the second coming of Christ did not materialize, divisions occurred. One of the groups was the Seventh Day Adventists founded under the leadership of Helen White in 1860. Saturday is observed as Sabbath and the expect the second coming of Christ any time. Very rigorous morality, like no drinking, no smoking, modesty in dress, washing of the feet at the celebration of the Eucharist, importance to preaching, anti-Catholicism etc. are main features. They came to India in 1893 and started work in Calcutta. They may have about a lakh members. The Pentecostal Churches hold that the charismatic gifts given at Pentecost are operative today. Originated in the Baptist churches in America. They believe in baptism by immersion, speaking in tongues, healings etc. In 1906, in Los Angeles some charismatic gifts occurred. By 1924, it became a worldwide movement. They believe in the literal inspiration of the Bible, in simple worship, and that Christ will visibly return to earth. They emphasize holiness of life and the congregational character of the church. There are numerous Pentecostal churches in India. It has become a fast growing movement often drawing members from the mainline churches. The movement began in India in 1918 in UP (Indian Assemblies of God). In 1924 the Indian Pentecostal Church of God was founded in Kerala. In 1936 the Pentecostal Church of God was founded in Andhra Pradesh. 8. MASS CONVERSION MOVEMENTS In the second half of the 19th century, the Christian churches became aware of an unexpected and dramatic development. There occurred mass conversions from the tribals, dalits and other backward communities in various parts of the country. Today these people constitute a sizable percentage of the Christian population in India. For example, the tribals of the Northeast alone constitute 17% of the Christian population. There had been historical precedents for this. 1.

The Paravars of the Pearl Fishery Coast from 1535-1537 to Catholicism. The Mukhuvas of the Travancore Coast from 1542-1544 to Catholicism. Both because of economic oppression.

2.

The Nadars (Shanars) of the Tamil country (Tirunelveli Dt. and south Travancore, today‟s Kanyakumari Dt of Tamil Nadu) in the second half of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century to Protestantism. It was one of the first instances where the missionaries helped in the social liberation, especially of women.

Possibly nowhere in India the caste system and slavery have been as rigid and as cruel as it was in Travancore. In 1836 there were 1.3 million slaves in the kingdom. The Nadars were not outcastes but in reality their situation was not much better. They accepted Christianity because of the social limbo in which they were placed. Christianity offered them the prospect of escaping the baneful social consequences of hereditary pollution and perpetual social stigmatization. The famous Protestant missionaries who worked among the people during those days were Tobias Ringeltaube, James Hough, Karl Rhenius, etc. The missionaries campaigned against slavery and the liberation of 73

women, which became famous with the Upper Cloth Revolts (Breast-Cloth Agitation) of 1822, 1828-29, and 1858. In Travancore the Nadar women were not permitted to cover the upper portions of their bodies. By tradition, the breasts of men and women were bared as a symbol of respect for those of higher castes! The Christian missionaries objected to this dress code for the Christian Nadar women. So according to the order of the British Resident of Travancore Munro, the Nadar women converts were allowed to cover themselves with a plain lose Jacket. But they were not permitted to use the upper cloth, an additional piece of cloth worn by the higher castes, in the manner of the higher castes. So although the designed dress satisfied the sense of modesty and decorum of the European ladies, it did not satisfy the social aspirations of the Nadar women. They also wanted to wear the upper cloth like that of the nayar women. So they began to use the upper cloth as worn by the higher castes. This led to violent agitations. But the action did not stop. Even Hindu Nadar women adopted the dress. This led to tensions because the it was seen as a threat to the existing social order. Riots broke out, women were stripped of the upper clothe in the market places, and churches were attacked. The action led to the abolition of the prohibition of covering their bodies, they were given freedom to use any mode of dress. Only that they were to desist from using the upper cloth in the manner it was worn by the high castes (1859)! Slavery had been abolished in 1855. The movement did not improve the economic situation of the Nadars but provided an organizational base for unity in the community. The Hindus and Christians came closer and there were conversions. The agitation served as a catalyst of increasing community awareness. The community enjoys a considerably high status today. Other places in Tamil Nadu also experienced similar movements, in Thanjavur among the Paraiyar and Madhari communities. 3. When we come to the second half of the 19th century, the best example of mass conversion movements are those occurred among the tribals in Chotanagpur and northeast India and of the dalits in various parts of the country. Both these groups have been marginalized in the Indian society. A dalit is one who is “broken” or oppressed. They are called avarnas, antyajas, panchamas, outcastes, depressed classes, scheduled castes, harijans, untouchables etc. They lived in abject poverty, were treated as polluted human beings. For ages they were considered subhuman, on the margins of society or outside of it, without any cultural identity. They were even denied a dignified name in society, an extreme form of social discrimination. Economically they were excluded from honourable jobs. Education had been denied to them. These sorts of discrimination inflicted severe psychic damage on them and they suffered from severe inferiority complex and hopelessness. They had to look for new alternatives and so conversion to different religions like Buddhism, Islam, Christianity etc became common. Christianity was appealing because of its doctrine of love, equality and dignity of the human person. Christianity also offered education, a means to upward mobility in society. They constitute about 16% of the population Indian. The tribals of India, what we call the Adivasis or aboriginal peoples of India (according to the Constitution Scheduled tribes), belonging to numerous races and languages trace their ancestry in this country back to millennia. They lived in relative isolation from both the Hindu social system and western culture. Many of them claim that they are the indigenous peoples of India. In recent 74

times there has been an effort to change their common designation from adivasis into vanavasis or even girijans to rhyme with harijan. The tribals themselves reject these attempts to define them and are satisfied with the designation adivasis or merely tribals. Whatever may be their origin, they represent some of the most ancient roots in India‟s ethnic soil and constitute about 9% of the population. Gradually many of these tribals began to be exploited by caste Hindus for land and labour. They too were treated much the same way as the dalits. Even today not a few call them such horrible names like junglees (uncultured barbarians). They too wanted social justice and liberation from economic and social enslavement, discrimination and oppression. They wanted education, and freedom from the evil spirits, and so many of them embraced Christianity. There has been a process of Sanskritization or Hinduization of a number of these tribes as well. Some of these tribals have produced very lively and dynamic Christian communities. Only when we understand the racism, snobbery, arrogance, scorn, aversion, pride, and the superiority complex with which the dominant classes and castes treated the dalits and the tribals will we be able to understand the mass conversion movements. The tribal region of Chotanagpur is made up of various tribal communities like Mundas, Santals, Hos, Birhors, Bhumijs, Kharias, Oraons, Juangs, Paharias, Sourias, Sauaras etc. They number about 6 million people belonging to the proto-Austroloid race and the language families of Austric, Dravidian and Indo-Aryan. It is one of the highest concentrations of tribal population in the country. They had their tribal religions with lot of superstitions, belief in spirits etc. For centuries they lived in the mountains and forests. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the “outsiders” invaded their land and there began exploitation, and taxation. They lost their land which was not merely an economic possession but had a sacred character. They were reduced to the position of bondsmen and serfs and were enslaved by the zamindars. Dispossession of the land meant also the crumbling of their traditional culture and tribal identity and socio-economic structures. Revolt of 1831-32 under the leadership of the Mundas They felt their gods were powerless. The outsiders who were identified with evil spirits seemed to be more powerful. Many migrated to the tea plantations of Assam, coal fields of Dhanbad, and indigo plantations of Purnea. The German Lutheran missionaries of the Gossner mission were the first missionaries to come into contact with them in 1845 and the first baptisms took place in 1850. It was only a quarter of a century after the first tribal baptisms that the Catholic missionaries appeared on the scene. With their arrival, the conversion movement really gathered momentum. Two persons were highly influential in this, Constant Lievens (1856-1893) and John Baptist Hoffmann (1857-1928). When Lievens arrived in 1885 there were 1739 Catholics but when he left in 1892 there were 73,000. He saw that the tribals were losing their land in most of the their court cases because they were not trained in legal matters. His main contribution was his personal defence of the poor in the court of justice. He taught them to defend themselves. Thus conversions were brought about through struggle for justice and human dignity assisted by the missionaries. It was a mass conversion in the true sense of the term and the people themselves took the initiative. Often they came in search of the missionaries. Hoffmann‟s contribution was that he organized the Christians. In 1909 he started the Catholic Cooperative Credit Society, the first of its kind in India. It improved the economic base of the tribals, taught them to save money and thus freed them from the money 75

lenders. The “Catholic Bank” has continued to the present day. He worked on the first draft of the Chotanagpur Tenacy Act which became law in 1908. He also helped in the planning and publication of the Encyclopedia Mundarica in 15 volumes (1929-79). An important factor in the growth of this Christian movement was that the laity soon organized themselves for social and political action. Beyond Jharkand, similar movements started among the Bhils in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and south Gujarat, and some smaller tribes in Orissa. In south India the spread of Christianity among the tribals has been less remarkable, perhaps because of the stronger presence of other older Christian communities. News of the success of Lievens‟ movement spread to fellow tribals living in Chhattisgarh. In 1889 a delegation of three people from the princely state of Jashpur undertook a journey to Ranchi to ask for Christian missionaries. The entry of outsiders into the state was not permitted, nor were they permitted to go to the missionaries. The initial move thus received a set back. In 1905 in spite of the prohibition a group of Oraons went over to Jharkand, received instruction and became Catholics. In the ensuing years many more embraced Christianity and this had its impact on the neighbouring principality of Udaipur. Despite opposition from the rulers, many people became Christians. Thus Christianity here too was a people‟s movement. The opposition has continued ever since as can be seen from contemporary developments. Madhy Pradesh was the first Indian state to legislate a ban on conversions to Christianity in 1968. 4. Another spate of mass conversions occurred in northeast India. One of the facts of modern history that disturbs many Indians, especially in the majority community is the changes in religious demography that has occurred in northeast India. Some speak of the region as lost to Christianity. What is lost in the din are the facts of history. In the two most heavily populated states of Assam and Tripura the percentage of Christians is a minuscule minority. In Assam 3.7% and in Tripura 3.2%. Manipur has a Christian population of 34.04%. Nagaland 89.97%, Mizoram 80.97%, and Meghalaya 70.25% are Christian majority states but these states have a total population of about 7 million about 79% of this is Christian. So in the northeast as a whole the Christians constitute less than one eighth of the population. Another popular misunderstanding is that the separatist tendencies in the region are largely due to their Christian allegiance. The United Liberation Front of Assam militants can hardly be called Christian nor most of the militants of Manipur. It is true that the major Naga militants happen to be Christians. If anything, as a whole the Christian ethos has rather tended to integrate them into the national life rather than separate them. In order to understand the militancy we must understand the history of the northeast. We must remember that the region was not part of any overall Indian political establishment till the British East India Company and eventually the British government took control of it as a result of the Anglo-Burmese Treaty of Yandabo in 1826. India does not know much about the Northeast. 99% of its boundaries are international. Only 1% of it is linked with India. The situation of these tribals is very different from that of central India. It is the homeland of India‟s Mongoloid heritage, with diverse linguistic and racial composition. Its area is 265,000 Sq kms. Population about 45 million. (8% of the land area and 4% of the population of India) Population is predominantly tribal but there are areas where non-tribals are in the majority. Out of about 650 tribal communities of India 200 live in the Northeast, both hill and plain tribals, speaking as many languages, belonging to the 76

Tibeto-Burman, and Austro-Asiatic families. Racially, they belong to the Mon-Khmer, TibetoBurman and Siamese-Chinese groups. With the treaty of Yandobo the region became politically associated with British India. Earlier contacts with India were cultural and religious like the Hinduization of Assam and Manipur from Bengal. Now a political connection too was established which led to the establishment of British Control. First the policy was not annexation but political stability and security. But slowly they began to annex the revenue producing territories. By 1858, most of the revenue producing territories of the Northeast were annexed, the Brahmaputra valley, the kingdoms of Manipur, Tripura, and the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. The other hill tribals were branded uncivilized and left undisturbed. But the tribals who were warriors and hunters began to create trouble for the British. They were dissatisfied for various reasons. In the past every now and then they would attack and plunder the plains. These opportunities were now restricted. They were confined to the hills. They lost some of the privileges given to them by the Ahom kings. Their traditional practices like head-hunting, human sacrifice, slavery etc. were now prohibited. So the British now began a policy of annexation of the hills too. By 1914 all the hills of today‟s Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh were annexed except a few unadministered areas in Nagaland. That resulted in the movement into the region of outsiders for administration and modernization. In 1873 the Inner-Line Regulation was introduced for all the hills except the Mikir, Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Hills in order to protect the tribals. But the British rule was now an accepted fact and fced with this the traditional inhabitants had few options. 1. Acquiesce to the dominance of the newcomers 2. Accommodate themselves to the new situation 3. Rebel The plain tribals by and large accommodated with some resistance. For example, the Assamese resisted the introduction of Bengali in Assam. But there was no serious threat to their identity and religion. They were by and large Hindus. There was no danger of conversion to Christianity except in the case of few minority groups. The hill tribals saw the new situation as a radical threat to their traditional way of life in many ways. Here were absolutely alien powers reorganizing their society in a serious manner. There were violent reactions to this intrusion like the Khasi wars: 1829-33; Jaintia Rebellion: 1860-62; Khonoma Uprising: 1878; Kuki Rebellion: 1919-20 But later they too had to accommodate themselves to the new situation and they preferred Christianity as a defence against the threat of dominance by Hindus and Muslims and absorption into their religious and social systems. After the First World War a new situation arose. There emerged a new class of educated people from among the tribals because of the missionary work of the Christians. Some had also fought in the World War and had seen the world outside. Political consciousness began to emerge. The freedom struggle was going on in India. The people of the region also wanted more autonomy. When the Simon Commission visited Shillong in 1929 as a part of the discussion for autonomy, the tribals of the region put forward their aspirations. One of the most forceful pleas was that of the 77

Nagas. They said that they had not asked for reforms and wanted no reforms. They pointed out that they were never conquered by the Indians. Their language was quite different from that of the plains and their people had no social affinity with the Hindus or Muslims. If the British were to withdraw they should not be left to the mercy of others but “left alone to determine ourselves as in ancient times.” However, at independence and partition these views were not taken into consideration. New independent nations emerged all around and new boundaries were created cutting off their traditional communication, travel and trade routes. They forcibly became part of a different culture and even separated from their fellow tribals (Nagas in Burma). Numerous tribes were confined to a small geographical area and it threw open the problem of their socio-cultural identity. The separatist movements began in this context and it is generally termed the “Underground Movement.” But the problem is a complex one. The Naga rebellion is the oldest, already from the 1950's. So far only the Mizo problem has been settled politically. In the plains the problem of illegal immigration from Bangladesh, Nepal, and other parts of India and demand for more autonomy and even independence led to agitations. Thus these various agitations characterize life in the northeast today. The government of India tried to pacify the people by granting statehood, starting with Nagaland but the problems have remained. It has mainly served to institutionalize corruption. Thus the northeast‟s problems can be characterized in three words: Ethnicity, Identity, Insurgency. Ethnicity: the Mongoloid heritage of the northeast has not been understood, accepted and assimilated by the rest of India, unlike in the case of the other cultures of India. The rest of India does not seem to know and appreciate the Mongoloid ethos and its richness as part of the larger Indian tapestry. So there is no wonder they are forced to look elsewhere, to the East for example. Their culture is something totally different from that of the rest of India. The British deliberately kept the people isolated but India should have solved it in a different way. This did not happen. Identity: They wish to differentiate themselves from the overwhelming multitudes of the rest of India. One way of preserving this identity was accepting Christianity. Christianity was the main agent of social transformation through its social welfare activities, education, health care, sanitation, hygiene etc. It was brought there by the Protestants and later on there came also the Catholics. Many social reforms were also introduced, like movement against slavery, alcoholism, addiction to opium, head-hunting. The early missionaries looked down upon the indigenous cultures and made them western in many ways. But now Christianity encourages them to accept and appreciate their culture. The missionaries also developed the local languages, wrote grammars, developed the vocabulary, dictionaries and scripts. They produced sacred and secular literature. It was a tremendous service to the people. Some 50 languages have been developed by the missionaries. This created an identity for the people. The government supported the missionary activity but selectively. Up to 1930 certain parts of Garo Hills, the unadministered areas of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and the plains of Manipur and Tripura were excluded from missionary activity. In the same way, in certain parts only the Protestants were allowed and not the Catholics. Insurgency: Insurgency should be seen in the larger framework of the search for identity. Some insurgents demand full independence, like the Nagas, the ULFA, the Meitheis in Manipur, some 78

Bodos etc.; others are manifestations of frustration. They want only separation from the dominant community. They have a lot of grievances, past and present. Often the accession to the Indian union was made improperly, without proper consultation. In the case of Nagaland, Pizo, the leader of the movement had said that he had nothing to do with India. It would only negotiate with Britain and when Britain left they were to be left free. So as soon as Nagaland became part of India, he began an agitation. Today there are also other considerations: land, local dominance, control over narcotics-trade etc. The region is bruised by violence, causing much sorrow, suffering, destruction, and disruption of progress. The insurgents succeed because there is large-scale unemployment, frustration, the Marxist ideology, availability of weapons, support from neighbouring countries, etc. The excesses committed by the security forces have only helped to alienate a large section of the people from India. There is also lack of any political will from the part of the government. Lack of economic and infrastructural development is another problem. The History of Catholicism in the Northeast The first recorded history of the contact of the Northeast with Christianity was in 1626/7when the Jesuit missionaries Stephen Cacella and John Cabral on their way to Tibet visited parts of Goalpara and Kamrup districts. The Mughal emperors had an outpost and training centre at Rangamati (16671687) and there was a Catholic population, mainly Portuguese, or Portuguese Indians helping in training and they were ministered to by two Augustinian priests. There seems to have been about 8000 Catholics. There seems to have been also communities at Chiroto (Sylhet: Bangladesh), Bondashil near Badarpur, and Mariamnagar near Agarthala. In the 19th century after the British took control of Northeast India, small numbers of Europeans, Anglo-Indians, etc. came to the region to make their fortunes in the mines, tea gardens, railway construction works, etc. It was then under the Bishop of Calcutta and East Bengal. From 1850 Assam, which comprised the entire Northeast, came under the Bishop of Lhasa. From 1854 it came once again under the Bishop of East Bengal. The main Catholic centres were Guwahati and Nowgong. In 1860 the Holy Cross missionaries visited Guwahati and Dibrugarh. In 1870 Assam was entrusted to the Foreign Missionaries of Milan (PIME). From 1872 to 1890 they worked in Guwahati, Shillong, Nowgong, etc. but without much success. In 1890 Assam was made into a diocese and was entrusted to the German Salvatorians. This can be considered the proper beginning of the Catholic Church in the Northeast. The Salvatorians under the leadership of Otto Hopfenmüller reached Guwahati in 1890 and proceeded to Shillong and set up their headquarters there and began the modern Catholic mission in the NE. In 1915 the German Salvatorians had to leave India and when they left there were 5176 baptized Catholics and 1700 catechumens. The Jesuits worked from 1915-1922 but the First World War and the post War problems constrained their work too. In 1922 the Catholic mission was entrusted to the Salesians of Don Bosco. In spite of the objections by the Protestant Churches and the lack of support from the British government, they went ahead with their work. In 1934 Shillong was made a diocese with 37,000 Catholics. Although the Second World War interrupted the progress, in 1945 there were 70,000 Catholics. But only after the War, did the Catholic Church progress and the arrival of missionary personnel both men and women from South India helped in the missionary work. Now the Catholic population in the Northeast is more than a million and there are 15 Catholic dioceses in the Northeast: Arch diocese of Shillong and dioceses of Jowai, Nongstoin, and Tura in Meghalaya, Archdiocese of Guwahati and dioceses of Diphu, Bongaigaon, Tezpur and Dibrugarh in Assam, 79

dioceses of Itanagar and Miao in Arunachal Pradesh, diocese of Kohima in Nagaland, Archdiocese of Imphal in Manipur, diocese of Aizawl in Mizoram and diocese of Agartala in Tripura. The Catholic Church runs a network of educational, medical and other charitable institutions for the welfare of the tribal population of the region. Its educational activities are perhaps the most important contribution of the Catholic Church. There are 8 tribal bishops and numerous tribal priests and sisters which show that the Catholic Church is gradually becoming an indigenous Church. But there are challenges before the Church. The first challenge is the challenge of giving the faith a truly tribal expression, embodying the values of the tribal cultures thus making the indigenization of the Church full and total. Secondly, the Church must become an agent of peace and unity in the region, and in this way help in its integral development because the Catholic Church today understands mission not merely as adding numbers to its fold. It believes that evangelization is announcing that Jesus Christ is the end and means by which we are saved but it understands that salvation includes the construction of a humane society, a society of justice, equality and fraternity. History of Protestant Christianity in North-East India The majority of Christians in North-East India today (about 70%) are Protestants and therefore it is important to know something about the history of Protestantism in North-East India. The history of Protestantism in North-East India begins in 1813, when Krishna Chandra Pal (1764-1822), the first convert of the Serampore Baptist Mission (started by the famous British Baptist Missionary William Carey), and probably the first Protestant missionary to North-East India, baptized two Khasis and an Assamese at Pandua (today in Bangladesh). These are probably the first local Christians of North-East India. The Christian movement started in earnest in the 1820s and 1830s but the Indo-Khasi Wars of 1829 and 1833 interrupted the missionary activities. By this time a translation of the New Testament into Khasi and Assamese was made. But it was the opening of schools that led to the real movement of the tribal people to Christianity. In 1829 the first Protestant school was started at Guwahati. In 1832 a school was started at Cherrapunjee but it did not attract many people to Christianity and so had to be closed down. In 1836 the first Protestant church was built at Guwahati. In 1836 the American Baptist Missionary Union began its activities in the Assam Plains which changed the fortunes of Protestantism in North-East India. The Baptists of Serampore eventually merged with the American Baptists and formed the Baptist Missionary Society which spearheaded the conversion of a large number of tribal people of North-East India to Christianity in the subsequent decades. Equally important was the arrival of the Welsh Presbyterians (Welsh Calvinistic Methodists) in North-East India in 1841 which changed the fortunes of Christianity in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills and among the Mizos. By briefly narrating the story of these two churches in North-East India we will be able to understand Protestant Christianity in North-East India better. In 1841 two Welsh Presbyterians (Welsh Calvinistic Methodists) Thomas Jones and his wife arrived in the Khasi Hills. In 1846 the first baptisms were reported of two Khasis, and that can be considered the beginning of the Khasi Protestant Church. The progress was slow because within the next twelve years the number of Christians also increased only by twelve. By 1891 the number of baptized Christians rose to 2147. The reason for the slow progress was the fact that the admission criteria set forth by the Presbyterians were very strict. However in the next century with the spread of the educational and medical institutions, the number of Christians steadily increased. In 1902 80

conversions spread into the Lushai Hills. The momentum of conversions dramatically increased in 1905-6 when the great “Khasia Revival” broke out with Pentecostal movements quickly spreading around the world. Prompted by the necessities created by the World Wars, indigenous church leaders took increasing control and responsibility for their own ecclesiastical structures. However, in the neighbouring Garo Hills the Baptists gained the upper hand. The Chief Commissioner of Assam, David Scott was a student of William Carey. He sent three Garo boys in 1819 to study at Serampore College and invited missionaries to work among the Garos. Carey in turn requested the American Baptists for help as he was not in a position to provide missionaries. However, there was no immediate missionary movement among the Garos. This began in earnest only in 1863 when two Garos named Omed and Ramkhe were baptised by Miles Bronsen, an American Baptist missionary at Guwahati. In 1867 he baptized another twenty-six Garos and founded the Baptist church of the Garos in Damra. A mass movement to Christianity started which continued into the 20th century. The Khasis, Jaintias and Garos constitute the majority population of Meghalaya today and about 80% of these communities are Christians. By the 1870s the American Baptists who had once considered the closing down of all works in Assam because of lack of missionary success were also being successful among the Adivasis of Assam who were migrants from the Chotanagpur area of North India. But their greatest success was among the Nagas, one of the most remarkable successes of Protestant missionary work in India. The story begins with Godhula, the eldest son of a low-caste washerman who was baptized through the influence of Nathan Brown, the first American Baptist missionary who arrived in Assam in 1835. Godhula served as an evangelist within the American Baptist mission at Shibsagar. There he met Subongmeren, an Ao Naga who was later baptized. In 1871 Subongmeren together with Godhula undertook the perilous journey to his village Molung-kimong where they preached Christianity and six months later on 11th November 1872 nine Ao Nagas were baptized in Shibsagar and that was the beginning of Christianity among the Nagas of India. The community was consolidated by Dr. Edward Winter Clark, the American Baptist missionary in Shibsagar and his wife Mary. They accomplished a great deal among the Ao Nagas, like the production of an Ao Naga-English dictionary, a Grammar, a Catechism, translations of the Gospels of Matthew and John, and the story of Joseph from Genesis, and several school text books. Mary Clark produced the full grammar of the Ao language which is still in print. Other tribes followed, like the Angamis, Lothas and Semas after the British established their rule over them which was not easy. For example, taking control of the Angamis led to the Khonoma Uprising between the British and the Angamis (1878-80). In 1890 the Baptists extended their mission to the neighbouring Manipur as well. Across the ravines of northern Burma, Kachins, Chins, and Karens were also being reached with the Gospel by the American Baptist missionaries. Among the Nagas, the congregations almost tripled every decade. It is said that the Naga peoples experienced the most massive movement to Christianity in all of Asia, second only to the Philippines. Over 95% of all Nagas are now Christian, most of them Baptists. That Christianity was a factor of selfconsciousness and identity and not a mere imitation of western Christianity is seen in the following remark of an Angami Naga Christian (who?). Europeans do not have a monopoly on Christianity. Christianity came to Europe from Asia and some Indians were Christians 500 years before the Europeans. When Europeans became Christians, they made it a European indigenous religion. They changed their names and founded festivals in relation to their cultures. Now, I, like many Nagas, am 81

a Christian, but I am not a European. I have a relationship to my God. Now my God can speak to me in dreams, just as happened to my Angami ancestors. I don‟t have to be like Anglicans or Catholics and go through all those rituals. I don‟t need them. What I am talking about is Naga Christianity – an indigenous Naga Christianity. Mizoram is the third, almost totally Christian state, of Northeast India and the majority of them are Protestants. Originally known as the Lushais, Mizos consist of half a dozen cognate tribes. The British occupied Mizoram in 1890-91 and that was the beginning of Christianization of the state. In 1891 the mission to Mizoram began by Welsh Presbyterians. From the first two conversions in 1899 followed by twenty-three in 1900, the movement gained momentum with the Great Revival that occurred in Khasi and Jaintia Hills in 1905 spilling over into the Lushai Hills which profoundly accelerated the rate of Mizo conversions. Within sixty years almost the whole of the Mizo people embraced Christianity. Together with the Welsh Presbyterians, the British Baptists too were instrumental in bringing the Mizos to Christianity. By the end of the 19th century, Protestant Christianity was all over North-East India except in Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh. But the 20th century saw further spread and consolidation of Protestant Christianity with great increase in number by incorporating more and more tribal groups in all the states of the Northeast, development of institutional structures and educational and medical institutions. Today Protestantism has taken deep root in the entire region. Two important factors that have helped the spread and consolidation of Protestant churches in the North-East are the Revival Movements and the indigenous character of Protestant Christianity. The Revival Movements helped in the indigenization of the Protestant churches to a considerable extent. In the revivals, people of all ages experienced spiritual awakening in a form accompanied by diverse manifestations of emotional outburst. With acceptance of one‟s sinfulness, asking for God‟s forgiveness and experiencing it as the major themes of these meetings, many Christians were confirmed in their faith and this prompted others to join the new faith. The second factor that helped the spread of Protestant Christianity was its indigenous leadership which made mission a people‟s movement. Protestant missionaries were mostly lay people who, although did not have a high level of theological education were able to communicate their faith to the people in their language and cultural forms and this led to the acceptance of the new faith by the people. Naturally the congregational character of these Protestant churches, that is, the lack of centralization and considerable autonomy and independence of the local congregations to regulate their affairs helped the process of Christianization. Added to that was the educational, medical, charitable and cultural activities of the Protestant churches in North-East India. Christianity gave an identity to the people with its manifold contributions to the uplift of the standard of life of the people in every way. In every sphere Christianity was an agent of change, modernization and transformation of the peoples and the beginnings were made by the Protestants. The greatest challenge of the Protestant churches in North-East India today is to foster a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood beyond tribal, denominational and inter-church lines, to diffuse the bloody rivalry between tribal groups and to help in initiating steps to settle the political problems that beset the region. A second challenge is to make Christianity a truly indigenous faith by bold inculturation. The Protestant churches are accused of transporting the western form of Christianity to the peoples of the North-East. So they should recover the basic myths of each tribe giving them a reinterpretation in the light of their faith in Christ. There is need to stress the importance and the 82

centrality of symbols in the primeval world, offering a perception of the faith different and in some senses richer than that which comes from concepts. In this way they can rescue ancient celebrations of local festivals and art forms. The respect for nature, central to the modern ecological consciousness, finds a strong ally in the tribal consciousness and it is not surprising that the tribals have been in the forefront of the battle to protect forests and rivers and to stop massive interference with nature characteristic of capitalist culture. But whether this is the case in the North-East is to be doubted where massive destruction of nature is going on unchallenged. Tribal Christianity should become the leading force in developing an ecological consciousness so badly needed in our time and the tribals of North-east India can give a lead in this. At present the work of the churches in NEI is primarily to foster a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood beyond the tribal lines and to diffuse the bloody rivalry between groups. Education and health care services are the main contributions of the Christians to their society. The leadership of all churches is in the hands of Indians. Christians are also heavily involved in politics, even at the national level. The respect for nature central to the modern ecological consciousness finds a strong ally in the tribal consciousness and it is not surprising that tribals have been in the forefront of the battle to protect forests and rivers and to stop massive interference with nature. Many people think that tribal Christianity is destined to become a leading force in developing an ecological theology so needed in our times. There is need for a Tribal Theology which will recover the basic myths of the tribals and give them a reinterpretation in the light of their faith in Christ. There is also need to stress the importance and the centrality of symbols, rescue their ancient celebrations of local festivals and art forms, especially their dances. Other Mass conversion Movements John Everette Clough, the famous American Baptist missionary was responsible for a mass movement in the Telengana region of AP in 1877 and 1878, known as the Ongole mass movement among the Madigas and Malas. In a six week period during the summer of 1878 he and his assistants baptized 9000 members of the Madiga community in and around Ongole and about 1700 Malas were baptized. It was the result of the famine relief undertaken by him and the missionaries. Slowly members from the Mala community also joined. By World War I the strength of the community was one million. Another mass movement was in Dornakal in Warangal Dt. Where the Anglical missionary from Tirunelveli V.S Azariah initiated a conversion movement among the Malas and Madigas in 1909 and by 1927 the number was 250000. The movement among the Chuhras of Punjab a margialized caste started in 1870 with a man whom we know as Ditt today. He was an illiterate trader in hides. He heard of the missionaries and in 1873 went to the headquarters of the United Presbyterian Mission in Sialkot and asked to be baptized. By 1915 the whole caste was converted. The Pulayas of Kerala were an oppressed group, traditionally a forest tribe, later agricultural workers. In 1938 the Jesuit missionaries began work among them (Chirakkal Mission) and they began converting to Christianity. They were given land. Untouchability was removed. Medical help and education were given. Women were treated with dignity. Fr. Caironi, Joseph Taffarel etc were the founders of the mission. The Parayar castes in south India too joined various Protestant churches in large numbers. There were conversion movements from among the Mahars and Mangs of Maharastra, Balahis in MP, Dheds in Gujarat, Chamars in UP and Bihar etc. 83

It is not possible to describe the emergence of the various dalit communities in India. There are numerous such communities throughout the country. We are not aware of the precise number of dalits in the various churches but it is believed that together with the tribals they are a clear majority of the total Christian population. It is a fact that they still suffer a lot of discrimination even within the Church. But the most blatant of all is the political discrimination that Christian dalits undergo. One of the significant movements started in the last decades of the twentieth century is what is known as the Dalit Theology. Its leaders were first from the Protestant churches, men like M.E. Prabhakar, James Massey, Arvind Nirmal, etc. Basically Dalit theology reflects on the Christian message in the context of the experience of the dalits. It seeks to find the social and religious causes for the plight of this community all over the country and proposes to understand the Christian faith as a powerful means whereby this community can overcome this plight and contribute to the welfare of all. It is a liberation theology but its starting point is not poverty but the denial of human dignity to a group of people because of their origin and occupations, which all agree are necessary and beneficial to society. One cannot deny that mass conversions have taken place to Christianity from among the scheduled castes and tribals. But has it been a Christian phenomenon only? In spite of the propaganda by some people, no serious historian will deny that Hinduization of India was the result of a prolonged conversion process. Take for example south India. There were no Hindus there. It was brought there. Assam was not a Hindu state. It was preached there as in Manipur, Tripura etc. Today a lot of efforts are being made to convert people to Hinduism in different parts of the country. What about history? R.C. Majumdar says: “The colonial and cultural expansion of India is one of the most brilliant episodes in Indian history.” Nehru says: “From the first century of the Christian era onwards waves after wave of Indian colonists spread east and southeast intent on trade. The traders and merchants may have been followed by missionaries.” How do we otherwise explain the conversion of the Bali islands in Indonesia? A.L. Bashan says the same thing. Thousands of Hindu ashrams are springing up all over the world and thousands of gurus preach the Hindu religion throughout the world. So also Buddhism. There was conversion to Buddhism inside and outside the country. Under Ambedkar‟s leadership 3 million people in Maharastra embraced Budhism. Conversions to Islam have taken place. The Reasons for the success of mass conversion movements to Christianity 1. The role of land: The adivasis‟ conversion in Bihar was linked to the socio-economic crisis for over a century which reached its peak in the 19th century. Land was not a mere economic factor but had a sacred character. Their conversion was primarily motivated by the hope of resolving their agrarian troubles and to get freedom from their landlords and their exploitation. They were powerless and helpless. The British were indifferent. The missionaries were sympathetic, they listened to them, made them conscious of their rights, and helped them. They were their saviours. They felt obliged to accept their faith. Some missionaries were aware of this socio-economic motivation, but hoped that they would be able to elevate their motives to something higher after their conversion. We have to admit that there are economic motives in everything and therefore it is unfair to exaggerate it in this case. Ever since Marx we know how we are affected by economic forces and religion is no exception to this. 2. Role of colonial policies: There was at least an indirect link between mass conversions and colonial policies. Whenever it suited them, the British would support the missionaries and even 84

work against the local rajas although they had pledged neutrality. So there was a gap between theory and practice. There are many examples of colonial politics actively supporting mission in many places. 3. The Status factor: The simple people were often influenced by the status that the foreign missionaries enjoyed and the fact that Christianity was the religion of the ruling class. The Hindus despised them. So the association with the missionaries was a matter of status. There is a report about a new convert who prided himself in saying that the King emperor was his brother in faith. The claims of superiority of Christianity over Hinduism, the religion of the Zamindars, gave the converts a feeling of elation and prestige. 4. Freedom from social Injustice: The society was dominated by social injustice. There was exploitation, and oppression. They were considered barbarians and uncivilized people by the higher class. They were looking for justice equality and human dignity which they found in Christianity. They looked to the missionaries for protection from oppression and marginalization. The austere and ascetic life style of the missionaries, their commitment to their cause etc., convinced these people that these Christians missionaries were interested in them and that they did not come to exploit them. 5. The Prophetic role: The charisma of some of the Christian leaders, like Lievens, J.E. Clough, etc. were very much helpful. They were leaders and also prophets because they were not afraid of challenging the oppression of the poor, the caste system etc. The dominant class was shaken. The people found themselves powerful enough to oppose the oppressive system themselves. 6. Absence of intellectual systems which is normally the case with all such mass conversions. Those tribes which came under the influence of Hinduism have not responded to Christianity. They preferred to remain part of the Hindu system. The Raj Gonds in central India, Bhils, Thakurs, Chodras, Warlis, Konkanas, etc., are examples. The tribals and the dalits did not have any systematically developed philosophical and religious systems and there was nothing to forbid them from changing their traditional religions. 7. Differentiation and identity formation as happened with the tribals in the Northeast. They accepted Christianity because they did not want to become Hindus or Muslims and wanted a separate identity. 8. Conversion as a modernizing force. It was a stimulation for people to change their life and join the modern society and thus to gain upward mobility in society. It was a step towards a higher good. So the reasons for these mass movements are complex. It was a messianic movement with expectation of sure and imminent this-worldly collective liberation from socio-economic and political helplessness and frustration. The presence of charismatic missionaries greatly helped. It is not helpful to exaggerate one aspect of the process and ignore the others as some critics have done. Dominant castes in India and their values and social relations gave rise to domination, oppression, exploitation, inhumanity, injustice, social rejection, inequality, hatred, loss of dignity etc. The tribals and the Dalits chose Christian missionaries and their values and social relations such as service, liberation, protection, human dignity, social justice, social acceptance, equality, social acceptance, and love. This led to the mass conversions. 85

The process of social, religious and other changes associated with Christianization was significantly different from other such movements. It was characterized by a greater social dynamism. Social changes among the Christians took place rather rapidly. In the fields of education and socioeconomic development they achieved greater improvements compared to their counterparts who did not become Christians. It is undeniable that Christianity has contributed towards the social mobility of marginalized communities considerably. Still conversion to Christianity has become a sensitive issue today. Very often facts are distorted to show that large scale conversions are taking place in India. According to the census 2001, Christians constitute 2,3% of the population (24 million in a population of 1028 million). The figures of the 2011 census have not been released). There is no increase from the census of 1991. Why the impression is created that Christians are growing in number phenomenally? One reason is that there have been mass conversions to Christianity in the past and whole groups of people embraced the religion. But this has been accepted by all and the reasons have been analysed and it is a thing of the past. Another reason for this is the high concentration and quite a rapid growth of Christianity in some parts of the country, like NEI. As has been pointed out, this concerns the four states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Meghalaya who have a minuscule population compared to the rest of the country (0.70%). In other places like Kerala and Goa Christianity has declined. A third reason for the impression that Christianity is growing phenomenally is the preaching habit of certain evangelical groups in India who with their crusading spirit engage in aggressive preaching. Often no distinction is made between these groups and the mainline Christian churches which do not subscribe to their ideology. The objections raised against conversions are the following: 1. Force, threat and coercion are used: This has been difficult to prove although it is attributed to many conversion movements that took place in the past. At the present time there are scarcely any reported instances of conversion by force, threat or coercion. Today the Hindutvavadis use threat more than others. 2. Inducements and allurements: This is a common allegation against Christian missionaries. Even Gandhi accused the missionaries of this. The rationale behind this argument is that the tribals and dalits and the poor in general are susceptible to inducements because of their poverty and they are not moved by religious motives. This is an unduly paternalistic attitude towards the poor and the marginalized, as if their whole life is ruled by economic factors. If that is the case, they should have returned to their religion when they don‟t get any more incentives. In most cases this does not happen although some may have done that. 3. Fraud or deception. This is an allegation but there has been no known case of fraud or deception. For the opponents of Christianity, all that the Christians do is deceptive means to convert, even their educational and medical and other charitable institutions, their practices of inculturation, their ashrams, etc 4. Against the unity and integrity of the country. The division of the country caused by a minority religion is usually quoted. So if the number of Christians increases this may happen again. They point to the northeast as a potential area. 86

5. Capture of political power. In a democracy, number counts. Number means votes and votes mean power and conversion will upset the political calculations of the dominant. 6. The language of conversion is paternalistic. “I and my religion are better than you and your religion.” It arises from a superiority complex. In a pluralistic set up conversion from one religion to another is unwarranted. It is against the spirit of secularism enshrined in the constitution and shows intolerance towards other religions and urges their followers to convert to one‟s own. 7. It is against scientific rationality. Religions present an outdated world view. They only help in the perpetuation of the existing order of society with its inequalities and injustices. Today there are various secular ideologies and humanistic philosophies, providing a rationalistic and comprehensive system of explanations. 8. Conversion is alienation from Indian culture. Often the converts denigrate Indian culture, and don‟t try to adapt their religion to the culture of the land. 8. It disrupts social harmony. Conversion often leads to social tension among various groups and disrupts social harmony. Christianization is a process through which a large number of people from backward castes and various tribes of India rejected their traditional supernatural systems and accepted Jesus Christ, the symbol system of the Christians, the ethics of Jesus and thus created a new community. This was helped by education and other humanitarian services performed by the agents of mission. It effected a socio-cultural change: the social status of the Christians was advanced. It provided a new ethos and a gave a new religious and social identity to them. This new community was supposed to be free of oppression, exploitation etc. Instead there was supposed to be a sense of equality. Christianization helped the widening of their horizons and against the background of the social disadvantages they suffered, it was a tremendous liberation. So it can be considered an authentic alternative to Hinduization. Christianization has led to more liberation for the dalits and the tribals than Hinduization. Surely there is need for us to look into our theology of mission, our priorities in mission, etc. and dispel any wrong notion about these concepts in the minds of he people, especially since there are indeed people who aggressively propagate Christianity. But the propaganda against Christians should be seen in its realistic context. Its hypocrisy should be exposed. They are opposed to conversion but they themselves do it. There are more Hindu and Buddhist missionaries going to the West than Christian missionaries coming to India. The present day propaganda against conversion has very little to do with religion. It is primarily a political tool, used to incite people. Its ultimate aim is to protect the dominance of the high castes against the social and economic liberation of the lower castes. This liberation will adversely affect the fortunes of the high castes in this country. Barring the extremist and rare positions, the present views regarding conversion among Christians may be summarised thus 1. Conversion is a personal right. Everybody is free to take decisions regarding faith affiliation, if any, and the way in which one wants to serve God. This applies to all. 87

2. Everybody has the right to share his or her faith and even to try to persuade others of its value. This must be done humbly and in a spirit of inter-religious dialogue. 3. Some Christians feel it necessary to share their faith and would like others to accept it because they find in it a precious and unique value. 4. Other Christians feel no urge to share their faith. They believe that God guides people down various paths, and that they should respect God‟s ways and not interfere. These Christians tend to feel that each religion has its own value and that these values cannot be compared although we may learn many things from one another. 5. Most Christians still think that as a body they and their churches are sent to the world to continue the mission of Jesus. But this mission is often reinterpreted in terms of spreading the message of Jesus about the Kingdom of God for this world, a kingdom of justice, equality, love, forgiveness, freedom, and respect for one another. Thus their role and the mission of their churches is to contribute to the achievement of these ideals in dialogue and cooperation with other believers and with people without religious affiliation but imbued with the same spirit. The mission is a call to dialogue and common action in favour of the higher ideals of humanity. 6. Many think that in this common endeavour and mission that belongs to all, different religious traditions can bring values that inspire and give guidance to the common enterprise. 7. The official position of mainstream churches is rather inclusive. They affirm the right of individuals to personal conversion, including, if they think this is their call, a change of religious affiliation. They also reaffirm the duty of Christians to engage in missionary work. This mission involves all aspects of salvation, beginning with the construction of a world of justice, equality and fraternity. It also includes the announcement that Jesus Christ is the means by which the fullness of divine life reaches us. They stand by the New Testament understanding of Jesus Christ as Saviour of the world.  8. CHRISTIANITY AND THE INDIAN RENAISSANCE. The Portuguese, Danes, Dutch and the French did not make much contribution to the political and socio-cultural life of India. But the British initiated a real encounter between East and West, Christian, western culture and Hindu, Indian culture. With the establishment of British rule new influences began coming in and transformations were ushered in, which laid the foundation for modern India. The most important aspect of it was English education without which there could have been no Indian nation as we know it today. Other influences were the press, women‟s liberation pioneered by some Christian missionaries etc. Christian mission helped all these developments. The total result of this is what we call the Indian Renaissance. It had two aspects. 1. Reform of Hinduism and 2. The emergence of Nationalism/National movement The movement introduced a fascinating new India, no longer an isolated civilization of high calibre but a cosmopolitan and pluralistic culture wherein all humanistic voices of the world could find an echo.

88

1. Reform of Hinduism refers to the experience of renewed vitality in Hinduism resulting from the 19th century synthesis of Hindu and Western culture. It was one of the direct consequences of the Christian educational endeavour. This had again two aspects: Social and Religious. 1. Social: the social aspect refers to the social reform movements which began in Bengal, principally in Calcutta, against the caste system, sati, infanticide, human sacrifice, slavery, child marriage and for equality for women. This was spearheaded by the missionaries and the British government but had the powerful backing of Indian intellectuals. 2. Religious: the religious aspect refers to the movements against idolatry, superstition, polytheism, brahmanic, hereditary priesthood, etc. which would lead to a reform of Hinduism. When educated Hindus analyzed Hinduism in the light of liberal western knowledge they found deficiencies in it. Some of the persons who initiated and sustained these reforms were: a. Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) The father of modern India that was to produce extraordinary people like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnana, Jagdish Chandra Bose, and many other luminaries of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rationalist, linguist, well-versed in all the religious traditions of the world and influenced by Unitarianism, he campaigned against Sati because he witnessed a Sati (his brother's wife) himself. Hindu polytheism repelled him. He proposed a monotheistic and ethical religion. He was influenced by Christianity and Islam. He wanted to reform Hinduism but was against conversions. In 1828 he founded the Brahmo Samaj - to worship the one God, to be moral and benevolent and to be united; to unite all men of Good will in the search for and adoration of the Supreme principle of all Being. The theism of Brahmo Samaj was rooted in Hinduism but it was also influenced by Christianity and Islam. His aim was to bring Hindus back to a true understanding of the glory of their faith by eliminating everything that was inconsistent with that glory. The services were designed after the Sunday worship of the Christians but without rites. Only singing, reading the scriptures, and a homily were permitted. The membership was never large but its coming into being was of great significance. It offered the educated public of Bengal a religion which was rational, free from superstition, exalted in its ethical demands and capable of leading one to God. It was also an attempt to give the best in other religions to the Hindus in a form that was not objectionable. b. Debendranath Tagore (1817-1905) A leader of the Brahmo Samaj, and its second founder; sympathetic to the ideals of Ram Mohan Roy to reform Hinduism but against Christianity. He was convinced that he had to protect the Brahmo Samaj from three things: idolatry, Christianity, and Vedantism. Christianity had to be rejected because of its doctrines like the incarnation. Jesus was only a religious leader. Idolatry ascribed humanity to Brahman. This was a self-contradiction. Vedanta claimed that Brahman and all created things are the same. It was as erroneous as idolatry. Christianity was hated for an added reason, its mission: In 1845 he wrote: “How much more are we going to remain overpowered by the sleep of inaction? Behold, our religion is being altogether destroyed, our country is on the road to ruin and our very Hindu name is about to the wiped out forever. Therefore keep your boys aloof from all contact with missionaries. Give up sending your sons to their schools and take immediate 89

steps to enable them to cultivate their minds with due vigour. His principle was that religion should be rational and one should accept from scriptures only those things which are reasonable. c. Dayananda Sarasvati (1824-1883) With him the revival of Hinduism turned aggressive and even militant. He wanted to go back to the Vedic purity of Hinduism and attacked all questionable beliefs and practices in it. He condemned the catur-vana and sought to replace it with a more fluid social order based on merit. He accepted the right of everyone to study the vedas, even women. He founded the Arya Samaj. Attitude to Christianity was totally negative. He said that the Christian Bible contains hundreds of thousands of things that are condemnable. He founded the Arya Upadeshak Mandli to deal “death blow to Christianity with weapons of reason and fair argument.” It must be noted that in the beginning conservative Hindus had slandered him as an atheist and spy paid by the Christians. d. Sri Ramkrishna Paramahamsa (1836-1886) If Ram Mohan Roy was the “mind” and Dayanada Saraswati, “the arm”, Ramakrishna was the “soul” of reformed Hinduism. Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj affected only a very small section of the population. They could not offer leadership to the whole of Hinduism. Ramakrishna provided this leadership. He had no formal education. After much study and profound reflection and mystical experiences, he in his truly mystical spirit, put forward the theory of the equality of all religions, which his disciple Vivekananda and later on other Indian leaders like Tagore, Gandhi, Radhakrishnan, Aurobindo etc. have upheld. This is how he expressed his theory of equality of all religions. "I have practised all religions - Hindu, Islam, Christianity and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects .... I have found that it is the same God towards whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths. The tank has several ghats ... At one Hindus draw water in pitches, and call it Jala ...at another Mussalmans draw water in leathern bottles and call it pani; at a third Christians do the same and call it water". Ramakrishna, through his stories and parables, reinterpreted Hinduism for all, and infused life into it. e. Vivekananda (1862-1902) He regarded Ramakrishna as an incarnation of God. He wanted to propagate the message of Ramakrishna and after his death took over leadership of his disciples. He had a western education. H attended the World Parliament of Religions in 1893 at Chicago where he spoke about the harmony of all religions. He founded the Ramakrishna mission in 1897 to propagate the equality of all religions and even to uphold the superiority of Advaita Vedanta. It was supposed to be the purest form of religion. But he rejected superstitions in all religions. All religions are manifestations of the eternal religion whose purest form was Advaita Vedanta. H rejected the superiority claims of Christianity. On the whole the Western/Christian impact on Hinduism can be described in the following way: It created an identity crisis in the minds of some Indians and they gave up Hinduism. Some accepted Christianity. The vast majority never considered Christianity as a substitute for their religion but rather as a challenge to reform their religion and society. They became convinced of the inner dynamism of their own religion. Christianity which was associated with the colonial masters could not be an alternative to their ancestral faith. But ideas from western culture could help in liberating Hinduism from superstition and thus help counter Christian mission. 90

2. Nationalism and the National Movement This was another way West/Christianity influenced India and the Indian Renaissance. The period of fifty years following the revolt of 1857 was characterised by rapid growth of national consciousness among the Indians, which resulted in the National Movement. In a way Ram Mohan Roy was the founder of the National movement too. His attitude to the West was not surrender, withdrawal or conflict, but understanding and comprehension, and when needed cooperation if that would helps one‟s own cause. That is how he wholeheartedly supported English education. He said that the western culture was not a substitute to Indian culture but a vital supplement. He made western knowledge respectable. So there emerged a westernised educated class of Indians. They were rich and bound by one language. It was inevitable that at some time they express themselves politically. That was how the national movement began. It began with the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885. In the beginning the Indians expressed their nationalism in different ways: 1. Some supported liberal Constitutional reforms, advocated for example by M.G. Ranade. 2. Some others wanted a cultural and literacy renaissance, advocated for example, by Tagore 3. A third group advocated militant nationalism, advocated for example by Bankim Chandra Chatterji, Brahmabandab Upadhyay, Bal Gangadara Tilak, Aurobindo Ghose etc Christian Contribution to the National Movement It should not surprise anyone to learn that India‟s Christian communities as a whole were not enthusiastic about the freedom movement in its earlier phase. The presence of a Christian government in the country was for many an assurance of survival amid an otherwise Hindu population. In the words of K.M. Panikkar Christianity directly contributed but little to the growth of the nationalist feeling. The earlier of high caste converts, Kalipad Mukhreji, Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Raja Harnam Singh remained nationally minded Indians even after their acceptance of Christianity; but with the growing estrangement between the British government, to which Christians as a community looked for encouragement, and the nationalist movement whose avowed object was to recover India's freedom, the Christian community found itself placed in a very difficult dilemma. In the ever volatile tension between the two main religious bodies, Hinduism and Islam, the Christians thought that the presence of the Raj contained the promise of an impartial arbiter. As a Bengali Christian put it: We do not know in what way it will be of any advantage to Indian Christians if they join the non-Christians in political agitation. If further political rights and privileges are granted to the people of this country, our poor and small community will not have the remotest chance to be profited by them. On the other hand greater powers in the hands of non-Christians may prove dangerous to the very life of our community. We know by experience that wherever the non-Christians are in power the poor Indian Christians labour under a great disadvantage and have to suffer humiliation, indignities and even persecution (Joseph J. Ghosh). 91

But from the beginning of the Indian National Congress there were Christian members in it. At the first meeting, it is said that there were Christians, both native, Eurasian and Europeans. At the third meeting in 1887 there were fifteen Indian Christian delegates. Presidents of the fourth and fifth sessions of the Congress were Christians and in 1890 there were again fifteen delegates. One of the prominent Christian political leaders was Kalicharan Banerji, who was a member of the Congress from its very inception. Others were Michael Madhusudan Das, Pandita Ramabai, etc. By the beginning of the 20th century, the national movement was polarised along communal lines, especially in the wake of the partition of Bengal in 1905. Of great significance for the national movement was Brahmabandhab Upadhyay, another Bengali convert. First his attempt was to change the European face of the Church through incultuation but when that was met with opposition from ecclesiastical authorities, he increasingly changed to political activity. It began with political journalism which had an aggressive style. It aroused political consciousness of the masses and also the suspicion of the British. With the spread of English education and culture India lost her own idea of civilization. Our educated classes think as they have been taught by their Firinghi masters. Our minds have been conquered. We have become slaves. The faith in our own culture and the love for things are gone. India will reach Swaraj the day she will again have faith in herself ... the whole mass of our people must now be made to appreciate things Indian and to return to our ancient ways. K.T. Paul (1876-1931) was another freedom fighter. He represented the Christian community at the first Round Table Conference in 1930. He believed in persuasion rather than agitation. We will do well to realise that there is a terrible danger if we persist in the policy of keeping aloof. Materially, socially, morally, and politically, viewed in fact from every standpoint, our interests are intimately bound up with those of other Indian communities. Will it ever be otherwise? Long after Britain's political mission to India is finished, let us hope five centuries later – for all things earthly must end or change – we shall still be Indians . . . What greater opportunity can arise than the crisis of today? . . . To be born at this hour in India and to have the opportunity to take share in the shaping of our national destinies at perhaps the most critical point of its history, if that is not an opportunity, what is? It would not only be a lamentable misapprehension of the spirit of Christ but also a grievous neglect of a great Godgiven opportunity, if it is not realised that Indian Christians have a tremendous duty in regard to the secular crisis in India Joseph Baptista (1864-1930) was a civil engineer and friend and adviser of Lokmanya Tilak. He formed the Indian Home League Rule in 1916. George Joseph (1887-1938) who left his legal profession and joined the national struggle became a friend of Gandhi and became the editor of Young India. His brother Pothan Joseph (1894-1972), a great publicist too was in the forefront of the national movement. From the very inception of the Travancore State Congress Annie Mascarenas was its active member. Rajakumari Amrit Kaur (1889-1964) was a daughter of Raja Harnam Sing, of the Kapurthala ruling family. Raja Harnam Singh had converted to Christianity in his youth. Rajakumari Amrit Kaur entered public life and was president of the All India Women‟s Association. She was secretary to Gandhi for sixteen years and participated in the Quit India 92

movement. In 1947 she became the first health minister under Jawaharlal Nehru and remained a champion of female education and the upliftment of dalits. Another close collaborator of Gandhi was J.C. Kumarappa (1892-1957), coming from a Christian family of Thanjavur. S.K. George (1900-60) who was a lecturer in Bishop‟s College, Calcutta resigned in protest against the remarks made by the bishop of Calcutta against Gandhi‟s civil disobedience movement. It is impossible to mention individual names and the activities in the different regions. Nehru said in his autobiography: “We record our grateful appreciation of the fact that all major and minor communities and classes in India have joined together in the great struggle and given of their best to the cause, particularly the minority communities, the Muslim, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians, and others...” Dr. C Rajagopalachari said in 1944: “Does not the nationalist world in India know that the Indian Christian community has distinguished itself at every conference by giving the fullest support to the nationalist movement?” C.F. Andrews was a staunch sympathizer of the movement, which at times put him at odds with his British compatriots in India. He said: “I cannot but feel that it should be the most serious blow to Indian Christianity if the impression gained ground that Indian Christians were opposed to the National Movement and were only occupied in the interests of their own community.” One of the major contributions of the Christian community to the freedom struggle and the subsequent Constitution of India was to renounce and even oppose the idea of separate electorates for separate religious bodies and reservations on the basis of religious affiliation. It was already expressed as early as 1922 at the All India Conference of Indian Christians. In conclusion we can say that Western/Christian influence on the Indian society was an all pervasive one, affecting every sphere of life. Positively, it created a yearning for enlightenment, love for the country, desire for national identity, and revived the Indian cultural heritage helped by the Oriental scholars. Christianity and western knowledge challenged and inspired the Hindus to go back to their cultural and religious roots. Some of them were inspired to accept useful Christian values like the tradition of service of the poor. As K.M. Panikkar put it: “The work of the missionaries among the aboriginal tribes may be said to have created a tradition of social service which modern India has inherited. If the Indian Constitution included special provisions for the welfare of the tribal communities and Advasis and if the centre and the states are making concentrated efforts to bring them up to the general level of India, much of the credit for such activities must be given to the missionaries.” Others were attracted by the humanism and ethics of the Gospel and the person of Christ. Few educated Hindus were attracted to the institutional church although there were a few conversions. The Indian Renaissance had consequences for Christianity. One of them was the movement away from higher castes to the backward castes/classes who accepted Christianity in large numbers. The Christians were also forced to adopt new missionary strategies, particularly, to adapt Christianity to Indian culture and to interpret the Christian message for the Indian context. In other words, the Christians in India were challenged to create an Indian Church. The nationalist feelings among the Indians also helped this. By the middle of the nineteenth century, many Indian Christians wanted to be in charge of their affairs and develop forms of Christian life and worship consonant with the cultural traditions of the country. Two of the important centres of this movement were Bengal and 93

Madras. Thus in Tirunelveli, in reaction to the CMS missionaries, the local Nadar Christians formed the Hindu Church of the Lord Jesus Christ (1858). In Calcutta Lal Bihari Day suggested in the late 1860s the founding of a National Church of Bengal. He was for giving leadership in the churches to the Indians. In 1868 Kali Charan Banerji founded the Bengal Christian Association for the Promotion of Christian Truth and Goodness and the Protection of the Rights of Indian Christians. In 1884 the Christo Samaj was founded in Calcutta which stood for a “substantive Christianity” without its historical accretions. It accepted only the Apostle‟s Creed as its basis. In 1886 Parny Andy formed the National Church of Madras based on a rather liberal theology and aiming at financial self-sufficiency. None of the movements lasted long but they are an indication that at least some Christian communities were in sympathy with the incipient national sentiment. In the early part of the twentieth century we find a more articulate search for an authentic Indian Church, Indian theology and organization. One of the significant movements was the “Rethinking Christianity in India Group” formed by prominent thinkers in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, like P. Chenchiah, V. Chakkarai, S. Jesudasan, E. Asirvatham, etc. It advocated a dialogue between Hinduism and Christianity and the secular mission of the Church in self-forgetting love. Towards an Indian Church/Theology What is an Indian church? Ad Gentes 22 says: “The seed which is the Word of God sprouts from the ground, watered by divine dew. From this ground the seed draws nourishing elements which it transforms and assimilates into itself. Finally it bears fruit. If this goal is to be achieved theological investigation must necessarily be stirred up in each major socio-cultural area.” Such theological investigation alone will give birth to an Indian theology and Indian church. An Indian church will be created when Indians become Christians, develop as Christians, create for themselves an identity as Christian Indians, adapt the church to the Indian situation, make themselves felt as a recognized and integral part of Indian society, with an Indian theological, ritual and organizational expression. Did the missionaries come with this objective? From history it is difficult to prove that this was the case. They were convinced that their form of Christianity, whether Catholic or Protestant, was the best form of Christianity. It was understandable in the context of the theology emanating from the Council of Trent which saw unity in rites and practices as paramount in order ward of any division like the Protestant Reformation. So their attitude to other forms of Christianity was very negative. If other forms of Christianity were looked down upon, other religions would even be more repugnant. Two books written towards the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries show this attitude. The titles are very telling. One written by a Franciscan Paulo da Trinidade on the Franciscan missions in the East was: Conquista Espiritual do Oriente (The Spiritual Conquest of the East) and the other by a Jesuit Francisco de Souza was: Oriente Conquistado a Jesu Christo (The East conquered for Jesus Christ). So at the end of the 19th century there was no Indian church in India. They came from various European countries and belonged to different religious orders. In social status and academic qualification, they did not, on the whole, rank high. Most of them were priests and religious trained in seminaries in the spirit of the counter-reformation. They were prepared with a set of answers for all situations, with little knowledge about a wider world of thought and culture outside. They knew as a whole little about the religions outside Europe. De Nobili, Beschi, Hanxleden etc, were exceptions. As a result, there was a uniform theology, without any adaptation, 94

in lifestyle, language or liturgy. The Protestants came from the pietist or evangelical backgrounds. Their outlook was determined by the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone, which meant confession and faith in Jesus, coupled with rigid biblical orthodoxy. The reality of sin and the perverted will of every human being had only one solution, namely, the faith in salvation through Jesus Christ. Idolatry was the worst of sins and many missionaries saw in Hinduism only idolatry of the worst kind. Both movements were driven by a sense of evangelizing zeal and mission. Most of the missionary societies that came to India were products of these movements. Like their Catholic counterparts, most missionaries did not stand very high in education and social standing. So the first and foremost reason for the absence of an Indian Church was missionary attitudes. But there were also other causes, like: 





The spirit of conformity practised by the Indian Christians. The Indian Christians and clergy, to the most part, imitated their European counterparts. They were more western than their western counter parts in dress, language, theological outlook etc. except the Christians in the South. So there was uniformity but not originality. Absence of a native clergy and episcopate. A church cannot be called indigenous unless those responsible for it are from among the people. Without it there can be no real integration with the culture of the land. The Portuguese had many Indian priests but they were generally kept in subordinate positions. Their loyalties were totally blinded by the Padroado. They had no mind for inculturation. Their curriculum was Tridentine, they studied exactly the same things which the seminaries in Europe taught. We do not come across any writing by indigenous clergy about an Indian theology or adaptation of Christianity to Indian culture. The Thomas Christian community had plentiful local priests but they too have done very little in this field. There were many outstanding leaders in the community but they spent their time fighting against the ecclesiastical authorities. The Propaganda tried to bring up a native episcopate but gave it up later because of the opposition from the Padroado authorities. The religious orders did not encourage Indian to become members. The Protestants had local ministers but full equality was not granted to them. Another factor that hindered the emergence of an Indian church was the spirit of conservatism in Rome which prohibited all adaptation. The Malabar Rites were banned in 1744 and missionaries were asked to take an oath against all adaptation practices.

In spite of these hindrances, it became clear to many Indian Christians and some foreign missionaries that that Christianity has to respond to the changed situations in India. And many Christians, both Indian and foreign, contributed to towards the development of an Indian Christian theology. The volume of their writings is not negligible and the quality quite impressive. Paths of Indian Christian Theology 1. St. Thomas Christians: Did the earliest apostolic church in India, the church of St. Thomas Christians contribute to the creation of an authentically Indian theology? They have been characterized as “Hindu in culture, Christian in faith and Oriental in worship.” In their sociocultural life, they were not different from their Hindu counterparts. For them acceptance of the Christian faith did not mean abandoning the socio-cultural customs and practices of theirs. But still according to some authors the St Thomas Christians could not contribute much towards the 95

formulation of a specific Indian Christian Theology unlike what the early Christians did in the Greco-Roman world or in Syria. However, some recent authors have pointed out that the theological contributions of the St Thomas Christians are unique and significant. Unfortunately, most of the original sources about the Thomas Christians in Malayalam and Syriac were destroyed by the Portuguese. The existing sources about the St Thomas Christians are the writings of western missionaries and the acts and decrees of the Synod of Diamper. Most of the western writers were prejudiced against the St Thomas Christians whom they considered schismatics and heretics, and whom the Portuguese had brought back to the true faith. They could not understand their unique customs and practices or their way of life which they had developed in the course of centuries. They lived a profound theology rather than creating a theological system in words and categories. Two points are important for us today. First, their harmonious and positive relationship with their Hindu neighbours and the followers of other religions like the Buddhists, Jains, Jews, etc. They took part in each others festivals, having a common education in the village schools called kalaris, normally under an asan who was a Hindu. They believed that each one could be saved through his own religion. But the West had a radically opposite theological view and the practices of the Thomas Christians were condemned as heresy. Second, their ecclesiology. The understanding in the West was that their form of Christianity was the only true form of Christianity. For the Thomas Christians the Law of Thomas and Law of Peter were both from Christ and each one had distinctive characteristics and this diversity was legitimate. This has been accepted by Vatican II as a correct ecclesiology today. An important aspect of this ecclesiology was that the Church was truly the people of God. Their assemblies or yogams enjoyed full legislative, administrative and judicial powers. The bishop was the spiritual leader who led a contemplative life like the ascetics of India. 2. Robert de Nobili, the pioneer western missionary of accommodation: Robert de Nobili was the first western missionary who had a positive appreciation of the culture of the people of India. Imitating the St Thomas Christians, he adapted some of the customs of the brahmins of Madurai and tried to bring Christianity nearer to them. It was the first serious attempt by the western church to interpret and reformulate Christianity in terms of Indian categories and thought patters. But the Church of the time was not ready to appreciate such bold steps in inculturation. The whole attempt had to be abandoned later on. But it must be said that he was also an apologist who was convinced of the superiority of Christianity. Moreover he compromised with the caste system. 3. Early Protestant missionaries: They came with a very negative attitude towards Indian religions. It was utter falsehood and had to be abolished. But to do that one had to prove it and that led to the study of Hinduism. Bartholomew Ziegenbalg, the first Protestant missionary in India, is known for the initiation of the scientific study of Hinduism. There were several other missionaries among the Orientalists engaged in the study of Hinduism. The attitude was paternalistic because its ultimate aim was to overcome Hinduism with Christianity. Many missionaries used their knowledge to ridicule Hinduism. 4. Indian Hindus: This led to reactions, especially in the wake of the Indian Renaissance, and some Hindus themselves challenged the Indian Christians to adapt Christianity to Indian culture. Raja Ram Mohan Roy (The Precepts of Jesus: The Guide to Peace and Happiness); Keshub Chandra Sen (The Church of the New Dispensation); P.C. Mazoomdar (the Oriental Christ) are some of them. 96

The criticisms of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, S. Radhakrishnan etc also challenged Christians. If we summarise their ideas we see that they were by and large fascinated by the person of Christ and Christian ethics rather than Christian dogmas or the institutions of the church. Many fundamental Christian doctrines like the incarnation, Trinity, salvific death of Christ etc were not acceptable to them. They all objected to Christian mission which in their eyes advocated the inferiority of Hinduism. But they challenged Christians to make Christian theology indigenous. They even produced some seminal categories which are the starting points for theologians today, for example, the use of saccidananda (sat-cit-ananda) for Trinity first used by Keshub Chandra Sen! As a response to this many Christians, both Indian and western, began theological reflection using Indian thought patterns, largely, converts from Hinduism to Christianity who wanted to express their faith in the language of the land and in the context of the emerging nationalism. Those missionaries who were engaged in working with the dalits and the tribals did not see it as a priority to reflect on their work and to develop a theology. That is why we speak of a dalit or tribal theology only now. What was produced was largely a theology from the sanskritic tradition because those who were engaged in theological reflection were all from that tradition or were well versed in that tradition and language. 5. Western Catholic & Protestant missionaries: Catholic missionaries, like Pierre Johanns, Georges Dandoy, etc. tried to develop an Indian Christian philosophical and theological system based on the Vedanta but it followed the Thomistic model. Western Protestant missionaries like William Miller, J.N. Farquhar, Bernard Lucas, T.E. Slater, C.F. Andrews, etc. who were liberal Protestants advocated a Fulfilment theology, Jesus as the apex of the religious history of humanity. But there was also conservative reaction to this from people like Hendrik Kraemer (The Christian Message in a non-Christian World) who spoke of an absolute discontinuity between Christianity and Hinduism. 6. Indian Christians like Krishna Mohan Banerjea, (Aryan Witness) Lal Bihari Day, Brahmabandab Updadhyay, S.K. Datta, Kali Charan Banerji (from Bengal); Nehemia Goreh, Pandita Ramabai, Narayan Vaman Tilak, Manilal Parakh (from Maharashtra); K.T. Paul, Parny Andy, P. Chenchiah, V. Chakkarai, (from South India), etc. are pioneers of an Indian Christian Theology. Their theology has taken different forms and has different thrusts. Christianity and the bhakti tradition: the bhakti movement emphasized the development of personal devotion to Krishna in the Bhagavatgita and the development of the tradition of the personal devotion to the god of one‟s choice. The bhakti movement developed in the Tamil area especially initiated by the groups of poets called the Alvars. But it was Ramanuja who gave a theological content to this movement. The bhakti tradition has developed with his philosophical backing and spread all over India led by people like Tulsidas (North India), Namdev and Tukaram (Maharashtra), Chaitanya (Bengal) and Mirabhai (Gujarat and Rajasthan). Many Indian Christians were attracted to this. Sadu Sundhar Singh was born and brought up in Sikhism, was trained in the bhakti tradition, was converted to Christianity, became a sadhu and wandered about to proclaim the experience of Christ he had, without being affiliated to any church. He wanted to present “the water of life in an India cup.” A.J Appasamy, a Tamil poet, followed the south Indian Hindu tradition of bhakti and wrote his famous Christianity as Bhakti Marga. (1927). 97

The Madras Rethinking Group received its name from a book that was published in 1938 Rethinking Christianity in India. The theology that was developed in it arose from the spirit of patriotism that prevailed in India at that time and the blissful forgetfulness of the missionaries of the socio-political situation in the country. Rethinking Christianity in India was a response to that. The churches were criticized for the kind of management, administration, personnel etc. It really helped the Christians to rethink their commitment to the nation. All these people, almost all of whom were Protestants and were converts to Christianity, had the following characteristics: deeply Christian, deeply Indian, hailing from high castes, well educated, nationalists. All wanted a Church and theology which were not a mere translation of western concepts into Indian languages but a new creation using Indian philosophy and religious traditions. The Ashram Movement: The Ashram movemnet was pioneered by Protestant Christians. The pioneers are S. Jesudasan E. Forrester Patton, P. Chenchiah, Murray Rogers, etc. Ashrams encourage a spiritual contemplative life combined with a liturgical life. Ashrams are also centres of dialogue. Jules Monchanain or Swami Parama Arupi Anandam (1895-1957); Henri le Saux or Swami Abhishiktananda (1910-1973); Bede Griffiths or Swami Dayananda (1906-1993); Francis Acharya, Sr. Vandana, D.S Amlorpavadas, etc. are pioneers of the Catholic Ashram movement in India who saw the advaitic mystic experience as a good starting point for dialogue with Hinduism Theologizing from the context of the Socio-economic and political realities of India: The earlier attempts of the pioneers of Indian theology were often attempts to translate the Christian doctrines and western theology into Indian cultural philosophical and religious categories so that they may be understood and received by the Indian mind. For this mostly they had recourse to the religion, scriptures, and philosophies of the upper castes. However, the majority of the Indian people belonging to the lower castes, and the dalits and the tribals had no access to this theology. Their situation was more concrete in nature: social, political, and economic oppression and many Indian theologians began to realize that God‟s revelation in Jesus Christ is also a social message and a call to create a new humanity. The Protestant theologian Paul Devanandan (1901-62) was perhaps the first Indian theologian who powerfully presented such a trend of thought and identified the link between Christ and the search for a new humanity in India. M.M. Thomas (1916-96) another Protestant lay theologian followed Devanandan and he is perhaps the most articulate theologian who elaborated the links between Christian message and modern secularity. Another famous theologian was Paulose Mar Gregoriose. They emphasized dialogue with the secular ideologies of India and all movements which build up the nation. These theologians laid the foundation for an Indian version of liberation theology probably influenced by the Latin American theology of liberation. Two names are important: Sebastian Kappen (1924-93), and George Soares-Prabhu (1929-95). Sebastian Kappen has made a unique contribution to an Indian theology of liberation. The goal of religion and theology is transformation and humanization of the world. And in this he wanted the collaboration of all the people of India. George Soares-Prabhu was a famous biblical scholar who interpreted the Bible from the point of the view of the poor and the marginalized of India. Dialogue with Religions: Another widely read Indian theologian was D.S. Amalorpavadas (193290). He too worked for the dialogue of the church with Indian religions and cultures, fostered Indian forms of worship and had a strong influence on the transformation of the Catholic church into an open church. Anthony de Mello (1931-87) became world famous who applied the wisdom 98

of Eastern sages and modern psychology to lead people closer to God and open their minds to broader horizons than those of their narrow religious formation. Some Indian Christians embrace what is called a pluralistic view of religions, according to which all religions are equal in so far as they are paths leading to the same goal of salvation or union with the divine reality. One outstanding Indian Christian who has propagated this view is S.J. Samartha (1920-2001). He stresses that the Divine Mystery is the absolute reality, and all religions are distinctive responses to that mystery, responses that are however, inter-related. Perhaps the greatest contemporary theologian who has contributed to the development of an Indian Christian theology is Raimundo Panikkar (1918-2010), a man of rich experience of cultures. Born of a Hindu father and a Catholic mother, he embodies the Hindu-Christian dialogue in his flesh but has added to it much wisdom from his study of various disciplines and teaching and travel in all parts of the world. Samuel Rayan, Michael Amaladoss, Felix Wilfred, etc. are living Catholic theologians who have been recognized for their original contributions towards an Indian Christian theology. Contemporary Indian Theology may be said to have six directions: 1. Spiritual contemplative tradition: the ashram movement throughout India. 2. Adaptation to the religio-cultural traditions of India (dialogue, inculturation) 3. Adaptation to the socio-political situation of India (liberation theology) 4. Dalit theology: This is one area where the socio-political context comes to light clearly. It is one the greatest achievements of Indian theology, seen especially from the socio-political angle. It has made a significant impact on the way theology is to be pursued in India and has also attained international attention. While in many other areas of theology the gulf between words and action is large, here it is not so. It draws attention to the most oppressed and marginalized groups in the Indian society, the dalits. Immediacy, concreteness and a certain urgency characterize dalit theology. Direct contact with the earth, hard physical labour, experience of negativity by the dalits etc. have created a different milieu for theology. The depth of their suffering (material deprivation, psychological wounds, social humiliation) is seen as a positive reality and it has triggered the dalit imagination for new theological categories mirroring their experiences closely. There is an inbuilt radicalism in this theology. The millennia old suffering and oppression have created in the dalit people an anti-establishment and anti-hegemonic urge which is seen also in their writings and theology. It can unmask traditional theology in many ways, challenge the many distinctions that we make: purity and impurity, high and low, etc. It has challenged the theological orientation along brahminical lines. So for the first time we have become aware of the plurality of socio-cultural experiences in India and thus of theology. Also within the church there is a different level of awareness and even readiness to change. It has derived inspiration from the dalit movements in India in general. 5. Tribal Theology: There is a movement among the tribals of India to move away from traditional theology towards a theology that will incorporate the tribal culture. Instead of reproducing a Christianity that is alien to their culture they are trying to create a Christianity that is more at home in their experience. Biblical themes like promised land, Pentecost, exodus, alien, etc. serve as key 99

concepts in interpreting some of the tribal experiences. The strong sense of community and practice of solidarity at a time of aggressive individualism; the sense of wholeness and harmony with nature at a time of serious ecological crisis, etc. are some of the elements which the tribal people have and continue to contribute through their theologizing. The tribal situation leads us to reflect about the indissoluble relationship between ecology and social justice. 6. A Budding Feminist Theology: Indian feminist theology is struggling to emerge and it has to face quite a lot of problems. The call to use the experience of women as the starting point of feminist theology is beginning to create some ripples, though there is a long way to go. The emergent feminist theology has not been able to make a dent as the dalit theology has done. This is not to discredit the laudable work of a few committed and pioneering Indian women doing theology in an environment hostile to their initiatives, but to underline the complexity of gender issue in India in general and in the church in particular. What is happening within the Indian feminist theology only reflects what is happening in the society in which the caste issue has been much more in the centre of debate than the gender issue. Even greater difficulties are faced in the Christian communities in which the predominance of clericalism and clerically dominated theology has not been in general attuned to feminist issues in theology and the critical questions they raise both within the church and outside. In spite of all this, first and foremost, it has created greater awareness especially in the Christian communities and institutions about the issues of women and the urgent need to respond to them. A sign of the changing situation within the Christian communities is for example, the entry of women as lecturers and professors in seminaries and other institutions of clerical formation. Feminist theology has also created consciousness about inclusive language. Another development is the linkages which feminist theology has established with grassroots feminist movements. The Indian Feminist theologians are getting organized through various fora, like the Women Theologians‟ Forum, Indian Women in Theology, Ecclesial Women of Asia etc. 9.

ECUMENISM

Christian ecumenism is concerned about the unity and mission of the church in the world today. But we have to admit that in India the unity and mission of the church should be understood from the particular context of India: its religio-cultural and socio-political situation. Therefore, the Indian ecumenical situation and the western ecumenical situation are quite different. In the West, the main concern is dogmatic and ecclesial unification, healing the divisions that have taken place in the course of history. This follows from the ecclesiology of the western churches, which is derived from the idea of the Christian society or Christendom, where unity at all levels was of paramount importance. There was no room for dissent or plurality and diversity and even today ecumenical discussions revolve round dogmatic and ecclesial unification. In India our primary preoccupation should not be to unify doctrines and structures which have come down to us from outside; we should go deeper and answer the question of unity from the perspective of Christian praxis, Christian life. Not that doctrines are unimportant or that external unity is not desirable; but they have to be discussed in the context of the Indian situation. Two questions that are important are: 1. the identity of Indian Christianity; and 100

2. the nature of unity in a pluralistic society 1. Both Catholics and Protestants tried to import their churches to India. But now the task of Indian Christians is to find their identity as Indian Christians. One way to establish the identity of Indian Christianity is to go back to our ancient history and all the Christians should acknowledge this ancient history. That is a first step in establishing our identity. From there a unity might emerge. Identity is essential for any creative act. Any ecumenical discussion without this basic issue of identity is of little consequence. This does not usually take place in ecumenical discussions. 2. Christian unity should be achieved in the Indian situation of plurality of religions and cultures, castes and languages. What form or forms should the Christian fellowship take in such a situation? Our national existence is a unity in diversity and therefore by its nature pluralistic. Therefore church unity should also be understood as unity in diversity. In other words, Indian ecumenism can dispense with dogmatic and ecclesial unification. The nation is struggling towards a unity in plurality. The church should follow this pattern and be a part of it and not try to create artificial unity. Whatever structures we may evolve, the pluralistic character of the nation as well as the possibility of different Christian experiences should be taken into account. Any effort to build a unitary structure is unwarranted and is doomed to failure. The life in Jesus is not expressed through one particular church or its ministries. The Protestant churches had been partially successful in this way of thinking with the creation of the CSI and the CNI Catholic response after the Second Vatican Council 1969 - Commission for Ecumenism 1970 - Publication of Ecumenical guidelines 1970 - All India Seminar on ecumenism 1970 - Setting up of the Faith and Order working group by the CBCI, National Christian Council of India and the Orthodox churches. 1972 - All India meeting of the joint study project, consisting of members from all major churches to discus major doctrinal and structural problems. 1973 - The constitution of the All India Coordinating Body of the CBCI, NCCI, Orthodox churches: prayer, study, common action for ecumenism as the main goals. Action at practical levels: All India Association for Christian Higher Education Church History Association of India Ecumenical Dialogue - CPS Ashram The Ecumenical Christian Centre at Bangalore Common Translation of the Bible 101

Common Prayer: The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Problems 1. Some churches refuse to take part 2. Catholic-Protestant relations still lack ecumenical sensitivity; co-operation made difficult through complicated rules, eg., in the case of mixed marriages 3. Sheep stealing. 4. Lack of promotion; remains an elite movement, no training for local and regional level ecumenism; no training and involvement of the youth. Future of Ecumenism 1. Ecumenism should not be based on pragmatic reasons, that as a minority we have to co-operate, or else we will scandalize others etc. The reasons for ecumenism is to witness to Christ in India taking into account our common Indian and Christian identity. 2. We should be ready to shed our accidentals and denominational peculiarities which we received form the past and from the West or East, free ourselves from undue dependence on them. Then we will come closer to each other. 3. We need a theological conversion, a real Christian vision of unity and a desire for unity, local and universal. This will happen only through sound theological education. 4. Ecumenical education at grass roots and local levels. 5. Spiritual ecumenism: priority of common prayer, spiritual sharing etc. before visible unity. 6. Dialogue in an ecumenical setting. This will bring the Christians together. Common witness to Christ will make dialogue more authentic and effective. 10. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE 20th CENTURY Pre-Independence Period - major events - historical overview The Syro-Malabar Church Establishment of the Syro-Malabar Hierarchy 1896

Syro-Malabar dioceses of Trissur, Changanassery and Ernakulam with indigenous bishops.

1907

Minor schism in the church with a group of Syro-Malabar Catholics joining the Nestorian Church one again, called the Rokos-Mellus schism after the two Persian bishops Thomas Rokos and Eilas Mellus who caused it. This church exists till today in Trissur as the Church of the East.

1923 Establishment of the Syro-Malabar Hierarchy

102

1993

Raising of the Syro-Malabar church to an Archiepiscopal Church. There are 30 SyroMalabar dioceses.

The Syro-Malankara Church There were several attempts at reunion of the two groups of Thomas Christians after the revolt of 1653. Due to various reasons, mostly personal rivalries, opposition from western missionaries etc. rather than theological reasons, these attempts did not succeed. In 1930 under the leadership of Mar Ivanios and Mar Theophilus, a group of people, clergy and religious from the Jacobite Church rejoined the Catholic church with the Syro-Anthiochian rite and thus the Syro-Malankara church, a third ritual church in the Indian Catholic church came into existence. The Syro-Malankara Hierarchy was established in 1932 with Trivandrum as centre. In 2005 it was raised to an Archiepiscopal church. There are 9 Syro-Malankara dioceses. The Latin church As far as the Latin church and the Indian church in general is concerned, 1886 was a very important date. In that year Leo XIII established the Indian hierarchy. The church in India was organized under seven ecclesiastical provinces: Goa, Agra, Bombay, Varappuzha, Calcutta, Madras, Pondicherry. 1893 - he founded the Papal Seminary at Kandy, Sri Lanka, for the training of indigenous clergy. 1921 - Marian Congress in Madras - demands by the laity for indigenous leadership in the church, the revision of theological education with the inclusion of the study of Indian religions, call for encouragement for Christian monasticism, demanded the right for active involvement in the national movement. 1923 - First indigenous bishop of the Latin Rite, Tiburtius Roche, of the diocese of Tuticorin. 1940 - Abolition of the Malabar Rites Oath. 1944 - Catholic Bishops‟ Conference of India 1944 The Catholic Union of India Post-independence Church 1948 - The Internunciature of India 1950 - The first Plenary Council of India 1962 - 65 The Second Vatican council 1964 - The 38th Eucharistic Congress in Bombay All India Seminar (Church in India Seminar - 1969, Bangalore) Three years after the Council a survey showed that it had made no real impact in India. Its documents were little read, and still less put into practice. The hierarchy and clergy still thought in pre-conciliar terms and the laity sheepishly followed them. Catholics in India, concluded the survey, 103

had for long lived in a ghetto to be aware of the changing reality around them. The aim of the All India Seminar was to change all this and to define the church's mission in India in the light of Vatican II. After a thorough preparation at local and regional levels, 500 national delegates came together at Bangalore in 1969. It touched upon all aspects of ecclesiastical life in India. Its declaration was hailed as a milestone. Three areas which are particularly important were: 1. Ecumenism: Decision to set up a separate CBCI commission for ecumenism with experts in the field of ecumenism Decision to begin dialogue with the NCCI, Orthodox churches and Evangelical Fellowships in India Education in Ecumenism at all levels Ecumenical commissions in dioceses and parishes were to set up Indian Directory of Ecumenism was to be published 2. Dialogue: Theology of dialogue in the Indian context to be worked out Training of personnel in other religious traditions Establishment of many more centres of dialogue, Christian ashrams Publication of the treasures of Christian spirituality in all languages Special training for women to undertake dialogue Ecumenical approach to dialogue 3. Indian Culture: Development of an Indian theology and Indian church imbibing the Indian cultural values and the richness of the Indian traditions using Indian concepts and symbols Study of Indian scriptures should be encouraged Proper formation in Indian cultural traditions be provided to all, especially priests and religious Special attention to the creation of an Indian Christian art, music, architecture Creation of a central agency to coordinate these efforts Another important event was the resolutions on Rites. 1. The Indianization of Rites and the gradual formation of a single Indian rite was proposed but was opposed by many as utopian. The resolution, however, was passed.

104

An Indian rite mass was designed and celebrated based on some 12 points of innovation approved by Rome, the implementation of which was left to the individual bishops. Many rejected it as a poor imitation of Hindu temple worship, especially a radical group of conservative laity. Why, some asked, was this adaptation only to Hindu worship? Indian culture was made up of many strands. The All India Laity Congress, a traditionalist organization launched a diatribe against what is called the Hinduization of the liturgy. Still worse was the fate of the Indian Anaphora or Eucharistic prayer. At a meeting of the Bishops‟ Conference, it did not secure a two-thirds majority and Rome insisted that on such an important matter a two-thirds majority was essential. In 1975 it was banned and also the use of non-Christian scriptures. The Vatican directive said that there was no room for unauthorised experimentation in the rites of the Mass. 2. Proposals to settle the problem of multiple jurisdiction (jurisdiction of more than one bishop within the territory of a diocese) and to bring about a working solution. Soon after Council and its decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum, the Oriental churches in India became increasingly aware of their equality and rights and duties as individual churches. They claimed the right to undertake missionary work outside Kerala, and to provide pastoral care for their people throughout India, rights which were clearly given by the above decree of the Council, Already in 1962, the diocese of Chanda was erected and then several other dioceses like, Satna, Sagar, Ujjain, Jagadalpur, Bijnor, Rajkot, Gorakpur, etc. Concerning the problem of pastoral care for their people, in 1979 a visitation by Antony Padiyara was undertaken. He presented a distressing picture of the situation and proposed that this be entrusted to their own bishops. From then on, the CBCI became the battle ground of those who opposed the proposal and those who supported it, the so-called Latins and Orientals, one claiming the right to do missionary work outside Kerala and provide pastoral care for their Christians throughout India in their own rite, thus upholding multiple jurisdiction, while the other holding on to the principle, “one territory one jurisdiction.” The matter was taken to the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in Rome in 1985. Finally, in 1987, the Pope ruled that each of the three churches had the right to form their own episcopal conferences, though the national body would continue to look after matters of common concerns. All the three churches had the right and the duty to evangelize throughout India. The pastoral care of the faithful of the Oriental churches was to be entrusted to their own priests and when needed, their own bishops. Thus the diocese of Kalyan was founded in 1991 to provide pastoral care for the SyroMalabar Catholics of Maharashtra, especially of Bombay and Pune. This has in no way ended the conflict completely but some measure of peace has been established. But it must be said that the history of this conflict is not an edifying one. Recently another diocese was founded for the Syro Malabar Catholics of north India at Faridabad. Another Seminar that had great influence on Church renewal was the Asian Seminar on Religion and Development held in Bangalore in 1973. It drew participants from various countries in Asia. The problems of poverty, injustice, etc were placed in a broader light. The role of the Church was not merely to provide emergency relief but to disengage from oppressive ruling groups and to identify herself with the struggle of the oppressed. The situation in India was compared to the situation in Latin America where Liberation theology was struggling to answer these questions. The reactions to this new approach were predictable. One bishop denounced it as simplistic, Marxist, and materialistic. But many people, especially priests and religious, began to see their mission as taking part in the struggle for liberation of the poor. Many of them realized that their mission till 105

then was taking care of the rich and the privileged. It was time now to go the slums and villages. Priests and nuns spearheaded the struggle of the small fishermen against those who used trawlers that swept away fish roe during spawning season. Another innovative suggestion of the All India Seminar was the National Pastoral Council. It was voted by the vast majority of the Seminar participants, approved by the CBCI and was meant to express the collegiality of the clergy laity and hierarchy. It was to draw its strength from the diocesan and parish pastoral councils. Vatican objected to it saying that there was no provision for national pastoral councils in canon law but it can only be held at the universal level. The proposal was dropped since the Vatican remained adamant. They had to be content with the setting up of a National Advisory Council which is now practically defunct. There were other important events in the Indian Catholic Church like the International Theological Seminar on Mission Theology and Dialogue in Nagpur in 1971, All India Consultation on Evangelization in Patna in 1973, etc. A survey conducted in 1987 showed that most dioceses did not have pastoral councils. Those that existed did not function. Other reforms were cosmetic. Not even 50% of the liturgical reforms has been introduced. Catholics involved in the struggle for social justice and liberation have been marginalized as trouble-makers and Marxists who disturb the simple faith of the poor. The survey also showed that some 75% of the people never heard of the Council. The reasons for this falling back on the status quo: 1. The over-cautious and even obstructive attitude of the Vatican 2. The over-cautious attitude of the Indian hierarchy and its lack of leadership 3. The people who lack any initiative and are often sheepish, looking to the clergy for directions. 4. A good section of the laity and clergy who is conservative 11.

CHALLENGES OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Indian context Positive aspects 1. Trend towards cultural diversity: different cultural groups are trying to reinforce their identity by re-discovering, preserving and promoting their own culture. The „little traditions‟ refuse to be swallowed up by the western culture or by the „great tradition‟, the Sanskritic culture. The movements for autonomy and independence are also movements in search of identity. 2. Decentralization of power: For effective administration and exercise of responsibility decentralization of power is essential. The growth of democratic consciousness in India is clearly noticeable and people are demanding people‟s participation in decision making. There have been moves to decentralize power and, very often successful. This is a precondition for the realization of human values like freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, etc. 3. Awareness of human dignity: There is the awareness of the fact that human being is the measure of everything. Struggles for human rights are on the increase. People who fight for the 106

rights of the Dalits and the tribals, women and other marginalized sections of the society are on the increase. The caste culture is often challenged, although in small ways. 4. Sense of human solidarity: There is a bridging of geographical isolation of states and communities and a new sense of solidarity with the help of the new information technology. Divisions and separations in the name of religion do exist when fundamentalist forces manipulate religions for their gains, but there is also more interaction taking place. The process of secularization is undoubtedly contributing towards the spread of humanism. Negative 1. Demographic explosion: The population of India has crossed the billion mark. 2. Hunger and poverty: direct consequences of population explosion. It also leads to illiteracy, unemployment. 3. Political instability and poor governance. 4. Communal unrest: That the peace between religions is fragile has been proved on various occasions. 5. Growth of Hindutva: Hindutva is defining the nation through a process of cultural homogenization, social consolidation and political mobilization of the majority Hindu community, and stigmatization of the minority communities as aliens and enemies. It does this through various means: propagating a religious concept of the nation (India as a Hindu nation), and a religious interpretation of the past (History as Hindu history). Non-Hindu contributions are suppressed or are not acknowledged. The entire cultural past of India is seen as Hindu and a new history is created to this effect. 6. Growth of crime, especially against the weaker sections of the society, dalits, tribals, women. 7. Corruption: There is deplorable decline in ethics and morality, in private as well as public life. 8. Secessionist activities and insurgency in some parts of the country threatening the unity and integrity of the country. The Indian Catholic Church Today 1. The Syrian Christians, the oldest Christian group. One fifth of Kerala‟s population, one fourth of the Catholic population of India. Around 50% of the Indian priests and 60% of the religious women come from this community. Considerably powerful, politically and economically. 2. The Konkan (West coast) Catholics of Mangalore, Goa, Bombay: the products of Portuguese occupation of some territories in this region. In Goa about 30% of the states population is Catholic. Bombay has a considerable Catholic population. Many of these Catholics were prominent in the British administration of India. 3. The Latin rite Catholics of South India who originated from three separate groups: the Coromandal Coast (Fishery Coast) fisher men of Tamil Nadu, and similar groups in Kerala who were baptized by the Portuguese beginning from 1536. Another group in Tamil Nadu, Andhra 107

Pradeh and Karnataka who were converted by the missions founded by Rebert de Nobili. Today Tamil Nadu has the second largest number of Catholics in India. 4. Larger sections of the South belonging to the Dalits won over by the Paris Foreign Missions, Carmelites and Jesuits in the nineteenth century. Also during the nineteenth century the Capuchins baptized many dalits in north India. 5. Belgian Jesuits converted thousands of tribals in the Chotanagpur plateau. Nearly 10% of the Catholics come from there. 6. German Salvatorians and the Salesians converted many tribals of the Northeast. About a million Catholics are concentrated there. The Indian Catholic community is the second largest in Asia after the Philippines with 18 million Catholics but only 1.6% in proportion to the population. The vast majority of the Catholics belong to the scheduled castes and tribes. The Catholic population is unevenly distributed throughout India with a high concentration in the southern states. The politically powerful northern states have very little Catholic presence. The imbalance is also noticeable in the distribution of church personnel. Most of the clergy and religious active in the north and northeast come from the southern and western states. Indian Catholic Church has about 25,000 Priests; 95,000 religious women and 3500 religious brothers. It also manages a vast network of educational, medical, cultural and charitable institutions throughout the country (about 15,000 educational institutions, with over 6 million students, and over 7500 social service and charitable institutions). Problems of the Catholic Community Oriental-Latin Conflict Clergy/laity divide, within the hierarchy: Bishops/priests, religious/secular; discrimination against the dalits Low-caste/high caste Old church/new church Traditional missiology/modern missiology Cultural adaptation /political involvement Local church/Universal Church Intense institutionalization Marginalization of women Rapid expansion of charismatic Christianity and Pentecostalism The Christian churches in India have a mission in today‟s India. The history of Christianity has, perhaps some lessons for us today. The most important lesson is to read the signs of the times and respond to them in the light of the Gospel. This calls for a rethinking of the concept and practice of mission that many Christians have today. The future of Christianity in India will depend upon the ability Christians to mutually and creatively interact with contemporary culture with all its problems and possibilities. Traditional model of mission was characterized by the following dominant concerns:

108

Numerical conversion of non Christians; building various institutions and structures to serve human needs - churches, schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages; conversion of heart and a new way of life. In the actual mission work this did not have the first priority, though theoretically important. The contemporary context forces us to rethink this model and search for alternative missionary models. There is need for a fresh vision and new thinking about the mission of the church, a new way of doing, organizing and relating as a community, a new way of feeling about mission, and above all, a changed priority in the realization of various constitutive elements of evangelization. This concept of mission should be rooted in a new life style. In the changed priorities, the primacy place should be given to: 1. Proclaiming as well as working for the realization of the kingdom of God. The Kingdom cannot be separated from Jesus and as far we believe, from the church. The kingdom cannot be separated from human welfare and welfare of the cosmos. History shows us that India loves the person of Jesus but it has problems with the institutional church and its evangelizing activities. So in a new understanding of mission, the priority should be to introduce the person of Jesus and his message to the people of India. 2. Mission is simultaneously about conversion of the heart of all, the missionary as well as the missionized to the values of Jesus. Therefore, the life style will be more important than words. 3. Institutions should bear witness, not become agents of counter-witness. The spiritual influence of the men and women behind our institutions is more important than the institutions themselves. 4. Numerical conversion and numerical strength, top priority during colonial mission have only limited meaning and relevance for the future. The scope is also limited. Numerically Christianity is declining. Politically and economically, too, it will decline in strength. It is important to transform existing communities into mature, responsible and witnessing communities. 5. Christianity must provide the Christian vision of life, world and society fearlessly. That way it will continue to influence society. 6. It must adopt an attitude of dialogue with other religions. 7. It must always act on behalf of the poor and the marginalized, a traditional sphere of activity of the Christians. 8. It must engage itself in protecting the earth. 8. Bold experimentation in inculturation in order to develop an Indian theology and create an Indian church. Recommended Readings The CHAI‟s (Church History of Association of India) series on the History of Christianity in India is the best reference work available today on the History of Christianity in India. So far the following volumes or part-volumes have appeared:

109

Mundadan A.M., History of Christianity in India, vol. I, (From the Beginning upto the Middle of the Sixteenth Century), CHAI, Bangalore, 1984. Thekkedath Joseph, History of Christianity in India, vol. II (From the Middle of the Sixteenth Century to the End of the Seventeenth Century, CHAI, Bangalore, 1982. Hambey E.R., History of Christianity in India, vol. III (Eighteenth Century), CHAI, Bangalore, 1997. Grafe Hugald, History of Christianity in India, vol IV/2 (Tamil Nadu in the 19th and 20th Centuries),1990. Downs Frederick, History of Christianity in India, vol V/5, (North-East India in the 19th and 20th Centuries), CHAI, Bangalore, 1992. General Bibliography Boyd, Robin, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology, ISPCK, Delhi, 2000. Fernando Leonardo and G. Gispert Sauch, Christianity in India: Two Thousand Years of Faith, Penguin/Viking, New Delhi, 2004. Frykenberg Robert Eric, Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present, Oxford University Press, New York, 2008. Indian Christian Directory for the Mew Millennium, Rashtradeepika Ltd, Kottyam, 2000. Jnanadeepa: Pune Journal of Religious Studies, vol 3/1 (January, 2000). All the articles in this issue are on “Conversion: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.” Kanjamala Augustine, ed., Integral Mission Dynamics, Intercultural Publications, New Delhi, 1995. Koodapuzha Xavier, Christianity in India,OIRSI, Kottayam, 1998. Koodapuzha, Xavier, Bharathasabhacharithram, Oriental Institute of Religious Studies India, OIRSI, Kottayam, 1998. M.K. Kuriakose, History of Christianity in India: Source Materials, ISPCK, Delhi, 1999. Mattam Joseph and P. Arokiadoss, eds., Hindutva: An Indian Christian Response, Dharmaram Publications, Bangalore, 2002. Menacherry George, Indian Church History Classics, vol. I (The Nazranies), The South Asia Research Assistance Services, Ollur, 1998. Menacherry George, ed., The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India, 2 vols, Trichur, 1973, 1982. Moffett Samuel Hugh, A History of Christianity in Asia, vol. I & II, Orbis Books, New York, 1998 & 2005. Nedungatt George, Quest for the Historical Thomas Apostle of India: A Rereading of the Evidence, Theological Publications in India, Bangalore, 2008. Neill Stephen, A History of Christianity in India, 2 vols., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1984, 1985. Puthur Bosco, The Life and Nature of the St. Thomas Christian Church in the Pre-Diamper Period, LRC Publication, Kochi, 2000 Vadakkekara, Benedict, Origin of India's St. Thomas Christians, Media House, Delhi, 1995. It appeared under a new title: Origin of Christianity in India: A Historiographical Critique (2007).

110