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Catechesis
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Hello, I was curious to know of how the caste system in India historically affected the Kerala Christians (Syrian and Roman/Protestant).
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Thomas48
Guest
Historically the Hindu Kings whom the Syrian Christians (St. Thomas Christian and Knanaya) payed homage to, elevated these Christians above many castes. This high caste status gave the Syrian Christians many rights and privileges in the kingdoms in which they lived. The Hindu Royalty favored the Syrian Christians so greatly that for one period of time the Syrian Christians had their own king who was a vassal under the King of Cochin. Interestingly, Pope Eugene IV actually wrote an apostolic letter to this Christian King in India.
This high caste status and relation with Hindu nobility aided the community in their growth but sadly gave them the sociological ideology of what is known as caste consciousness. Though externally the Syrian Christians were considered high caste, internally the two major groups of the Syrian Christians (Knanaya and St. Thomas Christian) fought with a great animosity of who was considered higher on this caste spectrum. Today however, the concept of caste is greatly eradicated from the lives of the Syrian Christians as it is in many places of India, especially the state of Kerala with its great level of education and progress.
As for the Latin Rite Catholics of Kerala, historically the caste system and social status was not on their side. Latin Rite Catholics were converted by the work of western missionaries who preyed on very low caste Hindus (mainly fishing villages in Kerala), offering them an escape from their oppressed status. This escape was not much of a reality, Latin Rite Catholics even with their conversion to Christianity were still seen as low caste by the larger community both Hindus and Syrian Christians alike. Their caste status, which is a predominately Hindu concept followed them into their conversion to Christianity which sadly also embraced this system of social hierarchy in Kerala.
Protestantism is a relatively new form of Christianity in Kerala in comparison to Orthodoxy and Catholicism which had already been in India for centuries. Protestant Churches, such as the Pentecostals and Anglicans saw a great rise in their numbers in the late eighteen hundreds and throughout the nineteen hundreds. By this time period in the history of Kerala, the importance of the caste system was beginning to largely decline. For this reason, Protestants were never incorporated into the caste spectrum to the extant of which the Syrian Christians and Latin Catholics were encompassed.
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Zabdi_Premjit
Guest
To add to the above, I heard a presentation by a Syrian Christian missionary from India, in which he said the concept of caste has greatly damaged the ability of Syrian Christians to evangelise. The missionary was from one of the Oriental Orthodox churches. He said they had opened some missions in order to attract others to the Christian faith, but setting up a permanent parish to serve converts is nearly impossible, because most Syrian Christians refuse to serve or associate in such parishes. They have a strong aversion to the idea of interacting too much with people they deem lower-caste. The missionary also said that this problem is even worse among the Syrian Catholics, who generally won’t even attempt evangelism at all and are even more caste-minded.* Basically, for Syrian Catholics and most Syrian Orthodox, the Syrian tradition is very much a caste-based ethnic religion.**
*As for why Syrian Catholics generally refuse to evangelise at all, while Syrian Orthodox at least try (not very successfully), I assume the presence of Latin Catholics is a big factor. Syrian Catholics can just “leave evangelism to the Latins,” which gives Syrian Catholic leaders the assurance that Christianity is still being spread, just not by them. (i.e. No need to bother converting those low-caste folks when the Latins will do it for us, and spare us having to associate with them. Plus, this gives an easy way to tell high-caste Christians from low-caste Christians; just look at the rite!) Syrian Orthodox don’t have anyone to pass the buck to, so they must evangelise (though, again, not very well).
** It is not just a matter of everyone having prejudice against lower-caste people, though that is certainly a big (maybe even the biggest) factor. Remember, as Thomas48 said, being regarded as high-caste has been very favourable to the Syrian Christians. If they suddenly start absorbing various low-caste converts, they would lose their high-caste identity. When you are in a very caste-conscious civilisation, high-caste status is a very valuable thing, that you don’t just throw that away!
*** All I say is based on what I was told by Syrian Christians or have read. I am not an expert! No doubt, with the changes India is going through, these caste-mentalities will continue to weaken as years go by, especially in a state like Kerala, which is one of the more better-off states in India.
*As for why Syrian Catholics generally refuse to evangelise at all, while Syrian Orthodox at least try (not very successfully), I assume the presence of Latin Catholics is a big factor. Syrian Catholics can just “leave evangelism to the Latins,” which gives Syrian Catholic leaders the assurance that Christianity is still being spread, just not by them. (i.e. No need to bother converting those low-caste folks when the Latins will do it for us, and spare us having to associate with them. Plus, this gives an easy way to tell high-caste Christians from low-caste Christians; just look at the rite!) Syrian Orthodox don’t have anyone to pass the buck to, so they must evangelise (though, again, not very well).
** It is not just a matter of everyone having prejudice against lower-caste people, though that is certainly a big (maybe even the biggest) factor. Remember, as Thomas48 said, being regarded as high-caste has been very favourable to the Syrian Christians. If they suddenly start absorbing various low-caste converts, they would lose their high-caste identity. When you are in a very caste-conscious civilisation, high-caste status is a very valuable thing, that you don’t just throw that away!
*** All I say is based on what I was told by Syrian Christians or have read. I am not an expert! No doubt, with the changes India is going through, these caste-mentalities will continue to weaken as years go by, especially in a state like Kerala, which is one of the more better-off states in India.
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SyroMalankara
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While it’s true that in general Syrian Christians in India have done a terrible job of evangelizing the wider community - it should be noted that a great number of priests and nuns have done a wonderful service evangelizing under the auspices of the Latin Church throughout India and abroad. Unfortunately, until recently, spreading via the two Syrian Catholic Churches was forbidden for centuries, since the Latins restricted Syrian activities to Kerala. They even restricted the Syrians from having diocese/eparchies in other states with Syrians present - forcing generations to worship in Latin dioceses.
It should also be noted that there were exceptions to this - Blessed Mor Ivanios, the first bishop of the Malankara Syrian Catholic Church was a major proponent of evangelization. His efforts, along with his successors, brought the Syriac Malankara Church to Tamil Nadu and other states. There are entire Eparchies with majority non-native Syrian, such as Marthandom with a Malankara Syriac Bishop of Tamil descent (Mor Paulos Vincent) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syro-Malankara_Catholic_Eparchy_of_Marthandom.
It should also be noted that there were exceptions to this - Blessed Mor Ivanios, the first bishop of the Malankara Syrian Catholic Church was a major proponent of evangelization. His efforts, along with his successors, brought the Syriac Malankara Church to Tamil Nadu and other states. There are entire Eparchies with majority non-native Syrian, such as Marthandom with a Malankara Syriac Bishop of Tamil descent (Mor Paulos Vincent) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syro-Malankara_Catholic_Eparchy_of_Marthandom.
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Zabdi_Premjit
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I am glad to know that the situation is not quite as bad as the impression I had gotten.
When did the restrictions on Syrian Christians get lifted? I have only read a little about how the Syrian Christians were treated when the Westerners arrived, but what I read was sad.
I don’t know why people thought it okay to try to suppress an ancient tradition founded by St. Thomas himself.Btw, are the ethnic associations of Syrian Christianity less outside of Kerala, where it is not familiar to anyone and maybe not associated with a certain community?
ALSO, please send more missionaries to the North. Convert my distant cousins. Thanks.
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SyroMalankara
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Do you speak Hindi? The Malankara Syriac Catholic Holy Qurbono is regularly celebrated in Hindi and other languages outside Kerala (including English, German, etc):
youtube.com/watch?v=pH-_KlYw1s8
youtube.com/user/tomassio1969/videos
Where are you located, I’d love to meet a brother Indian who’s a convert to the Apostolic faith!
Today, there are almost no restrictions on Malankara Syrian Catholic in India - we have our own Eparchies encompassing all of India as of 2015. There are some latinizations that should be fixed (like our fairly recent practice of mimicking the Latin practice of ordaining only celibates).
The Syro-Malabars are still being restricted in places because Latin bishops are afraid they’d lose a lot of members if the Malabars were given the same.
youtube.com/watch?v=pH-_KlYw1s8
youtube.com/user/tomassio1969/videos
Where are you located, I’d love to meet a brother Indian who’s a convert to the Apostolic faith!
Today, there are almost no restrictions on Malankara Syrian Catholic in India - we have our own Eparchies encompassing all of India as of 2015. There are some latinizations that should be fixed (like our fairly recent practice of mimicking the Latin practice of ordaining only celibates).
The Syro-Malabars are still being restricted in places because Latin bishops are afraid they’d lose a lot of members if the Malabars were given the same.
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Zabdi_Premjit
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I am in the US. Unfortunately I only know a few words/phrases in Hindi.
(Consequence of being in diaspora a few generations.)Are the Syro-Malakara less restricted simply because of size? Or was there a different understanding of their particular rights when they came into union with Rome, since their union is more recent and not a product of less congenial epochs of Catholic history?
Also, while I know Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara churches have slightly different rites (East Syrian vs West Syrian), would they be closer to each other than to the Latin rite? What stops Catholics that might want to go to a Syro-Malabar church from going to a Syro-Malankara church, where they might be more comfortable? I don’t see the point to restricting one and not the other.
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SyroMalankara
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Gotcha, same problem here.
Both. The Malankara are less latinized and came into union in 1930, there having an fairly recent memory of autonomy. Also, since there are only approx. 500,000 worldwide, it would make much less of an impact than the approx. 5million Malabars.
Closer culturally. Liturgically, there are similarities - language, although dialects are different. However, there are some similarities that Malankara Syrian share with for example Armenians or Copts, that Malabars would not.
Nothing, any Catholic is free to attend any Catholic Church. The Malabars themselves, however, may not feel comfortable attending the Malankara Church - it’s probably more ‘foreign’-feeling (and ‘too’ Eastern) to them than Latin Mass - in general.
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