i don’t think anyone denies that their education system was very beneficial for the native population. But we have to see the good and the bad. They fractured the christian community. They instigated with the british/dutch/etc governments.
When the Portuguese were ousted completely from Malabar Coast by the Dutch in 1663 (beginning with Kollam in 1658), the Latin Rite Catholics, not directly under Portuguese Padroado, in their area of control was given to Papal Congregation of Propaganda Fide. The Dutch took care of ALL non-Catholics who lived in their areas of control. When they were ousted by British, an arrangement was made with British government for the care of non-Catholics. Hence the visit of Rev Dr Claudius Buchanan. The non-Catholics on Malabar Coast asked for political protection from the British! They felt persecuted by Tippu Sultan from the North and king of Travancore from the South, who had defeated the Dutch at Colachel in 1741.
Originally Posted by SyroMalankara: The protestant missions always follow the trading path. Worldwide. All of the protestant missionaries went to lands soon after trade was established, nearly everywhere that christianity was already established, they soon infiltrated and fractured the local church - or at least attempted. The British missionaries being exceptionally skilled at this.
When Portuguese and Spain started out first as explorers and then as colonial traders , there was no separation of church and state in both countries. In 1500, Martin Luther was still an Augustinian monk and Britain was still Roman Catholic.
All Catholic missionaries followed the flag. Neither the Dutch nor the British, both Protestant by the time they started on their colonial trading adventures, followed such a policy. A small number of missionaries did come, but not as an official part of the trading company policy.
CMS was not established as part of Church of England or Church of Scotland missionary efforts. It was a separate all European Protestant missionary society that operated independent of the British crown, but with the legal permission of the trading company. They did not even see eye to eye with the company on several matters.
I do agree that it was not fair of European Protestants to evangelize Catholic converts to Protestantism, in countries where there were plenty of non-Christians to preach to.
CMS offered help in Malabar Coast only to Christians who asked for it. They did attract a lot of people because they offered free English education. Everyone who took advantage of the education benefited from it. Without that British education, people of upper Travancore (Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Alleppuzha…districts) would not be ahead of people from other areas of Kerala as they have been. Even if Christians in upper Travancore did not all join the Anglican communion, they did absorb British attitudes because of the thorough British education they received. It is not without reason that it is claimed sarcastically that when the British left, they left a lot of “brown pseudo British Sahibs” in their place who treated local “non-Sahibs” like inferior colonized.
Originally posted by SyroMalankara: The lutheran churches are protestant, mainly based on western rites, translated from german. Their order of worship is similar to the latin-rite or anglicans. The jacobite churches, use mainly syriac (very little malayalam, at the time), pray in an eastern manner, the liturgy and form is completely different. The jacobite beliefs are more similar to latin and syro-chaldean catholics than anything the lutherans taught. It would not have been “easier for them to integrate”, it would have been completely foreign – unless the local people had exposure to the syriac form of christianity already (which they did).
I have already dedicated several posts to how the Syriac Liturgy from the Middle East came to the non-Catholic community after the visit of Rev Dr Claudius Buchanan in 1806, and how no Patriarch from the Middle East had been in the picture during the Dutch period in Malabar Coast 1658 - 1795.
If a non-Catholic group of the Dutch period could so easily adopt different Syriac Liturgies from the Middle East in the nineteenth century, how difficult was it for newly converted Lutherans to adopt it as well when Lutheran Basel Mission was shut down at the start of World War One?
A great confusion has been created only because an impossible attempt is being made to bring all Christians of Malabar Coast (natives and settlers) from five centuries and different countries - Portuguese, Dutch and British, including locals, and mixed race - under the umbrella of a small group of ancient, native Christians who came in communion with RCC in 1599 and were in unbroken communion as part of See of Cranganore under Archdiocese of Goa, until 1886. Portuguese Padroado and Jesuits owe it to this community to make public the complete list of Latin Rite and Syrian rite churches and all the places where the ancient Christians lived when they were in control on Malabar Coast. The Dutch could similarly help by listing the places in which European traders settled during their time on Malabar Coast and the groups of non-Catholics who were under their protection. And what arrangement if any was made with the British government for all the non-Catholics under their control when they lost control on Malabar Coast. It goes without saying that Papal Congregation of Propaganda Fide could list the churches that were handed to their care by the Portuguese, and list the number of conversions, and all the new churches and dioceses that were created under their watch.
All the information regarding history of Christianity in Kerala since 1500 is out there. The only problem is that is held by different groups and it is passing through different political filters.
