Every true native of present Kerala should wake up and smell the coffee about the influence European colonial trader made churches have had in inventing history of locals to suit their own purposes. If, natives who cared for real history had the courage to admit that the Hindu king of Cochin was a mere puppet in the hands of European traders since 1500, and European traders had a run of his kingdom, a lot of real history, with the good and bad, can be salvaged. If Germans can own up to their dreaded Nazi past and move on, so can all natives of Kerala who were really victims of colonial traders, with their cooperation because they stood to benefit from the cooperation, learn from the mistakes of the past, so that they don’t repeat the same mistakes of having others do the thinking for them. The Dutch were able to conquer Cochin only because some petty ruler from south of Cochin wanted to conquer the international trade base in Cochin and sought Dutch help to do it. Although the Dutch were world masters in slave trade in the days of VOC, and the Coromandel Coast and Malabar Coast were not spared from their inhuman business, they are considered better than Portuguese by those who benefited from their presence in Kerala. Not just people of Cochin but also people of upper Travancore benefited immensely from Dutch presence, as did all the trading posts along the Malabar Coast, which were taken over from Portuguese by the Dutch - Cannanore, Kollam, Pallipuram etc. After Dutch lost to the king of Travancore at Colachel in 1741, the king of Cochin had no more benefit from the Dutch. It was for that reason a treaty was signed with the British in 1791, by the descendants of the king of Cochin who had been ousted by a petty ruler from south of Cochin with the help of Dutch.
It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out why some church groups are now keen to wipe out the name Kodungallur, referred to as Cranganore, by Europeans, from history books. The REAL history of Christianity in Kerala since 1500 is written with reference to Cranganore, always known as Kodungallur to locals. It doesn’t take rocket science to understand why they want to promote a newly invented town Maliankara, the place they invented for their fairy tales written since the beginning of the nineteenth century. They conveniently gave a Greek name, a Greek name, for Kodungallur, referred to as Cranganore by Europeans! If anyone were to believe the fiction writers, Kodungallur was ruled by the Greeks in ancient times! And the Greeks supposedly called Kodungallur, Muziris.
This newly invented town, Maliankara, is closer to Cochin. It is not Kodungallur. The Machiavellian tactic is clear as day. To shift the history of Apostle Thomas away from its original tradition in Kodungallur to Cochin, to a place invented by a non-Catholic migrant group in the nineteenth century! Even at the time of Rev Dr Claudius Buchanan’s visit in 1806, the town Maliankara associated with Apostle Thomas tradition didn’t exist’. See of Cranganore was still very much a part of current reality at the time and Cranganore was still the place associated with the landing of Apostle Thomas according to local tradition.
The destruction of local traditions by a migrant group in the nineteenth century needs to be stopped. But who is going to do it? Except for the small ancient Christian community with its own bishop until 1597, which came in communion with RCC in 1599, the rest of Christianity in Kerala is a European colonial trader construct since 1500. Some members of Church of England, Church of Scotland and Lutherans, have all lent support in the fiction being written since the beginning of nineteenth century that is being passed off as history.
If my voice be the only wake up call to the natives of Kerala interested in real history, so be it. Lay Syro Malabar Catholics of 1887 Vicariate of Thrissur should get their heads out of the deep freeze and think for themselves while reading fiction that passes for history these days.
