Random thoughts on the procedure to become a Christian, Syrian Christians

I have two granddaughters. Both had been baptized shortly after birth. The Confirmation (a sacrament of the Church) of the elder one was last month and the First Communion of the younger girl last Sunday. It was while attending these functions that the question came to my mind – when does a person really become a Christian?

At the outset I must explain that I am a Syro-Malabar (the second largest Rite in the Catholic Church) Christian from Kerala and this writing could be influenced by the practices and teachings of that denomination. There are, however, similarities among the major organized Churches in the matter of accepting members into the fold.

In several non-Christian communities, birth decides the religion of a child. It is assumed that the baby belongs to the religion of its parents. In Christianity, only when a child receives baptism it is accepted into the community as a Christian. In the modern Church this function is held when the baby is a month old or so. Of course, at that point of time the infant is unable to realize the significance of the function.

But the godparents who would be present and undertake the responsibility of being the child’s spiritual guardians answer, on behalf of the baby, the questions the priest asks at the baptism. These include queries like ‘Do you renounce Satan?’ The answer by the godparents is of course, ‘Yes’ irrespective of whether they understand the theological aspects or not. Once the baptism ceremony is over, the infant is brought up as a Christian.

The next major step in the spiritual ladder of a Christian is receiving the Eucharist or the Holy Communion. This is a sacrament where consecrated bread is consumed in commemoration of the Last Supper. This has to done with purity of body and mind. The Church teaches that confession absolves one of the sins committed and thereby cleanses the mind.

Normally a child is given the Holy Communion for the first time when he about seven to ten years old. The Church considers that to be the age of reason or moral responsibility. Whether the child understands its implications or not he has to confess to a priest before receiving Communion. And once the Eucharist is received, the boy or girl concerned is bound to obey all the rules of the Church.

But it would appear that even after receiving the Eucharist the person is still not a full-fledged Christian. There is one more Sacrament, ‘Confirmation’, before one becomes ‘a true soldier of Christ’. At this ceremony, according to the teaching of the Church, the Holy Spirit bestows on the recipient several gifts that would help him to lead a true Christian life. This Sacrament is given when a person is around 15 years of age by either the Bishop or a senior priest authorized by him. Surprisingly, Confirmation does not seem to be taken very seriously these days.

In the original Malabar Church the procedure was different. What is referred to as ‘Malabar Church’ is the community that is believed to have been founded by the Apostle St. Thomas, and its descendants. After the Portuguese practically subjugated it starting from the 16c CE, the unified Malabar Church became truncated and today there are several denominations - Syrian Catholics, Jacobites, Orthodox, Mar Thoima etc. They are generally referred to as Syrian Christians of Kerala, or St. Thomas Christians, or Nazranis.

In the Malabar Church Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation were held when the recipient was well past puberty, say, at the age of 16 or 17. Usually the person’s wedding too followed shortly thereafter. Here the obvious difference was that in this system one accepted Christianity as an adult. It was with the Portuguese intrusion that infant baptism was introduced in the Malabar Church.

Child baptism was permitted by the Universal Church only from the 6c CE. What is interesting here is that when the Church policy changed in other parts of the world, the Malabar Church continued with the original practice of adult baptism till 16c CE. In my opinion, this is another proof of the antiquity of Christianity in Kerala. The Malabar Church remained an isolated community with hardly any meaningful interaction with the churches elsewhere.

Nevertheless, it had a sound theological basis. Unlike the Churches elsewhere, from the early days the Malabar Church believed that there was salvation outside the Church, that a man who lived according the rules of his religion would attain ‘moksha’ (salvation). That was why there was hardly any missionary work by the Malabar Church. It effectively led to a position that being a Syrian Christian was a matter of birth.

Here the question arises why did then St. Thomas travel to India and convert people to Christianity. The Apostle is claimed to have landed in Kerala in 52 CE. He would have left on this journey a few years before that. It would appear that his departure for Kerala was before gentiles too were accepted into Christianity; originally only Jews had the privilege Therefore his initial target for spreading the Word would have been the Jewish communities which, according to historians, were in Kerala long before Christ.

It is possible that later on local gentiles were also taken into the fold. This could explain the claims that the Apostle converted some Brahmin families. It is doubtful whether 2000 years back there was a sizable Brahmin presence in Kerala. But there could have been an elite set of local people sufficiently educated and knowledgeable to engage St. Thomas in debates. After all, they were involved in trade with many nations. Quite possibly, some of them accepted the new religion. That was a period when Kerala was a haven to all communities.

The label ‘Nazrani’ also indicates the antiquity of the Malabar Church. The name ‘Christian’ was coined by the Apostles at Antioch in the seventh decade of the Christian Era. Till then the followers of Jesus Christ from Nazareth were known as ‘Nazrani’. When St. Thomas established the Malabar Church, its members also were called Nazranis, in all likelihood initially by the Jews and the Arabs who were present in Kerala.

The Western missionaries who reached Kerala with the Portuguese and subsequently too, unfortunately, did not understand the ethos of the Apostolic Malabar Church. Their endeavour to westernize the Nazranis went on for three centuries and, in the process, much was lost. The once unified Malabar Church today lies divided into several denominations.

Related posts:

History of conversions to Christianity in Kerala – an overview

Vedas, Syrian Christians

Weddings, then and now

A joke heard in Cochin: If you have a son or daughter to be married, follow these steps in the given order - arrange a good caterer, book a hall, fix time with temple/church, and then, start looking for a bride/ bridegroom. During wedding seasons there is such a rush to book halls and caterers.

People often end up arranging places that they can ill-afford for the wedding reception. Sometimes it is the other way. Social snobs could feel that a venue is below their status. In such cases a whispered apology accompanies the invitation, ‘Sorry, we couldn’t get a better place’.

There was a time, not too far back, when holding a wedding reception in a hotel/ public hall was not the done thing. (I am talking about Kerala and more specifically, Syrian Christians.) The inference was that the host neither had a house good enough for the function nor the people to organize it. Even now, some prominent families hold marriage parties at their residence.

Inviting for the function was a time consuming process. The hosts had to visit the houses of relatives and important people and personally invite. There would be categorized guest lists: (1) those to be personally invited, (2) cards/letters to be sent by hand, (3) invitation to be mailed, and (4) those to be invited/instructed by supervisors to attend.

Personally inviting too had certain rules. Ladies would attend the function only if a lady was involved in inviting. No card or letter was to be given to close relatives. The invitation to them was actually a request to conduct the function.

And they would come, days ahead of the wedding. Those who were not from the same locality would stay with the host. Actually, each function was a family get together – wonderful days spent jointly in a clannish atmosphere.

It was the right of the ammayi (father’s sister) to bring the sweet to be given to the bridal couple after the marriage - that was known as ‘ayini’. Originally ayini was ‘churut’, a savoury made with coarse rice powder and palm syrup filled in a crisp, thin cone. Some used grated coconut with sugar instead. In course of time, most people switched over to cakes.

Along with ayini, Ammayi would bring many baskets of sweets and delicacies. The quantity would depend on her husband’s finances – own or borrowed.

This is running too long. I’ll cover just a couple of points more. In the old days there would be separate cookhouses for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. And exclusive eating pandals too, based on category and caste/class.

I must mention here about our chief manager, Narayana Kaimal. In all his 60 years of service with us, this member of an aristocratic Hindu family never consumed anything that was cooked in our house. Well, except tea or coffee. And bakery bread. He wouldn’t take even those, once large supplies of fish and meat for a major function began arriving.

Now conducting a wedding is so easy. Entrust the whole matter to an event manager. If you have that kind of money.
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Also see:
Syrian Christians (Nazranis) of Kerala: Some interesting customs
Sadhya - a sumptuous Kerala meal

Vedas, Syrian Christians

I had started writing this about eight months back, but somehow missed completing it and publishing. What prompted me to take up the subject was a report in the New Indian Express of June 22, 2007, which contained a statement that Vedic Pundits were not permitted to learn English

Many of you, I am sure, know more about the Vedas than I do. Nevertheless, a brief note on the basics. The four Vedas - Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda - are the primary Sacred texts of Hinduism. Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are also greatly influenced by these scriptures.

There is a difference though. Hinduism considers that the Vedas (which means knowledge) are not human compositions but Wisdom that was ‘struti’ (heard). In other words they are Revealed Wisdom. The other religions mentioned above do not seem to concede the divine origin of the Vedas.

Different views are seen about the period when the Vedas came into existence. Wikipedia quotes Radhakrishnan and Moore: “The Vedic Period is dimmed by obscurity, but it may be placed between 2500 and 600 B.C.” It seems to be generally accepted that the Vedas were present in oral tradition long before they were reduced to writing.

The Vedic chants were always in Sanskrit. Therefore, the Pundits had no need to learn English. Whether there was a specific ban on them studying the foreign language/s is not very clear.

The Syrian Christians (Catholic denomination) of Kerala were discouraged or banned in the 19c from learning English because it was, at that time, considered by the Church hierarchy to be the language of the Protestants. Another restriction for this community during the same period related to Carnatic music because it invoked Hindu gods!

But historically, the theology and philosophy of the Syrian Christian community of Kerala had a strong root that could be traced to the Vedas. There was no conflict, That was not surprising. According to the great scholar, Father Bede Griffiths of Kurisumala fame, the Vedanthas are the greatest source of natural theology.

Ends.
Also see: History of conversions to Christianity in Kerala – an overview

Public Domain image of Rigveda from Wikimedia Commons.

Cochini Jews – Dreams don’t die

Last Sunday I happened to watch parts of the 2003 Malayalam movie ‘Gramophone’ by Director Kamal on TV. I had seen it, a good one, earlier. The story takes place in Jew Town, Cochin. Basically it involves two dreams.

One is the desire of the Jews to return to the Promised Land. The other is that of love which does not differentiate between Jews and Gentiles. The dreams remain, whether the characters achieve them or not.

The once flourishing Jew Town has only about a dozen Jews left today. The rest have migrated to Israel and to other parts of the world. The Diaspora of Kerala (Malabar) Jews is coming to an end after more than two thousand years.

It is not clear when the Jewish contact with Kerala began. Many nationalities had trade connections with the Malabar Coast even before Christ. It is said that the timber used for King Solomon’s Palace was from Kerala.

St. Thomas the Apostle journeyed to Kerala in 52 A.D. for spreading the Word among the sons of Israel who had settled there. That was before gentiles were accepted into what later became known as Christianity. According to certain sources a large community from Israel escaped to Kerala during the Sack of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. There were other migrations as well.
All through known history the Jews had a prominent position in Kerala. Unlike other parts of the world, the Malabar Jews were not persecuted. Rather the local king even granted them a principality. They blended well with the local milieu while maintaining their distinctive traditions, and spoke Malayalam fluently.

According to Wikipedia, Judeo-Malayalam songs of the Cochin Jews are made available on CD by Jewish Music Research Center at Hebrew University. There is also a distinctive Kerala Jewish cuisine. In 1968 the Government of India commemorated the 400^th Anniversary of the Cochin Synagogue, one of the oldest outside Israel, with a postage stamp.

To conclude, I am taking the liberty of quoting below what Professor Daniel J. Elazar mentioned in the Foreword to The Last Jews of Cochin: Jewish Identity in Hindu India:

“Another chapter in the history of the Jewish people is about to be closed, but this one, unlike so many others, has a happy ending -- the return to Zion and the reunification with other segments of the Jewish people in the established Jewish state. May the memory of Cochin Jewry remain a blessing for Jews the world over.”

Ends.

Also see:

The Yad Vashem Controversy

Jewish names among Syrian Christians.

Syrian Christians (Nazranis) of Kerala: Some interesting customs

Taliat - a clarification

Responding to my post The greatness of human nature – a true story a viewer who was in Trivandrum during 1930s and 1940s sent me an email stating that a Taliat was Chief Justice of Travancore

There were two Taliat brothers, Joseph and Jacob at Trivandrum those days. The elder, Joseph, was the Chief Justice. Jacob became the Surgeon General of the State around 1947. I think that he was also the Surgeon General of the integrated Travancore-Cochin State after Independence.

Jacob’s son George emulated his father by becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was a well-known specialist in pediatric surgery and was with the Trivandrum Medical College. He died rather young.

Joseph Taliat’s daughter Lucy was a doctor too. She was with St. Martha’s Hospital, Bangalore and, if I remember right, was also associated with the St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore during its formative years.

Taliat is an ancient Syrian Christian family from the present Ernakulam District. During the time of the maharajas too, citizens could reach top positions irrespective of their religion.

Another interesting detail – the Maharajas of Cochin had the title ‘Protector of Christians’.

Ends.

Also see: The last of the Travancore Maharajas

Syrian Christians (Nazranis) of Kerala: Some interesting customs

Imagine judging whether a girl is married or not, by looking at her hairdo! Well, among the Nazranis of Kerala this was possible till a few decades back. An unmarried girl had to wear her hair down plaited or tied. Only married women would normally have their hair tied above the shoulders. But all women had to cover their head at a place of worship.

I think that this practice prevailed among the Latin Christians as well. In both communities, inside a church the men used to occupy the front portion and the women had to be at the back. Now the women stay on the left side and the men on the right. Why this pattern? I don’t know. An afterthought – the good thief was crucified on the right side of Jesus Christ. No offence meant to women. It is men who make the rules in the church.

Reverting to the hairdo – initially I thought that the custom might have been connected with Jewish traditions. On checking I find that among Orthodox Jews unmarried women do not have to cover their hair. But the Sephardic (Spanish & Portuguese Jews) custom requires that even unmarried girls should put up their hair.

However, Semitic influence can be seen in some aspects of Syrian Christian life. I have described one instance, about names, in the post Jewish names among Syrian Christians. That, however, has a Biblical angle. Till recently, in some old Syrian Christian families pork and fish that has no scale were taboo to eat. This obviously is a Jewish custom.

Talking about food, in the post Sadhya - a sumptuous Kerala meal I explained why the Nazranis are supposed to fold in the left end of the banana leaf from which they eat a meal. This is a royal privilege that many modern Syrian Christians don’t even know.

Would you believe that there was a time when Syrian Catholics were not allowed to read the Bible? The reason given for this was that laymen who were not trained may end up attributing wrong interpretations to the statements in the Holy Book. Now, al Catholic families are supposed to have a Bible and read it everyday. Here one must acknowledge the contribution of Joseph Pulikunnel (Hosana) in providing Bibles at low cost to the households.

In well-to-do Syrian Catholic families children were tutored at home in the 19c. The curriculum included Malayalam, Tamil, Sanskrit, other subjects and Carnatic music. English was frowned upon because it was the language of the Protestants! Learning of Carnatic music was also discouraged or banned by the Church because the songs invoked Hindu gods!

I have written this from the little knowledge that I have. It would be a great service if those who have more information on this subject come forward with their comments.

Ends.

Also see:

History of conversions to Christianity in Kerala – an overview

Vedas, Syrian Christians

History of conversions to Christianity in Kerala – an overview

This article takes a brief look into the history of conversions to Christianity in Kerala. The Christians of the State can be broadly categorized into three: Syrian Christians who are believed to have been converted from the upper castes (whether such distinction existed at that time is not clear) by Apostle St. Thomas in 1c, Latin Christians who were converted mostly from lower classes by St. Francis Xavier in the 16c and Dalit Christians who were converted in the 19c by the Anglicans and in the 20c by the Catholic denomination of the Syrians. The labels Syrian and Latin came about because of the respective languages that were used in liturgy. (See: Jewish names among Syrian Christians.)

The Syrian Christian community is referred to by historians as Malabar Church and St. Thomas Christians. This congregation was, till the intrusion by the Western Christianity with the arrival of the Portuguese, a distinctive Eastern Church with the Pope of Rome as a hazy father figure at the far end of a thin long line.

Being a Syrian Christian is a matter of birth and inherited religious convictions. Therefore, conversion to that community is an anomaly. In all its known history till the 20c, the Malabar Church never undertook any missionary work. The theology of the community was that every human being achieved salvation through his own religion; a conclusion that modern Christian theology is increasingly accepting. Spreading the Word of Christ and induced or forced conversions to Christianity are two totally different things. As a result, the Syrian Christians remained an exclusive community to which outsiders had no entry.

Two questions arise here: why then did St. Thomas carry out conversions and, why did he convert only the so called upper classes? The Apostle would have, if one accepts oral tradition, received into the Christian fold only those who came forward willingly and out of conviction. On the question of the claimed class distinction in the conversions by the Apostle, it is necessary to understand the background of his mission. His arrival in Kerala (52A.D.) was before the gentiles were accepted into Christianity. Even the word ‘Christian’ did not exist at that time; it was coined in Antioch around 65 A.D. Till then the followers of Christ were known as Nazranis, a name that continues to be used in Kerala.

It is possible that St. Thomas initially targeted the Jews who were already in Kerala. (Several historians claim that the Jews were trading with Kerala even at the time of King Solomon.) Some of the upper crust local people too, presumably, joined the new faith. Here ‘upper crust’ would mean the educated or enlightened who, according to oral tradition, engaged the Apostle in debates.

The Malabar Church enjoyed an organic growth for fifteen centuries, blending with the social structure and being part of it, conforming to the customs and traditions of the land, maintaining upper class stature, receiving support and recognition from the rulers.

The Portuguese arrived in Kerala at the end of the 15c. They initiated a campaign to convert the local Christians (who followed Syriac liturgy) to the Latin Rite. This met with incessant resistance. The net result in the long run was that the Malabar Church was truncated and split into different denominations. Of these, the Catholic faction was subjugated by the Western Latin Church for three centuries.

The arrival of St. Francis Xavier in the middle of the 16c saw a flourish in missionary activity. This great saint of the Catholic Church converted many people of the lower castes to Christianity. He had the patronage of the Portuguese and the maharajas of Travancore and Cochin. In fact, the Maharaja of Cochin had the title ‘Protector of Christians’.

But there were protests against these conversions from the upper classes not on religious grounds but for social and economic reasons. Accepting Christianity released the converts from their obligations under the fine tuned caste system. This led to several problems. To give an example: the coconut pickers who became Christians were no longer under any compulsion to carry out their traditional duty.

This new congregation came to be known as Latin Christians. Whereas the Syrian Christians always enjoyed upper class status, the Latin Christians were treated as lower caste and there were hardly any social interaction between the two. After Independence, the Latin Christians were officially included in the backward class category.

The next round of conversions to Christianity in Kerala was in the 19c by the Anglicans, now known as Church of South India (CSI), who came to Kerala in the wake of the British in the first quarter of the 19c. This episode covered both Syrian Christians and members of some lower castes. The Anglicans championed major causes of the Dalits, like the right of Channar women to cover their breasts in public, and the abolition of slavery. This attracted lower castes to the new edition of Christianity in Kerala.

Then, in the early 1930s, the Syrian Catholic Church suddenly went on a conversion spree against all traditions of the St. Thomas Christians, focusing specifically on the Pulayas who were among the untouchables. They were bonded labor attached to landlords, both Hindu and Christian. Anizham Thirunal Maharaja abolished slavery in Travancore in the mid -19c, but the practice continued in one form or the other till the World War II. The Pulayas were totally at the mercy of their lords. The prospect of joining Christianity appealed to many of them.

Whether all these conversions were genuine, arising out of conviction is debatable. The details about the activities of St. Thomas in Kerala are shrouded in the foggy past. But by no stretch of imagination could he have had the political, financial or military clout to indulge in coercion. The subsequent conversions are unlikely to pass the test because there was an element of quid pro quo involved, in one way or another.

The present scenario in Kerala is that the label ‘Christians’ covers diverse groups without meaningful homogeneity or integration.

Ends.

Also see:

Vedas, Syrian Christians

Jewish names among Syrian Christians.

Why is it that Jewish or Biblical names common among Kerala's Syrian Christians? For the answer, see Articles By Abraham Tharakan.
http://abrahamtharakanblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/jewish-names-among-syrian-christians.html