Republishing....

Yesterday, I posted my comments that were rejected/blocked by a certain Blog earlier. 

The next one that rejected/blocked my following innocuous comment is the Blog titled

'WIN…ED:    Syrian Christians, Brahmin Ancestors and St.Thomas'.

My comment was once again a rejoinder to the comment posted by J…., where he claimed, among other things, that Syrian Christians had Portuguese ancestry!!

IN REPLY, I ATTEMPTED TO POST THE FOLLOWING COMMENT AROUND 5^TH DECEMBER 2014 TO NO AVAIL.

"Where did J....   get the idea that the Portuguese intermarried with Syrian Christians of Kerala? If he is just parroting the statements made by some others in Blog comments earlier, I should say he is absolutely wrong. 

It was only in Goa that the Portuguese intermarried with Indians in substantial numbers. It happened primarily because they had sovereignty over the land which prompted them to settle in Goa in fairly large numbers and to take up vocations in the Military, Administration and Commerce. The habit of taking local wives soon followed. Compared with other European colonists, the Portuguese were less racist and so were willing to take native women as wives and to have families. Also, some Portuguese orphan girls (white Europeans) were brought by the Portuguese authorities to Goa to marry either Portuguese Goans or Indians of high status. It must be noted that such generally tolerant attitude of the Portuguese with respect to race gave rise to mixed-blood people in all of its Colonies. Brazil is an example where mixed blood populations of Portuguese origin happen to be very large in numbers. Also, the black-white racial divide in socioeconomic terms is less pronounced in Brazil in comparison with countries settled by northern Europeans like the USA, South Africa, Australia etc. Mixed-blood progeny of the Portuguese still exist in Goa and they carry traits of Portuguese culture and many (especially the elderly) can speak Portuguese language even now. Many of such Eurasians migrated to mainland Portugal during the rule of strongman Salazar, before and after the forcible annexation of Goa by Indian forces. 

It was Alfonso De Albuquerque's policy known as ‘Politicos dos casamentos' that encouraged Portuguese soldiers in India to marry native women to ensure that a loyal class of natives was created. In this, Albuquerque was copying the Arabs who engaged in this kind of loyalty creation in India for quite some time. Note the origins of the ‘Nawayaths’ of Karnataka (Bhatkal), Goa and Maharashtra (Konkan region) or the ‘Lebbais’ of Tamil Nadu (Thoothukkudi). All the Indian communities involved in this liaison with foreigners were from the coastal regions. It must be noted that the Arab sea-traders were the rivals of Portuguese in India, at least during the initial days of their engagement.

The Portuguese marital alliances in Kerala were also limited to the coastal areas where they occasionally took wives from among the Latin Catholic community whom they converted to Christianity. The descendents of such Portuguese alliances are the Eurasians of Kerala ie., the ones that are known as ‘Anglo Indians’ today. These Eurasians occasionally mixed with the later colonizers like the Dutch and English and therefore cannot be considered to have descended exclusively from the Portuguese on the European side. They can still be found in Cochin, Calicut, Kannur etc., and sparingly in southern pockets of Kerala like Alappuzha, Kayamkulam, Mavelikkara, Kollam (Neendakara, Chavara, Eravipuram,  Tangassery ) and very sparingly in some pockets of Trivandrum like Kunnukuzhi, Pettah, Murukkumpuzha, Anjengo (Anchuthengu) and outlying coastal hamlets. All these places were erstwhile Portuguese/Dutch/English enclaves, forts or military camps. Today, they live so thoroughly mixed with the Latin Catholics in many of these places that their identity has fused with that of the Latin Catholics of the area. Thus, the ‘Anglo Indian’ social tag is no more attached to many of them though they still carry some discernible European cultural traits in the socio-religious customs they follow. Many have already migrated to Metros like Chennai and Bangalore and many settled overseas, like in Australia, Canada etc., after independence. Therefore, if at all Portuguese descendants are to be found in Kerala they are among the Latin Catholics and not among Syrian Christians. In fact, the Portuguese used such Latin Catholics as soldiers and native militia in their service during their rule in Kerala during the 16th and 17th centuries and even later in the employment of European Bishops who were in charge of Syrian Catholic (present Syro-Malabar) Sees. I shall give details later."

It is for the information of those who are unaware of the marital connections the Portuguese had with Kerala Christians that I decided to republish my above comment  that did not see the light of day earlier( probably due to my debunking the claim that Syrian Christians have Portuguese ancestry too, obviously to the chagrin of the Syrian Christian author of the concerned Blog who brazenly claimed that Syrian Christians have  Nampoothiri Brahmin ancestry  and is now perhaps eager to latch on to the next false claim ie., a European ancestry). This is the problem affecting many Syrian Christians today. They want to be known as descending from Brahmins or Europeans or any other group that carries socioeconomic clout in the contemporary world but never from the aborigine low castes of Kerala.They are ashamed of such fact and either try to hide or to vociferously dispute it.

I am forced to republish below a few comments I posted/tried to post  as rejoinders  to  comments  posted by others  in a couple of Blogs which discuss the origins etc., of Syrian Christians in Kerala because my posts  have  been deleted/blocked by the Authors  of the said Blogs for reasons best known to them.

One such Blog is titled

“SHA..THO - On the Syrian Christians (Nazrani Mappilas) and their origins”.

It delves on matters connected with the Syrian Christians of Kerala and begins with the Syrian Christian author’s “take on the ORIGIN (emphasis added) of Syrian Christians’ whereby he posits that they have “West Asian origins” and informs readers that in the past they “practiced polygamy (and in some cases polyandry) and the subsequent WIVES (of Syrian Christians) would be from socially lower (usually Hindu) communities “. The author further terms some of the the West Asian ‘settlers’, who arrived and begat the Syrian Christians of Kerala, as “simply male traders” and says that “many would have taken Indian WIVES” (emphasis added). He also writes of Syrian Christians’ past “practice of cohabitation with Indian slave women”, with the word ‘concubine’ repeatedly cropping up in the citation he uses for the purpose.

By the time I noticed and read the Blog, many comments from interested people had already become adjuncts to the author’s original ‘take’. Some comments differed with the author’s position and said that the Syrian Christians were Hindus converted from lower castes /scheduled castes of Kerala (which the author disputed vigorously in a later post). Under the circumstances, I thought it would be alright if I posted my comments too on the origins of Syrian Christians, as I had done elsewhere. So I posted my comment as well in the said Blog. In it, I concurred with the author’s contention which affirmed West Asian origins of Syrian Christians. But there was a catch in his description of events. So I had to use contextually appropriate and plain words in my post just to unravel and unmask matters that the Syrian Christian author tried not to discuss too clearly. The author might be uncomfortable with such matters, but an objective person cannot pretend not to see very obvious historical facts for the sake of being politically correct. The Syrian Christians do have a West Asian origin. Agreed; no dispute. But was it through the process of West Asians taking (marrying) Indian ‘wives’ as the author would like us to believe? Which priests performed such ‘marriage’ ceremonies or in which church/temple were such ‘marriages’ conducted? Which castes did such Indian ‘wives’ belong to? The Blog gives no details. Under what premise does the author conclude that the Indian female partners of West Asian traders were their ‘wives’, thus making them legally wedded couples by implication? He is silent again. Such omissions or rather evasions on the part of the Syrian Christian author of the Blog who otherwise conveys objectivity and sound reasoning in his presentation of the many likely events in the social history of Syrian Christians, are, to say the least, unacceptable to discerning and academically inclined readers. Thus, it fell on me to highlight and explain as briefly and pithily as possible (since the author/contributor had, in one of his earlier interjections, implicitly expressed his wish that comments posted by outsiders should be brief) the obvious process by which the Syrian Christians were begotten in ancient Kerala by West Asian traders who came here “simply” as “male traders” (as the author himself says). The comment I posted is given below under asterisk after the next 3 paragraphs which explain the rationale for posting my said comment.

With the benefit of hindsight which proceeds from the well known origins of the various mixed-blood people begotten by European colonists all over the world later in history, anyone with an objective mind and unbiased attitude can fairly conclude that the Syrian Christians of Kerala were begotten by West Asian traders under identical conditions. (F.James Davis, historian and author of “Who is Black?: One Nation’s Definition”  has the following to say on Black-White race mixing in the 17^th and 18^th century USA. “Rapes occurred, and many slave women were forced to submit regularly to white males or suffer harsh consequences. Slave girls often courted a sexual relationship with the master, as a way of gaining distinction, avoiding field work, and obtaining special jobs and other favored treatment for their mixed children. Sexual contacts between the races also included prostitution, adventure, concubinage, and sometimes love”). The process of sexual enslavement and exploitation of the primitive, subaltern native women by trader-colonists all over the world was similar to what took place in the USA, sans the institution of slavery. The trader/settler who colonized distant and less civilized lands took the role of the master/exploiter and the underprivileged native women of these lands the role of the slave/exploited. Result? ; the creation of a genetically mixed hybrid population that followed the socio-cultural traits of its foreign progenitors in some respects but remained largely native in most other respects. Thus arose, the mestizos /mulattoes in the Americas and the Caribbean, the Cape Coloreds in South Africa, and the Creoles in Africa and the Western Indian Ocean Islands.

Now, where is the scope for any doubt as to the actual origins of the Syrian Christians of Kerala? If the arms of a hypothetical clock capable of timing historical events are run backwards to chart events in reverse , it will show  that the Syrian Christians  are indeed the Mulattoes and Coloureds of Kerala, with ancient West Asians replacing the White men of later history as paternal progenitors and the enslaved and exploited native aborigine women of the ancient (who are now called backward and scheduled castes) remaining maternal progenitors of the first few generations of  hybrid ancestors of the  present day Syrian Christians of Kerala. (These hybrids multiplied in numbers over time by inter-breeding among themselves, with native aborigines and with still other West Asians who arrived later. They inhabited the various port towns of ancient Kerala for quite some time as a group distinct from the natives even while following native customs  before being converted to Nestorian Christianity by Persian missionaries who arrived in the 6^th century CE. I will write on the details later).

Among the many comments posted by various persons in the said Blog, there was one claiming superiority of Syrian Christians over the low castes of Kerala. A person named J…. was behind this claim. This was disputed by another person who was apparently a Hindu. The arguments soon evolved into a back and forth between them, one extolling the achievements and status in Kerala society of Syrian Christians and the other that of the Ezhavas. Each produced a list of ‘achievers’ from the respective communities to buttress their arguments.  It was around this time that I chanced upon the Blog and got the time to read the contents. As I happen to hold well considered and firm opinions on the origin and history of the Syrian Christians of Kerala, I posted my comments too, which roughly read as follows (do not remember the exact text).

 *     “ J….  has produced a list of politicians and middle class careerists to claim Syrian Christian superiority in Kerala society. The Ezhavas can rightfully do this because they rose against heavy odds. But the Syrian Christians are past masters in the art of deception and swam with the current throughout history.  Indeed, they are the ……. children of West Asians who exploited and used the aborigine women of ancient Kerala as objects of consumption. The West Asians gave free vent to their …. and created a race we call Syrian Christians now. Yes, the Syrian Christians are the mulattoes and coloureds of Kerala who rose from the ……….. the West Asians indulged in ancient times”.

This comment remained in the Blog site for a few days, only to be neatly deleted later! It seems the Syrian Christian author/contributors of the Blog were conveying their hurt feelings by effecting this quick excision. Therefore, I do not repeat the words that could have possibly hurt them in the above quote and instead leave gaps in their place. Of course the author dutifully deleted the list of Syrian Christian and Ezhava ‘achievers’ too as posted by the above persons (possibly to avoid  embarrassing, albeit true, comments like mine from other readers in future).

After the deletion of the said comment, I posted another comment (dated 5^th December 2004)) which, surprisingly, still remains in the site. In response to this J…. has asked me as to ‘when I started using decent language in my posts’. He implies that the plain language I used in my earlier post (as given above) was not ‘decent’. I tried to clarify and explain the reasons for using the allegedly indecent words in my next post in the Blog. But the attempts were of little avail since all my subsequent posts were blocked by the author.

Therefore, I reproduce below my subsequent comments for all interested readers to read and judge.

ATTEMPTED TO POST SOME DAYS  AFTER 6^TH December 2014.

J…. complains that I used indecent language in my posts.

J….  and the Author/contributors of this blog have no quarrel with the view that Syrian Christians arose in Kerala basically from the mixing of West Asian and native genes in ancient times. Indeed, they are supporters of the view and have presented some strong arguments in this behalf. But they are silent (maybe deliberately) on the actual process that led to this gene mixing ie. as to how it occurred under the social conditions prevailing then. One should remember that humans were traded as chattel by other humans in those days and that the prevalent laws were the laws of the jungle. Might was right and the strong ruled the weak.

Everyone including J…. and the contributors of this blog will agree that the said gene mixing did not occur inside a Petri dish but involved physical interaction between human beings of the opposite sex.  This gene mixing between West Asians and Kerala natives (i.e., between West Asian males who arrived in Kerala  for trading and females of the local aborigine groups who were meek and powerless and thus amenable to control and exploitation, descendants of whom are now called low castes) resulted in the origin of the people whom we call Syrian Christians today. These liaisons were illegitimate from a modern point of view. Just to make this clear to readers, I used some common words with the following dictionary meanings in my earlier post (which was deleted, obviously at the behest of the author/contributors).

(1) ……. -A person born of parents not married to each other or a person who is not recognized as offspring by the biological father or a person whose father is not known.

(2) …. - Desire or Libido or Urge for biological mating.

(3) ……….. - Immorality or unchastity or lechery in the relations with persons of the opposite sex.

The first referred word having the said meaning is per se not indecent or offensive unless it is used with the intention of defaming a particular person as in the case of libel.  In fact, the word had been commonly used by authors and historians in relation to the description of many famous people; eg., to  describe the actual origins of some well known Monarchs and noble men of England ( read  ‘Kings, Queens, Bones & Bastards: Who’s Who in the English Monarchy from Egbert to Elizabeth II’ by David Hilliam). Thus, the referred word is not considered vulgar or offensive when used in a matter-of- fact way. I used the word to accurately describe a group of people ie., the Syrian Christians ,who arose under a fortuitous situation when two populations mixed in ancient Kerala. The resulting offspring were conceived and born out of wedlock because the males involved were itinerant merchants who were only having a jolly good time in a far away land and couldn’t care less about the responsibilities of fatherhood. That such an appellation is based on absolutely true inferences can again be ascertained by studying in context the origins of many groups of hybrids who arose from the mixing of  unrelated populations all over the world in the course of human (especially male) migrations throughout history. Syrian Christians of Kerala, as a people of mixed origin, are no exception to this. If some of the ancestors of the blue blooded aristocrats of England (where the class system is still alive and kicking, entailing great privileges and social esteem on the many Lords and Ladies of the various Peerages) can be said to be of illegitimate origin and the word with the above meaning used to describe them, why cannot the Syrian Christians be described thus when it is known that they are for the most part descended from the aborigine stock of Kerala who cohabited with West Asian traders of yore with no strings attached in the relationship? 

Therefore, it was needless for the Syrian Christian author/contributors to delete my earlier post since I only did some plain speaking using historiographically acceptable words and meant no offence to anyone in particular. But alas, some (not all) Syrian Christians are very sensitive and tend to get hurt when it comes to someone pointing out their true ancestry (which many among them sincerely believe is of Brahmin origin). When they realize that they are of low caste illegitimate ancestry, many of them prefer to keep such dirty linen firmly wrapped and hidden within the rag- bundle of vanity they generally carry in their heads. But when irrepressible outsiders publicize the findings of their incisive research on Syrian Christian ancestry and assert that Syrian Christians are indeed of low social origin they are overwhelmed with shame and react unpredictably. Thus, my post got deleted and J…. has started accusing me of indecency. As for the 2^nd and 3^rd words cited above, strong though they may be in punch, only biased or ignorant people will consider them to be indecent.  Therefore, J….’s position that I used indecent language is wrong and possibly results from his aberrant state of mind.  J…. comes out as biased and opinionated in his many posts in the few blogs hosted by Syrian Christians.  Indecency, like culpability, is rooted in the mind.  J….’s indecent and probably insecure mind gets exposed for all to see when he revels in rubbishing newly converted scheduled caste Christians as ex-slaves of Syrian Christians ( in another Blog) or when he complains to a fellow Syrian Christian in comments posted in the above referred  Blog that a gentleman who is apparently Hindu by faith has no right to adduce facts that point towards large scale conversion of Ezhavas and other lower castes into Syrian Christianity during the past few centuries because, in J….’s opinion, the Hindu gentleman  has ‘absolutely nothing to do with Christianity or Syrian Christians’ and that he is an ‘envious Devil’. Apart from the ridiculous reasoning adopted what kind of language is this, decent or indecent? Shame is an emotion that has stealthily parked itself in the heads of some (not all) Syrian Christians. The acute awareness that they were of low social class made their cunning religious leaders and quack-historians cook up stories of Brahmin conversions et al to survive and maneuver in the murky, caste ridden social environment of Kerala during the past centuries. And they were successful in such deception inasmuch as Syrian Christians could pass themselves off as a group equivalent in status to high caste Hindus on the strength of such spurious claims. Therefore, the moment someone starts questioning the truthfulness and veracity of such claims and asserts the fact of their subaltern origins, shame climbs down from the heads of some (not all) present day Syrian Christians and overwhelms them. Under such  conditions, people like J…. smart and whine and it becomes ‘highly difficult for (J….) to keep silent’ and out comes from the rag bundle of vanity they normally carry inside their heads to counter shame, a list of assorted Syrian Christian careerists who have fortuitously made it big in life . J…. triumphantly waves this soiled rag of vanity to claim superiority over other lower castes of Kerala! So much for J….’s decency and objectivity.

ATTEMPTED TO POST AROUND THE 1^ST WEEK OF JANUARY 2015.

I had criticized J…. earlier too (in other Blogs) for the unacceptable positions he had taken in his comments and was wondering why he never responded to my criticisms. So I thought J…. had taken a liking for me and was therefore sparing me from the acerbic remarks he reserved for others. I was actually beginning to feel sad about him neglecting my posts and bingo; here appears J…. once again, this time scolding me for not using ‘decent language’ in my earlier posts! J…. perhaps knows that Blog discussion sites are not catechism classes in Sunday schools where participants are expected to use only pious, holy book language. The word that possibly offended J…. (with the meaning ‘a person of illegitimate birth’) is by no means an expletive or epithet unfit for use in Blog discussions. It is a slang routinely used in informal contexts eg.,by military men addressing subordinates, or within peer groups in friendly banter. At worst it is a taboo-slang used nevertheless along with other English language slangs in all their multifarious hues by many Netizens in Blogosphere for effect and punch. So where is the need for J…. to see indecency and cry foul? Grow up J….!

Hi Freethinkers,

This Blog has been set up to  make sure that all opinions on Christianity, especially as practiced in Kerala could get published. My experience is that some authors of Blogs on Christianity in Kerala are particular that only opinions posted by those supporting their often biased views get published. Comments posted by neutral persons, if published occasionally per chance, are deleted later.

The era we live in supports free inquiry. Elements that desire to support entrenched belief systems based on falsehood and fabrication will get blown away by the winds of change that sweep the world today. It is imperative that all free thinkers become part of such change. Therefore, I invite all to contribute to this Blog.

All the comments will be published, I assure.

Please await further posts on the history of Christianity in Kerala.