Introduction

Summary

This is a study of religion as a source of change and dynamism in the complex societies of southern India. Its main concern is with the large indigenous populations of southern India (the present-day states of Tamilnadu and Kerala) who came to identify themselves as Muslims and Christians and have therefore been tagged with the label of religious ‘convert’ groups. But this is an unsatisfactory term. It has sometimes implied that the coming of the major ‘conversion’ religions must obliterate all pre-existing beliefs and social ties amongst its new affiliates, and that the study of so-called convert communities tells us little or nothing about the supposed mainstream cultures of the non-European world. Alternatively, some authors have seen ‘convert’ groups as people struggling to be free of ‘pagan’ superstition and the supposed disabilities of caste, but irredeemably mired in them. This study seeks to challenge both of these assumptions by asking what religious conversion really meant in south Indian society over the last three centuries. What kinds of meetings and interactions occurred when practitioners of the so-called world religions encountered the values and cultural norms which already prevailed in south India? How much adaptation took place, and at what point did the followers of new doctrines and new divinities perceive themselves as members of separate ‘communities’?

Of course both Islam and Christianity teach monotheism and the spiritual equality of all believers; there seems little room here for accommodation and synthesis. But was this really so? What we shall see is that in practice the two religions were capable of being radically reshaped to suit the needs of a society which revered pantheons of fierce goddesses and warrior heroes, and a social system which came increasingly to emphasise hierarchies of caste rank and inherited status.