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Hindu Kingship and the Origin of Community: Religion, State and Society in Kerala, 1750–1850

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Susan Bayly
Susan Bayly
Affiliation:
Clare Hall, Cambridge
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Extract

Until recently the Malayalam-speaking region of southern India—once known as the Malabar coast and now the state of Kerala—was portrayed as a bastion of orthodox high Hinduism. The region's caste system was famous for its intricacy and supposed rigidity; its temples were rich, numerous and heavily patronized by Malayali rulers; and there was a general sense of the area as a picturesque backwater hidden away behind the western Ghats, untouched by the turbulent forces at work elsewhere in south Indian society. According to this view Kerala was a static society, ‘pure’ in culture and religious tradition, and ripe for drastic modernization once British suzerainty was established during the nineteenth century.

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Articles
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Modern Asian Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , April 1984 , pp. 177 - 213
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 Robin Jeffrey takes this approach in his study of the Keralan state of Travancore. ‘In the last half of the 19th century a society which had survived fundamentally unchanged for 700 years came unhinged. A movement from inherited to achieved status began, a movement from the interdependence of castes to the competition of individuals, from traditional authority to modern bureaucracy.’ The Decline of Nayar Dominance. Society and Politics in Travancore, 1847–1908 (London, 1976), p. 265.Google Scholar

2 For a typical version of the Syrians' foundation accounts see ‘Memorandums (sic) touching the Syrians—as taken from the information given by … 2 Syrian priests’ dated Quilon, December 1813, Papers of the Rev. Dr William Hodge Mill, MS Mill 192, fol. 77r, Bodleian Library, Oxford. See also Brown, L. W., The Indian Christians of St Thomas. An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of Malabar (Cambridge, 1956), pp. 43–75Google Scholar; and the account by the 6th century traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography of Cosmas, an Egyptian Monk (Trans. McCrindle, J. W.) (London, 1897).Google Scholar

3 Eighteenth-century estimates put the Syrian population at about 150,000. The Census figures for 1881 and 1891 are less than helpful because the large body of Syrians affiliated to the Roman Catholic church are not counted separately from non-Syrian ‘Latin Catholics’.

The Syrians thus comprised roughly 12% of total population; in the areas of southern Malabar, Cochin and north Travancore where they were most numerous Syrians comprised up to 50% of the total population in several taluks. Figures from du Perron quoted in Tisserant, E., Eastern Christianity in India (trans. Hambye, E. R.) (London, 1957), p. 93Google Scholar; Report on the Census of Native Cochin 1875, p. 33Google Scholar; Report on the Census of the Madras Presidency 1871, i, 110Google Scholar; Report on the Census of Travancore 1875, p. 161.Google Scholar

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7 There is an extensive bibliography of Nayar ethnography in Fuller, C. J., The Nayars Today (Cambridge, 1976)Google Scholar. For a description of a characteristic Nayar warrior goddess festival see Fawcett, F., Nayars of Malabar. Madras Govt Museum Bulletin 111:3 Anthropology (Madras, 1901), pp. 255–66.Google Scholar And see Barbosa, Duarte, The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the Countries bordering on the Indian Ocean and their Inhabitants, trans. Dames, M. L. (2 vols, London, Hakluyt Soc. 1918, first pub. 1518), ii, 38–40, 45–9Google Scholar; Sousa, Manuel de Faria Y, The Portugues Asia (trans. Stevens, J.) i (London, 1694), p. 101Google Scholar; and Baldaeus, Philip, A True and Exact Description of the Most Celebrated East India Coasts …, in A. and Churchill, J. (eds), A Collection of Voyages and Travels (London, 1704), iii, 644.Google Scholar

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9 See ch. V of my Ph.D. thesis, ‘Popular Christianity, Caste and Hindu Society in South India, 1800–1915: A Study of Travancore and Tirunelveli’, Univ. of Cambridge, 1979. According to a 16th century traveller, ‘ilz [the Syrians] sont fort robustes, gras & la meilleure gent de guerre de tout le Malabar, plus addroite aux armes; d'ou aduient, que si les Roys ont en guerre de ces Chrestiens de S. Thomas en iseux gist la force de l'armée’. Gouvea, Antonio, Histoire Orientale des Grans Progres de L'Eglise Calholique … den la reduction des anciens Chrestiens, dits de S. Thomas … trans. de Glen, Jean Baptiste (Anvers, 1609, first pub. Coimbra, 1606), p. 307.Google Scholar

10 Pillai, E. Kunju, Studies in Kerala History (Kottayam, 1970), p. 286Google Scholar; Gouvea, , Histoire, p. 243.Google Scholar

11 Ibid., pp. 137–9, 305, 308; Ayyar, L. K. Anantakrishna, Anthropology of the Syrian Christians (Ernakulam, 1926), p. 55.Google Scholar See also Barbosa, , An Account, ii, pp. 40, 48Google Scholar; Pillai, Kunju, Studies, p. 284.Google Scholar

12 Nieuhoff, J., Voyages and TravelsGoogle Scholar, in Churchill, , Voyages, ii, 262Google Scholar; Menon, A. Sreedhara (ed.), Kerala District Gazetteers (8 vols, Trivandrum, 1962–1964), Kottayam, p. 516Google Scholar; Alleppey, p. 54Google Scholar; Ayyar, Anantakrishna, Anthropology of the Syrian Christians, p. 176Google Scholar; Whitehouse, , Lingerings, p. 119.Google Scholar

13 A Jesuit account of 1579 stated: ‘… there is no pollution between the Christians of St. Thomas and the Nayres, nor penalty of death, if there are between them marriages or friendship, all of which arises, according to the custom of the country, for castes higher or lower than these two’. Quoted in Joseph, T. K., ‘Malabar Miscellany’, The Indian Antiquary, lvii:712 (1928), p. 29.Google Scholar

14 Gouvea, , Histoire, p. 315.Google Scholar The Syrians' observance of rigorous standards of ritual purity are described at length in the Decrees of the Synod of ‘Diamper’ (Udayamperur) of 1599. English translation available in Hough, James, The History of Christianity in India (5 vols, London, 1839), ii.Google Scholar The preservation of ritual purity was no less important to Syrians during the 19th century as is illustrated in an account of a debate among a group of Syrians about whether to take cooked food or betelnut at an untouchable convert's marriage feast when pressed to do so by their missionary employers. Church Missionary Record, 1856, p. 164.Google Scholar

15 Synod of ‘Diamper’ IX:xvii, pp. 678–9. These decrees comprise a lengthy analysis of the Syrians' ‘unorthodox’ and ‘heretical’ religious beliefs and observances and set out the so-called reforms of practice and doctrine which the Jesuits sought to impose on the group. For a discussion of Nayars and Syrians and their beliefs about ritual purity and pollution in the 20th century see Fuller, C. J., ‘Kerala Christians and the Caste System’, in Man (N.S.) II, 53–70Google Scholar and letter from Ferro-Luzzi, G. Eichinger in Man (N.S.) II, 591–2.Google Scholar

16 Iyer, L. K. Anantha Krishna, The Cochin Tribes and Castes (2 vols, Madras, 1909–1912), ii, 44, 91–6Google Scholar; Anthropology of the Syrian Christians, pp. xi–xiii, 102Google Scholar; Synod IX:ii, iii, v; Thurston, Edgar, Castes and Tribes of Southern India (7 vols, Madras, 1909), vi, 445–6, 450Google Scholar; Podipara, J. Placid, ‘The Social and Socio-Ecclesiastical Customs of the Syrian Christians of India’, The Eastern Churches Quarterly, VII:4 (1947), pp. 222–36Google Scholar; Pillai, T. K. Velu, The Travancore State Manual (4 vols, Trivandrum, 1940), IV, 812Google Scholar; Bartolomeo, Fra Paolino da San, A Voyage to the East Indies, trans. Johnston, W. (London, 1800, first pub. 1796), p. 198Google Scholar; Menon, C. Achyuta, The Cochin State Manual (Ernakulam, 1911), p. 226Google Scholar; Church Missionary Record, 1831, pp. 118–20 and 1838, p. 130.Google Scholar

17 Interviews with members of leading Syrian families with former donor traditions in Shertallai and other centres: Kottayam and Trivandrum, Aug.-Sept. 1977. And see Synod IX:iv; Brown, , Indian Christians, p. 171Google Scholar; and Whitehouse, , Lingerings, p. 241.Google Scholar

18 Proceedings of the Second and Third Meetings of the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly,Trivandrum, 1905–06, pp. 66, 132; Whitehouse, , Lingerings, pp. 69, 240Google Scholar; Podipara, ‘Customs’; Brown, , Indian Christians, pp. 171–2Google Scholar; von Euw, C. K., ‘Malabar Rite’ in The New Catholic Encyclopedia, ix, p. 95Google Scholar; Gouvea, , Histoire, pp. 264–5.Google Scholar

19 This process is outlined in Kunju, A. P. Ibrahim, Rise of Travancore. A Study in the Life and Times of Martanda Varma (Trivandrum, 1976).Google Scholar See also Panikkar, , History of Kerala, pp. 265ff.Google Scholar

20 Ibid.

21 Voyage, p. 173.Google Scholar

22 Ibid.; Pillai, Velu, Manual, ii, 383–417Google Scholar; Cheriyan, P., The Malabar Syrians and the Church Missionary Society (Kottayam, 1935), p. 32Google Scholar; Menon, P. Shungoony, A History of Travancore from the Earliest Times (Madras, 1878), p. 151Google Scholar; Kunju, Ibrahim, Rise of Travancore, pp. 100, 121Google Scholar; Panikkar, , History, p. 234.Google Scholar

23 Gupta, Ashin das, Malabar in Asian Trade (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 34–72Google Scholar; Kunju, Ibrahim, Rise of Travancore, pp. 105–6Google Scholar; Ward, Lieutenants and Conner, , Geographical and Statistical Memoir of the Survey of the Travancore and Cochin States (2 vols, Trivandrum, 1863–1901, first pub. 1827).Google Scholar

24 Gupta, Das, Malabar in Asian Trade, p. 41.Google Scholar On prominent Syrian office-holding families see e.g. entry for 8 Dec. 1821, MS ‘Journal of a Tour in India 1821–1822’, Papers of the Rev. Dr William Hodge Mill, MS Mill 204, fol. 30r, Bodleian. Information on Matthu Tharakon from interviews with his descendants, Sept. 1977, Trivandrum, Sept. 1977. On the Parayil Tharakons in the 19th century see Cover File No. 726/1888, Travancore Govt. English Records (hereafter TGER), Trivandrum Secretariat Archives; and Sri Mulam I, p. 24. And see Paolino, , Voyage, pp. 117–21.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., pp. 118–20; Gupta, Das, Malabar in Asian Trade, pp. 33, 71–2Google Scholar; Pillai, Velu, Manual, iv, 681.Google Scholar

26 On 18th century state-building in Cochin, see Menon, Achyuta, Manual, pp. 118–19Google Scholar; Panikkar, , History of Kerala, pp. 265–6. On the new rulers' policies of shrine-building and religious patronage see Ibrahim, Kunju, Rise of Travancore, pp. 113–19Google Scholar. With the intention of commenting ironically on the rulers' ‘wasteful’ spending on shrines and ritual the missionary Samuel Mateer used his English translation of the term dharmabhuni as the title for his work ‘The Land of Charity’. A Descriptive Account of Travancore and Its People (London, 1871).Google Scholar

27 Kunju, Ibrahim, Rise of Travancore, pp. 74–6Google Scholar; Pilial, Velu, Manual, ii, 348–9.Google Scholar

28 Kunju, Ibrahim, Rise of Travancore, pp. 117–19Google Scholar; Jeffrey, , Decline of Nayar Dominance, p. 4Google Scholar; Panikkar, , History of Kerala, p. 259Google Scholar; Menon, Achyuta, Manual, p. 329Google Scholar; Mateer, , ‘Land of Charity’, pp. 169–73.Google Scholar

29 Pillai, Velu, Manual, ii, 346–7Google Scholar; Kunju, Ibrahim, Rise of Travancore, pp. 100–1.Google Scholar

30 See my ‘Islam in Southern India: “Purist” or “Syncretic”?’ in Kolff, D. and Bayly, C. A. (eds), Comparative Studies in Overseas History: Colonial India and Indonesia (Leiden, forthcoming).Google Scholar

31 Menon, A. Sreedhara, A Social and Cultural History of Kerala (New Delhi, 1979), p. 169.Google Scholar

32 Pillai, Velu, Manual, ii, 346–7Google Scholar; Menon, Achyuta, Manual, p. 126Google Scholar; Podipara, Placid, The Malabar Christians (Alleppey, 1972), p. 34.Google Scholar

33 Paolino, , Voyage, pp. 119–20Google Scholar; Mulam, Sri 3, p. 132.Google Scholar It is also notable that during the 18th century (and until well into the 19th century in some centres) Syrians regularly took chattam festival processions through the main caste Hindu residential quarters of towns and along major procession routes used by Hindus. This is no longer the case today: Syrian processions are now almost invariably confined to the inner precincts and compounds of churches. See CM Record 1841, p. 121.Google Scholar

34 Shares held by Syrians in Nayar goddess festivals are noted in the CM Record 1848, p. 206–7.Google Scholar See also CM Record 1831, p. 118Google Scholar; 1853, p. 217; Thurston, , Castes and Tribes, vi, 445Google Scholar; Whitehouse, , Lingerings, p. 250.Google Scholar

35 Hunt, W. S., The Anglican Church in Travancore and Cochin 1816–1916 (2 vols, Kottayam, 1968, first pub. 1920–33), i, 142 (note).Google Scholar

36 Gouvea, , Histoire, pp. 264–5Google Scholar; Ayyar, Anantakrishna, Anthropology of the Syrian Christians, pp. 13–14Google Scholar; The Cochin Tribes and Castes, i, p. 238.Google Scholar

37 Quoted in ibid., p. 239. The worship of female deities is characteristic not only of Kerala but also of the Tamil country where shrines and festivals associated with the worship of ‘folk’ goddesses or ammans provide the underpinnings of most popular worship. Just as the sacred power of St Thomas was related to that of the goddess Bhagavati in this Keralan myth, so too in Tamilnadu Christian and Muslim devotional patterns overlap with popular goddess worship. The link in all these cases seems to be the sakti principle—the principle of female divine power in Hindu tradition—which becomes associated with the barakat or ‘charisma’ of the Sufi pir and the sacred energy of the Christian saint or Virgin patroness. See my ‘Islam in Southern India’.

38 A Malayalam palm-leaf manuscript, probably 18th century, gives another version of the Cranganur legend. In this account an untouchable Pulaya woman accosts St Thomas ‘with beguiling words, after the manner of women’ and the apostle turns her into the stone image which became the main object of worship in the Cranganur temple. Joseph, T. K., ‘A St. Thomas Legend’, The Indian Antiquary, lviii (1929), pp. 178–9.Google Scholar

39 Joseph, , ‘Malabar Miscellany’, p. 27.Google Scholar

40 Letters from Malabar, trans. Drury, H. (Madras, 1862, 1st pub. 1796), p. 103.Google Scholar

41 Buchanan, C., quoted in Hunt, , The Anglican Church in Travancore, i, 38 note 3.Google Scholar

42 Paolino, , Voyage, p. 110.Google Scholar

43 See Tisserant, , Eastern Christianity in India, pp. 192–6Google Scholar; Mundadan, A. M., ‘Indian Church and the East Syrian Church’, Indian Church History Review (hereafter ICHR), VI:1 (1972), pp. 23–42Google Scholar. In Nestorian doctrine (viewed as heretical by the Roman Catholic Church) the divine and human persons of Christ are viewed as separate entities. The ‘Jacobite’ or Monophysite doctrine regards them as a single indivisible entity.

44 Discussed more fully in my ‘Popular Christianity’, pp. 288–98.Google Scholar

45 Visscher, , Letters from Malabar, p. 103.Google Scholar And see Joseph, T. K., ‘Mar Sapor and Mar Prodh’, The Indian Antiquary, lvii:714 (1928), pp. 46–8Google Scholar; Gouvea, , Histoire, pp. 134–62Google Scholar; Brown, , Indian Christians, pp. 26–8, 95.Google Scholar

46 For example, at least nine west Asian bishops arrived in Malabar between 1503 and 1583, and at least six more reached the region between 1676 and 1708. Mackenzie, G. T., ‘History of Christianity in Travancore’, in Aiya, V. Nagam, The Travancore State Manual (3 vols, Trivandrum, 1906), ii, 190, 203.Google Scholar

47 Ibid., p. 156.

48 This occurred at the Synod of ‘Diamper’. See Castets, , ‘The Caste Question in Indian Church History’, Archives de la nouvelle mission du Maduré (typescript) v, pp. 282–3Google Scholar (n.d.) Archives of the Madura Mission of the Society of Jesus, Sacred Heart College, Shembaganur, Tamilnadu; Daniel, K. N., ‘Rome and the Malabar Church’, Kerala Society Papers, II:10 (1932), pp. 47–61Google Scholar; Mundadan, A. M., ‘The Invalidity of the Synod of Diamper’, ICHR, I:1 (1967), pp. 9–22Google Scholar; Samuel, V. C., da Silva Rego, A. and Mundadan, A. M., ‘Discussion: The Synod of Diamper as an Ecumenical Problem’, ICHR, I:1 (1967), pp. 23–8.Google Scholar

49 Hambye, E. R., ‘An Eastern Prelate in India. Mar Aithalaha 1652–53’, ICHR, II:1 (1968), pp. 1–5Google Scholar; Mackenzie, , ‘History’, p. 185Google Scholar; Mill, journal entry 1 Dec. 1821, MS Mill 204, fol. 25v, Bodleian; Pillai, Velu, Manual, i, 694–5Google Scholar; Brown, , Indian Christians, pp. 96–100Google Scholar; ‘Copy of a Correspondence Relative to the Syrian Christians in Travancore’, 13 March 1822, MS Mill 192, fol. 133v, Bodleian.

50 Letter from C. Swanston to T. Robinson, chaplain to the Bp of Calcutta, 15 Sept. 1826, MS Mill 191, fol. 13v, Bodleian; Cheriyan, , Malabar Syrians, pp. 32–3Google Scholar; Mackenzie, , ‘History’, pp. 208–9Google Scholar; Ayyar, Anantakrishna, Anthropology of the Syrian Christians, p. 39.Google Scholar

51 Mackenzie, , ‘History’, pp. 208–9.Google Scholar

52 Report on the East India Company's Connections with Travancore, 29 Sept. 1809/ Board's Collections 166/882, India Office Library, London; Pillai, Velu, Manual, ii, 446, 458Google Scholar; Menon, Sreedhara, Ernakulam, p. 199.Google Scholar

53 Ibid., p. 540. And see Bayly, C. A., Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars. North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion 1770–1870 (Cambridge, 1983), ch. 7.Google Scholar

54 Menon, Sreedhara, Ernakulam, p. 203Google Scholar; Arthur, [Thomas], Report on a Few Subjects Regarding the Countries of Travancore and Cochin, in Drury, H. (ed.), Selections from the Records of Travancore (Trivandrum, 1860, first issued 1810), pp. 67–70Google Scholar; and Arthur, Report of the Countries of Travancore and Cochin, their Condition and Resources, in ibid., pp. 47–86; Mackworth], [D., Diary of a Tour Through Southern India … in the Years 1821 and 1822 (London, 1823), p. 56Google Scholar; and Madras Political Proceedings, 2469/4 Jan 1862/321/46/IOL.

55 Quoted in Cheriyan, , Malabar Syrians, p. 373.Google Scholar

56 Ward, and Conner, , Memoir, i, 133.Google Scholar

57 Arthur, , Report on a Few Subjects, pp. 67–70Google Scholar; Arthur, , Report on the Countries, pp. 47–86Google Scholar; Mackworth, , Diary, p. 56; and MPP 2469/4–1–1862/46/IOL.Google Scholar

58 Forbes, James, Oriental Memoirs (2 vols, London, 1813), i, 406.Google Scholar

59 Buchanan, Francis, A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar (3 vols. Madras, 1807), ii, 391Google Scholar; and see Wrede, , ‘Account of the St. Thomé Christians’, pp. 368–9.Google Scholar

60 Menon, Achyuta, Manual, p. 150. Munro's views and aims emerge with great clarity from his voluminous correspondence with members of the Madras Corresponding Committee of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) Box CI 2, CMS Archives, London.Google Scholar

61 See Munro's letters 3–1–1816, 6–9–1817; 28–8–1817; and Rev. T. Norton to CMS Corr. Sec. 14–12–1816, Box CI 2/E1 (1815–17), CMSA. Also Mill journal entry 28–12–1821, MS Mill 204, fol. 38v, Bodleian. And Reports from the Rev. B. Bailey and others to CMS Corr. Sec. Feb. 1935, MS vol. CMS 38, Indian Church History Archive, United Theological College, Bangalore; CM Record 1835, p. 222Google Scholar; CM Intelligencer 1856, pp. 221–2Google Scholar; CM Record 1838, p. 130Google Scholar; 1841, pp. 120–1; 1842, p. 158; Cheriyan, , Malabar Syrians, p. 221.Google Scholar

62 To be discussed more fully in my forthcoming volume on religious conversion in south India. Some of Kerala's more spectacular wildfire sects and cult groups are noted in Kerala Mitram newspaper 15–10–1881, Reports on Vernacular Newspapers Examined by the Translators to the Govt of Madras; Census of India 1931, XXVIII: Pt I, p. 340; CM Record 1869, pp. 304–5; 1870, pp. 329; 1873, pp. 164–6.Google Scholar

One highly contentious rift occurred when members of a leading ‘Jacobite’ priestly family founded a breakaway sect which became known as the independent Mar Thoma Syrian Church. The Syrian Catholics had an equally turbulent history during the 19th century with pitched battles in the main church centres and the formation of more separatist churches led by yet another series of overseas prelates. See Cheriyan, , Malabar Syrians, pp. 287–93Google Scholar and Nidhiry, A. M., Father Nidhiry (1842–1904): A History of his Times (Kottayam, 1971).Google Scholar

63 Cheriyan, , Malabar Syrians, pp. 60–1, 105–6Google Scholar; Mackenzie, , ‘History’, p. 214Google Scholar; Mackworth, , Diary, pp. 70, 89–90.Google Scholar

64 This prelate's sensational though short-lived exploits in Malabar are recorded in a correspondence in the MS vol. ‘Papers Relating to Mar Athanasius’, MS Mill 191, Bodleian.

65 Norton to CMS Corr. Sec., 14–10–1816, Box CI 2/E1, CMSA.

66 Journal entry 5–12–1821, Ms Mill 204, fol. 28r, Bodleian.

67 Munro to CMS Corr. Sec., 6–9–1817, Box CI 2/E1, CMSA.

68 Whitehouse, , Lingerings, p. 216Google Scholar; Cheriyan, , Malabar Syrians, p. 67.Google Scholar

69 E.g. journal entry for 23–11–1821, MS Mill 204, fol, 21r, Bodleian.

70 Journal entry for 28–11–1821, MS Mill 204, fol. 23r, Bodleian. Other clashes during the 1820s are described by Whitehouse, in Lingerings, p. 246.Google Scholar

71 Resident to dewan of Travancore, 26–3–1841; 2 7–11–1841; 29–11–1841 and petition to dewan from ‘Syrians of Ramamunkulam’ 16–12–1841, Madras States Residency Records (hereafter MSRR) National Archives of India (NAI) New Delhi.

72 Polit. Despatch from Court of Directors no. 2, 4–5–1853; letter 2030:21–7–1852 in MS vol. ‘Letters from Resident to Dewan 1–8–1850 to 28–2–1853; letter 1458: 31–7–1855 and 1557:15–8–1855 in MS vol. ‘Letters from Resident to Dewan 16–2–1855 to 31–12–1856, MSRR/NAI; Resident to Dewan 31–7–1855, Cover file no. 294, TGER.

73 Printed memorandum from dewan of Travancore 15–7–1895, Cover file no. 2656, TGER; Rept, on viruti tenure, 12–6–1889, Cover file no. 1664, TGER; Travancore Administration Reports 1872–74, 1889–90; Petition from ‘68 viruthi tenants of Sheraingil district’, 18–7–1891, Cover file no. 1920, TGER; Pillai, Velu, Manual, iii, pp. 216–19.Google Scholar Jeffrey has argued that social dislocation occurred in Travancore after 1860 as a result of rapid ‘modernization’ of the state's economy. Unlike the Nayars, he says, Syrians possessed entrepreneurial skills and an individualistic spirit which enabled them to benefit from the expansion of cash cropping and plantation agriculture. The Syrians ‘recognised no concept of ritual purity’ and ‘never allowed [their] concern for high-caste sensibilities to interfere with their commercial activities’ and so, it is argued, there was a massive transfer of wealth from Nayars to Syrians and low-caste Christians during the later 19th century. This is supposed to have been bitterly resented by the once-‘dominant’ Nayars. (The Decline of Nayar Dominance pp. 122–9, 201–4, 267) While changes in Travancore's economy may well have added an extra dimension to existing tensions within the society there are clearly two problems here: first, as noted above, Syrians did in fact observe principles of ritual purity which were virtually indistinguishable from those of the higher Nayar subdivisions. And secondly, this modernization argument fails to account for the breakdown in relations between Syrians and caste Hindus during the early part of the 19th century, long before the period of economic change stressed by Jeffrey.

74 CM Record 1852, pp. 180–3Google Scholar; Petition dated 15–2–1851 in MS Section Book, ‘Letters to Resident’ 1–5–1851 to 27–8–1851; rept. 26–6–1851 in ibid., TGER. Letter from the Revd. Hawksworth (n.d.): 2222, vol. ‘Letters from Resident to dewan’, 1–8–1850 to 28–2–1853, MSRR; letters 3–6–1853, Cover file no. 215, TGER.

75 CM Record 1856, pp. 164–5Google Scholar; Dewan to Resident, (n.d.) no. 1093, 1851, Section Book ‘Letters to Resident’ 5–1851 to 8–1851; Dewan to Resident 10–5–1815, Cover file no. 805, TGER; Hawksworth to Resident 7–10–1854: no. 1853, vol. ‘Letters to Dewan’ 2–3–1853 to 15–2–1855, MSRR/NAI.

76 Petition to Dewan 28–2–1886, Cover file no. 1006; Petition from Jacobite metran to dewan, 22–2–1895, Cover file no. 801; Dewan to Resident 9–10–1890: Cover file no. 2381; Petition to Resident 27–6–1888, Cover file no. 3713; Petition to dewan from a Syrian Catholic katanar, Shertallai, 22–3–1891, Cover file no. 1616; Resident to dewan, 30–3–1891, Cover file no. 1616, TGER.

77 ‘Syrian Church Case’ correspondence, especially petitions to dewan dated 12–8–1889, 14–9–1889 and 31–8–1889, Cover file no. 3787; and 31–8–1889, Cover file no. 2381, TGER; Malayala Manorama newspaper, 22–3–1890, 6–6–1890, 15–10–1892, 30–7–1892, 6–5–1893; Edavaka Patrika newspaper,1:7; (1892); 1:3 (1892); 11:6 (1893); V:6 (1896); VI:7 (1897).

78 Koshy, Ninan, Caste in the Kerala Churches (Bangalore, 1968), pp. 24–5, 32–53.Google Scholar