Hinduism: once was: RAJARAM EPISODE

[Raveen Satkurunathan]

>Stepen,
>
>Yes. And you raise a charming point really. I lived a
>good year down around the Trivandrum-Varkala area of
>Kerala in the 80’s. And a very typical on-the-street
>reply that I would get from random Christians was,
>“caste-Christian.”
>
>Always,
>
>Tantra

You mean "High" Caste Christians?

Syrian Christians of Kerala (largest group of Christains in Kerala)
consider them to be Namboothiri converts to Christianity just like some
Jews of Bombay claimed that the local Konkanashta Brahmins are Jewish
converts to Hinduism (all self serving ‘myths’ created by middle eastern
immigrants without any historic evidence), hence their emphasis on “high”
caste status, but Kerala is also home to Christians who were converted
since the Portuguese era to the current times, who are usually from
formerly “lower” castes. Even some formerly evangelically aloof Syrian
churches have managed to convert indigenous Malayalees into their numerous
sects but still will not allow common communion. Recently PBS in the US ran
a program on this where a “Paraih” Christian laments that he along with
other “Dalit” Christians are not allowed into “high” caste Syrian Churches.

http://www.pbs.org/pressroom/2000/summer/releases/outofindia.htm
(It is a very inaccurate program in other respects)

Raveen.