Christians of Keralam and Uliam work in Temples

Christians of Keralam and Uliam work in Temples

Dr.C.Issac in his article “ The spread of Christianity and Islam in Keralam- a study on trend and pattern “ in Itihas Darpan, New Delhi, Vol.iii No.1 Nov. 2001 pp-41-48, quoting Cosmos Indicopleustus (550 A.D), says that “Christians are not Masters in Malabar, but Salves”; and that “ they were Sudra Jatis doing uliam work in temples.”

It is a fact that they were not masters. But they were not slaves either. By the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century some of the Christians including St. Thomas Syrian Christians were doing some work for certain temples like giving rice or “Aval”.But this was being done as a privilege and right conferred on them by the temple Some others were supplying rice to the temples as rent for the Dewaswam lands given to them for cultivation.
These were not uliam work. Compulsory labour for the temple for a meager wage or reward is uliam. This was uncommon. That might have existed in rare situations. But to make an all pervasive statement, that Kerala Christians before the advent of the European colonialists” were slaves; were of Sudra jatis like Nairs, Elavas doing uliam work in temples, is preposterous.” This is like the remarks of the four blind men who went to see elephants and described them as broom stick, pillar and so on.
Uliam is not the word. It is “ozhyam or Varuthi”.It was a feudal exaction made by the state. Such collections were later demanded from cultivators by the Brhamaswams and Dewaswams of Brahmin and temple lands. These payments were rent of that land and not ozhyam exactions. But the margin between the two was often indefinite.
If a work is to be called an ozhyam exaction, it should be one exploitatively and compulsorily demanded from some kind of a bonded labour. St. Thomas Christians were not bonded labourers before the coming of the Portuguese.
The fact is that there are a number of documents and books to prove that Nazarenes /St.Thomas Christians of Kerala occupied a very important place in the social, economic and political arena and had a reputation of maintaining very high ethical values in life. Here I am giving a few references out of the many, which are available in umpteen libraries in Kerala. (A).

The following facts are worth mentioning.
1. The coming of Aryans to South India and Kerala were in trickles and later in the AD era, probably in waves. So one cannot deny existence of pockets of Aryan Brahmin colonies in Kerala even before the first Century A.D.
2. Before the coming of the Portuguese in the 15th century, there were Christians in Kerala having life pattern and customs of upper caste of Kerala. They might have been descendants of Brahmins converted to Christianity either by St. Thomas in the first Century itself or by some others at a later time. Most of their customs were of the Brahmins of Kerala. A scientific testimony is the “Anthropology of Syrian Christians” written by Ananthakrishna Iyer L.K (B).
3. A good number of the early Christians other than the converts were emigrants from Persia and other parts of West Asia.They were not part of the four varnas of the Kerala caste system. They were not Sudras.
4. These Semitic emigrants and the upper class converts maintained their class exclusivism of Judaic origin, very meticulously till the last quarter of the 20th Century.
5. Many Keralites (including the later Christians) had trade contacts with the foreign traders from Egypt or Rome even before the birth of Christianity. Afterwards they continued their trade relations with the West Asian Arabs and still later with the European traders. So naturally they were financially well off than their fellow Keralites.
6. Kalari piatte and army service was another occupation of the St. Thomas Christians ( later came to be known as Syrian Christians because of their spiritual contacts with Syrians of West Asia) .With the disintegration of the Kulasekhara empire and the Chera- Chola wars of the 10th and 11th centuries AD, a number of petty principalities and chieftains came up. They required warriors and “chaverpadas” for their internecine wars. The Kalari trained and dependable Christians were thus employed by these chieftains.(C)
7. Their catechism had made Christians honest, upright, just, trustworthy, non-practioners of polyandry or polygamy.and monotheists. So the community respected Nazarenes more than anybody else.

In short most of the Christians in Kerala before the coming of the Portuguese were an exclusive group outside the Caste System and were socially on a par with the upper castes of Kerala. If any traveler or others saw them then as slaves, it was due to the difference in observation. It was the coming of the Portuguese with their ignorance about Christianity other than the Roman Church, their militant proselytism among the lower castes of Kerala, their inter marriages with these new converts and immoral colonial behavioral patterns that lead to the destruction of social, economic and political status of Kerala Christians The Portuguese perhaps might have converted some of lesser castes who have been doing ozhyam work in the temples. The British colonialists tried to retrieve this decay of the status of Syrian Christians to some extent with their own motive of winning them to their Protestant ways.
So the statement that the Christians in Malabar were slaves and were doing ozhyam work for the Hindu Temples apply, if it applies, only to some microscopically few of them that existed outside the mainstream.
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A.! Gibbon. E. -Decline and fall of the Roman Empire-p. 826
2. Rev. James Hugh- History of Christianity in India-p.102
3 Sankunny Menon.P. - History of Travancore pp 150-154
4. Prakasam Publications- Christava Vinjanakosam (Malayalam) Alleppy. Pp 193-199
5. Z.M.Parret- Malankara Nazranikal- (Malayalam) First 8 Volumes.
Specially: - Malankara Nazranikal- Padaviyum Jathyacharangalum
6. Menacherry George- The St, Thomas Christian Encyclopedia of India- Vol II-
Trichur
7. Prof. Joseph K.Alexander-“Political- Economic Contributions”- in“. Fr. T.G.Sacharia
& K.V.Mammen- Twentieth Century Malankara Sabha (Mal) pp. 381-445”
B.Anantha Krishna Iyer. L.K. - Anthropology of the Syrian Christians.
C. Padmanabha Menon K.P. - History of Cochin Vol.II (Mal)