01. Redefining Christianity

02. Where Indian Christianity is different from English Christianity

03. A digression to language issues

04. What really happened when English administrators left

05. Another allusion to language codes

06. The exact codes in the volition to teach

Redefining Christianity

The fact was that the British East India Company’s endeavour to spread English in ‘India’ was a great and noble aim. This fact is very much seen in the Minutes on ‘Indian’ Education by Lord Macaulay. There are many nonsensical allegations with regard to this noble aim. One was that it was done to aid the Christian Missionaries. This is a stupid statement. For, the British rule in ‘India’ did not give any extra support to the Christian Missionaries other than extend them the law and order security that was there for everyone else also. For one thing, England has severed its traditional relationship with the Pope and does not accept his spiritual or temporal authority.

Second point is that the non-England Christian missionaries were vehemently against the spread of English in ‘India’. To understand this idea, I need to speak about Christian religion as experienced in ‘India’. This would lead me back to my own childhood. I was admitted into an Anglo-Indian school in my lower primary classes. I stayed in the school boarding. It was here that I experienced Christianity for the first time. It was a beautiful Christianity. Everything was in English. During the Sundays, I used to go to the Anglo-Indian church. It was a very different experience from the one I had in a temple. Everyone spoke English and there was no pejorative words used towards me. I had a wonderful feeling that Christianity was a wonderful religion fully connected to England.

However, many years later when I went to the same school, everything had changed. There was no English. Everything was in Malayalam, even though it was still having the name of Anglo-Indian English School. Even the school prayer was in Malayalam. The principal and the teachers were heard using the word Eda to the students. Most of the real Anglo-Indians had departed to English nations or else atrophied into the lower indicant levels of the Kerala social order. The Principal and other persons of the Episcopal order were all of a different breed from those who were there when I was studying there. At first I was quite intrigued about this feeling. I thought, maybe it was a just an impression from my memory which was not correct.

It was only later that I understood what had changed. What I had experienced was the minor world of English Christianity in ‘India’. This was not the norm, but only an exception. For instance, right inside Travancore princely state ruled by native Travancore Kings during the period when the rest of ‘India’ was ruled by the British, there was a huge number of Christians who no connection with English at all. Among them also, I did see quite a variation in culture, heritage as well as familial connections. This also was quite a confusing bit of observation for me. First of all they had no connection with English. Second, among them itself, there seemed to be two extremely separate groups.

It was much later that I came upon the huge hidden information about Christian hereditary of Travancore kingdom (which lost its independence when Nehru forced it to join India, under the intimidation of imminent military intervention).

Christianity commenced in the ‘Indian’ Sub Continent within a few years of the demise of Jesus Christ. Apostle Thomas came to the southern shores of the Sub Continent a few years after the death of Christ. He converted a number of families of the higher classes to Christianity. He did this in a place near to Madras (Chennai) also. However he was brutally murdered there. St. Thomas Mount near to Guindy in Madras is connected to him.

Since the Christians thus converted belonged to the higher classes in Travancore, they enjoined unfettered social status. At around the years leading to 1900, many among the lower castes including the Pariyans, the Pulayas and the Ezhavas converted to Christianity propagated by the London Missionary Society. They then demanded social liberty as well as right to join the Public Services. A mass petition known as Ezhava Memorial was submitted to the king by the Ezhavas. However, the King refused to concede to the demands. Immediately around five hundred thousand Ezhavas converted into Christianity. It is true that even though it gave them a more freer atmosphere and liberty, the traditional Christians did not mentally concede them a feel of equal dignity. I do not know if the converted Christians had the right to join the Public Services. [Sources: Travancore State Manual and Native life in Travancore by The Rev. SAMUEL MATEER, F.L.S. of the London Missionary Society].

However, the current day Christianity in Kerala has minimal links to England and to English.

{I must admit that currently the Kerala Christians do not want to discuss their traditional connection with the lower castes. For, they themselves have gone to the extent of using pejorative words about them, to the extent that they cannot concede to any connection with them. It is generally not possible to find much allusion to this connection in the Internet. If at all any mention comes in the Wikipedia, it is immediately deleted. Actually I have seen this total rubbish statement on Wikipedia: QUOTE: ‘Contemporary Christian culture in India draws greatly from the Anglican culture as a result of the influence of the erstwhile British Raj’.

{I believe that there are a few paid persons who do this kind of work for many organisations in India, who work to whitewash information on Wikipedia, to concur with the wishes of certain organisations with vested interests. In that sense, the Indian pages of Wikipedia are just propaganda pages, intermingled with doctored encyclopaedic information}.

Now, as far as these (South Kerala) Christians are concerned, there is no tradition of English in them. Moreover a link to the Pope is not routed through England. Actually it is aimed at a nation which has a tradition of belligerence with England. Even though in the earlier periods, there were moderately good quality English medium schools run by the Christian church congregations, now their quality ranges from negligible to slightly near to moderate.

Where Indian Christianity is different from English Christianity

Since the subject of Kerala Christians have propped up, I think I would finish of the various frill things that seem to be popping up in my mind.

Once I was witness to this scene. I was standing with a Christian priest. He was a nice man. We were speaking in English. Suddenly two young men came. They spoke in Malayalam. Immediately I did notice this discrepancy. The priest was using the word Ningal for You to the young man who was addressing him. Usually to such young men from the parish, the priest would be using the word Nee (lowest Indicant) as You. This would signify subordination of the young man under the priest.

The young man was requesting for a recommendation or some kind of authentication from the priest. He was getting married with a female in Trichur district. He was from this local parish. Without this authentication letter from this local priest, the church authorities in Trichur wouldn’t allow the marriage over there. In way it was a very powerful containment and subordination of the people how are born in Christian families. Whatever personal freedom they may profess would be within the parameter of these powerful non-tangible temporal walls of spirituality.

The priest was simply retorting: ‘I have told you this several times. I can’t give you this letter. You do not attend the church and I do not know you. How can I give this letter?’

The young man seemed to be on the verge of tears. I departed from the scene.

Now, attending the church functions regularly, in a feudal language society, is not just an issue of religious belief, but of being part of a social leadership, continuation of that membership, acceptance of the leadership of the religious leaders, compliance with ecclesiastical rules and ultimately acquiescing to the use of pejorative words of address if they are used by the clergy.

This is where English Christianity differs severely from feudal-language Christianity. In fact, the truth is that English concept of Christianity is totally different from many other-language Christianity. For in English, allegiance to the Church is strictly on the basis of faith. However, in the case of feudal languages, it is not faith alone that holds the Church, but a very powerful feudal communication system that holds the members in the congregation in a vice-like hold.

A digression to language issues

Again speaking of Christians, I remember this incident.

I had just returned to my house in the village in Malabar in the year around 2003. I had very minimal connection with this place, having rarely lived there or studied in the locality. I was at that time living in the dilapidated house in our household compound. At that period of time, the Christians living in the settler populated mountainous areas were in terrible financial problems. They were all basically rubber plantation owners. However, rubber prices had crashed down and there were all signs that it would never rise up again. The kilogram price was around Rs. 22/kg. Now, it is around Rs. 200/kg.

Other agricultural crop prices were also crashing down. The farmers, mainly Christians were going rapidly into destitution.

One day a man came. He was assuredly younger to me. He was a farmer. He addressed me with a Saar suffixed to my name. He wanted me to translate a huge petition to the Prime Minister written in Malayalam into English. He said that the farmers were in terrible conditions. And that for many of them suicide was the only viable option, unless urgent financial help came from the Central government in the form of writing-off of bank loans which were in most cases overdue.

The banks had started taking seizure of pledged properties. He told me that the famers couldn’t pay much for the translation, as they were all financially broken down. He said that he had been sent by a senior-in-age (to him) Christian advocate from a nearby town.

The first thing that I did was to ask to address me as a Ningal and to use my name with a Mr. prefixed. Actually it was quite an idiotic thing to do. For, the language was Malayalam and I was trying to encode English codes into this Malayalam communication, with a more or less un-educated-in-English farmer. Second thing I said was that if the farmers were in such dire situations, I would write the petition freely. I did not want to add to their woes more. The communication went quite nicely.

It was long draft written by pen. Not typewritten. I worked on it and gave it to that man in a day or two. No payment was taken.

However, in a few weeks time I happened to meet the aforementioned advocate in another business premises, and he invited me over to his office. However, when I went to his office, the other man was there. It was here that my egalitarian pose caused a problem. The other man had forgotten the exact codes that I had mentioned. He simply came and called me by name without the Mr. prefix, and introduced me as the writer to the advocate, at the same time, he himself positioning himself in a deep pose of servitude to the advocate. Now in this scene, the advocate stood high on the pedestal.

The other man stood much below him as a sort of servant, and he positioned me at his level by means of indicant words and using my name with no prefix or suffix. This scene cannot be visualised exactly in English, for the powerful positioning done by indicant words is not there in English.

The advocate immediately took cognizance of the situation. He suddenly shifted his pose into that of a superior dealing with an inferior.

Now the other frill issue was that I did not accept money in the understanding that the persons who wanted the help were in acute shortage of cash. However, it soon transpired that this advocate was on the verge of starting a teacher’s training college, with huge buildings and other infrastructure.

Now, continuing in the same vein, there is this thing to be mentioned. The Christian farmers got a lot of financial help from the government, including that of a Support Price for rubber which kept the prices from submerging totally. However, in a few years time, the rubber prices again bounced back to normal and then went to astronomical heights. The question that should come up is: If the farmers got financial help in times of distress, wouldn’t it be a legitimate claim that they should pay it back in times of prosperity?

What really happened when English administrators left

There is this story also to be mentioned in this context.

The Christian settler population from Travancore areas barged into the forest areas of Malabar in the immediate aftermath of the departure of the British rule. Actually in the immediate surroundings of these areas, there were lots of local people living. However, these people had no means or urge to encroach into the forest lands. For the during the British rule times, the forest department of Malabar was quite efficient and the officer class more or less incorruptible. The locals of Malabar, mainly the Hindus and the Mappilla Muslims were totally assimilated into these codes. And also they had their own social strictures that forbade them to be too adventurous.

The question that naturally comes up in this regard is how come a particular section of the population can encroach into forest lands and claim they have developed it. It is similar to what is happening in current days in the Amazon forests of South America. The settler population in Malabar forests displaced and uprooted many tribal populations from their traditional homelands. And they actually came from a place which was another nation when the British rule was in place in Malabar.

Another allusion to language codes

Now coming to the story.

When I was living in a settler area, an old woman came to me and mentioned that she was willing to cook for me. At that time, only my young daughter (age 4) and I were in that lonely house near to a reserve forest area. I was also too poor for words at that time, for there were terrible family problems and distractions that shook my residences at all places like a bird nest in a tempest. She told me that she would come in the morning hours from her nearby hut and do the chores and go off by 11. She wanted only 20 rupees. The year was 2002. Even then Rs. 20 was quite a small amount. She lived alone.

However, she could partake of food and other things like Fish, which she bought every day. Within a few days of getting this Rs. 20/- her looks improved and so did her assertiveness. Even though she was affable to me, the other local rich folks were not happy with the situation. Some of them were my students, for I was taking an English class for them. They simply told me that paying Rs. 20 was too much. Rs. 10 would have been enough.

This part again is part of the feudal language codes. The lower man, the moment he gets some financial acumen would become more assertive. It can even lead to the change of indicant word codes towards the higher class. It is not liked. It is safer to keep the lower man in his place of dirt and desperation, than to have him to rise.

This woman had some male sons. They were working as labourers. Now, the query in my mind was this: Her husband would also have been around in those times of Christian settlers arriving and taking over the forest lands. How come he also did not get to grab a part of the seemingly endless forest lands? Well, the answer lies in the assemblage of people under a particular leadership.

The whole group moves as a single machine. The person who is outside is a single, slender being, whose efforts do not have enough power. He gets positioned at the bottom, by the powerful lower indicant words of the other side. They stand as a sort of cartel. And position him and his family members in the depths of the feudal language codes.

Now coming back to Macaulay, when he came out with a proposal to teach English to the ‘Indians’, it was greeted with widespread consternation. The claims were that he was out to destroy ‘Indian’ culture, languages, sciences, mathematics and everything else. Actually he was doing the exact reverse. He was giving a unique opportunity to the common man to rise up above his fetters. This was exactly what worried the ‘Indian’ social and cultural leaders.

The exact codes in the volition to teach

Now, this issue is connected to a more finer issue. What is the exact motivation for becoming a ‘teacher’ in ‘India’? Well, the exact motivation is the ‘respect’ that it brings in. In fact, it is the easiest method to reach out to social leadership. Somehow earn a suffix to one’s name with such words as Mahatma, Saar, Mash, Teacher etc. and the language codes will do the rest. This was the real worry that sprang out in the minds of the ‘Indian’ leaders.

If the Englishmen were to teach the ‘Indians’, then they become the Mash, Saar, Ji, Mahatma, Teacher etc. Once this is established, they become the natural leaders of the population. Then what would be their own stature in a society wherein people who should naturally remain subordinate and low calibre, rise up above their traditional levels of articulation and calibre? They would go into dismal oblivion.

However, the finer understanding that Englishmen would not become Mash, Saar, Ji, Mahatma, Teacher etc. was not clearly understood by the ‘Indian’ leaders. For, even though an immensity of Englishmen have done a fabulous levels of work in ‘India’ for the development of this place, it is impossible to find even one person with a name having a Saar, Mash, Ji, Mahatma or Teacher suffixed.

Even Robert Clive, who captured a major part of the Sub Continent with the support of a very loyal and affectionate section of the native population is never seen described in any ‘Indian’ history book as Mahatma Clive or Clive Ji. At the same time, a person of quite insignificant achievements has been donned with the term of Mahatma and Ji. That is how the sly ‘Indian’ indoctrination techniques work.

It is true that many Englishmen were treated with great adoration by the natives here. In fact, many of them did get suffixes of ‘respect’ and adoration. That is the only way that the natives here could codify their adoration in words.

In my own endeavours to spread English also, I had faced this aspect. Local social leaders and others who are in the education field take it as a personal or business competition that I am spreading English. They view it with very grave consternation. Once, I had this very intriguing question to face. A man who was reasonably good in English came and asked me, when I had taught English to some youngsters many years ago: ‘What is it that you are doing?’ When I answered that I was teaching English, he took a very rude attitude and told me, ‘You need not teach them so correctly. For, if you do so they will very easily master English’.

Well, the truth was that youngsters in a remote village who have to consistently put on an expression of grateful attention to the ‘intelligent’ teacher are being made intelligent themselves. There was another English teacher who very frankly told me, ‘If you teach everyone English, then what value would we have?’

The fact was that the English were doing a grave misdemeanour by teaching everyone English. For, what they were doing was removing social leaders from positions of ‘respect’ and reverence, and also erasing the perplexed expression from the faces of the common man. It was a prospect that no ‘Indian’ leader was going to allow. The way to block it was to tell the common persons that they were going to be spoiled by this English education. However, the objectives of British East India Company and Macaulay prevailed.