Naveen Prasad Alex
Who is a Chrisanghi
Chrisanghis is a term that recently came into use for Syrian Christians who share with sections from other religious groups the common hatred of Muslims, predominantly in Kerala. Efforts by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to increase their stake in Kerala’s legislative affairs have not gone unnoticed over the last long period. ‘Integration’ of the Anarya and Avarna communities is part of the RSS strategy to integrate them into the Arya and Savarna social order and create a homogenized, Sanskritized, Brahminical Hindu community; in Golwalkar’s words, “One state, one state, one parliament, one executive.” Recently, there have been several attempts from the BJP to bring Syrian Christians into the RSS fold through the always-adopted strategy of creating a Muslim ‘otherness’. In recent years, several organizations have been formed by these so-called ‘Chrisanghis’ spitting out blind Islamopobia using terms like ‘love jihad’, ‘narcotic jihad’, etc. But why Christians? That’s where the reply to the BJP’s future development within the state lies. The greatest lurching square for the party’s constituent prospects within the state, not at all like within the Hindi heartland, is its demography. Despite the efforts, the BJP has largely failed to integrate DBA communities, thanks to the remaining legacy of anti-caste revolutionaries like Sree Narayana Guru, Ayyankali, Poyikayil Appachan, etc.
The Christian Association and Alliance for Social Action (CASA), a group of Syrian Christians in north Kerala, is defined by its contempt for Muslims. They were one of the primaries among the numerous Christian extremist groups that developed in Kerala in later times. A few others and YouTube channels with preachings that are competent of hurting communal agreement have too picked up ubiquity. Groups like CASA have a list of issues around which they assemble Christians against Muslims. They run social media campaigns about narcotic jihad, love jihad, halal, and the hijab. Never mind that there is no evidence to back these conspiracy theories. Christheeya Viswasa Prathirodikal (Protectors of Christian Conviction), Pleased Catholics, Defenders Lecture Islam, Warriors of Cross, and Christian Adolescents are a few of the organizations that hold talks on such points. Indeed, clerics, ministers, and nuns take part in these talks. Adore jihad was the foremost well-known subject until some point prior, with numerous citing certain interfaith relational unions to demonstrate that it exists. Directly or indirectly, several religious leaders like bishops and priests have also been supportive of this, often meeting BJP/ RSS leaders frequently and making Islamophobic and pro-Hindutva statements even in churches in the middle of holy mass.
Caste Matters
Something to note is that if you look into these so-called organizations, it’s all Syrian Christians, or, in other words, elite Savarna Christians. There is little or no presence of Dalit Christians. Historically, Syrian Christian families have played a major role in the oppressive caste system in Kerala. Syrian Christians and other upper caste communities, including Nairs, are traditional collaborators and share many common interests; for centuries, they worked together to serve the interests of ruling Rajas and Nambudiri Brahmins and played a key role in maintaining caste oppression and slavery in Kerala. They claim that Brahmins were converted to Christianity by St. Thomas, a claim with zero historic evidence. The Syrian Christians, who often project themselves as the saviors of Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi communities, were actively involved in all forms of caste oppression. The churches in Kochi were often used to keep slaves from the DBA communities when there was no worship. The people of DBA communities, who converted to Christianity later, also faced similar discrimination and were not integrated into the Syrian Christian community.
Poyikayil Appachan, an anti-caste revolutionary from Kerala who converted to Christianity, later left Christianity and founded his own religious movement known as the PRDS. Through his songs, Appachan declared that Christianity was no different for Dalits; they were not allowed to enter churches, and they had to face all the casteist discrimination even inside Christianity. Pambadi John Joseph, another famous anti-caste revolutionary who worked among the Dalit Christians of Kerala and who was also a member of the Travancore Legislative Council, questioned the Syrian Christians’s apathetic and discriminatory attitude towards the untouchable Christians in his book Cheruma Boy.
The right-wing Syrian Christian organizations of Kerala, like CASA, ignored issues like the Manipur conflict and attacks on Christians and churches in places like Chhattisgarh. The reason behind this is the Savarna casteist mentality of the right-wing Syrian Christians, as the Christians attacked by right-wing Hindutva organizations are predominantly Dalit Christians and Adivasi Christians. Given the global power of Syrian Christians and their historic role in maintaining Kerala’s oppressive caste order as landlords in the old feudal economy and caste-varna system, what is possible and what is emerging is that at least in Kerala, an accommodation is reached between the Nair-dominated RSS and the Syrian Church in which the Church will desist from criticizing the RSS as far as possible and will also join in the RSS agenda of attacking Islam by linking the religion to terrorism and misogyny, which may explain why a synod of the [Syro-Malabar Catholic] Church in Kerala recently issued a statement attesting to the existence of ‘love jihad’.
This casteist mentality of Chrisangis was sugar-coated until recently. However, the recent cyber attack on Malayalam actor Mammootty by these Chrisangis brought out the casteism without any sugarcoating. Mammootty is facing online harassment over his character in the film ‘Puzhu’ released in 2022. He has been facing cyberattacks from some right-wing sympathizers online; this attack was started by CASA. In ‘Puzhu’, Mammootty played the role of an upper-caste Brahmin who opposes his sister’s marriage to a Dalit person. Some of those attacking the actor online used Mammootty’s birth name, Muhammed Kutty, to criticize the national award-winning actor. In the social media post by CASA, it can be seen that the ‘us’ they imagine opposite to the Muslims or the otherness does not include the Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi communities. It’s an alliance of the Savarnas. The real motive of Chrisanghis is casteism, and being a Chrisanghis is being a casteist.
~
References
- https://www.thenewsminute.com/kerala/chrisanghis-rise-christian-right-kerala-170777
- https://www.thenewsminute.com/long-form/rise-of-kerala-christian-right-is-deeply-rooted-in-islamophobia-a-look-at-poonjar-pala
- https://www.thenewsminute.com/kerala/why-wooing-christians-kerala-will-be-unavoidable-bjp-101819
- The Invisible History of Slavery in Kerala, Vinil Paul
~~~
Naveen Prasad Alex is an M.Sc graduate in biological sciences from the University of Turku, Finland. He is a Junior Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and has authored two books in Malayalam. He is also passionate about Anti-caste movements, Anthropology and politics. Please feel free to contact him at alexnaveenprasad@gmail.com
