Syrian Christian and Kerala History
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©2011 Sonja Thomas ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FROM CHATTAS TO CHURIDARS: SYRIAN CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN A SECULAR INDIAN STATE By SONJA THOMAS A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Women‘s and Gender Studies written under the direction of Dr. Ethel Brooks and approved by ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey October 2011 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION From Chattas to Churidars: Syrian Christian Religious Minorities in a Secular Indian State By SONJA THOMAS Dissertation Director: Professor Ethel Brooks This dissertation is a critical analysis of the feminist concept of intersectionality and a necessary contribution into the study of caste, class, race, religion and gender in South Asia. Rather than viewing identities as merely overlapping, I argue that there exist countless ―acts‖ that implicate the co-constitutive, relational, and fluid nature of identities. Particularly focusing on the upper-caste Syrian Christian community in postcolonial Kerala, India, I examine ―acts‖ in the form of embodied clothing practices, women‘s mobility in public spaces and political protests. My dissertation especially intervenes into dominant discourses within South Asian and Women‘s and Gender Studies. I reassess of the concept of race in South Asia, provide a sustained ethnographic and historical analysis of the state of Kerala, India, and I place the fields of South Asian and Women‘s and Gender Studies into critical dialogue with each other. To make these interventions, I use a variety of sources collected through interdisciplinary research methods. These methods include ethnography, archival methods, feminist and postcolonial theoretical analysis, and visual culture analysis. In the first and second chapters of the dissertation, I provide an overview of the dissertation, my field site and a history of the Syrian Christian community. In the third and fourth chapters I explore the relations between class, caste, race, religion and gender ii through an examination of the women‘s (in)ability to move freely in a changing public sphere. Following this, in chapters five and six I analyze how Syrian Christians have used their social privileges to politically mobilize, define a nation-wide minority identity, and protect their dominance in Kerala‘s private education sector. In the last chapter, I bridge Women‘s and Gender Studies with South Asian Studies and examine each of the disciplines‘ approach to studying differences between peoples in India. From the chatta, a clothing worn in colonial Kerala by Syrian Christian women alone, to the churidar worn today by women of all classes, castes, races and religions, I examine how ―acts‖ of class, caste, race, religion and gender may continue previous divisions between groups, justifying forms of oppression and ultimately upholding systems of domination in India today. iii Acknowledgements There were many individuals in my life that supported me and helped make this dissertation possible. First, I am indebted to my dissertation committee. My outside committee member, Dr. Prema Kurien, allowed me to see strengths of my research and encouraged me to overcome my writing insecurities. My advisor, Dr. Ethel Brooks, read countless drafts of chapters, offered much needed and welcome advice, and was infallible in her support. Throughout this process, Ethel has become more than just my mentor; she has become one of my closest friends. I would also like to thank my internal committee members, Dr. Jasbir Puar and Dr. Elizabeth Grosz. Jasbir and Liz both guided me through the writing process with insight and expertise. All three internal committee members, Ethel, Jasbir and Liz, gave me the freedom to shape both my research and my writing according to my own design. They provided boundaries only when I asked for them. I am honored to have earned their trust and am proud to call myself their student. Dr. J. Devika at the Center for Development Studies in Trivandrum was a wonderful mentor in India. Prema Teacher, Bindu Teacher and Mr. Arun taught me how to converse quite fluently in Malayalam. They also patiently stood by and corrected my reading and writing assignments. Additionally, Prema teacher and her husband, Sreekumar Sir, provided translations of pastoral letters. With deepest gratitude I say ―thank you!‖ Finally, I would like to thank my family. In India, my aunt, Rani Ampalathumkal, and my cousins Tina Mary, Tanya Mary and Tiffany Mary Thomas helped me navigate Malayalam terms of respect and phrases I was unfamiliar with. Thomas Ampalathumkal iv (Allo) and his family filled my days in India with laughter and cooked exceptional meals for me—including my most favorite Kerala fish curries. They became my second family and gave me a home away from home. I am grateful to have had the most amazing conversations on Kerala history with my last remaining grandparent, Mariamma Varghese Ampalathumkal. I am truly blessed to have had the opportunity to learn about her life and to speak with her every day over a cup of coffee and the morning paper. In the United States, my sisters Diana, Helen and Mallika and my brother Tommy listened to my ideas for outlines of chapters and were tireless in their support (even when they were frustrated with me for using academic jargon). My mother, Mary Thomas, helped me at the Malayalam Manorama newspaper archives and was wonderful with comments and insights. My father, Tommathew Thomas, also helped with translations, read drafts of chapters and provided me with a large photo archive. In my countless phone calls and discussions with my parents, I was able to shape the chapters of this dissertation and to think through the intersections of caste, religion, class, race and gender. On August 23, 2010, I gave birth to my daughter, Thresia Mary Reddy. She is truly my greatest accomplishment! With her in my life, I discovered a strength I never knew I had. I‘m sure this strength is what helped me write and edit the final pieces of this dissertation. I could not have completed this dissertation without each and every one of my family members‘ awesome support. Thank you. v Table of Contents Dissertation Abstract ii-iii Acknowledgements iv-v Chapter 1: Introduction 1-26 Chapter 2: Kerala‘s Syrian Christians: A 27-64 Historical Overview Chapter 3: From Chattas to Churidars: Women‘s Dress, Secularism and Sex- 65-127 Segregated Public Spaces Chapter 4: Bodies of Difference: Aryan 128-173 Racial Origins and Sexual Morality Chapter 5: The Vimochana Samaram (The Liberation Struggle): The Homogenization of Indian Christians 174-224 and the Rise of a Minority Rights Discourse Chapter 6: Mathamillatha Jeevan (A Life Without Religion): Christian 225-289 Minorities, the Charismatic Movement and Ritualized Female Sexuality Chapter 7: Approaching the Concept of Difference: Women‘s and Gender 290-323 Studies and South Asian Studies 1 Chapter 1 Introduction While conducting dissertation field research, I witnessed two protests in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India that reflected the glaring inequalities between women‘s everyday experiences in the region. The first was a night vigil was organized by Dalit women in support of the Chengara land struggle on March 7th, 2008. For over six months, an estimated 21,000 Dalits and Adivasis had been staging a sit-in at the Harrison Malayalam Private Ltd Estate in Chengara, Kerala, India in an effort to reclaim land promised to them by the Kerala state government. The aim of the night vigil was to bring media attention to the land struggle at Chengara. Instead, the media reported on the sexual impropriety of the Dalit women participating in the night-vigil. The news channel Kairali recorded the Dalit women smoking cigarettes, dancing in the streets and cavorting with men. Deshabhimani newspaper published a report on the vigil calling it a ―masala protest.‖1 The very next day, a second protest was staged by the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), the women‘s organization of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Non-Dalit AIDWA members arrived at the night- vigil site with brooms and symbolically swept the area clean.2 For me, the inability of the AIDWA women to speak across caste and class boundaries reflects a problematic that I address in this dissertation: caste, race, religion, class and gender are not overlapping intersectional social categories. Rather, there exist countless ―acts‖ that implicate the co-constitutive, relational, and fluid nature of identities. 1 Masala is the term commonly used to describe pornography in India. ―Rathrisamaram Masalamayam‖ (Masala-Filled Night Protest). Deshabhimani. March 8, 2008. 2 Special thanks to Navaneetha Mokkil and her paper on the night protest, ―Shadows of Progress: The Kerala Woman as a Figure in Crisis,‖ presented at the 38th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin, Oct, 2009 and emailed to the author. 2 These acts carry with them complex histories of caste, race, religious and class oppressions that are quite often revealed today through separate moral codes for women. The AIDWA women‘s act of sweeping carried with it a long and established history of depicting low-caste women as overly sexualized and upper-caste women as having a monopoly over definitions of domesticity and morality. The act of sweeping away the Dalit women‘s ―impropriety‖ therefore operates from a particular history that prevents Kerala women from working across class and caste divides today. In this dissertation, I examine multiple ―acts‖ of caste, race, gender, class and religion. I analyze how behaviors based on perceived differences may continue previous divisions between groups, justifying acts of oppression and maintaining systems of domination. Additionally, I interrogate acts that indicate group belonging. I argue that while the concept of belonging may promise to erase differences between peoples, it often produces new inequalities and may foreclose the possibility to address these inequalities.