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Chapter Two

Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha: Evolution and Response to Christianity

In the previous chapter, I have analyzed the socio-politicallocation of lower caste communities in Travancore during the Nineteenth Century and the radical changes infused into the social fabric of the province by the European Christian missionaries. In the present chapter I will examine the evolution of an untouchable religious sect which emerged in Travancore during the first quarter of the Twentieth Century as a response to the caste practices in the Syrian Christian Churches. The Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha (hereafter PROS) movement assimilated theological aspects of textual Christianity into a new spiritual platform carved out for the untouchables ofTravancore. The adherents oflhe new religion refused to identify with Christian mith, but a critical examination substantiates that the movement is ideologically rooted in the Christian philosophy of the world. However, it woukl be an oversimplification to study PROS as a splinter Christian group. In the present chapter I shall discuss the ideological underpinnings of the untouchable religion with special emphasis on it proximity as well as disagreement with the mainstream Christianity. The tile roofed old building is reverberating with devotional songs, echoing mixed feelings ofsorrow and joy. The comrades of the congregation are deeply pained at the collective memory of their furemthers who were brutalized and abused by their caste superiors. The gathering strives to erase the awful memory of the brutality at the visible salvation they enjoy through the direct intervention of the true prophet. The large assembly of devotees, clad in white dresses, are sitting on the floor of the parish hall and singing

41

loudly. A half naked, middle aged man is busy moving around the altar, trying to pour oil into a lamp kept before the photograph of a divine deity. There is a clear yellow hallow behind the head of the figure in the photograph. The altar is a flat platform built nearly four feet above the ground. Between the gathering and the altar, there is a table and a few chairs. An elderly man is standing by the table and addressing the gathering. His eloquent discourse on sin and salvation includes memorable and mournful songs at length. They lament the deplorable condition of slavery their forefathers lived through and hope to overcome the misery of the present life in the near future. The prophet has shown them the way to achieve eternal salvation from all hardships and promised to retain the lost glory of the people to ascendancy. The preceding account of the parish gives us sufficient clue to assume that it is the spiritual congregation of a religious cult, which bears close resemblance to Christianity. The discourse on sin and salvation is identical to the Christian faith and philosophy of life. But this is the Sunday congregation ofPRDS, a lower caste religious sect which fervently tried to challenge the inhuman caste order of the society. The PRDS movement was founded by an ex-Christian priest, Poikayil Yohannan, in Travancore during the first decade of the Twentieth Century.' Yohannan's movement was a constructive response of the collective conscience of lower castes to the unfulfilled promise of Christianity, which pledged to safeguard its followers against the callous practice of untouchability and the institutionalized caste discrimination in the churches. PRDS is fiercely committed to conceive a unique religious identity and a persuasive cultural and historical perspective of

I

V.V. Swamy, Kerala Navodhanavum Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabhayum.(lraviperoor: Adiyar Deepam,

201O)p.34 42

the contemporary world for the outcastes ofKerala. The ideological spectrum of the movement is skillfully sustained by the assimilation of popular Christian myths and the validated history of ancient Travancore. PRDS nullifies the claims of Christianity as the desired religion for the enslaved and the exploited. 2 At the same time the movement evaded the popular nationalist imagination and refused to be identified as Hindu. The caste system in India is unique in comparison to other forms of social hierarchies, and additionally the practice of caste and untouchability is universally understood as rooted in Hindu philosophy. The notions of purity and impurity are founded on the strong Hindu belief systems. But other mainstream religions which claim to be existing outside of caste notions of inequality and impurity too have, in fact, legitimated and institutionalized such practices for all practical purposes in everyday life. The emergence ofPRDS was a stem reaction to the orthopraxy shared by the upper caste Hindus and Syrian Christians in Kerala. The religious values and the ideological world created by the missionaries were separated from the theoretical understanding of caste. But caste and its allied discriminatory practices seeped into Christianity right from the beginning of the missionary activities in Travancore. C. J. Fuller, who has, done extensive research on caste system among Kerala Christians, reports that impurity and pollution could be passed on from lower castes to their caste superiors even through air. Therefore, even the very sight of untouchable Christians was considered to be polluting for a Syrian Christian. 3

2

Sanal Mohan, Imagining Equality: Modernity and Social Transformation a/Lower Castes in Colonial

Kerala, Thesis submitted to Mahatma Gandhi Uni versity, Kottayam (2005), p. 135 - 136 ] C. J. Fuller, KeraJa Christians and the Caste System, Man New Series, Vol. 11, No.1. (Mar., 1967), p. 63

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In the Nineteenth Century, new Christians were not pennitted to worship in the same churches as Syrians and separate ones had to be built for them, although Ezhava converts were allowed into Syrian churches in some areas. It was not until 1914 that a Catholic church pennitted New Christians to worship with Syrians: Thus, the upper caste Hindus and Syrian Christians shared the common caste rules and lived their everyday life conforming to the conventions and nonns ofuntouchability. The Christian missionary enterprises in Travancore were not completely devoid of any positive impact on the social fabric. Sanal Mohan argues that the lower castes experienced different aspects of modernity through Christian missionaries, which were counter to the existing social system The missionary idioms of equality and freedom encouraged the lower castes to juxtapose oneself against fonnidable caste hierarchy. The new religion provided a

powerful agency to the downtrodden to reflect on their own self and imagine a collective community. The formation ofPRDS was the imagination of this collective community conscience. s Considering the fact that Yohannan was literate and demonstrated exceptional oratory skills and critical understanding of religious texts, it is reasonable to assert that he had his initial training in a missionary school. The missionary records claim that they were

curious to impart basic education to their untouchable converts. The missionaries established several 'slave' schools for their neo-converts against the interest of the 4

C. l. Fuller, KeraJa Christians and the Caste System, Man New Series, Yol. II, No. l. (Mar., 1967), p. 63

5

Sana I Mohan, Imagining Equality: Modernity and Social Transformation o/Lower Castes in Colonial

KeraJa, Thesis submitted to Mahatma Gandhi University, Koltayam (2005). p. 138 - 139

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landlords. The upper caste slave owners tacitly approved missionaries preaching gospel to the lower castes, but at the same time they feared that education may embo Iden the slaves to defY their masters. 6 However, in spite of such objections and at limes violent resistance, the missionaries established schools and trained their converts in vernacular language and inteIpretation of the Bible. The govenunent run schools were not open to lower castes and this practice continued until the beginning of the Twentieth Century. The lessons at the chureh school usually included gospels and stories from the Bible. This helped the missionaries explain the gospels as well as help the students learn language. Some of the sollgS that Yohannan had penned provide ample evidence to believe that Yoharulan had considerable knowledge in Malayalam as well as history'. Although his domain of . activities were limited to a particular geographical region, the theoretical base on which he fashioned his ideology was vast.

Yoharulan started his social work as a preacher with the Marthoma Syrian Church, a chureh believed to have been established by St. Thomas, the Apostle of Jesus Christ s. He worked both as a preacher and a teacher among his people. He explained gospel to his people, mostly connecting the stories in the Bible with that of the lived experiences of the untouchable communities in Travancore. However, his stint with the Marthoma church did not last long as the issues of caste and untouchability frequently showed up in everyday 'Saamuel Mateer, Thel..and o!Charlty: A Descriplive Accounl o!Travancor. and lIs Peopl., (New York:Ulan Press, 2012) p. 154 1

P. C. Joseph, Po/kayil Shrl Kumara Guru Ufe and Vision (Thiruvall.: Christhava Sahithy. S.mithy, 2000)

p.46

, Ibid. 45

life. In spite of the anti-caste deliberations of missionaries, caste remained a parameter for deciding the social position of believers in the Church. It is reported that Yohannan was forced to leave the organization after a bizarre incident took place in his church. The Syrian Christians exhumed the dead body of a lower caste Christian from the church graveyard

and made his family to bury the body in a separate place designated for the lower castes: Outraged by the extreme form of discrimination, Yohannan abandoned the Marthorna Church along with a considerable number of his followers. Subsequently he joined Church Missionary Society (CMS). The CMS was a collective of Anglican Protestant missionaries who worked largely among the under privileged sections. But his experiments with the new organization did not last long as the fundamental issues of caste and discrimination continued to disturb every sphere of life. Yohannan deserted CMS and joined the Brethren Mission but his evangelical mission did not comply with the harsh realities of caste prejudices even in Brother Mission. ,Q Consequently he broke with all Christian missions

and continued to work as an independent preacher among his people."

Yohannan's transformation from a Christian preacher to a radical lower caste social reformer was steady and gradual. The crust of his discourses slowly shifted focus from 'K. K. Rajan, Gurudevan Oru Omra (Eraviperoor: PROS Publication, 1998) p. 36

" P. C. Joseph, POii