Christian caste

Christian caste, in India, the social stratification that persists among Christians, based upon caste membership at the time of an individual’s own or of an ancestor’s conversion. Indian Christian society is divided into groups geographically and according to denomination, but the overriding factor is one of caste. Caste groups may dine together and worship together, but, as a rule, they do not intermarry.

The problem of reconciling change in religious belief with existing social tradition has dominated the history of Christianity in India. The Syrian Christians along the Malabar coast trace their origin to the legendary visit of St. Thomas the Apostle, early in the 1st century ad. Many of the Syrian Christians were of high birth, and after conversion they continued to be accorded a mid-rank status by the Hindu society that surrounded them.

With the arrival of Europeans from the 16th century onward, a second group of Christian converts emerged. The thousands of fisherfolk converted by the Portuguese missionaries had little in common with the Syrian Christians. Missionaries took two approaches. Robert de Nobili (16th–17th century) was a Jesuit of noble birth who accommodated to the existing Indian social order. He learned Tamil and Sanskrit and lived the life of a sādhu (wandering ascetic). He also tried to disassociate himself from the Portuguese missionaries who were converting the fisherfolk of low rank. These practices gave him wide acceptance among the Indian upper classes, but they brought him into conflict with his own church.

In the 19th century, Protestant missionaries arrived in India in large numbers. They insisted on social reform along with religious conversion; the result was that most of their converts were from the lowest social classes.

Caste distinctions among contemporary Indian Christians are breaking down at about the same rate as those among Indians of other faiths. In some instances the old traditions persist, and there are Catholic churches where members of each caste sit apart for worship.