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RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL LANDSCAPES 213

kom the foregoing account of developments in the long history of Indic religions, it isthat pluralistic tendencies characterize them all, particularly Hinduism, which lacks aor a set of fundamentals of belief and practice or a 'church'. And yet they share awith unity in diversity, or the Absolute transcending its myriad expressions. The notions&arma and karma are key ideas in the metaphysical foundations of each.Christianity and lslam

tyrhe religions that originated outside India but found a home here, Christianity is the oldest.tradition is to be believed, it was brought to Kerala by the Apostle St Thomas under theof the Nestorian Church. Written records testify to the presence of Christians in Indiathe sixth century onwards. The Thomas Christians are also known as Syrian Chrisciansoriginally, their liturgy was in Syriac and they acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Syrianiarch of the East in Damascus (Syria). Conversions seem to have been made locally amongaste Hindus only. The community has remained confined to Kerala. It subscribes tovarious fundamentals of Christian faith-such as Immaculate Conception, the divinity ofand the status of the Bible as revealed scripture--and practice (for example, celebrationthe Eucharist).ln the middle of the sixteenth century Jesuit missionaries made Goa their base after ita part of the Portuguese colonial empire, and spread out to other parts of south IndiaSri Lanka and even ventured north. Inevitably, they encountered the Thomas Christianswere asked to sever ties with the Nestorian Church and come under the jurisdiction ofThis led to a split among them: while about one-half of the community complied, theresisted, and reaffirmed their loyalty to the Syrian Patriarch of Antioch. A long-lasting issuedissension among the Thomas Christians as well as theJesuits was whether missionarywas to be confined among the upper castes) and whether caste was to be deemed a

institution and abolished, or only a secular social arrangement and therefore tolerated.The arrival of the British in India in the mid-eighteenth century had at first no impacr onspread of Christianity as the East India Company in deference to the wishes of the homeallow missionary activity It was only in the early nineteenth century rharBritish Parliament removed the restriction and chaplains of the Company began to makeThe Anglican diocese of Calcutta was founded in 1814. Tc begin with, Anglicanadministered to the spiritual needs of the British in India, but an Indian Churchalso come into existence by the end of the nineteenth century. A close association of thewith the State (the colonial dispensation) was a liability and came to be loosened by1930s (see Gibbs 1972). Meanwhile, Anglicans, Protestants, and Non-conformist socieriessent out missions, producing a plurality of churches and an interflow between congregations.

some Thomas Christians became Protestants and established the Mar Thomas (SyriacThomas) Church. The majority, however, remained loyal to the Syrian Patriarch, nominallyhis spiritual authority, but otherwise independent. They are known as theof the Jacobite or Orthodox Church (see Mathew and Thomas L967; VisvanathanIn 1947, the year of India's independence, the Anglican, Methodist and orher Protesranttogether to establish the Church of South India. Similar efforts in the northin the establishment of a united Protestant Church in 1970, The predominance of(nearly 60 per cent) is a noteworthy feature of the Christian community in

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214 HANDBooK oF TNDTAN socroLocYIndia. Also noteworthy has been the search for Indian idioms of expression. Christians of adenominations have retained many of their pre-conversion beliefs, attitudes, and ceremonieincorporating them into Christianity (see Bayly 1989). Evangelicalism has also remainedhowever, and is indeed a cherished goal. The fundamental. right to propagate one s religiand not merely to profess and practice it, was written into the Indian Constitution (Arti30) to accommodate Christian sentiment on the subject.lslamThe third and the youngest member of the family of Abrahamic religions, Islam ( submissito the will of God ) is dated back to to 522 when its promulgator, the Prophet Muhamm:(no 571432) migrated from his native city of Makkah (in Arabia), where he did not receithe support he desired, to Madinah. In the latter city he established the first ever Islamstate. He accommodated resident Jews and Christians in it, since they too were judged toin possession of books of divinely revealed knowledge and, therefore, entitled to protectiThe fundamentals of religious faith and practice among Muslims ( the submitters )explicit and universally binding. They must affirm the oneness of God and the status ofQuran ( the text to be read and recited ) as the word of God. Besides, they must believeGod s angels and messengers (of whom Muhammad was the most perfect and thereforelast); and in the Last Day, when God will judge the actions of one and all, and despatchpious to heaven and the sinners to hell (see Rahman 1979).Moreover, every true Muslim must recite the creed (kalimah, the word ), which athe oneness of God and the finality of Muhammad s prophethood; say daily prayersat the appointed times; observe the yearly month of fasting by day (rozah) to burn away sigive alms (zakat); and, if circumstances allow it, go in pilgrimage to Makkah (baiil so asbe there on Idu l-Azha. (This day, it is generally believed, commemorates the willingnessIbrahim [Abraham] to sacrifice his son Ismail [Ishmael] on God s command.) It isthat Indian Muslims do not include the waging of war (iibad) for the extermination ofand the propagation of Islam among the obligations of a Muslim, as is done in minycountries... Islam is, however, more than the foregoing and similar other fundamentals. Eit incorporates much that is local and pre-Islamic, whether this be in the Arab heartlandsin distant places such as India. Students of Islam have commented on this internal tensiowing to its chiracter as a world religion that admits of no variation (for instance, theprayers are everywhere said in Arabic) and with its regional, country or national characteristifor example, the worship of saints and relics which is common in India.It is widely believed among South Asian Muslims that the Prophet Muhammad had hiwanted to bring the people of India into the universal Islamic community (umma). Sincetraders already had contact with the western seaboard of India from pre-Islamic daysMapillas of Kerala were born of mixed marriages of Arab men and Malayali women),must have been the first carriers of the new faith to the subcontinent. Islam arrived herepolitical force in LD712, when Sind was conquered on behalf of the Umayyad caliphateincorporated in it. \0ith the new rulers came their advisers on matters concerning Muslimlaw, the shariah (see Ahmad 1964; Mujeeb 1967).The numbers of the immigrants were naturally not large, and they were strangersknew neither the culture, languages, and religions (Buddhism and Hinduism both wereof Sind, nor the prevailing system of governance. In the circumstances, native support