Cheramar Christians: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 07:53, 3 June 2015 editSitush (talk \| contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Page movers, File movers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers260,192 edits →The History of Cheramars: little to do with the Christian Cheramars - this is at best material that should be in Pulayar, if only it were well-sourced and written← Previous edit		Latest revision as of 08:27, 3 June 2015 edit undoSitush (talk \| contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Page movers, File movers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers260,192 edits I was right to redirect earlier: there is nothing here and more or less nothing available about the Cherumar as Christians
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	{{Infobox ethnic group
	\|image = Cheramar.jpg
	\|caption = The Cheramar Christians in ancient days
	\|group = Cheramar Christians
	\|pop =
	\|popplace = India ], ], ]
	\|religions =
	:]
	\|related = ],
	\|langs = Vernacular: ]
	}}

	'''Cheramar Christians''' is a Christian-Converted ] people living mostly in ] State and also in ] and ] of ]; and they belong to the “]” communities (not factually, for they have no ] and privileges as of other Dalits) or “Dalit Christians” called in India and in its ] referring to castes categories and sub-castes of India as one among the thousands of thousands castes of India, but with lower levels irrespective of their long back historical existence and contributions as of any castes in Kerala and India.

	==Etymology and Nomenclature==

	The names commonly used for Cheramars are Pulayan, Cheramar, Pulaya, ], Cherama, Cheraman, Cheruman, Cheran, ] Pulayan, Wayanadan Pulayan, Matha, Matha Pulayan. They are the names generally used for the particular scheduled caste group of people whose lineage or existence could be found as powerful rulers of ancient BC and loyal land owners and working force.<ref>Sreedhara Menon, Kerala Charithram, Vol. 1, 1964, p. 78.</ref>

	==Cheramar - Name==

	Fundamentally these caste people belong to the ] Community called “]” or “Pulayans” ] who also were called Cheramans styled in the vernacular Cherumakkal. The term 'Cheruman' from the word 'Cheru' which means 'small' in ] and also the Cheruman denoted the short physical stature of these people. And ‘Cheru’ has another meaning “Cheli or Mannu” (Mud or Clay or Soil) and “Makkal” (Sons) which means the sons and daughters of soil or land. They belong to the agricultural community, as in ancient Kerala and south India; having own –caste-bound livelihood and works.<ref>A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PULAYAS OF KERALA 08_chapter1. pdf</ref> They have dark complexion and strong physique.

	And in the modern century, the name 'Cheramar' was officially given to the Pulayas as per their request to the Government because they claimed that they were the descendants of ']' who ruled over Kerala in the AD 1st century. The name came into official use from the time of ] Thirunal Maharaja.<ref>A memorandum signed by one of the Pulaya leaders—John Joseph08_chapter1. pdf</ref> Now their official Government Records and certificates or wherever or in whichever refers to caste, it is written “Cheramar Christian”.

	==Cheramar or ] – Name==

	There came conversions among this ] ] and Pulaya clique to the ] faith at a time when the aristocratic religious and caste regarded them as untouchables and denying their legitimate place in those days’ religious fold and they were not allowed even to enter the premises of temples. Since the year south India experienced the Christian faith as a new way with differing practices and faiths which attracted the Pulayans who even do not prefer to call by their caste name. But their conversion and embracement ]; according to history and their chronological socio- religious life evolving, shows that their ancestral extraction could be traced back even to that of major caste – denominational category ] or ] or India too. (Irrespective of the claim of the advent of Christianity in AD 52, which has many argues for historical evidences) There are many church denominations claim the origin of Cheramars’ conversion happened through them, the fact is that isolated conversions might had happened ancient years too. The Anglican Church (The Church Mission Society- CMS) claims the conversion of Cheramars was started firstly through them somewhere around 1879.<ref></ref> But there are evidences that before the coming of Protestant missionaries in 1571 in Kerala, the Catholics baptized a few Pulayas at Mulanthuruthy, ], history states. However, they were not permitted to partake the ]]] with others. The communion was served to them on Saturdays and they celebrated ] on December 26.
	When the Cheramar or Chera or Cheran or Cheruman or Cherumars or Pulaya caste people embraced or believed in Christianity, they were started to be called “Cheramar Christians” and “Dalit Christians”.

	==The Socio-Historical-Political Evolvement and Existence of Cheramars==

	===The Socio-Political disparity===
	]The golden days of ]s or Pulayas came to a halt and the very tribulation started to till today during the post ] period. And the decadence of the Namboodiris started until by about the 16th century, they put of their affairs in the hands of their Nair secretaries. A ] ] alliance came into being. Another feature of this period was the widening gulf between the Namboodiri Nair upper class and the ] Pulaya lower class. In order to accommodate the class differences properly, the fourfold caste system came to be subdivided with infinite gradations, based on real occupation, habitat and political influence. New dimensions were invented and added on to the scale of unapproachability and un-perceivability. A Cheraman (Not only Cheramans or Pulayas other backward castes too) was apprised and forewarned to maintain a distance of 30 to 64 feet from a man of the Superior caste.

	A Cheramar was not allowed to cross the prohibited distance and approach a village, temple, stream, beck, well etc. was the Socio-Religious Reform Movement and if this rule was broken; 'punyaham' or purification rite would inevitably be performed. Punyaham is a concoction of cow dung mixed with water! The Cherumars had to howl to produce a sound (Ohoyi…ohoiyi with certain melodious gaps and length) when they passed through the village roads, as a warning so that the others could avoid polluting themselves by keeping away!! What a humiliation and violation of Human Rights – cow dung is more pure than fellow-human beings and the same the harvest of these human beings’ hard-work can be eaten no “]s” in it – incongruous, and delusory practices!!!

	===The Economic, Educational and Occupational History===

	The Cheramars or Pulayas were not allowed to possess land. They were paid in kind instead in cash. Women were paid less than men. The women were not allowed to cover their upper body. They lived in miserable huts called '.' They were scantily clothed. The disabilities affected even their purchase and sale. The Cheramars were restricted from choosing their ]. Both male and female Pulayas were mainly agricultural labourers. They also performed most of the manual, unskilled, virtually unclean and least prestigious jobs. As they could not enter a town or village, no employment was available to them, except that of working in the paddy fields. They could neither work as porters nor as domestic servants, for, they defiled everything that they touched. The Cheramar children were not permitted to attend schools. Till 1865, all Government schools were meant for the ]s (High Castes). But practically, till 1906, when Ayyankali the Pulaya, the Messiah of Pulayas, earned permission to start a school exclusively for the Pulaya children, but no Pulaya child could attend school peacefully. Teachers were unwilling to teach in Avarna (lower caste) schools. Even after 1906, there were struggles in many parts of the state on the issue of admission of the Pulaya children to the Government schools.<ref>Chendarasserry, T.H. P., Ayyankali Smaraka Grandham (Malayalam), Prabhath Book House, Trivandrum, 1974, p. 20.</ref> The Pulaya children were threatened by school authorities and local leaders in some places. Ayyankali asked the Cheramars and Pulayas to not work in the field until they stop beating their children. And also he asked the Pulaya women to wear ‘Kallu Mala’ (Stone Chains) to cover their upper body. In 1914 the Pulaya women stopped wearing and when they started to wear bodices, it was also a matter of torture and communal violence.<ref></ref>

	===The Religious History – Cheramars and Hinduism===

	On denial of entry and worship the “high-Caste Gods”, they worshipped at places called Kavu (groves). They believed in a non-empirical world of supernatural beings called ‘Pishachukkal ‘ – demons, which emphasizes propitiation from human beings in various forms. The principal Pishachukkal (Demon-gods) which the Pulayas worshipped were Kali, Chathan, Apasmaram, Parukutty, Karimkutty, Murudha, and Mallan. They were worshippers of serpents, ancestral spirits and performers of witchcrafts and called ‘Manthravadhikal”.<ref>Alexander, K. C., “Changing Religious Beliefs and Practices of the Pulayas of Kerala,” m a 1 Action, No. 5, September–October 1968.</ref> And not only the ancient period, the Cheramars were discriminated and tortured even after the famous Travancore Temple Entry Proclamation was made in 1936 and even after eleven years, such a proclamation was made in Cochin too.<ref>Velayudhan, P. S., SNDP Yoqa Charithram (Malayalam), 1918, p. 201.</ref><ref>Alexander, K. C., Social Mobility in Kerala, Deccan Colleq- e of Post Graduate Research Institute, Poona, 1968, pp. 228-230.</ref> Still now there are temples in which the Cheramars or Hindu Pulayas cannot perform rituals as of others.

	==The end of Slavery and Reformism==

	“The scares” (Paraya scare, Mannan Scare etc.) were ended in Malabar during British rule. But it was banned in Travancore in 1695 AD by Unny Kerala Varma. The anti-slavery campaigns along legal proclamations during the 1800s (mainly by Missionaries and foreign rulers) spread great fear among the high castes that felt that the missionaries had usurped the landlord’s position of authority over the Pulayas. Thus by 1850 and 1855 it was declared that owning slaves was illegal. The missionaries’ anti-slavery campaign and their continued pressure on the Travancore government finally ended in the emancipation of the slaves. On 24 June 1855 in a prominent case in Kottayam, a Syrian Christian landlord was fined and punished for kidnapping a Pulaya convert (Cheramar Christian) as a result of the united action of a group of Pulayas. The missionaries gave support to the Pulayas in their opposition to the landlord’s action with the permission of Travancore Dewan. <ref>”</ref>

	Following the emancipation of the slaves in Travancore in 1855, a significant number of Pulayas from different parts of Central Travancore approached missionaries (LMS, CMS and others) with requests for "Christian instruction" and "slave schools," clearly indicating their readiness to move to a new religion and further their alliance with the missionaries. Form 1800 and succeeding years the annual numbers of adult baptisms were from 100 to 500 in a year.

	==Dalit==

	The classes, which are included in Section 341 of the Indian Constitution, are known as Scheduled Castes or Dalits. In reality the Word “ Dalit” is not a word in meaning or synonyms or any such leveled one referring to low, The term ‘Dalit’ has roots in Sanskrit where the root ‘dal’ means ‘to split, crack, open’. (This Indo-European root appears in German and English in the form of ‘dal’ or ‘tal’, meaning ’cut’. In English, ‘dale’ is a valley, a cut in the ground; in German, ‘thal’: a tailor is one who cuts; ’to tell a tale’ is the same as ‘to cut a tally’, the cut-marks made by the shepherd on his staff when counting sheep. By the British, the Dalits were named ‘the Depressed Classes’ and ‘the Scheduled Castes’, in the Scheduled Caste Act of India,<ref>1935.http://www.dalitchristians.com/Html/dalitmeaning.htm</ref>
	‘Dalit’ has come to mean things or persons who are cut, split, broken or torn asunder, scattered or crushed and destroyed. By coincidence, there is in Hebrew a root ‘dal’ meaning low, weak, poor. In the Bible, different forms of this term have been used to describe people who have been reduced to nothingness or helplessness. The present usage of the term Dalit goes back to the nineteenth century, when a ] social reformer and revolutionary, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule (1826-1890), used it to describe the Outcastes and Untouchables as the oppressed and the broken victims of our caste-ridden society. Under the charismatic leadership of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956), this term gained greater importance and popularity. This term for them is not a mere name or title: for them it has become an expression of hope, the hope of recovering their past self-identity. The term has gained a new connotation with a more positive meaning. It must be remembered that Dalit does not mean Caste or low-Caste or poor; it refers to the deplorable state or condition to which a large group of people has been reduced by social convention and in which they are now living.<ref>Castes and Class http://</ref>
	See Also ] and ]

	==Also Read==
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	==References==
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	==External links==
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Latest revision as of 08:27, 3 June 2015

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