Delannoy: Dutch sea captain, Maharaja’s army chief, people’s Valia Kappithan.

The interesting story of a remarkable man lies buried in the obscure pages of Kerala history. In available data, there is confusion about his name, nationality and designation. I understand that my brother Professor Emeritus PKM Tharakan in Brussels has an ongoing research project on this subject. That, when completed, should provide clarity.

I have chosen the name Delannoy from the versions of it given by different writers. Delannoy was part of, or commanded an assault fleet of the Dutch East India Company in early 1740s to Colachal (Kolachal). The objective was to capture the port in the south western corner of India and the hinterland that was rich in pepper and therefore important to the Dutch commercial interests. Their adversary was the king of Venad who later became famous in history as Marthanda Varma Maharaja of Travancore.

The Dutch marines stormed the beach and advanced almost to the outskirts of the Venad palace. Then a surprise counter attack by the king’s Nair soldiers from the flank routed the Dutch. It is said that this was the first occasion when an Indian ruler defeated a western naval force. Delannoy and some of his men were captured alive.

The force that vanquished the Dutch had been raised in 1703 as bodyguards of the Venad raja. Today it is the 9^th Battalion of the Madras Regiment, perhaps the oldest unit in the Indian Army, with uninterrupted service for over 300 years.

In spite of Delannoy’s defeat, Marthanda Varma was quick to appreciate the man’s military acumen. He offered Delannoy and his men freedom in exchange of training the Travancore soldiers in modern weaponry and warfare. Thus started Delannoy’s association of nearly 37 years with Travancore.

Delannoy transformed the local army into an elite fighting force well-trained in the use of muskets. This contributed immeasurably to Marthanda Varma’s success in the several wars that he waged.

One of Delannoy’s great achievements was the designing and building of Nedumkottai, a 48 km long fort to defend attacks from the north. This bulwark was to play a crucial role when the Mysore forces attacked Travancore during the second half of the 18c.

There is no clarity about the Delannoy’s official designation in Travancore. Several writers refer to him as Captain. He was perhaps a naval captain at the time of Colachal War. He was made the chief of the state’s armed forces, whatever the designation was. With affectionate respect the people called him ‘Valia Kappithan’ which means big captain or admiral or great naval chief.

Delannoy’s status seems to have been that of a Nair Lord (madambi) or slightly above that. He stayed at the old Udayagiri Fort, which Marthanda Varma had renovated, till his death in 1777. It came to be known as ‘Dillanai kota’ (Delannoy’s fort).

Delannoy sleeps eternally in a chapel at Udayagiri. His wife and son were also buried there, on either side of his tomb.



Photos of Udayagiri Chapel and the Delannoy tombs are reproduced under GNU Free Documentation License. Click for enlarged view

Ends.

Also see: Indian who could have been the King of France?

History of conversions to Christianity in Kerala – an overview

This article takes a brief look into the history of conversions to Christianity in Kerala. The Christians of the State can be broadly categorized into three: Syrian Christians who are believed to have been converted from the upper castes (whether such distinction existed at that time is not clear) by Apostle St. Thomas in 1c, Latin Christians who were converted mostly from lower classes by St. Francis Xavier in the 16c and Dalit Christians who were converted in the 19c by the Anglicans and in the 20c by the Catholic denomination of the Syrians. The labels Syrian and Latin came about because of the respective languages that were used in liturgy. (See: Jewish names among Syrian Christians.)

The Syrian Christian community is referred to by historians as Malabar Church and St. Thomas Christians. This congregation was, till the intrusion by the Western Christianity with the arrival of the Portuguese, a distinctive Eastern Church with the Pope of Rome as a hazy father figure at the far end of a thin long line.

Being a Syrian Christian is a matter of birth and inherited religious convictions. Therefore, conversion to that community is an anomaly. In all its known history till the 20c, the Malabar Church never undertook any missionary work. The theology of the community was that every human being achieved salvation through his own religion; a conclusion that modern Christian theology is increasingly accepting. Spreading the Word of Christ and induced or forced conversions to Christianity are two totally different things. As a result, the Syrian Christians remained an exclusive community to which outsiders had no entry.

Two questions arise here: why then did St. Thomas carry out conversions and, why did he convert only the so called upper classes? The Apostle would have, if one accepts oral tradition, received into the Christian fold only those who came forward willingly and out of conviction. On the question of the claimed class distinction in the conversions by the Apostle, it is necessary to understand the background of his mission. His arrival in Kerala (52A.D.) was before the gentiles were accepted into Christianity. Even the word ‘Christian’ did not exist at that time; it was coined in Antioch around 65 A.D. Till then the followers of Christ were known as Nazranis, a name that continues to be used in Kerala.

It is possible that St. Thomas initially targeted the Jews who were already in Kerala. (Several historians claim that the Jews were trading with Kerala even at the time of King Solomon.) Some of the upper crust local people too, presumably, joined the new faith. Here ‘upper crust’ would mean the educated or enlightened who, according to oral tradition, engaged the Apostle in debates.

The Malabar Church enjoyed an organic growth for fifteen centuries, blending with the social structure and being part of it, conforming to the customs and traditions of the land, maintaining upper class stature, receiving support and recognition from the rulers.

The Portuguese arrived in Kerala at the end of the 15c. They initiated a campaign to convert the local Christians (who followed Syriac liturgy) to the Latin Rite. This met with incessant resistance. The net result in the long run was that the Malabar Church was truncated and split into different denominations. Of these, the Catholic faction was subjugated by the Western Latin Church for three centuries.

The arrival of St. Francis Xavier in the middle of the 16c saw a flourish in missionary activity. This great saint of the Catholic Church converted many people of the lower castes to Christianity. He had the patronage of the Portuguese and the maharajas of Travancore and Cochin. In fact, the Maharaja of Cochin had the title ‘Protector of Christians’.

But there were protests against these conversions from the upper classes not on religious grounds but for social and economic reasons. Accepting Christianity released the converts from their obligations under the fine tuned caste system. This led to several problems. To give an example: the coconut pickers who became Christians were no longer under any compulsion to carry out their traditional duty.

This new congregation came to be known as Latin Christians. Whereas the Syrian Christians always enjoyed upper class status, the Latin Christians were treated as lower caste and there were hardly any social interaction between the two. After Independence, the Latin Christians were officially included in the backward class category.

The next round of conversions to Christianity in Kerala was in the 19c by the Anglicans, now known as Church of South India (CSI), who came to Kerala in the wake of the British in the first quarter of the 19c. This episode covered both Syrian Christians and members of some lower castes. The Anglicans championed major causes of the Dalits, like the right of Channar women to cover their breasts in public, and the abolition of slavery. This attracted lower castes to the new edition of Christianity in Kerala.

Then, in the early 1930s, the Syrian Catholic Church suddenly went on a conversion spree against all traditions of the St. Thomas Christians, focusing specifically on the Pulayas who were among the untouchables. They were bonded labor attached to landlords, both Hindu and Christian. Anizham Thirunal Maharaja abolished slavery in Travancore in the mid -19c, but the practice continued in one form or the other till the World War II. The Pulayas were totally at the mercy of their lords. The prospect of joining Christianity appealed to many of them.

Whether all these conversions were genuine, arising out of conviction is debatable. The details about the activities of St. Thomas in Kerala are shrouded in the foggy past. But by no stretch of imagination could he have had the political, financial or military clout to indulge in coercion. The subsequent conversions are unlikely to pass the test because there was an element of quid pro quo involved, in one way or another.

The present scenario in Kerala is that the label ‘Christians’ covers diverse groups without meaningful homogeneity or integration.

Ends.

Also see:

Vedas, Syrian Christians