Churches on the demolition line.

Photo: INTACH Post Card

Beautiful, isn’t it?

These are the historic twin churches at Ramapuram, one of the cradles of Christianity in Kerala. The smaller of these, in the name of St. Augustine, was built around 1450, and the other in 1864. These may be razed to the ground soon. What no invader, no government, no other community, have dared to try, is being done with abandon by the Church itself.

Aisanet TV reported last evening that a referendum is being conducted among the parishioners of Ramapuram on Sunday, April 29, 2007 about demolishing these famous shrines. The Church officials have taken a strong stand in favor of the destruction. Therefore the outcome of the vote is a foregone conclusion. The priests do not seem to be worried whether such actions and procedures conform to the laws of the country.

The move to demolish the twin churches and build a ‘modern’ one in their place has been on for some time. The Hindu carried a report about this on February 18, 2005. The reason given for this proposal by the Vicar was that more space is required to accommodate the increased number of pilgrims! Apparently he was not alert to the fact that the newer of the two churches was also built for the same reason, but people who were responsible then had ensured that the old one was preserved.

The vicar went on to give a piece of wisdom to the world: “God created the whole world for man. Archaeology is for the benefit of man and not vice-versa''. Shades of Benito Mussolini! Il Duce was reported to have said when his car knocked down and killed a boy, “What is the life of a child in the matters of state?”

The Syro-Malabar Church of Kerala, under which Ramapuram comes, is the second largest (after Roman /Latin) Rite in the Catholic Diaspora. It is headed by a Major Archbishop who is a Cardinal. Can the authorities of the Syro-Malabar wash off the responsibility for the demolition mania, like Pontius Pilate? There is something called acts of omission and commission.

What about the Pope?

In the recent Apostolic Exhortation, ‘Sacramentum Caritatis’, the Pontiff states, "A solid knowledge of the history of sacred art can be advantageous for those responsible for commissioning artists and architects to create works of art for the liturgy. Consequently, it is essential that the education of Seminarians and priests include the study of art history, with special reference to sacred buildings..."

[The response of some priests in Kerala to this might be, ‘Oh, it’s about some paintings in Europe’, like Stalin who once asked during WW II, ‘How many Divisions does the Pope have?’ In Kerala itself, invaluable frescos were lost by recent demolition of Thycattussarry Church. See my post ‘A historic church is no more’ by clicking on the title.]

Indiscriminate destruction of heritage structures should be a matter of concern not only for Christians, but also for all people. If you agree, please email this to as many people as you can. The procedure is very simple. Just click on the ‘envelope’ icon below and give the email IDs.

Let us preserve our heritage.

Ends.

(Cross-posted to Song of the waves.)

Amazing Grace.

Amazing Grace, written by John Newton (1725-1807) in 1772 is one of the most popular hymns of all time. This article takes a brief look at the song, the poet and the people who supported him.

Newton’s life story is amazing. Son of a ship master, he went out to the sea at the age of 11 with his father. He was forced to join the navy after that and was caught while trying to desert. Later he was exchanged to a slave ship where he faced many travails. But finally he had his own ship that he commanded, and engaged in slave running.

Newton had no religious convictions during his seafaring days though he was born to Anglican parents. There are two versions of how his ‘conversion to Christianity’ came about. One is that his ship ran into a violent storm and was saved because, due to some amazing grace, he suddenly turned to God and prayed. The other is that he fell seriously ill out at sea and eventually pleaded with God to cure him.

The first stanza of the hymn Amazing Grace seems to describe this turnaround in the man’s life:

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Newton gave up sailing and took a shore job. During that time he learned several languages. Then came the desire to be a minister. Initially the Bishop of York turned down his request. After a few years of frustration, he was ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln. Another stanza of the hymn is appropriate at this point:

Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

John Thornton, a philanthropist and evangelical layman sponsored Newton as curator of Olney. In his later life, Newton was involved in a campaign to abolish slave trade along with William Wilberforce, MP and others.

It was at Olney that Newton wrote the lyrics of Amazing Grace and several other hymns. John Thornton helped to publish them, along with some poems by William Cowper (Cooper?), in a volume titled Olney Hymns.

Thornton continued to support Newton all along. After the death of the financier, Newton wrote this about him,

You know something of my peculiar obligations to him. . . To him,
under the Lord, I owe all my consideration and comfort as a
minister (Bull 300-301).

It is interesting to note that Milton Klein named his biography of John Thornton ‘An Amazing Grace’ after the famous hymn.

And the hymn began to gain popularity. Many church choirs in English speaking parts of the world took up the song. The 20^th century saw several recordings of the hymn. It featured in movies and the television. In the UK it attained top ten rating in the charts during the early 1970s, two centuries after it was written!

The concluding stanza of the hymn says:

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine

Till then, Amazing Grace will live in the hearts of men and women who have heard it.

Ends.

Cited works:

Bull, Josiah. But Now I See, The Life of John Newton. The Banner of Truth Trust. Carlisle.1868, 1998.

Klein, Milton M. An Amazing Grace. U.P. South. New Orleans. 2004.

New­ton, John. Ol­ney Hymns. W. Ol­i­ver, London. 1779.

Lili Marlene

What makes a song immortal? Is it the lyrics? Or the tune? Or the way it is rendered? Perhaps it is a combination of all these and some more.

Take the rather baffling case of the song Lili Marlene (English version: Lilly Marlene). It has been hailed as the most popular war song of all time. But is Lili Marlene really a war song? It is a love song, a romantic, sentimental piece that was, rather strangely, set to a marching tune. Lili Marlene was written during a war and attained the pinnacle of popularity during another war.

A German soldier, Hans Liep wrote the lyrics on which Lili Mrlene is based, in 1915 during World War I. After gathering dust for twenty two years it was discovered in 1937, when Nobert Schultze set it to music. The original recording of Lili Marlene by Lale Andersen in 1939 did not create any waves. Joseph Gobbles, Propaganda Secretary of Nazi Socialist Party, is said to have hated the song. But Field Marshal Erwin Rommel intuitively identified the potential of Lili Marlene and it was broadcast daily over Radio Belgrade for his Afrika Korps.

The effect was stunning. From underneath the lantern Lili of the lamplight reached out to the soldiers on the desert. The song had pathos, romance, and intensity of feeling. It talked of love and longing and loneliness. It captured the hearts and the souls of the fighting men. Imagine the impact of the following words (by Tommie Connor in the English version of Lili Marlene) would have on lonesome soldiers far away from home:

Resting in our billets, just behind the lines
Even tho' we're parted, your lips are close to mine
You wait where that lantern softly gleams,
Your sweet face seems to haunt my dreams
My Lilly of the Lamplight, my own Lilly Marlene

In what could possibly be termed a faux pas, Rommel apparently had not considered that sentiments transcend national boundaries. Soon the Allied soldiers too picked up the song. According to one story, when a senior officer berated a British soldier for singing Lili Marlene in German, the victim answered with a counter question, “Sir, do we have an English version?” A translation was made quickly and BBC started broadcasting it. Thus came about a strange situation where both sides in the war were using the same song, Lili Marlene, for propaganda and to boost the morale of their troops.

The Marlene Dietrich rendering of Lili Marlene was perhaps the pick among the many recordings of the song. Even after World War II, Lili Marlene continued to be a favorite with versions by Vera Lynn and others. It is said to have been translated to nearly fifty languages. When asked about the reason for the popularity of the song, Lale Andersen, the German singer who first recorded it, is reported to have stated, "Can the wind explain why it became a storm?"
The storm might have abated but even 6o years after the World War II, the passion for Lili Marlene lives on. A Web search for the song would turn up over a million results. On several of these sites you can listen to Lili Marlene and download it.

Lili Marlene is still waiting where that lantern gleams softly.

Ends.

Jewish names among Syrian Christians.

Last month when I was at Olavipe, a British travel agent who had come to see the place asked me, “You are Christians. How is it that you have Jewish names?” She had a point there. My name is Abraham. Among the brothers we also have Mathew, Joseph, and Jacob. Biblical names are common among the Syrian Christians of Kerala.

I explained to the lady that the reason was that Christianity came to Kerala even before the Apostles started converting gentiles. The word ‘Christian’ was coined in Antioch during the seventh decade after Christ. Till then a follower of Jesus Christ was known as ‘Nazrani’, a label that is still actively used by the Arabs and in Kerala.

The Church and many historians accept that St. Thomas the Apostle landed in Muzuris near Cochin in Kerala in 52 A.D. and spread the Word although no unquestionable evidence of this is available. From the beginning the Syrian Christians of Kerala have been called Nazrani. Some historians see this as a proof of the antiquity of Christianity in Kerala.

There is another interesting question that is raised sometimes. Why is one community among the Christians of Kerala called Syrian Christians? It is not because they originally came from Syria.

The belief is that St. Thomas converted Jews and, perhaps later, Brahmins (if this priestly class existed in Kerala in that era) to the new religion during his sojourn in Kerala. The descendants of these early converts are known as Nazranis. Of late they are referred to as St. Thomas Christians as well. They had a social position that was almost equivalent to that of the Brahmins.

Then, in the 16^th century, during the Portuguese ascendancy in Kerala, St. Francis Xavier converted a great number of locals, mostly in the coastal areas, to the Roman Church in which Latin was the language of liturgy.

The Dutch ousted the Portuguese from Cochin in 1663. A century later, Adriaan Moens, Dutch Governor of Cochin from 1771 to 1782, decided to call those who were converted by St. Xavier ‘Latin Christians’ and the ancient Christians who followed Syriac Liturgy, ‘Syrian Christians’ to avoid confusion.

No doubt, the Syrian Christians belong to an Eastern Church of Apostolic origin. But the Jews have been in Kerala perhaps from the time of King Solomon.

The hotter it gets...

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Nazi Era - Looting of Cultural Treasures.

The plunder of cultural treasures, particularly paintings, during the Third Reich was unprecedented in history. Adolf Hitler, of course, is considered to have been the main culprit. The Fuhrer’s will quoted by Infield (1974 p.130) says:

The paintings in the collections I bought over the years were never acquired for private purposes, but always exclusively for the establishment of an art gallery in my native town of Linz.

But evidence does not support the claim by Hitler that all the art pieces in his collection were purchased.

The Nazis believed that the arts, especially music, were an expression of the nation’s soul, character, aspirations and ideals. The problem, however, was that non-Aryans were to have no part in it. Anything precious in their possession was to be seized. The Third Reich’s sanitizing of the cultural field was achieved through what was called ‘synchronization of culture’ led by Joseph Gobbles, the Nazi Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda.

The Nazi Cultural Revolution caused immense damage in the field of art and artifacts among others. The Third Reich considered modern art and impressionist paintings degenerative. Many of them were consigned to flames. But contrary to Hitler’s assertion in his will that his art collection was bought, great paintings were confiscated ‘in national interest’ and a number of them were sold to enrich the coffers of the Nazi Party and its leaders.

However, the blame for the looting of art and artifacts during 1930s and 1940s does not rest with the Nazis alone. A French Government panel has estimated that the Jews of France suffered a combined loss of over $1.2 billion due to exploitation by the Vichy regime (TIME Europe, 2000). The victorious Allied and Soviet armies also plundered innumerable works of art, books and archives (Akinsha, 1995, Alford, 1994). Years after the war, the Dutch finance ministry sold to its staff items stolen from Amsterdam Jews at heavily discounted prices. Archival evidence indicates that the Swiss government and banks assisted in selling the treasures commandeered by the Nazis.

The United States took no action on reports by the Strategic Services expressing concern about the unmonitored shipping of valuables to the country from Europe. Effective government intervention at that point of time could have prevented some of the unsavory developments that followed.

Today, huge amounts are being spent on tracing the treasures worth billions of dollars ransacked during the Nazi era and for the ensuing litigation. Lawyers make millions in the process. In fact, this has developed into a major growth area in international legal practice. Interpol records indicate that the black market in art items is the fourth biggest international criminal activity. FBI estimates that the market volume at 5 billion dollars.

In the year 2000, Russia passed a legislation permitting its government to retain the valuables looted during the Second World War. But in Germany and other Western countries, there is an emerging realization that the plundered treasures should be returned to the rightful owners. Many museums have published lists of artwork of doubtful provenance. The German government has opened a website (http://www.lostart.de/) that provides database for such articles to assist search by claimants.

It would appear, though, that this noble endeavor has come too late for many who lost heavily in the pillage during the Nazi era.

–

Bibliography.

Akinsha, Konstantin, et al. Beautiful Loot: The Soviet Plunder of Europe's Art Treasures. (1995.) New York: Random House. (N 8795.3. G3 A39 1995)

Alford, Kenneth D. The Spoils of World War II: The American Military's Role in the Stealing of Europe's Treasures. (1994.) New York: Carol Publishing Group. (D 810 A7. A37 1994)

Infield, Glenn B. The Private Lives of Eva and Adolf. (1974.) Grosset and Dunlap, New York, p 130

Labi, Aisha, Plunder and Provenance, TIME EUROPE, May 15, 2000, Vol.155, No.19. Available from: www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2000/0515/naziart.html

[Accessed on 27 July, 2006.]

Traynor, Ian. Precious Plunder. Available from: www.centropa.org/reports.asp?rep=&ID=6863&TypeID=0 [Accessed on 27 July, 2006.]

Ends.

Contempt of Court - Madras Edition

Quoted below are some of the comments made on February 12 by the First Bench of the Madras High Court consisting of the Chief Justice AP Shah and Justice K Chandru when a quo warranto petition against the Tamil Nadu Minister who made derogatory remarks against the court, and the Chief Minister who was present at that time, came up for admission:

‘Prima facie we find that it [the Minister’s comments] tends to scandalize the authority of the court.’ The CJ added that while bona fide criticism was welcome, attack on the court couldn’t be mounted on that pretext.

‘We see this as a tendency to interfere with the administration of justice.’ The court stated that such statement would tarnish the image of the court and result in people losing faith in the institution.

‘It is unnecessary. Such statements, that too when the matter is pending in the court, is some sort of intimidation. We do not appreciate them.’ ‘We see this as a tendency to interfere with the administration of justice.’

But the CJ clarified that the court would not initiate contempt proceedings. According to him the strength of a judge lay in his independence and integrity.

(Source: The Hindu.)