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Doubting Thomases suspend Saint project

Published On : 01 Oct 2015


Sept. 30 (The Telegraph): The history battle has gone all the way back to St. Thomas, the apostle of Jesus Christ, who is believed to have brought Christianity to India and whose scepticism gifted the world the idiom "doubting Thomas".

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has decided not to extend the permission granted to an excavation project in Kerala to "reinstate the cultural and historical significance of the legendary Muziris port".

The Muziris port was said to be where St. Thomas arrived in AD 52. But the exact location of the port, which was destroyed in a flood, is a mystery although the general consensus appears to be that it was located somewhere near Kodungalloor in Thrissur, a northern district and cultural capital of Kerala.


Many Christians believe that St. Thomas - who accepted Jesus had risen from the dead only after the Lord appeared and invited the apostle to touch Him - baptised several Brahmins in Kerala and set up one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.

(The arrival of St. Thomas is of extreme significance for Christians since Jesus had only 12 apostles and he was one of them. In 2006, the Vatican had to issue a retraction after the then Pope, Benedict XVI, seemed to suggest St. Thomas had travelled only till western India from where Christianity reached the south.)

The Gospel According to John mentions that once a convinced Thomas said "My Lord, My God", Jesus told him: "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed (are) they that have not seen, and (yet) have believed."

It was those who insist on seeing before believing that some advocates of the project were hoping to convince by coming up with evidence that St. Thomas had indeed set foot on what is now a village called Pattanam (which means town) in Kodungalloor.

"Rules demand that extension beyond five years can be given only after those carrying out the excavation submit reports. In the case of the Muziris project, the digging has been going on for over seven years now, but no report was filed. So no fresh permission can be granted,'' ASI joint director R.S. Fonia told The Telegraph over the phone from New Delhi.

Fonia, however, added that the matter could be revisited as and when the reports were filed and reviewed.

The executors of the project, the Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR), could not be contacted despite repeated attempts to confirm whether they had not filed any report till now.

The denial of an extension would have been treated as a routine bureaucratic decision but for the fact that the Sangh parivar had long been opposing the project on the ground that its intention was to "legitimise the yet unproven story" of the arrival of St. Thomas in Kodungalloor in AD 52.

That the Kerala historical council was an autonomous body floated by an erstwhile government of the CPM-led Left Front has ensured that the matter has the essential ingredients for a controversy in the highly politicised state.

The council is headed by historian K.N. Panikkar, a regular target of the Sangh parivar for his Left-leaning views and vocal stand against the so-called "nationalist" history. Some members of the council are viewed by the Sangh outfits as "pro-Church".

"What has snowballed into a controversy is the open declaration by KCHR director, P.J. Cherian in the official bulletin of the Assyrian Church of the East on March 2011, that Pattanam has been identified as ancient Muziris, where Apostle Thomas landed in India 2000 years back for propagating Christianity, which he claims has been vindicated by the excavations," said B.S. Hari Shankar, a research fellow with the Delhi-based India Policy Foundation.

Cherian could not be contacted for comment.

While the Bharateeya Vichara Kendram, a Sangh affiliate, smelt in the excavation project a "conspiracy to manufacture history", a "Marxian historian" had felt that the site was unfit for archaeological excavation because of construction and digging of wells.

But CPM politburo member M.A. Baby, who was the culture minister when the council took up the project, said: "Although there is no conclusive evidence, it is widely believed that apostle St Thomas came to Kodungalloor and through him Christianity reached Kerala even before it reached Europe.

"On the one hand, the BJP government is trying to establish fairy tales as history while on the other, it is trying to shut down genuine research in history. The agenda is very clear. Now, if the ASI says it can't be continued, it is unscientific and against the science of history.''

That the CPM, traditionally considered an adversary of the Church, is supporting such a project speaks volumes about the politics of Kerala.

Now in the Opposition, the CPM is fearing an erosion of its Hindu support base towards the BJP, considered a rising force in a state where it has not made much headway till now. Against such a backdrop, it does not make sense for the CPM to antagonise Christians.

Such tilts and counter-tilts are common in Kerala. In 2001, the historical council that was later entrusted with the Muziris excavation was dissolved by a government headed by the Congress.







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