INTERDENOMINATIONAL
VENERATION IN FORT COCHIN, INDIA
HARMONY
AMONG THE INHABITANTS OF ALL FAITHS
For
curious reasons, Fort Cochin, the little
peninsula jetting into the Backwaters, facing the Arabian sea in southwestern
state of Kerala is the only city I know and visit in India.
During
the last visit just a month ago, the
religiosity of the people were apparent to me, in my dealings with people of
various faiths. Whether they belong to the three major religions here:
Hinduism, Christianity or Islam , or minor one like the Jains or the handful of
Jews in Jewtown, they were all deeply religious.
It gives
the inhabitants of Cochin a respect for the sacred space. I cannot imagine
burning of churches as happens in Pakistan or forbidding of new churches as in
Malaysia or desecration of Jewish cemeteries as in France happening here in
Cochin.
This
harmony of relationships has a history which stretches back a millennia or two.
Hinduism is the native religion, even though a pre-Hindu aboriginal religion
may have existed. ( there are dolmens and other archeological sites thought to
be from that period not too far from Cochin). Some of the oldest mosques and
churches extant are to found in this region. St Thomas seemed to have travelled
through here, the Portuguese priests who arrived with Vasco da Gama may have
been surprised to see active churches along Malabar Coast. There may have been
trade between Arabian shores and Cochin coast long before Islam, this trade
possibly accelerated the spread of Islam along this coast. Notably, India may
be the only country where Jews were not stained with the poisons of
anti-Semitism.
I am
writing this in Brussels in Belgium. As I look out of my window I see a row of
hijab clad school girls, teenagers. It seems like an anomaly, a misfit into
this environment, and certainly an added construction of recent years. In Cochin, it looked quite natural, as it has
been for centuries. Hindu children with pastes on their forehead, Christian
children with crosses dangling from their necks and in school uniforms from
their convent schools and Muslim children in their hijabs or caps and loose
fitting tunics, all walk together towards their schools in the morning. It is a
very common sight. It looks natural because it has been like this for centuries.
This
harmony among religions has been mentioned ever since written records have been
kept by Arab, Jewish, Christian European travellers to this part of the world.
Before the arrival of the Portuguese there was a thriving Buddhist community of
Chinese were present along the Kalvathy
River, who traded peacefully. The natives of this part of Cochin are
indistinguishable from one another in their physiognomy, bearing countenances
of their Arab, Jewish, Portuguese and Dutch ancestors rather than the Dravidian
faces one encounters inland.
The
people here are deeply religious. I was surprised to see the church service
full of congregants at 7 am on a weekday, something you will not witness in the
West. The Muslims are observant and Fort Cochin is dotted with mosques, the
older ones are discreet. The newer ones built with money from Saudi Arabia have
minarets or cupolas which seem unworldly amidst the palm trees and papaya and
banana plants.
I work
with Native people of the American continent and for them the religious
observances are about spirituality. There are no churches, no religious leaders
nor any texts. In Cochin, it is about piety, observance and ritual.
When we
talk about Spirituality in the West it has different context and this has to be
made clear in conversations with the inhabitants of Cochin. Piety among Cochinis of all faiths and
Spirituality among the American Native Indians both has a common mythic world.
The Cochinis particularize and connect with this mythical world through their
religious observances and the American Indians connect it through spirituality.
For the American Indians, connection with the universe is more important than
connection to any deity. In the company
of the Christian lady in Cochin, who apologized for not being at church during
the weekend, despite the fact that she attends church twice a day, I could feel
the same sense of an universal sentiment that I feel with my American Indian
friends who talk to me of their observances of natural phenomenon such as
thunder, trees and flowers.
This photo of Kochi (Cochin) is courtesy of TripAdvisor
This photo of Kochi (Cochin) is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Cochin
Jews experienced no anti-Semitism because they lived in Cochin, not because
they lived amidst Christians and Muslims. Such sentiments were rare in the
centuries old amity between the faiths, except for a short period under the
Portuguese when they burned down the synagogue in 1662 and persecuted the Jews.
This photo of Kochi (Cochin) is courtesy of TripAdvisor
I wish to
bring to your attention two good examples of this interdenominational amity.
One is the shrine of Kappiri Muthappan and the other is the tomb of Nehami Mutta.
In both
these sites, now considered sacred by all, people of all faiths come to pray,
light candls, offer flowers and in case of Kappiri muthappan, offer toddy
(arrack) or cigarettes.
Kappiri,
a corrupt version of Portuguese, caffre, meaning a black African male, has entered
vividly into the imagination of Cochinis. Many people would swear by the
existence of this spirit,a benevolent
one. The story goes back to the retreat of the Portuguese when they were
thought to have buried their African slaves when they hid their treasures, so
that it would be guarded when they return.
Kappiri
loves to live in mango trees and is fond of arrack and cigars and there are
places in Mattancherry called kappiri mathil, places thought to be where
kappiris rest. The shrine has no deification, just a platform and has become a
sacred space now, for all faiths.
Just a
short walk away from the Jew street which gets the most attention from the tourists,
there is a residential area where a tomb of a Jew has become a sacred space and one
could see Christians, Muslims or Hindus offering their prayers It is the tomb of rav nehamia ben avaraham , a
Yemeni scholar who migrated to Cochin and died in 1616
Here rests the Kabblist and famous old
man of sanctity
Who emanated the light of his knowledge
And shines every where in the Jewish
dispersion
(He is) the perfect wise man
(and) the righteous person of divinity
(he is) the rav and teacher.
Nehemia son of the rav and teacher, the
wise and beloved
Abraham Muta (old person) of blessed and
saintly memory
And he passed on his life to the (late)
rabbanim ( e xpired)
On Sunday 28th of the month of Kislev
In the year of creation 5376 (1616AD)
The tomb is an area which used to be
Black Jewish cemetery but when the black Jews left for Israel in 1955, owner of
the house donated the house and the tomb to a local Christian family on
condition that the tomb will be kept whitewashed and clean.
I
lit the Shabbat candles and said prayers for my friends scattered around the
world. and considered it a privilege to do so.
The fact
that the original Kappiri were Christian
and that Nehemiah Mutta was Jewish, is of no concern to the devotees. They
offer their prayers and seek the help from Kappiri Muthappan or Nehemi Mutta.
This
interdenominational amity is documented over and over again. In a recently
published book, The mosques of Cochin, Patricia Fels gives details of the
Kerala architecture of many of the mosques of Cochin. One of the mosques
detailed in the book is the Chembitta Palli. When I passed this architectural
gem in the company of my friend, Mr N, he mentioned this story to me about the
founding of the Kochangadi Juma Masjid, Chembitta Palli, in Mattancherry, near
Kochi. A local Jewish merchant was so impressed with the knowledge of Sayyid
Fakhr Bukhari, its spiritual leader, that he donated all the timber for the
construction of the mosque.
This
ancient friendship is not frayed in face of Arab propaganda against Israel.
Many of the young cochin Muslims work in Arabia (I have met them in Salalah,
Muscat in Oman and in Doha) and know Arabs from many countries who work there,
but the ancient friendship towards other religion continue to triumph among the
Cochinis.
I found this video in the internet, hope i am not infringing on any ones copyright, but it is about faces of Cochin and you can see typical dravidian faces as well as faces of arab, european admixtures..
