It is recorded by Sir M. E. Grant Duff, formerly Governor of Madras,*[1] that "the interesting body known as the Syrian Christians or Christians of St. Thomas is divided into several groups much opposed to each other. In an excellent address presented to me they said that this was the occasion which, for the first time after ages of separation, witnessed the spectacle of all the different sects of their community, following divergent articles of faith, sinking for once their religious differences to do honour to their friend."
Some years ago, the wife of a District Judge of Calicut asked the pupils of a school how long they had been Christians. "We were," came the crushing reply, "Christians when you English were worshipping Druids, and stained with woad." More recently, the master at a college in Madras called on all Native Christians in his class to stand up. Noticing that one boy remained seated, he called on him for an explanation, when the youth explained that he was a Syrian Christian, and not a Native Christian.
It is noted by the Rev. W. J. Richards that "at the very time that our King John was pulling out Jews teeth to make them surrender their treasures, Hindu princes were protecting Jewish and Christian subjects, whose ancestors had been honoured by Royal grants for hundreds of years."
The Southerners say that they can be distinguished from the Northerners by the red tinge of their hair. A man with reddish moustache, and a dark-skinned baby with brilliant red hair, whose father had red whiskers, were produced before me in support of the claim.
- ↑ * Notes from a Diary, 1881— 86.
