u/Reasonable_Bat1894

First off, we are a very small community. There are less than 100k of us all over the world; we are a drop in the total Christian population of the South Indian state of Kerala. I am writing this because I often see our community misunderstood or dismissed in broader Catholic circles. We are unique because we are among the only South Asians who are consistently West Asian/Iraqi-Levantine shifted.

While we have been part of the Indian landscape for centuries, our heritage is visible in our phenotype. It is not uncommon to see members of our community with red or reddish hair, pale "pinkish" skin, and blue, green, hazel, or grey eyes. (Most of us phenotypically look Indian tho, except for some families like mine)

Also, While the majority of us have an Indian base, genetic data shows that on average we cluster closer to the Balochs of Pakistan who are iranic people and Punjabis with a significant West Asian shift. In some families, genetic testing shows upwards of 33-35% Anatolian/West Asian Neolithic ancestry, clustering closely with groups like Iraqi Jews.

However, this isn’t about "superiority"—it’s about the preservation of a specific heritage that was brought to India by Knai Thoma. As Catholics, we believe in the diversity of the Church. Just as the Eastern Catholic Churches fight to keep their traditions alive against Latinization, we fight to keep our endogamous tradition alive to prevent the total absorption and disappearance of our unique ethnic and liturgical identity.

It is also important to address the "erasure" of our culture. Many people don't realize that certain traditions and hymns, like Bar Marium, are specifically Knanaya. When these are adopted by the broader St. Thomas Christian community without acknowledging their Knanaya origin, it feels like our specific history is being overwritten.

We aren't trying to be "exclusive" out of malice; we are trying to survive as a tiny minority within a minority. We are a living link to the ancient Mesopotamian Church, and we deserve to protect that culture, our songs, and our lineage within the universal Church.

Btw, the Knanaya Kottayam diocese is a canonically recognized personal diocese—it proves the Church recognizes our right to exist as a distinct community! But unfortunately, the courts in India have ruled against our community, because of massive pressure from “fellow” st Thomas christians. Catholics around the world shouldn’t be surprised if may of us defect and become, oreinatals since, they too have a knanaya community, but they aren’t being actively persecuted.

You can read more about our community on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knanaya

I’ll let these pics do the talking, whenever I check the location of an account being extremely racist towards us, and I don’t mean liberal racism, I mean extremely derogatory stuff, it always an account based in south east Asia or Brazil. Or it’s a diaspora from those countries hating from North America(lol)