Rivalry, Reliance, and Resemblance: Siblings as Metaphor for Hindu-Christian Relations in Kerala State

Abstract

approximately one quarter of the population is Christian, many of whom claim a religious heritage nearly two thousand years old. This article focuses on a tradition, prevalent in the highly Christianized Kottayam district in Kerala, in which local lore and festivals associate H in d u patron deities and Christian patron saints as siblings. The relationships of these interreligious sacred sibling pairs, described alternately as contrary and cooperative, provide an apt metaphor for the complex com m unal relations between their Christian and H in d u devotee communities. This rela tional ambivalence is challenged, however, by unambiguous religious rhetoric that argues for an irreparable disparity between Christianity and H induism , or else for the negation of the boundaries that distinguish them. As this genre of sacred sibling associ ations presently appears to be on the wane, I also explore the tensions inherent in ethno graphic enthusiasm for, versus native dismissal of, such traditions.

The Syntactic Roles of Touch in Shared Festivals in Kerala: Towards an Analysis of Ritual Categories

“…The Hindu and Christian inhabitants of Kanjoor and the neighboring areas consider the Goddess as the sister of the saint. The sibling relations between Christian saints and local goddesses are a common trope in South India, and in Kerala in particular (Dempsey 1998).…”