COMMUNICATION 63 socially privileged" status of all Christians (except Harijan converts) is also far from true. For, the Syrian Christians were almost on a par -with the highest caste in Kerala society long before the British established their rule here—in fact, ever since the earliest Church was established in Kerala. For them therefore, there was no need for any ^favour and protection" from the new British rulers to become a privileged stratum of society. If only the author had done some reading of the history of Kerala, he would have learnt that the Syrian Church of Kerala is one of the oldest among the Christian Churches in India. Leaving aside the belief that St Thomas himself came here and converted a considerable section of high-caste Hindus to Christianity, it is incontrovertible that, like the Jews and the Arabs.the early Christians came here as traders. They therefore had a fairly high position in the social hierarchy, though they did not come into the categorization of Hindu castes. Considering the fact that the caste hierarchy in Kerala does not include any single caste whose traditional occupation is trade, it may be safely assumed that, even in the centuries before the British came to India trading in the commodities which could be exported from Kerala and the import of goods which the people of the state required was carried on by the Jews, the Arabs and the Christians all of whom came from west Asia. Christians and Muslims in Kerala The early Christians having come from the west Asian region, it was natural for them to use the Syriac language for Bible study and rituals. In fact, all denominations ofChristians(Catholic and Orthodox in particular)have, till very recent times, been using Syriac for their liturgy. This is what distinguishes this section of Christians from those who arrived later and used Latin or, still later, Malay alam. The affinity between the Syrian Christians and the high-caste Hindus is thus not the creation of ^favour and protection" bestowed on them by foreign rulers. It is the result of historical evolution. The early Christians, like Jews and Muslims in the earlier and later periods, carved for themselves a high and honourable place in Kerala society because of the useful social function they discharged, namely trade. All the earlier Christians belonged to the Orthodox and not to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of them, however, were subsequently converted to Catholicism and Protestantism. But all of them remained and still remain ^yrian Christians. There are thus Syrian Catholics, Orthodox Syrians, Syrian Protestants and a host of sub-divisions among them. They should all be included in the ^economically and socially privileged" category as defined by the author. They are, in fact, included in the government categorization among the ^forward9 communities. The Latin Catholic, Anglo-Indian, SIUC and other non-Syrian Christians are historically later in origin, used Latin or Malayalam for religious purposes and came from castes other than the highest in the