St. Thomas and Christianity in Kerala - the Confluence of Religions (Visual No.5)  

The story of how all the major religions of the the world came to be practiced in Kerala is indeed a fascinating one. While in the early Centuries AD, there has been mutual absorption of the Brahman religion and the religious practices of the Dravidians, two pre-Christian religions, namely Jainism and Buddhism had also found its way into all parts of India. It was against this background of 'open-door' policy to faiths other than one's own that St. Thomas the apostle is strongly  believed to have landed on the west coast of Kerala around AD 52 to spread Christianity. In a few years, it also believed that he established seven churches at various places in Kerala.

This is a remarkable achievement when you consider that the saint came by himself or in a small group to a totally strange and distant land speaking an unknown language and was able to communicate at least to a fraction of the local people and talk them out of their traditional means of worship and to preach the gospel to then with a view to convert them to Christianity. It is a matter of speculation as to what kind of churches these were, given the fact that we know nothing of the churches that existed even at the seat of Christianity during the first Century AD.

The American Encyclopaedia quotes a scholar of the St. Augustine Friary in Chicago: "The so-called St. Thomas Christians of Malabar on the Malabar coast of Southern India have a tradition, which is questionable, that they are descendants of converts by St. Thomas". Other Christian theologists have also commented "that there is no written testimony close to the life time of St. Thomas and it needs to be checked according to the strict principles of historical criticism". Not withstanding such difference of opinions, there have been a regular influx of Christian immigrants from the second Century AD for practice of religion and promotion of trade, and they were all welcomed to the Kerala shores by the local chiefs and given many privileges.