The Indian Christians of St. Thomas: An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of Malabar.

by L. W. Brown
Review by: Kenneth Scott Latourette
Pacific Affairs, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Jun., 1958), pp. 199-200
Published by: Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia
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 Book Reviews
treacheryof the Communistsby rightlyemphasizingthe many shiftsin
theirpartyline,he gives themfar more creditthan theydeserveforbeing
principledbelieversin an unchanging"ultimateideal." Their ends have long
ago been abandonedin favorof the means,and Communistsare todayno
more"wedded to thepathof armeduprisings"or to "the establishment of a
Soviet dictatorship"than they are necessarilycommittedto theirpresent
peacefuland pro-capitalist policy.For the time being, however,exclusive
emphasison the presumedpermanentinsurrectionary, underground,and
characterof the CPI and minimizationof its peacefuland
anti-capitalist
legal approachas "a manoeuvre"or "a facade"would seem to divertatten-
tion fromactivitieswhich have broughtthe Party a certainmeasure of
success,such as its victoryin Kerala. Quotationsfromquarter-century-old
Communistdocumentsor even fromthe secret"Tactical Line" of 1953 are
notnecessarilyrelevantforan understanding of presentCommunistpractice.
The Communiststhemselvesmaybelieveotherwise, but thisdoes not oblige
at
one to take them theirword-even their secretword-least of all if one
doubtstheirwordswhen theydo not square withtheiractions.
WashingtonUniversity JOHN H. KAUTSKY

An Accountof theAncient
THE INDIAN CHRISTIANS OF ST. THOMAS:
SyrianChurchofMalabar.By L. W. Brown.Cambridge:Cambridge
University Press.1956. 3I5 pp. $7.50.
HERE IS a bookwhichmeetsa greatneedand meetsit extremely
well.Muchhas beenwritten on theSyrianChurchin SouthIndia,butfor
themostpartit hasbeenmarred byextreme bias,seekingeitherto proveor
to disprove thefounding bytheApostleThomas,or beingfavorable or hos-
tileto theRomanCatholic relations.The authorof thebook underreview
has givenus as nearlyan objective study, basedon carefulresearch, as we
mayhopeto see.He is an Anglicanbishopwhowas formerly a missionary
in India.He is verydubiousabouttheauthenticity of thetradition which
ascribestheplanting oftheChurchto St. Thomas,buthe statesclearly that
becauseofthetraderelations withtheRomanEmpireChristians mayhave
beenpresent in Indiain thefirstcentury. BishopBrownsketches thehistory
so faras it is knownand discusses thecontacts withthePortuguese in the
sixteenthcentury. He coverstheambiguous and at timesstormy relations
withRomanCatholicmissionaries whichat onetimeled to theaccession of
theSyrianChristians to Rome,followed bytherenewedindependence of a
largeproportion oftheirnumber andtheestablishment ofrelationswiththe
JacobitePatriarch of Antioch.The effects of Protestant missions,especially
oftheChurchMissionary Society, aretraced. A substantialsection
is devoted
to thesociallifeoftheSt.ThomasChristians and an evenlargersectionto
'99

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 PacificAffairs
theworship andfaithofthecommunity. The authorviewsthetheology and
ritualas unaffected
byIndianthought and religionand as entirely
foreign,
butholdsthatin sociallifetheChristians
haveconformed to Indianpatterns
-among themcaste,observing omensand propitious days,and marriage
customs. YetbecauseithaspreservedthecultustheSyriancommunity is,he
believes,
profoundlyChristian.
Yale University KENNETH SCOTT LATOURETTE

INDIAN FOREIGN POLICY: In Defense of National Interest.By

KarunakarGupta. Calcutta:The WorldPress.1956. ro9 pp. Rs. Io.
KARUNAKAR GUPTA was a candidatefor the Ph.D. degree at the
London School of Economicsin I952-54 and the presentbook appearsto be
an assortment of paperswrittenfor academicpurposesduringthatperiod.
Dealing withIndia's relationswith the Commonwealth,China, Russia and
the United States,and her attitudestowardcolonialismand racialism,the
chapterslack unityand are based primarilyon secondaryWesternsources.
The authoracknowledgeshis debtto the clippingfileof the Royal Institute
of InternationalAffairsand thisappearsto havebeenhisprimarydata source.
Almostall United Nations and governmentdocumentshave been ignored,
but the directlyquoted opinionsof Westernjournalists,especiallyWalter
Lippman and thecorrespondents of theManchesterGuardian,fillpage after
page. The authoralso drawsextensively fromthewritingsof K. M. Panikkar,
now India's Ambassadorto France,to whom thebook is dedicatedand who
is describedby theauthoras a "masterhistorian,""greatscholar"and "great
administrator" whose name will be "engravedin gold lettersin Indian his-
tory."The dust jacketcarriesa statementby Mr. Panikkarwhich describes
thestudyas "undoubtedly a workof greatimportance."
University
of California,Berkeley MARSHALL WINDMILLER

In Indian Paintingand Poetry.By W. G.

THE LOVES OF KRISHNA:
Archer.New York: MacmillanCo. 1957. 127 pp., 39 plates.$6.oo.
MR. W. G. ARCHER, Keeperof theIndian Sectionof theVictoriaand
AlbertMuseum,retellsherethestoryof Krishnain orderthathis importance
in the religiousthinking,poetryand paintingin India may be more sym-
patheticallyunderstood.Beginningwith the referencesto Krishna in the
Mahabharata,he tracesthe developmentof the Krishna storythroughthe
Harivansa,the VishnuPurana,theBhagavataPurana,the Gita Govindaand
laterpoetry,and finallyin the vernacularpoetryof the Rasika Priya.With
appreciativeinsight,and in lucid English freefromthe obtrusiveimpedi-
mentaof scholarship, the authorportraysthe Krishnawho is worshipedas
200

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