The long-standing feud between Jacobite and Orthodox Church factions is a hot topic for political debate that comes alive every poll season in the state. Last week, a delegation of Jacobite Church leaders were in New Delhi to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking a favourable move to end the boiling dispute. However, their bid was foiled at the last moment. A few weeks ago, PM Narendra Modi had convened talks between leaders of both factions to settle the dispute, but it didn’t make much progress.
SC intervention
The issue over the ownership of assets spread over 1,100 parishes of the Church by two splinter groups was closed by the SC in 2017 when it ordered to hand over all churches and related assets to the parent faction, i.e. Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church. However, emotional fights by Jacobites in the grassroots for protecting their churches and denial of ritualistic funerals of believers by the other faction had delayed full execution of the SC order. In 2020, the LDF govt brought in an Act to make burial in accordance with religious rituals the fundamental right of a Christian believer.
Legal tussles
In 1974, a case was filed in a court in Kottayam regarding the ownership of Church property. A special court was formed in Ernakulam to deal with the Malankara case. Though the court had ruled in favour of the Jacobite Church, appeals were filed at higher courts and finally in 1995, the SC passed a judgment in favour of the Orthodox Church. The next round of legal battle concluded with the SC once again ruling in favour of Orthodox Church in 2017. As the state government didn’t initiate takeover of Jacobite faction's churches, the SC threatened contempt of court action and imprisonment of then chief secretary in 2019, forcing the state to start acting finally.
Regular feature
Splits and reunions between Orthodox and Jacobite factions had been a regular feature ever since the establishment of the Catholicate of Malankara Orthodox Church in 1912. Jacobite Syrian Christian Church consists of believers who consider Patriarch of Antioch (head of Syriac Orthodox Church of the entire East) as the supreme head of the Church while Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church consists of believers who consider the Catholicos of the East residing in Kottayam, who is also the Metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox Church, as the head.
Why they matter
This poll season too, the Church dispute is an issue actively debated in strongholds of both factions. UDF’s CM candidate Oommen Chandy is a member of Orthodox faction. With the Jacobite/Orthodox sect forming the second largest Christian denomination, it is only natural that major parties vie for their support.
Strength in numbers
● Christians form 18.4% of Kerala’s population
● Jacobite/Orthodox sect is the second largest Christian denomination after Catholics. While Catholics form 61% of total Christians, Jacobite/Orthodox sect form 16%
● As per 2011 census, total Christian population in the state is 61.4 lakh. Of them, Catholics are 37.4 lakh followed by 9.8 lakh Jacobite/Orthodox believers. Among them, 4,93,858 are Orthodox Syrian Christian believers and 4,82,762 are Jacobite Syrian Christian believers in Kerala
● Pathanamthitta, Kozhikode, Ernakulam and Thiruvanan-thapuram districts have strong presence of Orthodox population
● Ernakulam, Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam districts have a strong Jacobite presence. Ernakulam accounts for more than 25% of the Jacobite population in the state.
(Source: Kerala Census figures 2011, CDS working paper 468 - Religious Denominations of
Kerala by K C Zacharia, Kerala Migration Survey 2011)