{mal'-uh-bahr}
The Malabar Christians are an ancient and numerous Christian community in southwestern India. They take their name from the Malabar Coast where, according to tradition, Christianity was first brought to India by Saint THOMAS the Apostle. Verifiable records, however, connect early Indian Christianity with the 5th-century missionary activity of the church in Persia, which embraced NESTORIANISM. For almost a millennium the Malabars survived, with a liturgy in the Syriac language, as an intermittently persecuted minority in India.
Great confusion resulted from the arrival of Portuguese missionaries and Portuguese colonial rule at the end of the 15th century. Some of the Malabar Christians were converted outright to Western Christianity; others, although preserving parts of their liturgy and some of their customs, recognized the supremacy of the pope. Force and coercion were widely used to achieve these results. When Portuguese rule ended in the 17th century, a majority of Malabar Christians affiliated themselves with the JACOBITE CHURCH. In the years following World War I, although remaining independent, they joined in communion with the other Monophysite churches (see MONOPHYSITISM). Important Latin and uniate groups remain in the jurisdiction of Rome. Another branch, the Mar-Thoma church, moved toward Protestantism and entered the Anglican Communion.
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