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Love of the Past, Pursuits in Middle East, Europe and North

the Present: Chevalier America.


The reputation of Professor George
Professor George Menachery’s
Menachery emanates from his
Quest for the Cultural Identity inquisitive scholarship that grew up
of the Syrian Catholics of with his pursuits proven with results in
South Asia the search for the organic and
historical roots of the Syrian Catholic
community to which he belonged, and
Dr. N. J. Francis got crowned with the publication of his
monumental volumes on the cultural
and religious history of the Syrian
The past half a century of the Catholics as well as his efforts at
chequered development of the locating the cultural uniqueness of the
religious minority of the Syrian Syrian Catholic community.
Catholics of South Asia has brought to
the fore many who have earnestly and Early Career as a Teacher and
devotedly worked for the well-being Researcher
and welfare of that community. Yet, A brief sketch of Professor George
only a very few of the laity of that Menachery’s early career based in
community have earned a name that Trichur, in central Kerala, which laid
became emblematic of the historical the basis for his trans-regional, trans-
situation of the community within the communitarian, and trans-national
larger framework of its socio-cultural dimensions of the contributions will
identity. The contributions of suffice here before we proceed further
Chevalier Professor George to appreciate the uniqueness of his
Menachery as an antiquary, researcher, achievements. Born in 1938, he has his
teacher, writer, organizer, and cultural University education in St. Thomas’
activist during the past five decades College, Trichur, St. Joseph’s College,
stand out and occupy a pre-eminent Thiruchirappilly, University College,
place in matters pertaining to the Trivandrum, and the Institute of Social
cultural realm of the Syrian Catholic Sciences, Pune. After three decades of
community as well as their sensitive teaching career, he retired as Head of
and often very volatile links with the Department of English, St. Thomas’
public and secular domain. This article College, Trichur. He was Member of
looks at what Chevalier Professor the Senate, University of Calicut;
George Menachery did in bringing out Executive Member, Kerala History
the long-forgotten and often much Association; Member of the Advisory
neglected cultural roots and identity of Board of the Kerala State Department
the Syrian Catholics of South Asia, of Archaeology; Executive Member of
one of the most dynamic and vibrant the Kerala Sahitya Academy; Founder-
Indian communities, historically and President of the Kerala Historical
culturally rooted on the Malabar Coast, Research Society; Editor of the
but with a diasporic population that Malayalam Literary Review of the
finds themselves living in almost all Kerala Sahitya Academy; member of
countries of the world, contributing to the Governing Body of the Chair for
a large share of the Indian Christian Studies of the University of
professionals and skilled labour in the Calicut; and member of the Executive
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Committee of the Publications unitarianism operating at the religious


Division of the Census Board. and community levels within the
spectrum of Indian Christianity. This
He has traveled extensively in Europe, perception of the Syrian Catholic
United Kingdom, United States and the cultural scenario kept him purely
countries of the Middle East. As a secular and out of any communitarian
researcher, he consulted the collections spirit.
of the British Museum and Library,
London, the Vatican Archives, and Quest for the Syrian Catholic
many University and seminary Identity
libraries in India. He has attended The quest for what constituted the
many national and international specific identities of the Syrian
seminars on history and contemporary Catholic community of Malabar
affairs. Many of his early studies on formed one of the prime concerns of
Church art and architecture of Kerala Professor George Menachery in his
were published by the Mathrubhumi quest as a researcher, antiquary, art-
Weekly and broadcast by the All India historian, and author. Very early on,
Radio and the Vatican Radio. Menachery had to encounter the fact
Professor Menachery is on the that those who were supposed to lead
Editorial Board of various journals and the community as well as the laity
is associated with many documentaries alike were either least bothered or
and films on the history, culture, art unaware of the historical and
and architecture of Indian Christianity. sociological roots of the existence and
aspirations of the Syrian Catholic
A Concerned and Informed Syrian community. As Prof. Menachery
Catholic admitted later, this was the context for
Prof. Menachery had, right from his his taking up the study of the history of
early career as a teacher and the community to which he happily
researcher, shared his concerns about belonged.
the past, present and future of the
Syrian Catholic community within the Prof. Menachery was not the pioneer in
wider context of the pan-Indian and tracing the history of the Syrian
global Christian fraternity. Such Christians of India, nor are his words
concerns of Menachery took him to the final and conclusive opinions ever
pioneering and moving a resolution, as pronounced on the subject. His quest
early as 1969, at an All-India Seminar differs from that of his predecessors in
on ‘Church in India’, that emphasized the field in that his inquiries were not
the culturally determined right of the necessarily of the past alone but
various Christian denominations to equally on the use and abuse of the
have pastors of their own fold to attend past, about traditions and the making
to their spiritual needs. The sensitivity of traditions, and about the role of
to one’s own cultural and historical history in identifying religion and
roots has always been at the essence of religious communities. While many of
human existence, and the emphasis of his predecessors were going on with
the successful Indian politicians on their work in the safety of European
Indian cultural unity was always at the Universities or oriental institutes
danger of forgetting the cultural affiliated to them, they were far
plurality of India. Professor removed from the people that presently
Menachery was aware of the equally constituted the religious community,
dangerous onslaught of cultural and the sites and localities that
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pertained to the past. Menachery was were connections with or proximity to


very much in the midst of the the Brahmanical temples that added
community and the localities, as well value as a cultural relic or piece of art
as the lived experience of the people in worth to be museumised.
terms of cultural identities. In this Museumising a Community’s
quest, he was able, in a large measure, Cherished Past
to successfully combine an abiding It was at a time of disrespect to Syrian
love of the past and a productive Christian antiquities on the part even
antiquarian pursuit in the present. of the Syrian Christians themselves
that Professor Menachery proposed
Antiquary and widely circulated the idea of
As an antiquary, Professor Menachery setting up of specialized museums for
was inspired more by the early the preservation and study of Syrian
antiquaries and pioneering Catholic antiquities. The success of
archaeologists in India than the such a project would depend largely on
professional excavators of more recent the co-operation of the community and
times. In fact, the sites and localities on the generation of awareness for the
the Malabar Coast associated with the same among the people. He has been
Syrian Christian history were yet to be largely instrumental in the setting up of
combed up in view of antiquarian the Museums like the ////////////////// at
collection before professional Mount Saint Thomas, Kakkanad, the
archaeological excavations could start Historical Museum, Palayur, etc., in
off at select potential sites. Therefore, procuring materials to be museumised,
the antiquarian pursuit of Prof. and then in curating the exhibits in
Menachery was more in tune with the these museum galleries. The
very historiographical context of the antecedents to this process of
Syrian Catholic religious community. museumising the material remains of
the past of a community were the
The material evidence that he clearly series of exhibitions held in different
identified in various old churches, parts of Kerala under his leadership
houses, museums, archives etc. could and curatorship.
have been categorized and then
properly curated; but that these did not
would tell us more about, again,
certain problems still suffered by the
Syrian Catholics of South Asia
pertaining to the perceptions of their
own past and present. As a result of his
keen interest in the art historical
evidence, it is now known that the
antiquity of the art and architecture of
the Syrian Christians of Malabar goes
back to the pre-Portuguese times and Prof. Menacherry with Prof. A. L. Basham
that everything good in South Asian
Christian art and architecture is not Even such an eminent Indologist like
necessarily of European origin. It is Professor A. L. Basham of the School
equally worth mentioning that of Oriental and African Studies of the
Professor Menachery was on this University of London and the author of
antiquarian pursuit at a time when it the monumental The Wonder that was
was still widely held in Kerala that it India (London, 1954) did pay a visit to
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some such exhibitions and remarked Malabar Coast during the last forty
his appreciation of the work that years. A good number of these
Professor Menachery had been doing publications have become monumental
in the 1970’s and 1980’s. or unavoidable in further research on
Academic Organizer and Activist the history of the Syrian Christian
The scholarship and academic activity communities. Of the books published
of Prof. Menachery have many by Prof. Menachery, The St. Thomas
dimensions, both individual and Christian Encyclopaedia of India, in
collective. While being a scholar with three volumes, received world-wide
his own scholastic pursuits, he was acclaim and acceptance.
also an organizer of scholars in such a
way so as to collate scholarship and
form consortia and thus producing
newer lines of inquiries and store
houses of knowledge. The final results
of such academic management are the
three volumes of the monumental and
renowned The St. Thomas Christian
Encyclopaedia of India in which more
than six hundred authors contributed
their entries/articles. These scholars
were either acknowledged authorities
in their respective fields of research or
else experts with minute
specializations at their take-off stage. It
is no mean achievement to have
commanded the confidence of more
than six hundred scholars, nearly thirty
of whom later became prelates or
bishops or archbishops of various The Hindu daily wrote that the
Christian denominations. It was widely sumptuous volumes consisted of
recognized that the academic organizer “major and minor articles on the
/ manager in Professor Menachery, in various aspects of Christian life in
the words of Professor M.G. S. Kerala interspersed with gorgeous
Narayanan (historian and onetime pictures of paintings, statues and
Chairman of the Indian Council of churches reminiscent of 1900 years of
Historical Research, New Delhi), was that life in a small and cosy corner of
‘a great gain for Kerala historical India. …All these are treated with
literature. Where Governments and scholarly serenity by competent
Universities have failed, the contributors.” The St. Thomas
determination of a few individuals Christian Encyclopaedia of India was
combined with imagination and an extraordinary publishing
scholarship has succeeded.’ achievement of Indian Christianity not
only in terms of the quality of
Publications production, which was truly
Professor Menachery has behind him a international, but also in terms of the
history of publishing, both specialized entries of the volumes which constitute
or serialized articles and books, on the first source-book for the history of
different aspects of the history and Christianity in India. As the late
culture of the Syrian Christians of the lamented Antony Cardinal Padiyara,
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the first Major Archbishop of the Syro- Yet another series of volumes that may
Malabar Church remarked: “Our be considered a publishing
Church and State are greatly indebted, achievement of Professor George
I should say, to Prof. Menacher, under Menachery were the Indian Church
whose initiative and persevering hard History Classics. These volumes make
work a number of pioneering research- available to the readers all those rare
based publications and projects have and inaccessible volumes on the
seen the light of the day. Like Veda- history of Indian Church that are either
Vyasa he had brought together almost no longer in print or available only in
all the information that existed as the very few specialized libraries and
legend, story, fact, philosophy or are not accessible to the non-specialists
whatever about Indian Christianity into in India.
an ordered whole for the first time in
his much acclaimed Christian
Encyclopaedia of India.”

Dr. George Michell (a leading


authority on pre-modern Indian
architecture and author of The Hindu
Temple: An Introduction to its
Meaning and Forms, London, 1977,
Art and Architecture of Southern India,
Cambridge, 1995 etc.), told me how
Prof. Menachery’s works on the
Christian church architecture of Kerala
helped him when he edited two
volumes on the wooden sculptural
traditions of south India for the
National Centre for the Performing
Arts, Bombay (George Michell ed.,
Festschrift in Honour of Professor
Marg, Vol. XLII, No. 3 (Wooden
George Menachery
Traditions of Kerala and Karnataka)
On his attaining seventy years of age in
and Living Wood: Sculptural
2008, his colleagues, friends, students
Traditions of Southern India, Bombay:
and well-wishers from far and wide
Marg Publications, 1992). I sent a
joined together at the Kerala Sahitya
letter to Prof. Menachery the same day
Academy in Trichur, to offer their
of my meeting Dr. Michell, who
greetings and to pay their loving
introduced me to early Indian temple
tributes to Prof. Menachery. Seminars
architecture at the British Museum in
highlighting those areas that were very
2003. As I went through the shelves of
dear to Prof. Menachery were held to
the library of the School of Oriental
mark the occasion.
and African Studies of the University
of London, and the British Library at
St. Pancras, London, I did come across
the volumes published by Prof.
Menachery, many of which were
frequently borrowed /consulted by
researchers in that part of the world as
well.
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Marthoma Puraskaram
(Changanassery), Joseph
Nedumkunnam History Award
(Vaikkom), John Alenchery History
Award (Vadavathoor), First
Archdiocesan P R Jubilee Award
(Trichur), LRC Award (Ollur), KCBC
Philosopher – Scholar Award (POC),
First Syro Malabar LRC Award
(Kakkanad)….In addition he has been
honoured by various institutions,
organizations, scholarly societies,
Churches, and other important bodies
Towards the end of the celebrations, a in many places and climes during the
festschrift in honour of Professor past three decades and more.
Menachery, edited by Prof. A. M.
Francis, then Principal of the St. I dedicate this brief write-up as a token
Thomas’ College, Trichur, was of my admiration to the historical
released. scholarship and antiquarian pursuits of
Prof. George Menachery, whose
Lay Leader secular and scholarly engagements
Apart from his scholarly pursuits, Prof. with the history and prospects of a
Menachery is also an acknowledged community took him to many roads
leader of the laity in Trichur. His not trodden so far. It was from my
concerns for the role of the laity in the revered teacher, Professor M. G. S.
Syrian Catholic church led to the first Narayanan, onetime Chairman of the
ever founding in India of an Institute Indian Council for Historical Research,
for Lay Leadership, in Trichur, which that I first heard of Prof. Menachery,
was largely instrumental in organizing when I was still a postgraduate student
and training the laity, both the at the Department of History,
educated and the uneducated, in the University of Calicut. My association
cause of the Church and Christian with Professor Menachery began from
fraternity. He has been a member of this indirect studentship and I later
the Pastoral Council of the Trichur became a very junior colleague of
Archdiocese for the last three decades, Professor Menachery at St. Thomas’
and in this capacity he has always been College, Trichur, for a short stint of
listened to by the Council on matters nearly three years. I continue to be a
pertaining to the laity and the history reader and admirer of Professor
of the Syrian Catholic community. Menachery all these years. I take this
Professor Menachery’s contributions occasion to wish Prof. Menachery
as a layman to the Church got a many more decades of fruitful
befitting recognition in 2008 when he historical scholarship and antiquarian
was knighted and granted the title of pursuits.
‘Chevalier’ by His Holiness the Pope.
His historical and antiquarian pursuits
have won him the P. Thomas
Foundation Award in 2009. Some of
the other dozen or so significant
awards won by Professor Menachery
include the Darsana Award (Trichur),

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