"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
This book, The Triumph and Tragedy of The Synod of Diamper, gives a modern perspective to the fascinating story of a unique Church created by a unique Apostle who believed in the Risen Lord only after physically verifying the truth. In modern times, Swami Vivekananda hailed it as “the purest of Christianity in the world.”
The existential turbulence it underwent during the 16th/17th centuries under the Portuguese colonialists who sought to refashion this Church according to their western model and to reform the community’s social/familial customs and their consequences, form the essence of this book. The context is made vivid by briefly describing the story of the Church from its beginning.
The Synod conducted at Diamper near Cochin in AD 1599 set in motion the reform process. It was a triumph of the Colonialists in one respect and a tragedy in several others. It triumphed in bringing two-thirds of the faithful to the Roman Church. It was also tragic in that the remaining faithful got fragmented into different denominations. Also, the social/familial reform efforts yielded but partial success. The progressive Jesuits were unfairly misunderstood, and they were replaced by traditionalist/conservative Carmelites. Malabar was the loser in that bargain.
Although the events narrated herein have become history, this is still being perpetuated as an emotive issue by sections of Christians in Malabar. Consequently, they have also created emotionally-charged versions of the subject. This author has taken an objective approach and has given the subject a modern perspective fit for the reading of a 21st-century reader.
K X M John
A banker by profession, Mr. K. X. M. John is a freelance writer and an amateur student of history. His fascination for ancient civilisations took him to the histories of Egypt, Greece and Rome, besides that of his own country, India.
Some of his earlier writings include critical essays on randomly chosen Biblical themes, giving them a modern perspective. They were published by late Cardinal Simon Lourdusamy on his blog site, and they have been released for private circulation.
Mr. John has a Master’s degree in Mathematics and holds Certificates in Administration from the Royal Institute of Public Administration, London and in Finance from the New York Institute of Finance, NY.
His career began at DRDL as a senior scientific assistant. But, a major part of his public service was with the erstwhile Industrial Development Bank of India during which he also served as Director/Chairman of several companies in India. Retired as Executive Director of the Bank, he was also concurrently the Director of the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute for Development Banking at Hyderabad, which used to conduct domestic and international programmes in Development Finance.
Mr. John is a recipient of the National Press India’s Bharat Sarathi Award in 1995 for “Excellence in Service.”
