Indian Syrian Christian

The oldest Christian church in India is that of the Oriental Orthodox Christians of Kerala called as the St. Thomas Christians. The colloquial name for referring to them is "Nasrani" (possibly comes from Naa + Syriani; Naa - Dravidian word for Me, Syriani - refers to a Syrian person). This is because the church had been using for more than a thousand years, the Syriac language for its liturgical purposes.

Around 400 Christians from 72 families belonging to 7 tribes in Baghdad, Ninevah, and Jerusalem [all of them speaking the Syrian (a dialect of Aramaic) language] migrated around 345 AD and settled in Kerala. After this many Syrian Christians migrated from the Middle East in the following centuries when they were being persecuted there. And finally most of the Christianity in Kerala was Nestorian \ Persian in nature. They had links with the Syriac Orthodox Church in Antioch (historically Syria, present day Turkey). This form of Oriental Christianity had no links with the Catholic Church of the West.

This continued almost until the 16th century, when the Portuguese captured much of Kerala, and thereby largely introducing the Roman Catholic Church (under papacy) and divided the original Nasrani Christians into various factions. Most of them were assimilated into the Roman Catholic Church, but following three different rites: The Latin Rite, The Syro-Malabar Rite and the Syro-Malankara Rite).

Later under the influence of the Anglican church in the 19th century, the Protestant Malankara MarThoma Syrian church was formed. Almost all Nasranis are integrated into the indigeneous culture of Kerala, and have Malayalam as their mother tongue. They are to be found largely amongst the Malayali diaspora around the world.