WHO ARE THE ENEMIES OF KNANAYA

The MAIN ENEMIES of Knanaya are –

1.    The EXOGAMOUS Knanites (i.e. 'KANAs' who already lost membership of the Community and of the Knanaya parish by choosing exogamy) who try to get back into Knanaya as its members, and

 2.    THOSE WHO SUPPORT the re-entry of the KANAs into the Knanaya parish Community as its members, against the Knanaya traditions and law.

OTHER ENEMIES are –

3.    The Knanites who remain silent without PUBLICLY OPPOSING the parish membership of the KANAs trying to infiltrate into the Knanaya parishes too are, in effect, contributing to the destruction of Kannaya, knowingly or unknowingly.

By the time they become aware of this, the Knanaya community will not be there.

It will be most appropriate and appreciable for all the Knanaya clergy to self-examine whether they really love the Community or fall in any of the above categories! This will help to improve and maintain the very deep love and respect to them all the Community members have.

All the members of the Community have the MORAL OBLIGATION to protect at least the basic interest of the Community i.e. to encourage to preserve the age-old basic Knanaya tradition of endogamy (along with exclusion of the exogamous).

The heads of all Knanaya structures, whether spiritual or lay, institutions or associations have a very SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITY to safeguard the interests of Knanaya. If they are not keen in this, they are obliged to examine whether they are failing in fulfilling their primary responsibility because, they are supposed to be more responsible and are the main beneficiaries of the name and the label 'Knanaya'. They are not supposed to abandon the people whom they are entrusted with. As long as they want to perform under the label 'Knanaya', their responsibility to the Community is not less than that to the Church.

If any Knanaya leader thinks it is unjust and 'anti-Christian' to exclude the exogamous, the apt and only option for them is to work for the dissolution and abandonment of Knanaya community or at least to remove the label 'Knanaya' from all the Knanaya structures, instead of performing under the same ceremonious label. Let the Community then decide its fate!

We can abandon endogamy or even Knanaya, but it is impossible to abandon 'endogamy in Knanaya'. Endogamy and Knanaya are inseparable because Knanaya, in effect, is nothing other than endogamy! Any attempt to separate them amounts only to double standards.

Philip Nedumchira