Elements of Colonisation and Indigenisation

Changing Lucifer into Kali

Authors

  • Nevin Dalvin Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10038099

Keywords:

Indigenisation, Colonisation, Syrian Church, Church Mural, Demonisation

Abstract

This article discusses the nature of indigenisation seen on the murals of Syrian Christian churches in Kerala, focussing on St. Mary’s Jacobite church in Angamaly, Ernakulam. Kerala has several churches with elaborate murals, which have not received sufficient attention, and quite a few questions remain unexplored. These church murals were formed out of interactions between the Portuguese, the church of the East and the local religion. In the 16th century, the Portuguese exerted control over Kerala churches that had formerly been affiliated with the Church of the East. Some of the questions addressed in the article are: What are instances of indigenization seen on church murals? What are the different kinds of indigenization visible? How does this weave into a global narrative? What is the colonial and decolonial politics behind such image representation? These areas are discussed in the following article.

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Author Biography

Nevin Dalvin, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Nevin Dalvin is a PhD scholar in Visual Arts at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU. Before devoting his full time to research, he worked as a Domain Expert at Doordarshan, New Delhi. Nevin holds an MPhil in Visual Arts from Jawaharlal Nehru University and has a Master’s in Art History from National Museum Institute. He is also a History, Economics and Political Science graduate from Christ University, Bengaluru, India.

References

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• Gruzinski Serge, Images at War: Mexico from Columbus to Blade Runner (1492–2019). Translated by Heather MacLean. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001.

• Klein, Cecelia F. The Devil and The Skirt: An Iconographic Inquiry into the Pre-Hispanic Nature of the Tzitzimime.” Ancient Mesoamerica 11, no. 1 (2000): 1–26. doi:10.1017/S0956536100111010.

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• Suarez, Ananda Cohen, Heaven, Hell, and Everything in Between: Murals of the Colonial Andes, Texas: the University of Texas Press, 2016.

• Wilfred F, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia. Oxford University Press; 2014.https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199329069.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199329069. Accessed June 5, 2020.

Additional Files

Published

26.10.2023

How to Cite

Dalvin, N. (2023). Elements of Colonisation and Indigenisation: Changing Lucifer into Kali. Archivo Papers, 3(2), 51–67. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10038099

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2023): Decolonial Visualities: Indigenising Visual Culture Studies

Section

Essays

License

Copyright (c) 2024 © The Author(s), under license to Archivo Press.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.