A.N.SATTAMPILLAI NADAR-MOOKUPEERI

Arumai Nayakam Sattampillai nadar(1823–1918), known popularly as Arumainayagam Sattampillai, a Tamilian convert of Anglican church, was a catechist and the founder of first indigeneous and independent Hindu Church of Lord Jesus, rejecting Western missionaries domination for the first time in the history of Indian subcontinent -- This subversion paved the way - to develop a fusion model of Hindu-Christian religion, free from European missionaries interference - and also, inspired Indian national movement, largely centered around Bengal and Madras Presidency to fight against Western dominated Institutionalized church leading to separation of Christ from Church and Indianization of Christianity—to express and interpret Christianity and Biblical text in Indian context—socially, culturally, and religiously. The controversy initiated by Sattampillai over the The Tinnevelly Shanars again was resuscitated in 1880 when Y. Gnanamuthoo Nadar, a Tamil Christian clerk in Tirunelveli courts; antiquarian and representative of Shanar race; son of the first Indian catechists in SPG in Nazareth area; and a former catechist of CMS, petitioned colonial British government and missionary ecclesiastical structure demanding the British to censure Caldwell and remove the offending book from its publication. Gnanamuthoo continued his fight with SPG missionaries demanding them to retract their slanderous statements about their caste, including disrupting the bishops when they travelled villages to convert between 1880 and 1885. According to Gnanamuthoo, out of anger many of the Nadar christians either reverted to Hinduism or joined the Hindu Christian church founded by Sattampillai in 1857. Gnanamuthoo also wrote: This is the way the European Missionaries deal with their converts and fellow Christians, whome they pretent to acknowledge to have equal claims to sense, and honour, and to the kingdom of Heaven. Read Less [British Raj] With the impetus provided by A.N. Sattampillai movement in revolting against Western church, educated Nadars(also known as Shanar) having got the The Tinnevelly Shanars publication several years later went furious and protested against Caldwell and demanded for retreat of The Tinnevelly Shanars from publication—for this, Nadars produced a series of arguments to substantiate their claims against Caldwell portrayal of Shanars, took a form of street corner oratory, published pamphlets, and in early 1880 filed an official petition to British Raj in then-Madras Presidency to retract the odious The Tinnevelly Shanars publication and censure Robert Caldwell. Caldwell looks to have partly retracted his statements, especially his evaluation that Shanars were "not Hindus," in a letter that was printed in the CMS Record of February 1880. Sattampillai's activism was centred around the rejection of Western manners and customs. His writings reveal how vehemently some Indian christians rejected the ideas of civilization and moral progress embedded in the prevailing colonial model of conversion as a series of stages. It is believed that he was dismissed for allegedly having remarked on foreign missionaries. Robert L. Hardgrave, an author of The Nadars of Tamilnadu; Portrait of the Hindus: Balthazar Solvyns & the European image of India, 1760-1824; Boats of Bengal: eighteenth century portraits; The Dravidian movement; and several alike, has hypothesized that disgruntled Sattampillai for having been dismissed as a catechist had somehow discovered the Robert Caldwell's pamphlets with disdainful comments on Shanar caste. Hardgrave believes that Sattampillai, who was supposed to visit Madras in 1850 to plead for his reinstatement with the SPG Corresponding committee, could have discovered Caldwell's pamphlets during that time that ultimately instigated him to resent and revolt against European missionaries. 1908 85 Years Old They were accommodated for ten days in a local school and on 2 July 1908, the Church donated two acres of land worth of then-1000 rupees to James—marking the beginning of Seventh Day Adventists as James decided to quit Bangalore and stay in Prakasapuram(also spelt Pragasapuram), an adjoining village to Mukuperi. The first church of Seventh Day Adventists in South India was formally organized with 50 members on 30 January 1915 in Prakasapuram, although, it was functioning from 1908 itself; James and C.G. Lowry conducted the religious service. Later, SDA church also started an educational institution with name James Memorial School in Prakasapuram.