Agree with it, but what could be the reason for the elite namboodiri brahmins converting to syrian orthodox malankara chriatianity en masse?
Very few Namboodiri Brahmins have converted however if you ask a Christian malayalee almost all of them would say they were Brahmins once, which is not true. Naturally they dont want to reveal their lower caste past as they converted to an Abrahamic faith to get away from this in the first place.
These
Brahmin converts are the earliest hindu converts to christianity in India.
The
Syrian christians consider themselves descenedent from the
'St.Thomas" christians of Kerala, who didn't have any established church system in Kerala till the
Syrian/Persian traders landed on Kerala shores somewhere between
400-600 AD.
The legend (
unconfirmed by the western churches ) goes that
St.Thomas the apostle landed on Kerala shores via
Muziris port (Kodungallur, kerala) of the chera kingdom in
AD 52. At some point in his journey in kerala,
a collective of Brahmin priests stopped him and debated him to prove the divinity of his god.
He is said to have performed some
miracle (
he threw the brahmanical holy water used for pujas, up in the air, where the droplets stood still or something, which the brahmins couldn't replicate), through which the brahmins were convinced about Christianity and as was customary at the time for
priests losing the argument, converted to the winners religion(christianity).
Those brahmins didn't just embrace Christianity though, they
brought the entire caste hierarchy to Christianity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christians
While there is much doubt on the cultural background of early Christians, there is evidence that some members of the St Thomas Christian community observed Brahmin customs in the Middle Ages, i.e. after the 9th century A.D., such as the wearing of the sacred thread and having a kudumi.[33][34][35]
The medieval historian Pius Malekandathil believes these were customs adopted and privileges won during the beginning of the Brahmin dominance of medieval Kerala. He argues that the Syrian Christians in Kerala, integrated with Persian Christian migrant merchants, in the 9th century to become a powerful trading community and were granted the privileges by the local rulers to promote revenue generation and to undermine Buddhist and Jain traders who rivaled the Brahmins for religious and political hegemony in Kerala at the time
St. Thomas Christians are a distinct community, both in terms of culture and religion. Though their liturgy and theology remained that of East-Syrian Christians of Persia, their life-style customs and traditions were basically Indian. It is oft-quoted: "Nazranis are Indian in culture, Christian in faith and Syrian in liturgy".[118]
Saint Thomas Christians typically followed the social customs of their Hindu neighbors, and the vestiges of Hindu symbolism could be seen in their devotional practices.[119] Social sins like Untouchability entered their practices and the Synod of Diamper abolished it.[120] The rituals related to birth, marriage, pregnancy, death etc. were also largely adapted from Hindu religious practices. Now also, tying Thaali, a Hindu symbol of marriage is the most important rite in the Christian marriages too. They used to learn temple arts[citation needed] like Kathakali, Kooth and Thullal and their own art forms like Margam Kali and Parichamuttukali have some resemblance to Yathra kali Pattu of Brahmins in Kerala.[119] In 1519, a Portuguese traveler Duarte Barbosa on his visit to Malabar commented on the practice of Saint Thomas Christian priests using Kudumi similar to that of Hindus, in his manuscript "Book of Duarte Barbosa".[121]
In the social stratification of medieval Malabar, Saint Thomas Christians succeeded in relating their social status with that of upper-caste Hindus on account of their numerical strength and influence and observance of many Brahmin and upper caste customs.
So the Syrian Christians
weren't all Brahmin converts. Till the portugese arrival in 15th century, they
adopted various Brahmin customs and
borrowed from their rituals (
including Untouchability) , to create
a Caste Identity on par with the Brahmins as Keralas upper castes. Their support for the Namboothiri Brahmins in opposing the Jain/Budhist power centres of Kerala (
who later became the lower caste hindus of Kerala), made the Brahmins confer on them an almost equal status in society.
So this Brahmin roots claim is more or less a carefully manufactured identity achieved over many centuries before the arrival of Portuguese Catholicism.
Once the Portuguese gained power, they tried to turn the Syrian/Malankara Christians over to their form of
European Latin Catholicism, which meant
they had to give up many hindu customs like untouchability and the caste system,
which distanced them from the Brahmins.
By 1599 the last Metropolitan, Abraham, had died, and the Archbishop of Goa, Aleixo de Menezes, had secured the submission of the young Archdeacon George, the highest remaining representative of the native church hierarchy.[55] The Archbishop convened the Synod of Diamper, which implemented various liturgical and structural reforms in the Indian church. The Synod brought the parishes directly under the Archbishop's purview; anathematised certain "superstitious" social customs characteristic of their Hindu neighbors, including untouchability and a caste hierarchy; and purged the liturgy, the East Syrian Rite, of elements deemed unacceptable according to the Latin protocol.[56][57][58] A number of Syriac texts were condemned and ordered burnt,[59] including the Peshitta, the Syriac version of the Bible.[60][page needed] Some of the reforms, especially the elimination of caste status, reduced the Saint Thomas Christians' standing with their socially stratified Hindu neighbors.[57] The Synod formally brought the Saint Thomas Christians into the Catholic Church; however, the actions of the Portuguese over the ensuing years fueled resentment in segments of the community, and ultimately led to open resistance to their power.
Finally they split up into present day
Syro-Malabar Catholic Church who stood with the
Portuguese and catholicism and the
Orthodox/Jacobite Syrian Church who renounced Portuguese Catholicism and
stuck to their Persian roots .
This
upper caste Identity is also the reason why the Malankara christians have been involved in very little conversion /missionary activities since the last 2 centuries, they didn't want their upper caste (Brahmin) identity polluted by m
arriage to lower caste (OBC/Dalit) converts.
This is the reason most of the portuguese and british era missionary converts are organised into other churches and generally have a backward or dalit position in society.
But many of the lower caste converts did try to ape the older malankara traditions as [MENTION=428]Romali_rotti[/MENTION] mentioned, so that
they too could upgrade themselves to a "Higer caste" position . 
