The Postcolonial Other

Abstract

This is an ideological critique of colonial processes that denounced the Eastern Christian tradition of clerical marriage in India. It covers the period of Portuguese colonization, while also pointing to its continued impact in contemporary times. Three primary sources: documents of the Synod of Diamper (1599), Archbishop Menezes’ travel narrative, Jornada (1603), and a recent article on clerical celibacy by George Nedungatt, are examined for issues of “othering” (a term coined by the postcolonial theorist, Gayatri Spivak). The paper argues that the colonial process of “othering,” similar to what Edward Said calls “Orientalism,” or a discourse about the East (the Orient), paved the way for the alien imposition of mandatory clerical celibacy upon a community of the Eastern Church that had been following the tradition of optional clerical celibacy or clerical marriage for centuries. Thus the methodological framework is derived from postcolonial theory and provides a novel approach to the topic. The author’s thesis is that an analysis of the primary sources points to the persistence of imperialism, that imperialism was the reason behind the imposition of mandatory clerical celibacy during Portuguese colonial rule and that, again, imperialistic paradigms are to blame for the continuation of mandatory clerical celibacy among those St. Thomas Christians of India who are in full communion with the Catholic Church.