History had been written by countless
persons during the nineteenth century, and it was mainly through the Western writers.
They believe that the sons of soil have no history and tried to make it down in
written format and so numerous volumes of Books on History, culture and
missionary activities has been printed. But we have our history in Oral
traditions, Tamil literature books, and some in pamphlets. The students of History studied the books of
English men which glorified them and considered the natives as low, and condemned
them as evil and their culture as devilish. But the recent development in the
history of Christianity has changed everything and they tried to bring out the
history of the people. The Church History association has taken immense
measures to bring the history of the people and has published it as Books.
Those books are dealing with large portion of the history, but the regional or
local history is not given much importance.
Christhudhas was the Bishop of
CSI Kanyakumari Diocese from May 1, 1980- January 7, 1997. His period was an epoch
of Progress. After his retirement he sought to write the history of Church at
Kanyakumari. He has written two books on the history of protestant church in
Kanyakumari District, Namely Paathachuvadukal
(Foot Prints) in Tamil which made him to write an elaborate book in English
as “Precious Profiles” – The work of the LMS in South Travancore (CSI
(1795-2009)). His works must be appreciated because it deals a very large era
from beginning of mission to 2009. The books were systematically written, portraying
the Liberation of the oppressed community. He has a good ability to do research
and synthesized in a proper perception which makes his findings authentic. He
has rendered a wonderful service to Church of South India and very particularly
to the people of Kanyakumari.
He has tried to locate the
history of the church in the context of the political history of India. No community’s
history can be an isolated history; it has to be part of the National history. He
has located the History of his community in the context of the political
history, which is a pioneering effort. The history of his community is a
liberation history; it is also a salvation history. The spiritual history of
the people involves other aspects of life such as tradition, culture, economy,
political and religion. For a person who is interested in mission it is about
the history of mission.
A
historian is the one who is an expert in history; who has authority on history,
a writer of history, chronicler, and one who produces a scholarly synthesis. Historians
research, analyze, interpret, and present the past by studying historical
documents and sources. So Christhudhas through his valuable research has
interpreted the past and presented it in a Scholarly manner. And so he can be
called as historian.
