The appeal by Syro-Malabar Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil in Kerala for the Union Government to recognise Indian Christians as a “micro-minority” marks a new turn in India’s minority-rights debate.
It is made the sharper as it comes on the eve of a high profile election in the state where the community can make a difference in the fortunes of the ruling Marxist Left Front bidding for yet another term in office, the Congress with Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra promising a campaign to remember, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) desperately wooing the Cross, hoping to finally make a breakthrough in God’s own country.
The request was made during a meeting the prelate, who heads the richest and most powerful denomination in Indian Christians, had on 23 February 2026 in Kochi with Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and Kerala BJP leaders.
No reporters were present in the meeting, but the Syro Malabar case is well known, resting on an argument of unequal access: Christians, about 2.3 percent of India’s population, are overshadowed by Muslims. This is a particularly strong feeling in Kerala, where the Christian count at 18.38 percent of the population to 26.56 percent of Muslims in the 2011 Census, and the remaining 54.7 percent are Hindus of various castes and tribes.