The Genuine Liturgy in India: Indian, Chaldean, or Indo-Chaldean?The Syro Malabar Church goes at present through an identity crisis: its liturgy is a mingling of Chaldean,Lain, and Indian elements. Nobody is satisfied with its present condition, mainly because a number of theseelements were artificially imposed, instead of being the fruits of a natural growth. Often these elements don'tfit in the full setting. Before taking decisions on the future of the liturgy, we have first to come to a historico-theological analysis of its past. Therefore, the purpose of this article is not only to give a historical, but also atheological study of the relations between the Church in Mesopotamia and the Indian Christian community.For this reason we have to consider the following topics: Were there hierarchical relations between thePersian and the Indian churches? Was the present East Syrian liturgy imposed on the Indian Church? Finallythere is the question of inculturation: how far can and should we go, what is the motivation, what are thelimits?1. The Church of the East and the Syro Malabar ChurchEven before the coming of Christianity, India had commercial relations with Mesopotamia, Palestine, andother Aramaic-speaking countries of the Middle East. "Muzuris", Cranganore, the later see of theMetropolitan of India, was an important centre in those days1. One of Emperor Asoka's edicts waspromulgated in Aramaic2. Since the arrival of Christianity, we find still more witnesses of commercialrelations between the two regions3.India and the JewsThe first authentic record of a contact between Dravidians and Jews is recorded in the Bible: 1 Kings 9:28;10:22 and 2 Chronicles 9:21: Solomon's fleet imported from "Ophir" and "Tarshish" ivory, apes, peacocks,gold and silver. The words used for ivory, apes and peacocks are foreign words written in Hebrew script. Theword used for peacock is tuki, an ancient Tamil word tukkim, or in ancient Malayalam tokei, according toCaldwell, the specialist i...