Catching up with Kochi

The city is Christian and Hindu, laidback and booming, traditional and global. That mix reflects both in its old flavours and new food businesses too

- VIR SANGHVI

Assume that you are a foreigner who knows very little about India. You suddenly find yourself in Kochi. Almost the first thing you will wonder is whether you are in a Christian city. The older parts of Kochi are full of beautiful churches and smaller, but still lovely, buildings all dedicated to the glory of Jesus Christ. They easily outnumber mosques and temples.

But you would be quite wrong about this being a Christian city. The majority of Kochi's population is Hindu. Christians constitute around 38%. That Kochi should be so full of Christian symbols despite being a largely Hindu city is one of the miracles of Kerala. It has a tradition, dating back 2,000 years, of communities living in harmony.

Kochi, as we know it today, was built first by the Portuguese, who arrived in 1503 and then ceded control to the Dutch who, in turn, eventually made a deal with the British in 1814 giving them control of Malaya partly in return for control of Kochi. Every colonial ruler built churches and monuments and parts of today's Kochi (such as Fort Kochi) may appear to a foreign visitor, to have more in common with such Sri Lankan towns as Galle, rather than say, Kanpur or Hyderabad.