Roberto De Nobili

Conversation to Catholicism was a common phenomenon during the tyranny of the Portuguese, and it was usually the people who belonged to the lower caste of the system who took up the new faith of the Europeans. Many reasons are given to people of lower caste converted, from financial benefits to upward mobility in the caste ladder acted as catalysts. However, there was a Jesuit priest called Roberto de Nobili who used unprecedented methods for the promotion of faith among higher castes and to some extent converting them. 

His method was becoming a Brahmin (This can be termed Braminization or Sanskritization, both terms coined by Prof. M.N Srinivas to explain social mobility). De Nobili started wearing Poonal, discarded using plates as it was too European and ate from leaves. Prevented a lower caste person from coming near him, enforcing untouchability. He ordered that a Brahmin could only cook his meal, and even went to the extent of creating a caste system within the European sphere and told his colleagues that he could not dine with them as they were lower class. Although his superiors in Goa were not fond of his new idea, he used his family connections, and the pope issued a bull in his support. Once, he denied eating with his superiors in Goa, citing that he is now an Italian Brahmin. He was given the name White Brahman. He was a master of many Indian languages like Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu. De Nobili also used local language words to explain Christian practices, like Kovil for place of worship, prasadam for Holy Communion. He also adapted to local Indian customs like shaving one's head and keeping only a tiny tuft; he dressed like a Sanyasi, held that three-stringed thread symbolises the trinity, and taught the Bible as a lost Veda. All these gave him the nickname White Brahman. Pope Gregory the XV allowed these practices, like the use of sandalwood paste through Romanae Sedis Antistes. He also contributed an excellent lot to the development of Tamil literature. His methods, although controversial, proved to be effective.