"At present, the easternmost branch of native Asian Christians is that of the Syrian Christians of India, or of the Christians of Saint Thomas, an eight million-strong, prosperous community. Their history can be described as a series of inter-community contacts and migrations. This story shows that migration can be a way of life and is an organic element of social life and human history. It is also a standard response to economic, social, political and religious changes. The story also shows that what we may call a Christian culture has nothing specifically European about it, nor have there ever existed quasi-insulated “civilisations” in the Toynbeean sense in human history. The presence and the migrations of the Syrian Christians of Persia and India acted as a leaven in Indian society."