Narendra Modi has entered efforts to resolve a long-running property and governance dispute within India’s ancient Malankara Christian community, holding talks with Ignatius Aphrem II, head of the Syriac Orthodox Church.

According to Indian media reports, the meeting focused on the protracted conflict between the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church in the southern state of Kerala. The Prime Minister reportedly expressed readiness to encourage a negotiated settlement through dialogue rather than continued litigation.

The dispute, which has lasted for more than a century, centers on parish administration and rights to church property. Both sides trace their origins to India’s ancient Christian community traditionally linked to the Apostle Thomas. The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church is an autocephalous Eastern Church led by a Catholicos, while the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church maintains canonical ties with the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch.

India’s Supreme Court, in rulings delivered in 1958, 1995 and 2017, upheld the legal authority of the 1934 Church constitution, which affirms a unified structure for the Malankara Church. Despite these judgments, tensions persist at the local level over control of several parishes and church properties.

As reported by The Times of India, the Catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Church, Baselios Mar Thoma Mathews III, welcomed calls for preserving church unity. He noted that historically the Malankara Church has regarded itself as a single Indian Christian community rooted in ancient apostolic tradition.

Representatives of the Jacobite side, meanwhile, have emphasized the need to safeguard the rights of what they describe as a “micro-minority” within India’s Christian population and voiced hope for federal mediation.

For the wider Oriental Orthodox world, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church holds particular significance. It belongs to the family of Ancient Eastern Churches and maintains official theological dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church. In recent years, contacts between Moscow and Malankara have intensified.

Observers cited by ThePrint say the Indian government’s potential involvement could mark a shift from prolonged legal battles toward political mediation. Whether the Prime Minister’s initiative will translate into concrete steps toward reconciliation remains to be seen.