The Global Knanaya Reform Movement (GKRM) is a worldwide community initiative dedicated to promoting justice, inclusion, dignity, and unity among Knanaya people. It seeks to support members and families affected by exclusion connected to endogamy, while encouraging awareness, dialogue, documentation, and constructive reform within the wider Knanaya community.

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Through the GKRM Directory and its wider reform efforts, the movement provides a shared space for community connection, access to important court documents and updates, and collaboration among members across different countries. Its goal is to help build a more informed, connected, and inclusive future for the global Knanaya community.

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GKRM actively supports Knanaya members who wish to marry outside the Knanaya community, including Catholics from other dioceses, while still retaining their membership and receiving the sacrament of marriage in their own parish, in line with the recent Kerala High Court judgments in RSA No. 64 of 2017 and the connected KCNS case led by RSA No. 656 of 2022, both decided on 23 March 2026.

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Key findings of the Kerala High Court judgments

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• Endogamy was not proved as a valid custom and was also not established as an essential religious practice.

• A member cannot be expelled or forced to give up membership merely for marrying outside the Knanaya community.

• Membership by birth cannot be taken away by later by laws or internal rules.

• In RSA No. 64 of 2017, the Court held that denial of Vivahakuri was a civil wrong affecting enforceable rights, and that it had to be issued to the person entitled to it.

• The Court held that the spouse and children of a Knanaya member can also aspire for membership, and that failure to practise endogamy cannot deprive the original member of his or her rights.

• Taken together, the judgments affirm that individual dignity, family recognition, parish rights, and church related civil rights cannot be denied on the basis of an exclusionary claim of custom that does not stand legal scrutiny.

 

The Global Knanaya Reform Movement therefore stands for a future in which justice, equality, family dignity, and community belonging are protected for all Knanaya members. All like minded members who share this vision are encouraged to join the GKRM Directory, stay connected, and become part of this collective effort for reform and unity.

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