In the late nineteenth century the Paravar elite tried to reconcile with the Muslim seafarers in their area, seeking to claim kinship. This went as far as the then "jati thalivan" declaring that the elite among these Marakkar Muslims, from towns such as Kilakarai, were in fact related to him by blood as they shared common antecedents. There was a tactical purpose to these decisions as by these actions he wanted to assert that he had authority over them. Furthermore, it was in the economic interests of the Paravars to foster these relationships because under British rule it was often the Marakkar who were granted the licences to operate the fisheries. Simultaneously, the Paravars were attempting to dissociate themselves from other Christian castes, whom they thought to be of a lower standing than themselves, such as the Nadars. Although they regarded the Nadar Christians as their equal in the past. The Nadars had been enthusiastic in their conversion to Christianity but did so much later than the Paravars, with surges of conversion — both to Catholicism and Protestantism — taking place in 1802–1803, the 1840s and the late 1870s/early 1880s. Dyron Daughrity has said that the conversions were "largely because of the increase in social status that could be effected" but adds that