Sharma, Susheel Kumar, “Revisiting Portuguese Colonization in India”, Satavahana Journal of English Studies, 1, 2019, Karimnagar: Satavahana University, pp. 13-44. (original) (raw)

Susheel Kumar Sharma "[The discovery of India] profoundly agitated the hearts and minds of the people of Europe. The rude multitude were stirred by an uncontrollable lust of riches and spirit of adventure; and the cultivated by the sense of renewed faith and hope in the divine deliverance of the world, at the moment when Christendom was almost sinking into the old despair of human destiny and duty that marked the decline of Imperial Rome. For all men the sphere of human intelligence and sympathy was permanently and indefinitely enlarged. The Spanish and Portuguese discoveries of the Indies were, for Europe indeed, nothing less than the revelation of a new moral world, and the definite emancipation of the human soul from the ghostly trammels of its obsequious bondage to secular and religious dogmatism through all the dark centuries of the middle ages." (Birdwood 256-257) The discovery of a new sea route rounding Africa from Western Europe to India in 1498 left an indelible impact not only on the European life but also on the Indian polity, economy and social life. For Europeans the discovery meant that the Portuguese would not need to cross the highly disputed Mediterranean nor the dangerous Arabian Peninsula and that the entire voyage could be made by sea. This resulted in the proclamation of the King Manuel of Portugal as the 'Lord of the Navigation, Conquest and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India' and he soon became "the wealthiest ruler of Europe" (Saraiva 334) and earned for himself the sobriquet of "the Spice King". The import of this appellation can be gauged from the following remark of George Birdwood that amplifies the power relation between spices and the rulers: "…the history of modern Europe, and emphatically of England, is the history of the quest of the aromatic gum resins and balsams, and condiments and spices, of India, Further [sic]India, and the Indian Archipelago" (101) A new era of global imperialism started taking shape in the form of the Portuguese expansion on the Western Ghats in India from the present-day Kozhikode (or Calicut, the place where Vasco da Gama landed, "the name of which port was well known in Europe" Oaten 72) to Div in the north and up to Coromandel (the coast line of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) though it was not always welcome. Gama was generously received with a grand procession of at least 3,000 armed Nairs by the Zamorin, the Hindu king of Calicut, but the presents that Gama was to send to the Zamorin as gifts from King Manuel ("twelve pieces of lambel [a striped cloth], four scarlet hoods, six hats, four strings of coral, a case containing six wash-hand basins, a case of sugar, two casks of oil, and two of honey," Ravenstein 60), were trivial and failed to impress the Zamorin's factor, the Moor. Da Gama was jeered into shame as Zamorin's men burst out laughing, pointing out that even the poorest Arab merchants knew that nothing less than pure gold was admissible at court. Many also suggested that he was a pirate and not a royal ambassador. (Ravenstein 119, Correa 200, janson.no) Gama again tried to impress the Zamorin with his gifts "consisting of amber, corals, and many other things" (Ravenstein 70) but the latter refused even to have a look at them and suggested that they should have been sent to his factor. (Idem) As unlike other foreign traders da Gama failed to pay taxes in gold he was refused the right to establish a factory 1. Annoyed by this, da Gama carried a few (the number ranges from five to twenty, Ravenstein 181, Correa 204) hostages (a few Nairs and sixteen fishermen (mukkuva) with him by force (crossingtheoceansea.com). During his next trip in 1502 da Gama was even crueller with competing traders and local inhabitants. He humiliated the Hindu Zamorin's high priest, Talappana Namboothiri, who had helped the former to meet Zamorin during his much celebrated first visit by calling him a spy; at his orders the high priest's lip and ears were cut off; the priest was let off after sewing a pair of dog's ears to his head. (Correa 363, Hunter History 109, Playne 366, thehistoryjunkie.com) Birdwood correctly uses the simile of "hungry wolves among the well-stocked sheep" to describe the Portuguese venture into the Indian Ocean. (165) The Portuguese who raised their warehouses at Kozhikode in 1500 and Kannur (Cannanore) in 1502, constructed three forts in 1503 (at Kollam/Quilon, Kottapuram/ Cranganore and Kochi/Cochin) and two in 1505 (at Anjediva Island and Kannur) to provide protection to their people who had conflicting interests with Arab and Indian traders. Alfonso De Albuquerque 2 , the second Governor, followed the threefold policy: of combating Muslims (the major political impediment) and their Hindu allies, spreading Christianity, and securing the trade of spices by establishing a Portuguese colony in India (Estado Português da Índia). In 1510, Albuquerque seized Goa from the Sultan of Bijapur and "started a reign of terror, burning 'heretics,' crucifying Brahmins, using false theories to forcibly convert the lower castes, razing temples to build churches upon them and encouraging his soldiers to take Indian mistresses." (Gautier stephen-knapp.com) Denison Ross describes him as "the great Albuquerque" (15 & 17) because of his having established Portuguese naval superiority by quelling the Muslim (Moorish) powers that controlled the Arabian Sea. He also credits him for abolition of Sati 3 : "Albuquerque and his immediate successors left almost untouched the customs of the people of Goa, only abolishing, as did the English later, the rite of sati" (Ross 17-18) though the historical facts reveal entirely a different picture regarding the social and cultural persecution of the people as is also hinted in the following observation of Ross: "Albuquerque did everything in his power to encourage his Portuguese to take Indian wives." (11) Ross as a matter of fact is slightly off the mark in his observation as he should have written: "Albuquerque did everything in his power to encourage and compel Indians to accept Portuguese as sons-in-law or husbands." A large number of New Christian Portuguese 4 were also coming to India because they were being discriminated against on the basis of their faith as is clear from King Manuel's letter (dated February 18, 1519): "prohibiting the naming of New Christians to the position of judge, town councillor or municipal registrar in Goa, stipulating, however, that those already appointed were not to be dismissed." (Saraiva 347) António José Saraiva writes: "Upon [Albuquerque's] death at Goa the city had a permanent Luso-Indian population, an administration and divers industries." (Saraiva 343) Proselytising: A Mission to Swap: The Papal Bull, Romanus pontifex, written by Pope Nicholas V in 1454 granted the patronage of the propagation of the Christian faith in Asia to the Portuguese and rewarded them with a trade monopoly in newly discovered areas. They used all their might in establishing their superiority in trade and to control the sea routes and the local markets. Danvers quotes Nawáb Muhabbat Khán to highlight how they were taking on the Muslim rulers: "… Christians became more audacious in their persecution of the Muhammadans, in so far that they stretched out their rapacious hands to plunder on their return from Jedda some ships of the Emperor Jalal-ud din Muhammad Akbar, which had sailed to Mecca without their permission, and they treated Musulmans with great severity and contempt. They burnt down the port of Adilabad Farain, which belonged to 'Adil Shah, and entirely destroyed it. In the guise of merchants, they also came to Dabal, and wished, by cunning and deceitful means, to obtain possession of it; …" (emphasis added 2:33) The Doctrine of Padroado (jus patrionatus established by the Papal Bulls of 1514) provided the authority for missionary work to be in the hands of the Portuguese Crown in areas where Portugal claimed political rights. (vgweb.org). The first Luz church was built by the Portuguese in 1516 in Thirumayilai (Mylapore). Missionaries of the newly founded Society of Jesus (1534) were sent to Goa and the Portuguese colonial government supported the mission with incentives like rice donations for the poor, good positions in the Portuguese colonies for the middle class, and military support for local rulers. (Daus 61-66) St. Francis Xavier was very clear in his mind when he wrote: "I want to free the poor Hindus from the stranglehold of the Brahmins and destroy the places where evil spirits are worshipped." (Francis Xavier qtd by Michael Kerrigan) Denison Ross writes: "It may be recalled … that after the arrival of the Franciscan missionaries in 1517 Goa had become the centre of an immense propaganda, and already in 1540 by the orders of the king of Portugal all the Hindu temples in the island of Goa had been destroyed." (18) Fr. Diogo da Borba and his advisor Vicar General, Miguel Vaz drew plans for converting the Hindus to Christianity. "In a letter dated March 8, 1546 King João III ordered the Viceroy to forbid Hinduism ('Gentile idolatry') in all the Portuguese possessions of India, destroy Hindu temples, prohibit the celebration of Hindu feasts, expel all Brahmins and severely punish anyone making Hindu image." (Saraiva 348) "The viceroy, D. Constantino de Bragança passed a decree in 1559 ordering the destruction of remaining temples and idols." (Mendonça 260) However, Victor Ferrao, Dean Patriarchal Seminary of Rachol, disputes the claim by saying: "… the word Hindu does not exist in the entire sixteenth century Indo-Portuguese historiography." (nizgoenkar.org) He further holds: "Though the temples that were demolished were not Hindu, but [the] one(s) that belonged to different cults that have united into Hinduism of today the Hindu community is certainly carrying the pain of this false impression … ." (nizgoenkar.org) The Kapaleeswarar (Shiva) temple (Mylapore, Chennai) was...