East Indians (Catholics)
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Sources
John De Mello L.S.O. J.P. HISTORICAL SKETCH of 1937 posted on FreeWebs
Elsie Baptista's "East Indians of Bombay" posted on FreeWebs
Who are the East Indians?
The East Indians are the indigenous Catholic inhabitants of the Western Indian cities of Bombay, Salsette and Bassein.
Christianity came to North Konkan in the 1st century AD
St. Bartholomew, one of the twelve Apostles of Christ was the first to preach in. There are indisputable evidences of this fact by the writings of Kosmos Indicopleustes of his having seen in Kalyana a flourishing Christian Community in the 6 th Century and of Jordanus, of his having laboured among the Christians in Thana and Sopara in the 13 th Century. Friar Jordanus’s evangelizing activities in Thana and Sapora was the first work of Rome in North Konkan.
Sopara was an ancient port and an international trading centre. The water once extended all the way to Bhyander creek thus making the whole area extending from Arnala to Bhyander an island - referred to as Salsatte island. In the time of the Buddha, Sopara, (Ancient Shurparaka), was an important port and a gateway settlement. Perhaps this induced Emperor Ashoka to install his edicts there. Sopara is refered in the Old Testament as Ophir, the place from which King Solomon brought gold; (1 Kings 9:28, 10:11. Cf. Psalms 45:9, Isaiah 13:12. )
Josephus identifies Ophir with Aurea Chersonesus, belonging to India (Antiquities 8:6:4). Septuagint translates Ophir as Sophia, which is Coptic for India. This refe rs to the ancient city of Soupara or Ouppara on the western coast of India.
It should then come as no surprse that contact with India dates as far back as the days of King Solomon. Pantaneus visited India about AD 180 and there he found a Gospel of Matthew written in Hebrew language, left with the Christians ther e by St. Barthlomew. This is mentioned by Eusebius, and by Jerome in one of his letters.
The finding of a Gospel of Matthew left with the Christians by Bartholomew is very strong evidence to the existence of a Christian community in India in the first century at the time of the visit of St. Bartholomew. It traces the history of the Church in India to the first century. In fact it is an independent confirmation of the Indian church’s ancient and apostolic origin
Most history of The Indian Church was lost between the 9 th and the 14 th Century, as Persia went over to the Nestorianism in 800 AD. Since the provision of Church offices and all the apparatus of public worship, was looked to a foreign source; when this foreign aid was withdrawn. the Indian Christians were reduced to `nominal’ Christians.
1498: The Portuguese come to India
The Portuguese came to India in 1498 `to evangelize and trade’. Little did they know that they had come to a land which had the unique distinction of having heard the preaching of two of the Apostles of Christ, St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew. None of them made the slightest attempt to understand the venerable civilization of Indian so much more ancient than their own, into which they had intruded.
ORIGIN & HOMELANDS
This is Mr John De Mello's 1937 account. It varies somewhat from later accounts delinking East Indian from Portuguese conversions
The East Indian homelands are in what were the three islands of Bombay, Salsette and Bassein, which form the environs of the City of Bombay and they make the largest aggregation of Indian Christian in or near an Indian city and also include Uran and Korlai (Chaul) in the Kolaba District. The East Indians were converted to Christianity four centuries ago by Portuguese Missionaries who according to the custom of the time gave them Portuguese names, and they are Roman Catholic in religion. [This contradicts the theory that they were converted in the 1st century AD by St. Bartholomew] According to the Government Gazetteer of the Thana District they are descendants of the converts first made by the Franciscans, and notably Antonio do Porto (1535-1548), who, principally in Bandra converted 5000 persons and afterwards by the Jesuits under St.Francis Xavier (1506-1552) and his successors.
To bring the information up to date, it may be stated that the higher castes, Brahmin, Prabhu and others have been so merged that they cannot be distinguished. The other sections, largely maintain their individuality. But the rigid Hindu caste system is not insistent. There is commensality. All freely eat together. As there is a rise in the social scale, inter-marriages take place. There is no religious prohibition to bar the intermingling. Indications are not wanting that at no distant date there will be a homogeneous people. To this end the existence of a common corporate body as the Association will contribute in no small measure. The East Indians are truly children of the soils and as such have a predominant stake in the land.
Caste hierarchies remain intact even after conversion
(This account, perhaps by Elsie Baptista, varies somewhat from Mr John De Mello's view.)
The whole policy of the Portuguese, who came to India in 1498, was to bring the Indian Christians under their concept of Roman Catholism. The Brahmins Prabhu and other high-class hindus who were prudently and cere moniously converted were treated by the Portuguese with honor and distinction.
In stark contrast, was the attitude of the Portuguese to those groups who were engaged in cultivation, fishing and other rural occupations handed down to them by their ancestors. These groups were given neither education, not proper instructions in the dogmas and doctrines of the church. Among the converts the Portuguese made, it cannot be denied that a large number of them were decendants of the Christian Community founded by Apostle St. Barthmolew . But these new converts were not strangers to the old Christians. They were their own people with whom they had been living for centuries.
The Portuguese however welded them into one community. Ever since then, this community has remained a separate entity, without becoming one with any of the other Christian Community. In certain instance, they were even referred to as `Portuguese Christians’.
With the defeat of the Portuguese at the hands of the Marathas and later on the advent of the British, there came a lot of change.
British era: Literacy in the Roman script helps obtain employment
Fortunately, for the Portuguese Christians, they were the only people in the regions, who were able to read the Roman characters, and it was from this class that the British drew its supply of clerks, assistants and secretaries.
From the early days of the East India Company, there were no other Indian Christians in the North Konkan except the Christians of the soil. Employments that were intended for the Christians, was the monopoly of the Indian Christians of the soil. With development, came in railways and steamship, a boon for the traveling public.
And with that came a number of emigrants from Goa which were also known as Portuguese Christians. The British found it expedient to adopt a designation which would distinguish the Christians of North Konkan who were British subjects and the Goans who were Portuguese subjects.
The name `East Indian' is coined
Accordingly on the occasion of The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the Christian of North Konkan, who were known as `Portuguese Christians’ discarded that name and adopted the designation `East Indian”.
By the adoption of the name `East Indian’ they wanted to impress upon the British Government of Bombay that they were the earliest Roman Catholic Subjects of the British Crown in this part of India, is as much as Bombay, by its cession in 1661, was the first foothold the Britiash acquired in India. As the children of the soil, they urged on the Government, that they were entitled to certain natural rights and priveledges as against the emigrants.
The five Broad Cultural Groups are the
Samvedi Christians,
Koli Christians,
Vadvals,
Salsette Christians
and the urbanized section
1891 population
In 1891 the population was estimated by the Bombay East Indian at about 60,000 and this figure was adopted. The list of parishes with population, given in Appendix A, may throw further light on our number as also the census figures. It is an intriguing subject and calls for all the research that can be devoted to it.
NUMBER of East Indians in 1937
The Association represents the East Indian Community which consists of about a hundred thousand souls. This estimate was made by the Editor of the East Indian Standard and was calculated as follows:-
Cavel and Umarkhadi - 3,500
Mazagon and Byculla - 1,000
Mahim, Dadar, Worli and Sion - 6,000
Bandra - 15,000
Kurla - 3,500
Salsette Rural - 35,000
Juhu - 1,000
Santa Cruz - 2,000
Vile Parle - 3,000
Thana - 3,500
Bassein and Virar - 25,000
Kolaba District - 2,000
-----------
Total 1,00,500
LANGUAGE, CUSTOMS & DRESS
The language of the bulk of the people was the local Marathi dialect. Among the educated classes English was the home speech. These too, though Indians in essentials had taken to Europeanized manners and the men like other Indians with English education dress in the European fashion. Some East Indian women, who adopted European costumes are reverting to t he more graceful sari. The customs of the bulk of the people can be gathered from some of the contributions attached. The drink habit had almost disappeared, not only through economic reasons but from a saner conception. Inordinate expenditure on baptisms, marriages and funerals had much diminished, although there was room for reform. There was in 1937 a welcome movement in Bassein in this direction.
LOYALTY BY MILITARY SERVICE [to the British Crown]
The East Indians are the earliest subjects of the British Crown in this country in as much as Bombay by its cession in 1661 was the first foothold the British acquired in India. In the past the Community was in the forefront in the manifestation of its loyalty. This was notably evidenced by the formation, as its own cost, of a militia of a thousand strong, composed of the youth and flower of the Community in connection with the threatened invasion of this country by Napolean Bonaparte from Egypt. For these services the special acknowledgements for the Bombay Government were received in the following Order of Council of 8th April 1806:-
At that time, as stated by the O Patriota, to which reference was made further on, Sir, Miguel de Lima, a British Knight, and his brother Thomas de Souza, and other Native Christians, then (in 1937) East Indians from the highest to the lowest, the very cultivators and toddy drawers included, identified their interest with those of Government by voluntary lenders of money, while other classes remained in the back ground. A document in the reign of King George III was extant granting the rank of Captain in the Mahim Division of the Militia to Mr. Pascoal DeMello of Dadar.
This loyalty had been maintained to [1937 ]. The following account of recent military services in the Great War, the Afghan War and the Waziristan Campaign from 1914 to 1922 was taken from correspondence in the local Press.
=Contribution as soldiers in the British Indian Army
Dr. (Captain) W.M.DSouza who worked as an Indian Medical Service Officer on active service, wrote that nearly 60 percent of the then medical men of the East Indian Community Civil and Military Assistant Surgeons, Sub-Assistant Surgeons and Private Practitioners volunteered for military services and served as Officers in the Indian Medical Service and other medical services at various fronts, one of whom, Dr. Ben Athaide, obtained the Military Cross for service at the Waziristan front. A fair percentage of East Indian engineers also served on the Royal Naval Transports and other engineering sections in danger zones, and here an engineer, Mr. C. Rodricks, in a transport lost his life at sea due to enemy action.
The Community can also count many others, in numbers running into a few thousands, who volunteered into other branches of services connected with t he late wars, such as the Defence Force, Railways Railways, Erabarkation, Postal, Labour Corps and so on and who were admitted as officers, non-commissioned officers, combatants and non-combatants and who had seen active service on various fronts in and out India, Dr. DSouza came across a batch of about 200 East Indians from Bassein in the Labour Corps in Waziristan on the front and others were on other fields of activity on the frontiers during the last Afghan War. There was no regiment in India where East Indians are allowed solely as combatants and many who volunteered could not be admitted.
Names of defence forces doctors and para=medics from the community
The following was a list of East Indian Medical Men who rendered active service on the field or other service in connection with the Great War, the Afghan War and the Waziristan Campaign:-
In the I.M.S. (Indian Medical Service) Drs. Almeida, R.A.M.C.; Ben Athaide. M.B.B.S, I.M.S., M.C.(War Casualty); Lionel Bocarro, F.R.C.S.; Fidelis Concessio, L.M.&S.; William M. Dsouza. L.M.&S. (War Casualty); Philip DMello, M.R.C.P.&S.; F. Gonsalves, L.M.&S. (War Casualty); J.F. Henriques, L.M.&S.; Manoel Miranda, L.M.&S.; Joseph Augustine Pereira, L.M.&S.; Victor Rozario, M.B.B.S.; Wilfred Valladares, M.B.B.S.
In the I.M.D. (Indian Medical Department) Drs. Lawrie DCruz, Edward DSilva, Arthur Gomes, Valentine Gomes, Valentine Fernandes (killed in the battle of Ctesiphon, 1915; mentioned in Despatches) Lewis Rodrigues.
With reference to this list Mr. F.D. Melton, a Sergeant in the Auxiliary Force, India stated that the names of those who had served in one or the other units of the Indian Defence Force should be added. This Force, a war time measure constituted in April 1917from the then existing Volunteer Corps and disbanded in September 1920, received a first rate military training as it was intended for garrison duty in India. There were several men of the East Indian Community in the 35th Poona Battalion of the Force in which Mr. Melton served and also some from the Bombay Battalion of the Force who did three to six months garrison duty at the Ghorpuri Barracks in Poona. Many others served in the G.I.P and B.B. & C.I. Railway Battalions of this Force in Bombay and its neighbourhood and were employed in manufacturing munitions in the Workshops of the two Railways.
Mr. Alexius Manuel Pereira of Bandra who had served during the Boxer Rebellion in China as Post Master was in Mesopotamia during the Great War in the same capacity. He had also served as Postal Clerk to the British Legation in Abyssinia. Mr. John Rodrigues, then (in 1937) Personal Assistant (Engineering) to the Post Master General, Punjab served in the last Afghan War in charge of telegraphic communications.
Besides, several men of influence including the [1937 ]President of the Association. Dr.D.A. De Monte and Mr. Caesar DMello then (in 1937) President of the Vile Parle Municipality Dr. Edmund Almeida of Thana and their wives and not a few other ladies were engaged in the War Charities Organizations. Dr. Peter Rodrigues was employed in the War Hospital Dadar. Some, and among them Mr. John De Mello, received the commemorative medal issued by the Government of India for valuable services in connection with the War. A good number of East Indian men continue to work in the Auxiliary Force, India and had at certain times assisted to quell the riots in the City of Bombay. In the second Great War Loan the then President of East Indian Association, Mr. P.A. Baptista collected a sum of Rs.1,30,000 to help the Allies to win the War. For this Bombay cordially thanked the Association, Dr. Peter Rodrigues during his membership of the War Loan Committee collected three lakhs. I recall these facts to show East Indian sustained fealty to the State.
