A Kochi Girl in the Mughal Court - 1707-1732

                                           Cochin -1656      courtesy:www.farelli.info

Portuguese had ruled Cochin for nearly 160 years between 1503 and 1663 before the Dutch invasion. Although the capital of Portuguese India was shifted from Cochin to Goa in 1510, Cochin continued a favourite destination for the Portuguese and many Portuguese families chose to stay on in Cochin, soaking in the sun and sand, gossiping and leading their exclusive fidalgo life. (Fidalgo literally means 'son of somebody' and refers to nobility.)

Juliana was born in 1658 in Cochin to Agostino Diaz da Costa and his wife. She grew up as a frolicsome young girl, playing on 'the sandy beaches, where my sister and I could run with the waves lapping our feet'. When she was five, fate struck in the form of the Dutch who invaded Cochin in 1663. Just before the Dutch attack started, the da Costa family managed to flee to Goa, although they lost all their baggage in a ship wreck. The family then decided to try their luck in another Portuguese enclave, Calcutta, but by the time they reached there, Portuguese there had earned such a bad name through their indulgence in piracy and slave trade that  the conditions were not considered favourable for their relocation to Calcutta.

It was then that the da Costas decided to move down to Agra where the father had been invited to attend on the Emperor. It was here that Juliana got to know the doctor who attended to the Mughal emperors whom she married later. Juliana herself was adept at home remedies, having picked up some from her stay in Goa and from Garcia de Orta's book Colloquios published in 1563. (We in Kerala know much more about Hortus Malabaricus which was published more than a hundred years later in 1678. Garcia was himself a medical doctor - unlike Van Rheede who depended on local vaidyans like Itty Achuthan)

Juliana got to know the royals closely through her husband and even had an audience with Aurungzeb, thanks to the influential Jesuit priest Fr. Magalhaes (a colourful character who worked assiduously for promoting Society of Jesus in India and China). Juliana recorded faithfully the experience of an audience with the Alamgir who had a reputation for being brusque and curt. 'The old emperor was sharp, but I was amazed at the amount of time he spent talking with me. He asked me a great deal about the Malabar region, of the Portuguese interests, and of the Deccan interaction with the Portuguese'.

Juliana was soon appointed as Superintendent of the Zenana, looking after the women in the Palace and teaching the young princes and princesses. Juliana soon came to be known for her piety and her ability to work miracles - putting out fires with consecrated palm fronds and curing illness through prayers. She was particularly close to Prince Muazzam who carried the title Shah Alam and was later to be crowned as Bahadur Shah in 1709, after killing his brother. 

 Juliana continued in the Mughal Court even after the death of Bahadur Shah in 1712 and continued to serve the Mughal household with her advice, prayers and cures. Farukhsiyar ascended the throne in 1713 after another bout of internecine blood-letting, but Juliana not only survived the intrigues of the powerful Sayyid brothers who had the Emperor under their control, but even had powers to get the Emperor to issue firmans. 

British colonial historians have been asserting that it was the English surgeon, William Hamilton who had cured Farukhsiyar of a painful carbuncle and obtained a firman  for trading without duties. But, apparently, it was Juliana who had cured the Emperor with her herbal concoctions (and a liberal dose of Christian prayers). She records that she had got firmans out of Farukhsiyar not only for the Portuguese, but even for the English traders!

Mohammed Shah
courtesy: wikipedia

The crowning glory of Juliana's days in the Mughal Empire was in 1719 when she was asked to physically crown the new Emperor, Mohammed Shah (Rangila)! The day she chose for this was, of course, the day of St.John the Baptist, her Patron Saint. She wrote: 'At mid-morning today, I , Juliana Diaz da Costa, actually crowned the emperor! I carried the crown and placed it on the head of Prince Mohammed Shah'.

Donna Juliana (she had been conferred the title for her services to the Church and the Jesuits) continued in the service of the Mughals. A letter written in 1727 testifies: 'The Chief Surgeon of Bacaim is in the Court, who has been called to look after the mother of the king. The treatment is pending the arrival of Donna Juliana to the palace, to touch and give medicines to the patient with the help of the Surgeon mentioned'.

Juliana passed away in 1732 and was buried in Agra in an unnamed grave! Thus ended the saga of the girl from Fort Cochin who wielded great influence in the Mughal Court during an era when heads around her were rolling in the relentless wars of succession.
Source : Forgotten (2010) by Bilkees I. Latif, Penguin Books

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A Jews Street in Calicut?

A view of the Jews Street with shops at the far end

It was young Thoufeek Zakriya, a history enthusiast, avid blogger (http://jewsofmalabar.blogspot.com/) and an accomplished calligrapher (http://thoufeekzak.blogspot.com) who alerted us on the possible existence of a Jews Street in Calicut. He got the lead from an advertisement of an electrical shop on the net. Phone calls to the listed number got the response that the number did not exist.

Our team led by Advocate Madhusoodan started looking for clues on the ground. Local historians did not know (or in one case belittled the importance of the finding, which made us more curious). 

At the end of the week, we got information that there does indeed exist a small locality called Jootha Bazar in the heart of legendary Thekkepuram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thekkepuram) between Kuttichira and Idiyangara. 

We know that of all the communities which had once strong presence in Calicut, there is no evidence of only two - Chinese and Jews. 


This is true of not only Calicut, but even of other centres of trade like Panthalayini-Kollam. It is only recently when the Geniza papers are being deciphered that we get to know that a Jewish trader, Abraham Yiju had once made purchase of spices from Panthalayini-Kollam (Fandaraina) around 1120 AD. He records in one of his letters (232 T-S 

A Jaaram (tomb) at the entrance to the street

20 quoted by Amitav Ghosh at page 227 of his The Imam and the Indian:

'...I bought for (al Basara?) from Fandaraina two bahars (of cardamom) as a substitute for 17 mithqals.' Please click here for details.


 Almost 200 years later, the Franciscan Friar, Odoric of Pordenone had visited Panthalayini and had this to say about the Jews there and their conflict with the Christians :In Flandrina both Iewes and Christians doe inhabite, betweene whom there is often contention and warre: howbeit the Christians ouercome the Iewes at all times. 

As Prof. A. Sreedhara Menon observes, 'There are no traces of Jewish colonies in these places except that there is a 'Jew's Hill' at Chowghat and a 'Jew's Tank' at Madayi'. (A Survey of Kerala History, p.95) Could this Jews Street in Calicut be a remnant of a forgotten past ? We decided to verify.

As we walked down from the Miskal Mosque heading south, one road leads east and turns south again towards Idiyangara. There are a few shops on this street and this place is now called Jootha Bazar or Jews Street. Local people had different explanations for the origin of the name. An elderly person said that perhaps the origin could be traced to mothers calling their naughty offsprings children of Jews as a curse. But, why should the name called stick to a place, unless only children of that locality were mischievous. Another ingenious explanation given was that naughty young people of that locality would gather in the Jootha Bazar and gamble and, therefore, the name stuck. 

A third person, who appeared to be more knowledgeable about the history and culture of the place explained that it was just possible that the location of the present Jews Street was once a flourishing market run by the Jews, like the Silk Street, Gujarati Street etc.

We do not yet know whether the Jews Street has any historical significance. But, considering the irrefutable evidence of both Jews and the Chinese having once been a strong presence in Calicut and are now obliterated without any trace, we wonder whether there was some similarity in the sudden disappearance of the two communities.

Zheng He, the Chinese Admiral made his last voyage to Calicut in 1433 and died during this voyage. The date is significant from the point of view of direction of Calicut's trade. For, Abdul Razzak who visited Calicut just 9 years after the death of Zheng He noted that the trade had already shifted from the east to west. Recent research has revealed that Emperor Yong-le who had deputed Zheng He had already decided to shift his trade relations from Calicut to the newly emerging Cochin, prompted perhaps by the pressure on Chinese traders from the Arab trading monopoly. The Chinese Emperor's overtures to Cochin in the form of a poetic epistle (click here)dated 28th December 1416 was carried by Zheng He. (The Chinese had unwittingly shown the Portuguese how to pit Calicut against Cochin!)

The massacre of the Chinese which took place soon after the last voyage of Zheng He could have encompassed all foreign traders, including the Jews. For, there is not much record of the Jewish presence in Calicut after the 15th Century.

Pereira de Paiva, a Dutch Jew of Portuguese origin who visited Cochin in 1686 on behalf of the Amsterdam Jewry reported that there were only 465 Malabar Jewish families, all in and around Cochin. It is likely that along with the Chinese traders, the Jewish traders of Calicut also migrated to Cochin. 

It is most likely that the Jewish traders in Calicut belonged to the Black Jews (the original tribes who had been trading from the days of Solomon). The White Jews , descendants of Spanish, Portuguese and Iraqi arrived on the Malabar coast much later in the 16th Century.

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Remembering Conolly - the Malabar Collector between 1846 and 1855

Maddy has, in a recent post, mentioned the contributions of H.V. Conolly, Malabar Collector between 1842 and 1855 – a brilliant career which was cut short at the age of 49 when he was brutally killed by some fanatic Moplahs. He is today remembered mainly on account of the Conolly Canal, an old project which only his leadership and drive could make happen. The teak forest of Nilambur is another standing monument to the vision of this great administrator.

specimen of Conolly's signature
 on a passport issued by him at Calicut

We had occasion to recall his tact and secular credentials in an earlier post. He had persuaded the Mambram Thangal to voluntarily emigrate to avoid bloodshed. Ironically, this event was later used to build up a case against him by fanatics, leading to his being hacked to death in the presence of his wife.

We have obtained his record during training and probation (as published in the Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and foreign... Vol 23) which shows that even as a probationer, Conolly had shown promise of growing into a competent officer. Even as a young recruit, the officer had shown dedication and a high degree of intelligence which marked him out later in his distinguished career.

Conolly joined the Madras Civil Service at the age of 18 and was trained at the College of Fort St. George, Madras which used to train the provincial civil servants. He was admitted in September 1824 and passed out in June 1826, standing first in Marathi and Hindustani. The record of the College needs to be reproduced at length to prove Connolly’s diligence as much as to show how the East India Company took great care to groom its civil servants:

Several weeks previously to the examination, Mr.Conolly met with a serious accident, which materially interrupted his studies, and was the occasion of his being examined under great disadvantage; the result has nevertheless been highly satisfactory.

In Mahratta, Mr.Conolly has attained a very high degree of proficiency: he is well acquainted with the idiom of the language, and with the principles of its construction, and possesses a very extensive knowledge of words, which he used with readiness, and applies with judgment and discrimination. Mr. Conolly’s translation of a difficult Mahratta paper was remarkable for its fidelity; the meaning, not only of every sentence, but of every word of the original, with one single exception, being fully expressed. Mr. Conolly was equally successful in translating from English into Mahratta. In conversation he expresses himself with correctness and propriety, and with a good pronunciation. He is also acquainted with the style of familiar and official letters.

Mr. Conolly’s proficiency in Hindostanee is equal to that which he has attained in Mahratta; he executed translations of the most difficult exercises, both into and from the language, in a manner die (sic) most creditable. He converses on various subjects with fluency and propriety, and explained with ease an original urzee written in an obscure style.

Mr. Conolly has already obtained the highest allowances of the institution; and he is fully qualified for the transaction of public business in two languages, we recommend that he may now be employed on the active duties of the public service. We beg leave further to state our opinion, that his acquirements in Mahratta and Hindostanee are of so high an order as to entitle him to the honorary reward of 3,500 rupees; and we have much pleasure in recommending that this distinction may accordingly be conferred upon him.

The Government House, Fort St. George, 1798 Th. Daniell

 The Madras Governor accepted the recommendation of the College at Fort St. George and ordered accordingly:

The Hon. The Governor in Council has observed, with much satisfaction, that the general results of the examination lately held at the College is highly creditable to the students attached to that institution, and is pleased, agreeably to your recommendation, to confer on Mr.Conolly the honorary reward of 3,500 rupees for his proficiency in the Mahratta and Hindostanee languages, and on Mr. Porter the highest rate of College allowances from the fourth inst.

Mr. Conolly and Mr.Gardner will be permitted to enter on the duties of the public service.

(sd.) Acting Secretary to Governor

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Calicut and the decline of Venice

The Silk Route (red) and traditional coastal spice route (blue) courtesy: Wikipedia

When Vasco Da Gama reached the shores of Calicut, the first to greet him was a Muslim merchant from Tunis with the cold welcome: May the Devil take you! What brought you here? The trader understood the implications of the new arrival and the threat that it posed to his livelihood. For, Vasco Da Gama had discovered an alternative route to reach Calicut, circumventing the usual route used by the Arabs and the European traders.

The route from Calicut to Venice till 1498

Much of recorded history of this period is still lusocentric, describing this event either in terms of what a great discovery the new route was or how the Portuguese empire was established starting with this expedition. The landing of Da Gama's fleet in Calicut was indeed a cataclysmic event in international trade, as the Tunisian had understood. But, how cataclysmic?

Portuguese route circumventing Arabs and Venetians
courtesy: Wikipedia

The spice trade till then had been in the hands of two major groups of traders - the Arabs and the Genoese-Venetian syndicates. Till around the 13th Century, bundles of spices would commence their long journey from Malabar coast and take the Silk Route, which was protected by the might of Genghis Khan to Aden and thence into the hands of waiting Venetian merchants. Once the Silk Route was closed, spices started travelling in Arab dhows and Chinese junks to Jeddah (which replaced Aden), where the local rulers levied a tax on the cargo. It then crossed the Red Sea and reached the city of Tuuz (near Mount Sinai) where again it was subjected to tax. Finally, the cargo of spices travelled by camel back to Cairo; this was a hazardous trip due to the threat of banditry. From Cairo, the cargo was sent down the Nile River to Rosetta, where a tax was again levied. There it would again be loaded on camels for a day's trip to Alexandria where galleys from Genoa and Venice would be waiting for the precious cargo. By the time these spices reached the retail markets of Europe, the price would be more than 1000 per cent of what had been paid at Calicut.


It was this lucrative trade that the Portuguese had destroyed by discovering the Cape route to Calicut. Spices could now be transported to Europe untouched by Arab or Venetian hands. The distance was longer than the Cairo route, but cost of transhipment and taxes could be saved. No wonder, the Venetians received the news of Da Gama's adventure with a sense of shocked disbelief.


The loss of the spice trade would be like the loss of milk and nourishment to an infant,  wrote Girolamo Priuli, a prominent spice trader in his journal in July 1501. He continued: When this news reached Venice, the whole city felt it greatly and remained stupified, and the wisest held it as the worst news which could ever arrive.


Within the next couple of years, economic depression engulfed many of the trade centres of Europe, with firms collapsing and banks failing. The crisis was felt most in Venice which was the largest buyer of Asian spices. The Venetian Senate passed a resolution on 15th January 1506 on the alarming fall in trade as a consequence of the Portuguese arrival in Calicut: Since, as everybody knows, this commerce has now been reduced to the worst possible condition, it is essential to take some action and to provide our citizens with every facility for sailing the seas. 


They immediately formed a 5-member committee to advise the city government on how to handle the large number of business failures and bankruptcies. Venice also appealed to the Sultan of Cairo to reduce the rates of taxation so that their imports could compete with the Portuguese supplies. But, instead of reducing the tax on spices, the Sultan sent an armada apparently to assist the Zamorin to fight the Portuguese at sea. It was this mighty armada which was trapped and destroyed by the 6th Portuguese Armada led by Lopo Soares on 31st December 1504 off the coast of Panthalayani in Calicut. Some 2000 Arab and Egyptians perished in the battle, while 23 Portuguese sailors lost their lives. Significantly, the Egyptian force was carrying some Venetian guns and even two Venetian engineers who manufactured the first cannons for the Zamorin. 


Afonso D'Albuquerque had correctly assessed the situation after his conquest of Malacca in 1511: I hold it as very certain that if we take this trade of Malacca away out of their hands, Cairo and Mecca are entirely ruined, and to Venice will no spiceries . . .[be] . . . conveyed except that which her merchants go and buy in Portugal.


Will Durant has described the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to be as spectacular as the invention of the aeroplane. It transformed the direction of foreign trade (as can be seen in the accompanying maps) and destroyed the monopoly of the Italian states. Though Calicut and Venice - the largest seller and the largest buyer of spices - did not have any direct trade links, the loss of Arab supremacy over spice trade in Asia led to the fall of Venetian monopoly on the retail distribution of spices in Europe. Globalisation, anyone?

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Baudelaire and the Girl from Malabar

Charles Baudelaire
Courtesy Wikipedia

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was a French Romantic poet who is considered as a pioneer among the French Symbolists of the 19th Century. His most famous work,  Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) was written when he was a young restless soul, not at peace with himself. One of the poems of this work (which was proscribed by the French authorities on grounds of  immorality) is a beautiful poem called A une Malabaraise (To a Girl from Malabar):

Malabar Girl 
copyright: imagesof asia.com

 Your feet are slim as your hands, and your hips/Are the heavy envy of the most beautiful white woman...

 Baudelaire speculates on her chores back home in Malabar (in the warm blue climate where your Gods bore you) : light the pipe of your master, to drive far from the bed raiding mosquitoes and to buy pineapples and bananas at the bazaar.

The poet ends by dissuading the girl from her wish to go with him : O, why,happy child, do you want to see our France!/That populous country slashed by suffering... seeking amongst our dirty fogs/The slender ghosts of distant coco-palms!

Who was this Malabar Girl and where did Baudelaire meet her?

Born in Paris, Baudelaire grew up as a spoilt and rebellious child resentful of the loss of his father when he was very small and the mother's second marriage to a young and dapper colonel. The stepfather wanted to discipline the young boy and sent him off to Calcutta in 1841. A shipwreck saw the young Baudelaire landing on the shores of Mauritius, instead of Bengal. There he meets the Girl from Malabar in an account from which it is difficult to sift facts from fiction. 

Here is the story:

The young fugitive who landed on the shores of Mauritius was in bad shape. He was an alcoholic and into drugs too. He had not written anything for a while and inspiration seemed to have dried up. He had even contemplated suicide, while on the ship tp Calcutta. 

It was then that he met young Dorothee in a sugarcane plantation near Trois Mammelles in Curepipe area of Mauritius. (Under the shadow of the Mammelles...) Dorothee whose family 'came from Calicut or Cochin' was a slave girl working as a household servant. Her mother was brought by the Portuguese from Malabar and sold to the French as a slave. Baudelaire fell for the charm of the chocolate skinned Dorothee and settled down with her in the mountains.

 It was Dorothee who inspired Baudelaire to write again, and poems started flowing from the 20-something young rebel and the world took notice. Thus Les Fleurs du Mal owes its inspiration to the Girl from Malabar and Baudelaire acknowledges it in his poem. But, as for taking her back to France, he demurs, raising various objections from harshness of the climate and hostility of the people! So much for his dalliance with the maid servant!

What is intriguing is how the Portuguese were exporting slaves from the Malabar coast, even though slavery was legally abolished in Malabar in 1792. There is ample evidence of the Portuguese and the Dutch indulging in slave trade from Bengal, the Coromandel coast and Malabar even as late as the 19th century. Dorothee does not appear to have been an indentured labourer, as her mother was a slave in Mauritius and the Great Experiment of importing large numbers of indentured plantation workers from India started only around 1849, while Baudelaire met her in c.1841. 

Malabar springs up in the most improbable places!

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The Unsung Heroes of the Bomb Case

We had touched upon the 1942 Keezhariyur Bomb Case in an earlier post (click here). Many readers responded that they were not aware of this incident in the history of Calicut's fight for Indian independence. But, far away from Calicut, a young writer from Bihar had written a Hindi play on the incident and a theatre group in California had staged it in 1998! Sujit Saraf, the young writer and author of bestsellers like The Peacock Throne and Confessions of Sultana Daku  (www.sujitsaraf.com) had commemorated the Keezhariyur Bomb Case in his Hindi play entitled Vande Mataram.

Today we remember one of the unsung heroes of the case who was among the 'Bombay Five' - young men working in Bombay who had embarked on this suicidal venture convinced that non-violence would not get India freedom. The five - Dr.K.B.Menon, N.A.Krishnan Nair, V.A.Kesavan Nair, Mathai Manjooran and C.P.Sankaran Nair - left Bombay for Calicut and began their political activities here at a time when the Malabar Congress was in disarray after the mass detention of its top leadership during the Quit India movement.

N.A. Krishnan Nair, 2nd Accused

Nampannur Azhakil (N.A.) Krishnan Nair was born in 1902 into a family of substance in Calicut. As a student, he was actively involved in the Boy Scout movement. Later he participated in the Civil Disobedience movement and was the 19th 'Dictator' from Kerala. Jailed for 16 months, he came out and decided to be a full-time political worker.

He left for Bombay in 1934 and joined the Century Mills as a coolie in order to understand the plight of the workers. He organised workers under the Girni Kamgar Union (whose leader was S.A.Dange) and also participated actively in the Congress movement. He attended the Faizpur session of the Indian National Congress in 1937. 

Nair was by now a known trade union leader in Worli and had worked for B.G.Kher during the 1937 elections. He resumed Boy Scout work briefly in 1938 but left it in 1941 to join TOMCO. While working as a labour leader in TOMCO, he was also Chairman of the Governing Body of the Bombay Keraleeya Samaj.

Back in Kerala he was part of the group which organised several acts of sabotage between August 1942 and May 1943, including causing explosions to blow up the Feroke bridge, railway lines, cutting telegraph lines, setting fire to government buildings etc. The conspiracy was hatched in Ramanattukara (in Pulapre gate house) and subsequently in a house in Chalapuram. The bombs were fabricated in Kandiyil Methal house in Keezhariyur in Quilandy. Later, as the Police seemed to have got wind of the manufacturing, it was shifted to Parappanangadi, a fatal error which led to the unravelling of the conspiracy and the capture of the conspirators. For, one of the Parappanangadi team decided to use some bombs for settling a private score!

The case was tried in the Court of the Sessions of South Malabar Division, with M.A.T. Coelho, Sessions Judge presiding. The Bombay Five (except for Mathai Manjooran who was absconding) was defended by the ace criminal lawyer from Madras, Sri K. Bhashyam Ayyangar, ably assisted by Sri K.G. Nayar. The Bombay Five were acquitted by the Sessions Court but were convicted on appeal by the Madras High Court and sentenced to 7-10 years of imprisonment.

Nair was released in 1946 when the interim Congress government came to power. He drifted back to mainstream Congress work, but found that during his long absence, new faces and new interests had taken over the Party. The party chose him to be a candidate for the Madras Legislative Council elections, but intra-party feuds led to his defeat. As a protest against the party, he later contested elections as an independent for Assembly and Parliament elections with predictable results.  

He drifted away from Congress and eked out a living as an Insurance agent. He however continued his social service through Harijan Sevak Sangh, Sanskrit Prachar Sabha and Boy Scout movement. 

Old timers in Calicut remember Nair (fondly called 'Kittar') on the Mananchira ground encouraging footballers ( he was himself a keen player in the company of football legends of Calicut like Andy Master of 'andy pass' fame, Kottayi Achu and Kesavan Nair). Meticulously dressed in Khadi, he was a presence in the halls where chess was being played, for chess was another of his passions. And young cubs in those days remember the elderly Scout Rover encouraging them from a distance!  The indomitable Nair found time to pass the intermediate and BA examinations from Madras University when he was well past 60!

How did the Nation honour him for his sacrifice?  His name ranked 658 in the first batch of 1000 Freedom Fighters who were honoured at the red Fort in 1972 with Tamrapatra and a pension of Rs. 300. The State government sanctioned a pension of Rs.150.

Mr. Nair spent a life of service and altruism till death invited him on 26th December, 1987 at the age of 85. Jai Hind! 

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Did the British Really Conquer Us?

Jahangir

The title is intended to provoke. We hear the refrain that those who came to trade conquered us and colonised us. How far is it true? Was it a one-sided conquest or did our rulers aid and abet the conquest by their actions?

For instance, the 19^th century historian Philip Anderson observes that the British empire in India ‘began without a strip of territory. A warehouse was expanded into a province; a province into an Empire’. How did this happen?

A good way to understand this is by following a couple of early English expeditions and how they were treated by the Indian rulers.  The first two voyages of the East India Company focused more on the Spice Islands in search of cinnamon, cloves and other spices. It was the third voyage which was mandated to touch Aden and Surat, to explore a market for English broadcloth.

The fleet was commanded by William Keeling and had William Hawkins, the seasoned navigator who also spoke Turkish, who was expected to use his linguistic skills in Aden.

They took off on 1^st April 1607 with Keeling piloting the Red Dragon and Hawkins leading the ship, the Hector. While Keeling aborted his plans for Aden and headed straight for Bantam, Hawkins landed in Surat on 28^th August 1608, and became the first commander of an East India Company vessel to set foot on Indian soil. Surat was the principal port of the land-locked Mughal Empire.

Hawkins did not have a happy experience in Surat, as Mukarrab Khan, the Mughal officer in charge of ports was hostile to the new visitors, having been influenced by the Portuguese who were entrenched in the port. Hawkins tried to browbeat the Portuguese by claiming to hold the commission from his King; the Portuguese reply to this was:’a fart for his commission’!

The Emperor in a session

Hawkins then decided to travel to Agra to plead with the Emperor himself. Armed with the letter of introduction from King James I to the Emperor Akbar (who had, by now, been interred in his tomb at Sikandra) Hawkins travelled to Agra and was received by Emperor Jahangir with embarrassing warmth. They soon became such pals that Hawkins became a permanent invitee to the Emperor’s daily drinking spree.

 Hawkins was ordered not to move out of the Emperor’s side and was offered an annual salary of 3200 pounds, the rank of ‘Khan’ and permission to build a factory at Surat (the permission remained on paper, though, till Sir Thomas Roe used his superior diplomatic skills on the Mughals, and got the promise implemented  in 1615.) 


The Emperor also found a suitable bride for Hawkins – the daughter of an Armenian Christian who was in the service of his father, Akbar. But for the intrigue of the courtiers who thought that the Emperor was being far too generous to the ‘Inglis Khan’, the first Englishman to have landed in India could have got half the Mughal Empire for the asking! Call it conquest?

As for Keeling, he did not fare badly, either. He was sailing past Calicut when the Zamorin sent his minister to invite him offering him many inducements. The Zamorin was then at war with Cochin and was in the vicinity of Cranganore. He concluded a treaty with Keeling : As I have been ever an enemy of the Portuguese, so do I propose to continue forever.

The Zamorin wanted the English to help him win over the combined forces of Cochin and the Portuguese. And in return, the Underecon Cheete (a corruption for Poonthurakkon Cheet, the name by which Zamorin’s communications are known)offered : And if I succeed in taking the port of Cranganore, I engage to give it to the English, to possess as their own, together with the island belonging to it, which is in length along the sea coast nine miles and three in breadth’. 

 Further, if he succeeded in conquering Cochin with the help of the English, the cost will be apportioned half and half and ‘the benefits of the plunder thereof, whatsoever kind, shall belong half to me and half to the English’.

This was more than 140 years before the Battle of Plassey which is described in history as the beginning of territorial acquisition by the East India Company!

It would appear that the idea of territorial sovereignty was a western concept imported into India by the colonials in the 18^th Century. Our rulers – the Mughals as well as smaller rulers like the Zamorin – had viewed the state more as an economic unit which could be controlled to extract revenue for the state.

Ultimately, it looks as if our rulers were too keen to offer portions of their territory on a platter to the colonial powers in return for protection, weapons, money or even a cask of red wine, as in the case of Jehangir! Cheers!!

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