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Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam

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The Jamalabad fort route. Mangalorean Catholics had traveled through this route on their way to Seringapatam

The Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam was a 15-year captivity imposed on Mangalorean Catholics by Tipu Sultan, the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, from 24 February 1784 to 4 May 1799 at Seringapatam.[1] They are also sometimes referred as Kanara Christians, since Mangalore is the headquarters of Kanara. 60,000 of them were captured, and taken prisoners to Seringapatam.[2][3] Some sources also say 80,000 of them were captured. However, this figure is likely to be inaccurate. According to James Scurry, a British officer, who was held captive alongwith Mangalorean Catholics, 30,000 of them were forcibly converted to Islam[4]

The captivity ended when Tipu was killed in the Battle of Seringapatam on 4 May 1799 during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.

Background

Hyder Ali

Hyder Ali occupied Mangalore in 1763.[5] From 1766–1772, Hyder Ali took defacto control of the throne of the Mysore Kingdom through the Wodeyar dynasty. In February 1768, the British captured Mangalore from Hyder.[5] The Portuguese had offered to help Hyder against the British. But when they betrayed Hyder, he directed his anger toward the Mangalorean Catholics, since they had been converted to Christianity by the Portuguese. Toward the end of 1768, Hyder defeated the British and captured Mangalore fort, where the Mangalorean Catholics were taking refuge. Around 15,675 of them were taken as prisoners to Mysore by Hyder. Only 204 returned; the rest died, were killed, or converted to Islam.[6] After Hyder's death in the Second Anglo-Mysore War on December 1782, the British captured the fort again. Hyder was succeeded by his son Tippu Sultan.[7] The Mangalorean Catholics helped the British in the fort by providing them rice, vegetables, and money. Tippu decided to come down heavily upon these Christians for providing aid to the British.[8] On 20 May 1783, Tippu Sultan laid siege to the Mangalore fort, where the Mangalorean Catholics and British army were taking refuge.[7] The fort was finally delivered to Tippu when the British capitulated it on 30 January 1784.[9] Around 5,600 Mangalorean Catholics, who were condemned for treachery, were killed.[6]

Captivity

Tipu Sultan

Their captivity at Srirangapatna, which began on 24 February 1784 and ended on 4 May 1799, remains the most disconsolate memory in their history.[1] Soon after the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784, Tippu gained control of Canara.[10] He issued orders to seize the Christians in Canara, confiscate their estates,[11] and deport them to Seringapatam, the capital of his empire, through the Jamalabad fort route.[8] According to Sir Thomas Munro,[12] a Scottish soldier and the first collector of Canara, around 60,000 of them,[13] nearly 92 percent of the entire Mangalorean Catholic community, were captured, only 7,000 escaped.[6] Francis Buchanan gives the numbers as 70,000 captured, from a population of 80,000, with 10,000 escaping.[14] They were forced to climb nearly 4,000 feet (1,200 m) through the jungles of the Western Ghat mountain ranges. It was 210 miles (340 km) from Mangalore to Seringapatam, and the journey took six weeks. Arriving at Seringapatam, the survivors faced conversions to Islam, torture or death.[6]

On Ash Wednesday, 24th February 1784, in a secret and well planned move, Tipu arrested large numbers of Christians and marched them off to Srirangapatna. Churches and historical records were destroyed, their properties confiscated and auctioned. The confiscated properties, according to an 1860 Memorial, were valued at Rs 500,000. How much was really lost may never be known. Few escaped deportation. Estimates suggest that about 7,000 people were still left and in hiding. It was near extinction for an entire community. Various estimates place the captives between 20,000 and 80,000. Tipu himself places the figure at 60,000. The Barkur Manuscript, written in Kannada by a survivor, records the terrible fate that awaited those who reached Srirangapatna in the first few months. The English historian conjectures that a third did not survive the first year. The Barkur Manuscript says that able-bodied young men were drafted into the army after being circumcised and those who remained, such as the lame, the blind and the aged, employed themselves in cultivating the land and in doing various manual works. Various reasons have been proffered over the years as to why Tipu arrested and deported the Christians. Tipu, in his own account, writes that the cause arose from “the rage of Islam began to boil in his breast” when informed of the circumstances of the spread of Christianity in Goa and Kanara. Whatever be the reason, barely a third survived the Captivity to return to Kanara after Tipu died on 4th May 1799.

End of captivity

In the Battle of Seringapatam on 4 May 1799, the British stormed the fortress, breached the town of Seringapatam, and killed Tippu.[15] After his death in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, the Mangalorean Catholics were freed from his captivity.[16] Of the 60,000 Mangalorean Catholics taken captive, only 15,000 made it out as Christians. British general Arthur Wellesley helped 10,000 of them return to South Canara and resettle on their lands.[17][18] According to the Mangalorean genealogist Michael Lobo, the present Mangalorean Catholic community is descended almost entirely from this small group of survivors.[19] According to British Government records, 20,000 died on the march to Srirangapatna, and 21,000 women and 9,000 men were converted to Islam. Later, the British took over South Canara. In 1800, they took a census of the region. Of the 396,672 people living in South Canara, 10,877 were Christians.[6]

Citations

  1. ^ a b "Deportation & The Konkani Christian Captivity at Srirangapatna (1784 Feb. 24th Ash Wednesday)". Daijiworld Media Pvt Ltd Mangalore. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
  2. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine 1833, p. 387
  3. ^ Saradesāya 2000, p. 251
  4. ^ Scurry & Whiteway 1824, p. 103
  5. ^ a b South Kanara District Gazetteer 1973, p. 62
  6. ^ a b c d e Joe Lobo. "Goa and Mangalorean". Indian Catholic Association of Florida
  7. ^ a b South Kanara District Gazetteer 1973, p. 63
  8. ^ a b "Christianity in Mangalore". Diocese of Mangalore. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  9. ^ South Kanara District Gazetteer 1973, p. 64
  10. ^ Forrest 1887, pp. 314–316
  11. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine 1833, p. 388
  12. ^ America's Mangalorean Konkani Catholic Prayer Society (AMKCPS). "Who are Mangalore Catholics?". Diocese of Mangalore. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  13. ^ Bowring 1997, p. 126
  14. ^ The Oriental Herald 1824, p. 14
  15. ^ "The complete subjugation of Mysore was the immediate consequence of the fall of Seringapatam and the death of Tippoo Sultaun. A commission, composed of Lieut. General Harris, Lieut. Colonel Barry Close, Colonel the Hon. A. Wellesley, the Hon. H. Wellesley, and Lieut. Colonel Kirkpatrick, was appointed by the Governor General in Council, to carry into effect his arrangements for the settlement of the conquered territories." Gurwood in The dispatches of Field Marshall the Duke of Wellington, during his various campaigns in India, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, the Low Countries, and France, from 1799 to 1818, compiled from official and authentic documents by Lieutenant Colonel Gurwood, volume 1, a new edition, (London: John Murray, 1837), p. 40.
  16. ^ "To the communities kept captive in the confines of the island (Seringapatnam), to the Kanara Christians, as to the Nairs, the Coorgs, the prisoners, ... Now, finally, in the death of Tipu, freedom had come to return, however demoralised and dispossesed, with families dispersed and perhaps never to be reconciled, to homes and lands". Emphasis added. Alan Machado Prabhu, Saraswati's Children: A History of the Mangalorean Christians, (I.J.A. Publications, 1999).
  17. ^ "The Konkani Christians". Indian Catholic. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  18. ^ "The detailing [of sic] this painful but indispensable measure cannot be entrusted to any person more likely to combine every office of humanity with the prudential precautions required by the occasion, than Colonel Wellesley; and I therefore commit to his discretion, activity, and humanity, the whole arrangement." Richard Wellesley 4th June, 1799. Then Governor General of British India (and brother of Arthur, later the Duke of Wellington and twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. From Dispatches (op. cit.), p. 40.
  19. ^ "Mangalorean Catholics commemorate bicentenary of their liberation". Union of Catholic Asian News. 1999-05-26. Retrieved 2008-11-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Mir Jaffar and Mir Sadiq conspired against Tipu Sultan, they betrayed him and helped British Army to enter in fort.

References

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