mumbai reader pub.pdf

7/23/2019 Mumbai Reader Pub.pdf

1/5

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266673801

Uncovering Portuguese Histories Within Mumbai's Urban History

ARTICLE JANUARY 2009

READS

23

1 AUTHOR:

Sidh Losa Mendiratta

University of Coimbra

8PUBLICATIONS 0CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Available from: Sid

Retrieved on
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sidh_Losa_Mendiratta?enrichId=rgreq-df0aaccb-26e0-4f37-927e-e14cc2776a4c&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI2NjY3MzgwMTtBUzoxNTA0MTkyNTQ4MTI2NzJAMTQxMjg3NDE1MzA5Mw%3D%3D&el=1_x_4https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sidh_Losa_Mendiratta?enrichId=rgreq-df0aaccb-26e0-4f37-927e-e14cc2776a4c&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI2NjY3MzgwMTtBUzoxNTA0MTkyNTQ4MTI2NzJAMTQxMjg3NDE1MzA5Mw%3D%3D&el=1_x_4https://www.researchgate.net/?enrichId=rgreq-df0aaccb-26e0-4f37-927e-e14cc2776a4c&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI2NjY3MzgwMTtBUzoxNTA0MTkyNTQ4MTI2NzJAMTQxMjg3NDE1MzA5Mw%3D%3D&el=1_x_1https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sidh_Losa_Mendiratta?enrichId=rgreq-df0aaccb-26e0-4f37-927e-e14cc2776a4c&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI2NjY3MzgwMTtBUzoxNTA0MTkyNTQ4MTI2NzJAMTQxMjg3NDE1MzA5Mw%3D%3D&el=1_x_7https://www.researchgate.net/institution/University_of_Coimbra?enrichId=rgreq-df0aaccb-26e0-4f37-927e-e14cc2776a4c&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI2NjY3MzgwMTtBUzoxNTA0MTkyNTQ4MTI2NzJAMTQxMjg3NDE1MzA5Mw%3D%3D&el=1_x_6https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sidh_Losa_Mendiratta?enrichId=rgreq-df0aaccb-26e0-4f37-927e-e14cc2776a4c&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI2NjY3MzgwMTtBUzoxNTA0MTkyNTQ4MTI2NzJAMTQxMjg3NDE1MzA5Mw%3D%3D&el=1_x_5https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sidh_Losa_Mendiratta?enrichId=rgreq-df0aaccb-26e0-4f37-927e-e14cc2776a4c&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI2NjY3MzgwMTtBUzoxNTA0MTkyNTQ4MTI2NzJAMTQxMjg3NDE1MzA5Mw%3D%3D&el=1_x_4https://www.researchgate.net/?enrichId=rgreq-df0aaccb-26e0-4f37-927e-e14cc2776a4c&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI2NjY3MzgwMTtBUzoxNTA0MTkyNTQ4MTI2NzJAMTQxMjg3NDE1MzA5Mw%3D%3D&el=1_x_1https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266673801_Uncovering_Portuguese_Histories_Within_Mumbai%27s_Urban_History?enrichId=rgreq-df0aaccb-26e0-4f37-927e-e14cc2776a4c&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI2NjY3MzgwMTtBUzoxNTA0MTkyNTQ4MTI2NzJAMTQxMjg3NDE1MzA5Mw%3D%3D&el=1_x_3https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266673801_Uncovering_Portuguese_Histories_Within_Mumbai%27s_Urban_History?enrichId=rgreq-df0aaccb-26e0-4f37-927e-e14cc2776a4c&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI2NjY3MzgwMTtBUzoxNTA0MTkyNTQ4MTI2NzJAMTQxMjg3NDE1MzA5Mw%3D%3D&el=1_x_2


2/5

UncoveringPortuguese

HistoriesWithinMumbais

UrbanHistory

_Sidh Losa Mendiratta

A shorter version of this text was originally presented at the 63rdAnnual Meeting, Society of Architectural Historians, Chicago, Illinois Bas-relief painting in St. Andrews church, Ban

486


3/5

Historical Overview ofSalsete Island:going back in time

During the second half of the 20th century, atrst through a cadenced rhythm and later at

exponential speed, the metropolitan sprawl of

the city of Mumbai expanded northwards overthe Bandra/Mahim creek into Salsete Island,

occupying almost all available land outside the

limits of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Within

the park, located in the isl ands central hillyarea, are the famous Kanheri caves. Except

for this renowned heritage site and possiblythe nightlife of Bandras coffeehouses there

are apparently very few other attractions to

draw a visitor into Mumbais northern suburbs.The overcrowded and confusing cityscapes of

areas like Andheri, Borivali, Thane or Santacruz

(from where Mumbais international airport rstgot its name) are very rarely visited by foreign

tourists, who prefer the charm of down town

Mumbai. Few people know that Santacruzwas once a small East Indian village...and

even fewer know that the name Santacruz

simply means Holy Cross in Portuguese.

Santacruz was one of the many villages

that dotted Salsete Island before it became

urbanised. Most of these villages had animportant East Indian community, polarised by

a church or chapel. The ones along the coast

were mainly inhabited by shermen and thoselocated inland were essentially dependent on

agriculture. Bigger settlements, like Thane,

Bandra and Kurla, had become, b y the early20th century, important satellite towns of

Mumbai. They had their own municipalities and

infrastructures, maintaining a strong Catholic

element, while most of their inhabitantsworked in Mumbai. Many East Indians were

employed by the citys civil Service ofces.Commuters depended on the two major

railway lines that were built in the Island during

the second half of the 19th century. Known

as the Peninsula and the Western lines, their

trafc is described in the Mumbai P residency

Gazetteer of 1882: The morning trains fromAndheri and Bandra [to downtown Mumbai]

are crowded with men of this [clerk] class

on their way to the ofces, and the evening

trains take them back to their homes.

The original footnote at the endof the quotation reads:

Many of them walk three or four miles

from their homes to the station, and asearly as seven can be met making their way

barefoot across the elds carrying their

shoes and other belongings in their hands.

The Mumbai Presidency Gazetteer provides

detailed descriptions of Salsete Island and

the East Indian community for the late 19thcentury. However, it acknowledges that in some

of the earlier British accounts or gazetteers

about the region, the Salsete Catholics arenoticed in terms of contempt . In 1882, the

name East Indian had not yet b een invented

and the Gazetteer described the local Indian

Catholics as Koli Christians, Native ChristiansorNative Portuguese. This last classication,

which later fell in disuse, was very muchwidespread in the rst half of t he 19th century.

In this context, Native Portuguese or Black

Portuguese were the descendants of theoriginal inhabitants of Salsete Island, Mumbai

or other surrounding regions converted

to Christianity by Portuguese missionariesbetween the 16th and 18th centuries.

The British, who took over Salsete Islandform the Marathas in 1774, were initially

suspicious and anyway appalled at the Islands

Indian Catholic community. The fact that theywere under the religious jurisdiction of the

archbishop of Goa and his priests and that the

more afuent families still spoke Portuguese,led the British to suspect their allegiance.

Earlier 19th century accounts delved in the

degraded aspects of the Catholic communities,

remarking upon their laziness and unhygienichabits; their practice of Hindu or animist rituals

scandalously mixed with their nominal Christian

faith; their Goan (also Native Portuguese) parishpriests who anyway kept them in medieval

superstitions, and the overall economic ruin

of the region, due to both its Ma ratha andPortuguese administrations - and to the

severe cholera outbreaks of the 1820s. This

discourse can be interpreted as preparing the

ground for the British civilising mission inSalsete Island, their rst territorial acquisition

in Western India since the 17th century.

The Catholic community of Salsete Island

had naturally declined sharply during theperiod of Maratha occupation that preceded

the British (1737-1774). European and Indo-

European families had ed and missionarieshad been expelled. Churches were looted and

abandoned, as villages became impoverished

or alienated. Many Christians were broughtback into the Hindu fold with the help o f a host

of Brahman priests and purifying rites. The

stable position of Catholic families developedduring the Portuguese rule over Island at

least compared to their Hindu counterparts

was shattered. Still, the Marathas proved tobe more tolerant rulers than the Portuguese

and the Catholic community, although

impoverished and weakened, survived thedownfall of its former colonial administrators.

The Indo-Portuguese layer of Salsete

During two centuries (1534-1737), Salsete

Island belonged to the Northern Province of

the Estado da India, a Portuguese colonialterritory on the Northern Konkan coast. The

territory stretched for almost 220 km alongthe coast while its width vari ed from 25 to 50

km inland. The Northern Province representsan interesting although understudied -

historical colonial territory. It was the rst self

sufcient and mainland territory to be occupied

by the Portuguese in the Eas

their empire. The fact that th

ceded a small group of islanterritory to the British Crown

the territorys history as a pla

encounters between Asia, E

Salsete Island was considere

the Jewel of the Crown of thIndia. It was one of the most

productive areas of the emp

population had been largelyChristianity by the early 17th

particularly strong presence

22 out of the Islands 118 revFranciscan missionaries also

lands, while the Augustinian

orders had a less conspicuouvillages that didnt belong to

were mostly in the hands of w

landowners, some of whom mansions with terraced grou

Mughal gardens. The revenu

missionaries and private landwere also important for the e

empires capital in Goa. A bilavishly displayed at the chuof Old Goa came from the N

When the Portuguese lost th

to the Marathas, they almost

started expanding their Goaeventually tripled by the end

The principal architectural stPortuguese in Salsete during

presence can be primordiall

to their ownership or patronprivate. These three groups

to three basic social function

religious; and residential str uin Salsete Island and the No

in general, religious and resi

also played an important deresulting in hybrid structures

dwellings or fortied manor

REMINISCING

|488


4/5

Ruins of the so-named Fatimachurch, Dongri.Author: SidhMendiratta, 2009

Thane fort - tracing ofvectorial infromationover a Portugueseplan of 1739.Author: BBB, 2007

Thane fort -superimposition of

vectorial drawingover statlite Imagery.

Author: BBB, 2007

Ruins of St. Johnsor SEEPZ church.

Author: SidhMendiratta, 2006

REMINISCING

|490


5/5

churches or fortied convents, incorporating

bastions and artillery. Which Indo-Portuguesestructures, belonging to these three groups,

have survived in Salsete Island to this day?

The Indo-Portuguese layer:

defensive structures

Only at the very end of its colonia l rule did thePortuguese Crown build a strong defensive

position in Salsete Island: Thane fort. This

structure was still incomplete when it was

easily captured by the Maratha army in April1737, who were assisted by an uprising of local

inhabitants. The new occupants completed thefort with their conspicuous round bastions at

the vertices of the Western canonical design

diamond shaped bulwarks. Today, Thane fortis a prison and well known landmark, although

not an easily accessible one. A recent visit by

the present author (April 2008), revealed thatthe forts walls are indeed the only elements

pertaining to the Indo-Portuguese layer, a fact

already inferred by crossing satellite imagerywith 18th century Portuguese layout plans.

During the Maratha and British period, all the

Indo-portuguese structures inside the fort weredemolished including the Dominican convent

of Thane and the captains house together

with the effacing of all insignia and inscriptions.

Up to the 1730s, the only defenses of Sal sete

Island built by the crown consisted of a string

of small forts and watchtowers at strategiclocations along the Is lands shores.

Located at the Northwest corner was the Dongri

fort, an important albeit unnished positioncontrolling the trafc entering the Vasai River

and close to the main wells supplying drinking

water to the town of Vasai. Today, almost all

the structures at Dongri have disappeared,except a small bastion at river-level which

was rebuilt by the British aft er 1774. Furthersouth was the Utan watchtower, nowadays

converted into a small lighthouse. In the village

of Arengal was the fortied Franciscan residence

and church, provided with a small garrison of

soldiers and artillery. This religious structure

still maintains its defensive outlook, not onlywith the tower volume in the main fa cade but

also with its high and narrow lateral windows.

Close by was another small round watchtower,with ruins still visible at Danapani Beach.

Continuing south was the important harborof Versova, which included two watchtowers

besides the main fort. The main fort, now

property of the air force, still has within it aIndo-Portuguese nucleus: an irregular shaped

tower base. Later Maratha interventions,

changed Versova into a much bigger andcomplex structure. At the southwestern tip

of Salsete Island was the rich Jesuit village of

Bandra. Close to the strong fortied convent of

St. Anne, were two watchtowers and the smallAguada fort. Although the ruins of the fortied

convent were demolished in the mid-19th

century to build the Bandra Slaughterhouses,part of the Aguada fortication remains,

including an inscription with the date 1640.

There were also watchtowers in Kurla andTrombay and, towards the North and returning

to Thane, there was a group of ve smallwatchtowers along the river approaching

and opposite Thane fort. Ap parently, no

trace of theses last seven structures remain.Along the Islands northern shore, the

fortied manor-house of Ghodbandar also

played a very important defensive role.

The Indo-Portuguese layer:

religious structures

The network of religious structures founded

by the Portuguese between 1534 and 1737

in Salsete includes at least 43 separatesites. Out of these, 20 are still being used

(although naturally with many alterations

or reconstructions); 12 are in ruins; and 11have vanished without apparent trace.

Although Thane was the main settlement and

epicentre of Indo-Portuguese presence inSalsette, the rst religious structure founded

by missionaries in the Island, according to

available documentation, was in the villageof Mandapeshwar, in 1547 or 1548. At this

time, the Franciscan friars Antnio do Porto

and Joo de Goa arrived and chased awaythe Hindu religious men who dwelt in t he

sacred Mandapeshwar cave. The cave was

then retted as a church, although most of

the Hindu sculpture groups were kept sealedbehind brick and plaster walls. The Franciscan

missionaries managed to convert one of theYogis and convinced the Crown to donate the

village of Mandapeshwar to him. When this

convert died, he in turn bestowed the villageto the Franciscan Order. In course of time, a

new church and monastery were built atop

the cave and a separate Marian shrine, orSacromonte, was erected on a hill opposite to

the main site. This religious complex became

the initial base of missionary activity in Salseteand from here, the Franciscans went on to

establish other churches within the Island.

The cave of Mandapeshwar was brought back

into Hinduism after the Maratha conquest

of the Island, in 1737. However, by the mid-19th century, the cave had once again been

changed into a Christian place of worship and

was used as such at least until the 1920s. Withthe development of Borivali as a suburb of

Mumbai during the 1960s, the cave was again

denuded of its Christian attire and permanentlyreconsecrated as Hindu place of worship.

Just above the Mandapeshwar cave, stand

the ruins of the big Franciscan monastery,

known in Portuguese as the Colgio Real deManapacer (Royal College of Manapacer).

In this institution, friars used to provide forbasic education to young converts and Indian

Catholics, while the surrounding village

contributed to the monasterys upkeep.

Adjacent to the monastery w

Our Lady of Immaculate Con

around 1552 and probably tChristian structure in the Isla

although with some alteratio

face-lifts, still maintains mucand austere architecture of m

built by the Portuguese in In

16th century. The main facadentrance, surmounted by a r

and, above it, a small round

monastery crumbled into ruithe church was left in a state

being restored n the late 19t

The Sacromonte is also still p

educational complex known

dAssissi High School. It has above a winding stepped pa

a miniature hillock. Along th

small circular caves, original

groups depicting the scenesOur Lady. This is a very rare

The rst missionaries to settl

were Jesuits, around 1555. Efour main missionary orders

Padroado-Jesuits, Francisca& Dominicans - founded mo

during the second half of the

Most of these monasteries whousing important libraries.

structures, only the Francisc

dedicated to St. Anthony, sumany changes. Known today

church, it still houses within

surprising number of artistic pertaining back to the Indo-

Although Thane was theirrin Salsette, the Jesuits estab

missionary epicentre in Band

where they developed a ouemporium, supported by the

and numerous villages they a

REMINISCING

|492

mumbai reader pub.pdf

Documents