Província do Norte | North India

This first subdivision of the volume basically concerns the most extensive and stable portion of territory over which the Portuguese, for nearly two centuries, maintained sovereignty in all of Asia, and which chronologically and methodologically corresponds to the first truly colonial test for Portuguese expansion. It encompasses a continual territory measuring about 200 km along the coast and 25 km deep, running from Valsad (Bulsar) in the north on the Gulf of Khambat [Cambay] to Karanja in the south, in the area of influence of what now comprises the metropolis of Mumbai (formerly Bombay). It also includes the island of Diu (about 200 km by sea from Valsad) and the city and hill of Chaul (40 km from the southern tip of the Mumbai Peninsula). All this territory previously pertained to the sultanates of Gujarat and Ahmadnagar (annexed by the Mughal Empire in 1576 and 1636, respectively); it is nowadays split between the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

This part also includes short entries on three items situated in the geographic and historical heart of India, precisely in Agra and Fatehpur-Sikri, capitals of the Mughal Empire located about 35 km from each other. The inclusion of these three articles in this part of the work is not just due to geographic proximity or simple arrangement requirements. It is justified by the fact that the Província do Norte had registered the main impacts of relations between Portugal and the Mughal court since the first battle of Panipat (1526), which marks the beginning of that dynasty with Babur (r. 1526-30), though especially with his son Humayun (r. 1530-56) and grandson Akbar (r.1556-1605), who although Muslim and from the East were true princes of the Renaissance. The latter not only allowed the establishment of a Jesuit mission in his court, but spent time with it, moved by curiosity about other cultures. This opening led to the production of built heritage of Portuguese origin. Although tenuous and subject to later circumstances, it is nevertheless an important milestone with respect to our subject matter. But let’s get back to the Província do Norte.

Drawn by the commercial activity of the ports of Diu, Khambat and Surat, the Portuguese soon began to frequent the Gulf of Khambat. This was the outlet for the cloth, precious stones and valuable wooden objects from northern Hindustan; it was also the entry point for horses imported from the Middle East and departure point for vessels carrying annual pilgrims to Mecca. In the first contacts the Portuguese adopted a trading posture and avoided conflicts. But their imposition of cartaz licences in 1506 was an openly aggressive act, seconded by various actions to conquer key ports. All this gave rise to the first major naval clash with an (essentially) Turkish squadron in 1508 off the coast of Chaul, resulting in a heavy Portuguese defeat. A year later revenge was had off the coast of Diu, followed by destruction of the port of Dabul and the submission of Chaul, with the obligation to pay tribute to Portugal and authorisation to build a factory in that port, which was also achieved that same year for Diu.

The development of those factories and the definitive conquest of Hormuz in 1515 opened to the Portuguese the possibility of controlling all commercial navigation in the Indian Ocean destined for the Persian Gulf, whence it fed the land caravans proceeding from there to the Mediterranean. In 1521 permission was granted to fortify the factory of Chaul. This gave the Portuguese with a true naval base in the north, a process which had positive results. Besides devastating attacks on the main ports, they then began to pressure the Sultanate of Gujarat to cede Diu, essentially by means of a maritime blockade which from 1529 to 1533 paralysed port activity along what would basically become the shoreline of the coastal Província do Norte.

The local chiefs in the area of influence of Vasai [Baçaim] city placed themselves under Portuguese vassalage. The Gujarati Sultan Bahadur, weakened by struggles with the Mughal Empire, sought an alliance with the Portuguese in late 1534, offering them the domains of Vasai, besides almost immediately authorising construction of the Diu fortress, which was ready in just over a year. By 1539 Vasai also boasted a Portuguese fort. To the north, Daman was successively occupied and destroyed by the Portuguese. Based on an eventual repentance of Sultan Bahadur, who convinced some Malabar rulers to expel the Portuguese, in 1537 Governor Nuno da Cunha arranged for him to be assassinated. This caused a war of indignation against the Portuguese, culminating in the 1538 siege of Diu, one of the best-known military episodes of Portugal’s history in Asia.

Portugal’s possession of the territories of Vasai was accomplished by replacing the lords of the previous feudal system. Almost everything remained unchanged, with the Portuguese neither living nor interfering beyond the fortifications, except for missionary activity. In 1547 a set of resolutions handed down by Viceroy João de Castro consolidated the feudal system, which prevailed until the end of Portuguese sovereignty in the area. Along with these measures, income from the mosques was incorporated into the royal treasury to foster missionary activity. Besides Goa’s soldiers and Brahmins, the church also largely benefited from its position as landowner. All contracted the obligation to form territorial defence militias, resulting in the proliferation of fortified mansions and towers. As late as 1728 it was recommended that “each one of the chartered landholders in Vasai and Daman should make a tower or strong house in his village, just as at the beginning of our government.”

The death of Mahmud III in 1554 caused an upheaval in the Gujarat Sultanate, giving the Portuguese two years later occasion to occupy Asherigad (Asserim) and Manor (Manorá). This not only consolidated Vasai’s defence, but paved the way for the capture of Daman, which occurred in 1559. A coastal strip up to the village of Valsad (Bulsar) was then added to the domains of Vasai, making for an excellent and extensive base for controlling the Gulf of Khambat. With these two districts (Vasai and Daman), the Província do Norte’s territory was formed and consolidated. In 1683 it would grow even more in the prelude to the conflict with the emergent Maratha empire that led to its complete loss in 1740.

The 17th century marked the high point of the Província do Norte. The truly colonial society that flourished there, basically agrarian though also involved in trade, interacted with neighbouring kingdoms and most especially with the Mughal Empire. In the diverse research work focusing on the economic results of Portuguese exploitation of the Orient,

Vasai ranks second or third, and among the few territories that never presented a negative balance. The Província do Norte and especially the district of Vasai, in light of cold financial analysis or an arguable colonial project, thus appears to us as the most economically successful area of the Portuguese Empire of the Orient.

Its consolidation was marked by the conversion to Catholicism, in which Franciscans and Jesuits played their usual role. The village of Trindade (now Tirandaz) was the site of the latter’s first effort at ‘Reduction’, a process later much better known and indeed more suitable to the state of the situation and civilisation in South American territory. Curiously, the success of evangelisation was almost total in the initial territory in the Vasai district, but not so much in what was later added on, where the population generally kept their beliefs. Also noteworthy is that the Franciscans’ history in the region predates the Padroado itself, from the five friars martyred by the Muslims in the mid-14th century up to the birth in Vasai of Friar Gonçalo Garcia (1556/7- 97), martyred in Nagasaki and the first Indian Catholic saint. The success of extensive Portuguese territorial settlement spurred the reaction of the kingdoms/sultanates of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Kozhikode [Calicut], which attacked Goa and Chaul in late 1570 and early 1571. The Portuguese victory on both fronts enhanced Portuguese prestige, even leading in 1594 to the capture of the fortress then transforming the hill in front of Chaul. A Mughal attack on Daman was also repelled in 1611-12.

But other Europeans were meanwhile arriving in India, with Dutch ships plying the Indian and Pacific oceans for the first time in 1596, i.e. almost a century after the Portuguese. Besides the Dutch, who attacked Malabar, Ceylon and the maritime spice routes in the Far East, as well as the Bay of Bengal, the British were also showing interest in the north, namely its symmetrical Gulf of Khambat [Cambay], some- times joining up with the Dutch. The Portuguese fleet’s defeat at the battle of Swally (near Surat) in 1612 marked the end of Portuguese hegemony in the area and the establishment of an English factory in the Mughal Empire’s biggest port. Taking advantage of this situation, a number of Mughal military actions were unleashed in the southern half of the Província do Norte from 1612 to 1626.

Sporadic British and Dutch attacks followed, namely on Mumbai Island, which led to efforts to shore up the province’s defences. The security and operational status of the bars of Chaul, Vasai and Mumbai nevertheless remained superior to that of Goa. During the nearly two decades that the latter was blockaded by Dutch fleets, the India Route carracks headed north instead. Some (Diogo do Couto, for example) even called for the Estado da Índia’s capital to be moved there, clearly anticipating the centralising potentials the Mumbai area (then a pragana of the Vasai district) would develop up to the present day.

Amid the major diplomatic efforts resulting from the restoration (1640-68) of independence from Spain, Portugal was forced to seek a solid alliance with a European power. This gave rise to the marriage contracted in 1661 between Charles II of England and the Portuguese infanta Catarina of Bragança. Among the many conditions, the contract stipulated that the dowry included the delivery of Mumbai, though it did not specify what this meant. Mumbai was geographically just a small island, one of the seven eventually joined by silting and landfill to form what is now the centre of the city of Mumbai. On the ground, all the Portuguese involved in the process did what they could to prevent the handover, and then they only wanted to give up Mumbai Island. The British in turn considered it the head of a much bigger group of islands that included Salsette, Trombay and Karanja. They got half: the original island plus Mazagaon and Parel. But Salsette, bigger than the entire group, remained Portuguese, as did all the others.

The territory of North Salsette (to avoid confusion with the similarly named Goan province of Salcette) was labelled an island by the Europeans because it was effectively separated from the mainland by the Vasai (Ulhas) River to the north, to the south by Bandra Bay and to the east by Thane Creek. It was the richest and most densely populated territory in the Província do Norte. Nowadays it is part of the Mumbai metropolitan area and, barring some coastal areas and the large Kanheri natural park, it is completely urbanised.

The title to property and the role of the Padroado were, among others, problems very hard to resolve when the islands were divided between the Portuguese and the British. But most serious was the issue of customs rights and jurisdiction over traffic in Mumbai Bay. Also, while this process was under way the number and strength of Portugal’s enemies was increasing in the sea: Arabs from Oman, Siddi and Maratha sailors, the latter led by Angre (?-1729). Of course the worst happened against the Marathas on land, when they were led by their founder Shivaji (1627-80) and his mythic son Sambhaji (1657-89). From 1674 on there were successive attacks on Vasai and Salsette Island, a period when the Estado da Índia State seemed to be lost. But the Mughal Empire attacked the Marathas through the interior in 1684 and this changed the situation of the Portuguese, who not only recovered but added territory to the area previously under their control. Meanwhile, the war between the Padroado and the Vatican/Propaganda Fide arrived in Mumbai, with replacement of the former by the first English Catholic church (affiliation of the subsequently labelled East Indians). This was yet another focus of the dispute between the Portuguese and the British, who at a given moment were waging an undeclared war.

After various diplomatic and war-spurred advances and retreats, the Maratha offensive gained the upper hand in 1737. After capturing several strong points, they conquered Vasai in 1739 and kept up the pressure on Goa. The agreement reached in 1740 guaranteed the Portuguese Goa and Daman in exchanges for Chaul. The Província do Norte was dismantled and integrated into the Maratha Empire – a harsh blow for the Estado da Índia. For the prosperity of Goa and the Goans depended not just on wood and rice brought from the north, but essentially on income from the villages and jurisdictions in that territory. To counter this situation efforts began to expand Goan territory (which I shall refer to in the respective text). Another project was also conceived to re-conquer the Província do Norte in 1774 – a fleet was even put together in Brazil to that end. But the British anticipated this effort. Only the small territory of Nagar-Haveli was integrated into Portuguese rule in 1779. Daman and Diu remained from the Província do Norte and were under Portuguese sovereignty until 1961.

The brief mention above to matters affecting the Padroado in this area can be better understood in the framing text for this volume. It is nevertheless important to add that the 1739 loss meant the expulsion of Portuguese religious personnel. Even though they had been successively replaced by Goan native clergy early on, many of those left behind still felt orphaned. Some returned to Hinduism, also due to Maratha pressure. But the comprehensive British victory over the Marathas in 1818 generally improved the situation. Goan immigration to Mumbai and Salsette (an island then only just beginning its urban development) also contributed to a Catholic revival. Despite latent conflicts between some Catholic groups, not all owing to the dispute between the Padroado and the English Catholic Church, Catholicism ended up acquiring a second label as the Igreja Portuguesa/Portuguese Church, which while not correct is still significant, and does not just occur in this region of India. Might it also be considered a persisting feature of Portuguese heritage?

From the material standpoint, the urban and architectural heritage of Portuguese origin in the territory of the bygone Província do Norte is today a shadow of what it was; in a short time it will be absolutely residual. The exponential pace of India’s development and most especially of the wealthy Mumbai area, joined to the discovery of that selfsame heritage, has in very recent years accelerated its disfigurement to the point where the process has become irreversible. Up until about two decades ago the disappearance was due to recycling and/or the natural process of ruin (which sometimes might even have its own value). What occurs nowadays is renovation or replacement, but also badly exploited esteem for that heritage, i.e. without proper study or understanding of the respective objects. Investment is essentially commercial and industrial, not cultural. And when this question is considered from an Indian perspective, in my opinion it is neither censurable or incorrect.

Awareness of the start and irreversible nature of this process led a group of researchers, of which I am part, to undertake various actions to survey and study, or rather, to register those vestiges. It is a job that will always be somewhat far from being completed; priority was thus given to the most expressive area, that undergoing the most rapid transformation process. Hence was born the project BBB, Bombay Before the British, the Portuguese legacy at Bassein and Bombay’s territory, referenced in the bibliography. Its first phase is over, though it continues to develop in various forms, namely through academic works, notable among which are the recently completed Baçaim e o seu território: política e economia (1534 1665) [Vasai and its Territory: politics and economy (1535 1665)] by André Teixeira and the ongoing project by Sidh Mendiratta on the Província do Norte’s defence system. As the latter has sought to combine fieldwork with a systematic gathering of available information, I felt obliged to reference it here, because its database and team are the source for the overwhelming majority of information and text included in this part of the volume.

We have also gathered information and knowledge produced by the historiography of the expansion concerning this region, already much developed – valuable information on society, administration, economy, evangelisation, politics and defence, etc. Besides this systemisation, the project was also able to locate and identify various items about which we only had historiographic data, as well as to map all of this, especially the territorial limits and administrative districts. In sum, we now have an image of what the Província do Norte of the Estado da Índia was, a territory somewhat forgotten as such by the Portuguese and clearly hidden by the occupants who followed them.

The Portuguese presence in this area has long been a subject of interest, with a significant contribution by members of the cultural elite of the Catholic communities that remained and developed in the territory. J. Gerson da Cunha and Brás A. Fernandes are the two names that stand out above all others. Significantly, 19th and 20th century Goan historians before India’s independence (1947) and the integration of Goa, Daman and Diu (1961) had many relevant sources at hand and also showed interest in that former Portuguese territory. The British core of Mumbai (Fort) was then spreading up the peninsula and engulfing in its own particular way the small rural and urban clusters of Portuguese and/or Padroado origin. The Portuguese territorial layout in the Mumbai metropolitan area is still clearly perceivable and functional.

As always, awareness of this transformation stimulates the need to preserve the memory and thus the development of history. The litigious process of delimiting the jurisdictions of the Padroado and the English Catholic church which I referred to in the initial text was clearly one of the main reasons for developing that historiography. The essential part of that production is listed in the bibliography, though I must also call attention to the magnificent collective work In the Mission Field: the diocese of Damaun, published in Mumbai by the Diocese of Daman in 1925.

Reference to that book leads me to explain how, despite everything, the heritage in places where Portuguese sovereignty was maintained until much later – Daman and Diu – tended to maintain the essence of its integrity. This is not just due to that circumstance, but rather and especially to the lesser extent of development in those places. But except for military architecture, which exists in both cases though more so in Diu, objects of maximum monumentality and cultural relevance, the other elements rarely rub shoulders with the bygone splendour of Vasai, a ruined ghost town until very recently, now hopelessly lost in the solution meant to value and showcase its heritage.

The most important surviving elements actually pertain to military architecture and are scattered throughout the territory. They specifically mirror the difficulty of the historic process of safeguarding them under foreign dominion for two centuries. They were continual exercises of updating and experimentation. Many were renovated or directed to other uses, others were overcome by nature. Their systematic study and survey is now being undertaken. What little civil architecture has resisted time and man is basically what was included in that selfsame defence system, whereby it does have a decipherable expression of its own.

Religious architecture subsisted with entirely different rules, for it evolved to suit the space and modernity needs of the ever growing Catholic communities. Most of the buildings were subject to additions, dislocations and disfigurements of elements which ended up being used at other sites, etc. From the material standpoint nothing seems to be lost, for all is permanently recycled. But the complexes, spaces and compositions, i.e. the architecture, were clearly lost. It was a diversified architecture, sometimes surprisingly erudite in programmes, forms and spaces, though in most cases revealing a spectacular compromise with the vernacular – a speaking architecture, after all.

I nevertheless feel that what is most noteworthy in the whole area covered by this sub- section of the volume is precisely just how those vestiges, along with the presence of numerous families with Portuguese names, marked this territory, bearing witness to a history that British culture and religious disputes always sought to erase, and which still does not require archaeology to be comprehensively read and interpreted.

Walter Rossa