Mangalorean Catholics () are an ethno-religious community of Latin Christians from the Diocese of Mangalore and the erstwhile South Canara area; by the southern coast of present-day Karnataka, India.: "Four centuries of living in South Kanara gave these Catholics an identity of their own. Thus they are commonly known as Mangalorean Catholics."
Contemporary Mangalorean Catholics descend mainly from the New Christians of Portuguese Goa, who migrated to the Keladi Kingdom 1560-1763, throughout the courses of the Goan Inquisition, the Portuguese–Adil Shahi Wars & the Mahratta Invasions of Goa and Bombay. They learned Tulu and Kanarese whilst in Canara, but retained the Konkani language and preserved much of their Konkani way of life, which had undergone Christianisation in Goa. The "Canara Christians" suffered a 15-year-long captivity at Seringapatam, that was imposed by Tippu Sultan. Following Tippu's defeat and death at the Siege of Seringapatam (1799) by the English East India Company, the Nizam of Hyderabad & other allies; most of them resettled in and around South Canara; also in areas such as Chikmagalur (Chickmangalore) & Coorg (Kodagu) during the Company rule in India. A lesser number was shipped to the Seven Islands of Bombay & the Bombay metropolitan area in the northern Konkan region.
Historically, an agrarian community, there were migrations of the working and educated class in the early 20th century, to bigger cities such as the Bombay (Mumbai), Poona (Pune) & Bangalore (Bengaluru). Later, more migrations led to the formation of a Mangalorean diaspora in the Persian Gulf countries and the Anglosphere; thus the younger generation outside of historical locales of South Canara, is mostly an English-speaking Anglo-Americanised sub-culture. Also, intermarriages with non-Mangaloreans has caused a decline in "Mangalore stores" and the culture of Mangalorean Catholic cuisine.
Ethnic identity The community gets its name from the Mamgalore diocesan adherents of the Latin Church in India, located by the southwestern coast of India. Most of their hometowns lie in present day civil districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts in Karnataka state and Kassergode in the present-day Kerala state. This area was collectively referred to as South Canara in British India, and then from the partition until the reorganisation (1956) of the states and territories of India.
In 1526, Portuguese in Goa and Bombay arrived in Mangalore, and the number of local converts to Christianity slowly increased. However, a sizeable Christian population did not exist there until the second half of the 16th century, when there was a large-scale immigration of Christians from Goa to South Canara. They were reluctant to learn the local languages of South Canara and continued to speak Konkani, so that local Christians (Padvals) had to learn Konkani to converse with them. After this migration, these skilled agriculturists were offered various land grants by the native Bednore rulers of South Canara. They observed their Eastern cultural Hindu customs in conjunction with the newfound Western Catholic faith, and preserved their much of their Konkani lifestyle.
Most migrants were people from the lower economic strata who had been left out of government and economic jobs; their lands had been confiscated due to heavy taxation under the Portuguese in Goa. As a consequence of the wealth and privileges which these migrants enjoyed in Mangalore, they began feeling superior to their landless kindred in Goa. Their captivity at Seringapatam (1784–1799), where many died, were killed, or were converted to Sunni Islam, led to the formation of a separate and common cultural identity among members of the group, who had previously considered themselves an extension of Goans. They no longer self-identified as Goan Catholics after the captivity. Alan Machado Prabhu estimates that almost 95 per cent of Mangalorean Catholics have origins in Goa.
History
Pre-migration era
All records of an early existence of Christians in South Canara were lost at the time of their deportation by Tipu Sultan in 1784. Hence, it is not known exactly when Christianity was introduced in South Canara, although it is possible that Syrian Christians settled in South Canara, just as they did in Kerala, a state just south of Canara. The Italian traveller Marco Polo recorded that there were considerable trading activities between the Red Sea and the Canara coast in the 13th century. It can be surmised that foreign Christian merchants were visiting the coastal towns of South Canara during that period for commerce; it is possible some Christian priests might have accompanied them for evangelistic work.
In April 1321 the French Dominican friar Jordanus Catalani of Severac (in south-western France) landed at Thana with four other friars. He then travelled to Bhatkal in North Canara, a port town on the coastal route from Thana to Quilon. Being the first bishop of India and the Quilon Diocese, he was entrusted the spiritual nourishment of Christian community in Mangalore and other parts of India by Pope John XXII. According to historian Severine Silva, no concrete evidence has yet been found that there were any permanent settlements of Christians in South Canara before the 16th century. It was only after the advent of the Portuguese in the region that Christianity began to spread.
In 1498 the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed on a group of islands in South Canara on his voyage from Portugal to India. He named the islands El Padron de Santa Maria; they later came to be known as St Mary's Islands. In 1500, Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral arrived at Anjediva in North Canara with eight Franciscan missionaries. Under the leadership of Frei Henrique Soares de Coimbra, the missionaries converted 22 or 23 natives to Christianity in the Mangalore region. During the early part of the 16th century, Krishnadevaraya (1509–1529), the ruler of the Vijayanagara Empire of Deccan, granted commercial privileges to the Portuguese on the Canara coast. There was complete freedom of worship, belief, and propagation of religious tenets in the Vijaynagara Empire. In 1526, under the viceroyship of Lopo Vaz de Sampaio, the Portuguese took possession of Mangalore.
The Portuguese Franciscans slowly started propagating Christianity in Mangalore. The most prominent local convert was the Brahmin mahant Shankarayya, who in 1751 travelled with his wife from Kallianpur to Goa and was baptised, with the Portuguese viceroy assuming the role of his godfather. The honoured mahant took the name of Francisco de Távora, after the Viceroy Marques de Távora. Their properties were subsequently taken over by their Hindu relatives, but the viceroy instructed his factor of Mangalore to get their property restored. In 1534, Canara was placed under the ecclesiastic jurisdiction of the Bishop of Goa, where the Portuguese had a strong presence. Missionaries soon arrived and gained converts. The number of local converts in South Canara continually increased until 1546. During the mid-16th century, the Portuguese faced resistance from Abbakka Rani of Ullal, the Queen of the Bednore dynasty. This put a halt to conversions. The first battle between Abbakka Rani and the Portuguese was fought in 1546; she emerged victorious and drove the Portuguese out of South Canara.
Migration era
In 1510, a Portuguese fleet under Afonso de Albuquerque, sent by King Manuel I of Portugal, wrested the region of Goa from Sultan Yusuf Adil Shah of Bijapur. In 1534, the Diocese of Goa was established. Soon missionaries were sent to Goa, which led to conversion of a sizeable population to Roman Catholicism. The bulk of Christian settlers came in three major migration waves towards South Canara. These migrations occurred in periods of great unrest: the Goa Inquisition occurred from 1560 onwards; the Portuguese–Adil Shahi wars were between 1570 and 1579; and the Portuguese–Maratha wars occurred between 1667–83 and 1737–40. Other factors that led to mass migrations were disease epidemics, famines, natural calamities, overpopulation, poor living conditions, heavy tax burdens, and social discrimination by the Portuguese.
In 1542, the Navarrese Jesuit Francis Xavier, co-founder of the Society of Jesus; arrived in Goa. He discovered that the newly converted Christians were practising their old Hindu customs and traditions. He requested the Portuguese king João III to install an Inquisition in Goa in 1545. Many of the Goan ancestors of the present Mangalorean Catholics fled Goa after the Inquisition began in 1560. King Sebastião I decreed that every trace of Hindu customs should be eradicated through the Inquisition. Many Goan Christians of upper-caste Hindu origins were attached to their caste practices, and did not want to abandon them. Those converts who refused to comply were forced to leave Goa and to settle outside the Portuguese dominion, which resulted in the first major wave of migrations towards South Canara.
The Christians who left Goa were for the most part skilled agriculturists who abandoned their irrigated fields in Goa to achieve freedom. The remainder were skilled carpenters, goldsmiths, artisans, and merchants. At the time of migration, Canara was ruled by the Keladi king Shivappa Nayaka (1540–60). He evinced great interest in the development of agriculture in his empire and welcomed these agriculturists to his kingdom, giving them fertile lands to cultivate. They were recruited into the armies of the Bednore dynasty. This was confirmed by Francis Buchanan, a Scottish physician, when he visited Canara in 1801. In his book A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar (1807), he stated that "The princes of the house of Ikkeri had given great encouragement to the Christians, and had induced 80,000 of them to settle in Tuluva." Later, this was identified as a probable mistake and should have read "8,000". This figure included the second emigration of Christians from Goa. The taxation policies of the Keladi Nayakas during 1598–1763 enabled the Goan Catholic migrants to emerge as prominent landowning gentry in South Canara. These migrants usually brought their own capital from Goa, which they invested in their new lands, thereby indirectly contributing to the prosperity of the Keladi kingdom.
Under the provisional treaties between the Portuguese and the Bednore rulers, and the Padroado, the Christians were allowed to build churches and help foster the growth of Christianity in South Canara. The arrival of the British and the Dutch halted the activity of the Portuguese, and they were gradually unable to send the required number of missionaries to Mangalore. Shivappa Nayaka had previously expelled the Portuguese from their forts a little before 1660, which brought about considerable changes in the ecclesiastical situation. The appointment of the Vicar Apostolic of Mangalore was felt by the Holy See to be of critical importance. Nayaka pressured the church authorities to appoint a native priest as the Vicar Apostolic, which resulted in the appointment of Fr. Andrew Gomez to the post; however, he died before the nomination papers could reach Mangalore.