THE PORTUGUESE PERIOD-psc
1-Vasco Da Gama was the first European navigatorto reach India by sea route.
2-Gama reached at Kappad near Calicut on 20 May 1498.
3- He was sent to India by Portuguese king Manuel.
4-Gama was received at Calicut by the Zamorine.
6-Gama returned to Lisbon in 1499.
7-Gama’s second visit was in 1502.
8-Gama reached Kerala for the third time in 1524 and died here on 29 December 1524 and was cremated at the St. Francis Church at Fort Cochin.
Later his mortal remains were brought back to Lisbon, Portugal.
9-The second expedition of the Portuguese to Kerala was led by Pedro Alvarez Cabral. He reached Cochin on 24 December, 1500.
10-Francisco d’Almeda was the first Viceroy of the Portuguese in the East. He was appointed in 1505 AD.
11-Albuquerque is regarded as the greatest of the Portuguese statesmen who came to the East.
12-Kunjali Marakkar opposed the Portuguese.
13-Kunjali Marakkars were the traditional naval commanders of Zamorin.
14-Fourth and last Kunjali was Muhammed Kunjali.He adopted the titles ‘‘King of the Moors’ and ‘Lord of the Indian Seas’.
15-In 1600 the Kunjali IV was captured by the Zamorin and he was executed by the Portuguese at Goa.
16-Vasco-da-Gama reached Kerala in a ship called St. Gabriel.
17-The Synod of Diamper (Udayamperur Sunnahadose) to reform Kerala Church was conducted by the Portuguese (1599)
18-The ‘‘Oath of the Coonan Cross’ against the appointment of Latin Bishop was in 1653.
19-First European fort built in India was the Fort Manual at Cochin by Albuquerque.
Contrary to the views expressed by some Syrian Christian writers, the Synod of Diamper (Udayamperur) convened by Alexis de Menezes in 1599 was a success in the sense that he removed all heretical and Nestorian ideas and regularized the structure and administration of the Catholic Church. Syrian Christians remained loyal to Catholic Church. It is a gross distortion of history that Archbishop Alexis de Menezes forced Christian priests to attend the Synod and that he sought the help of Kochi Raja to punish Christians who did not attend the Synod. The Portuguese were in full power and Christian priests were craving the Archbishop for favour and privileges. So there was no need for force or the assistance of Kochi Raja. It was a bald-faced aberration of historical facts by later communal writers to claim pseudo national spirit against colonial Portuguese. Menezes can be proud of the fact that the Synod of Diamper laid a strong and stable foundation for the future of the Catholic Church in Kerala. Magnificent churches were built and managed by the Portuguese and priests were appointed by them, mostly former Syrian converts. There were convents and monasteries built by Franciscans and Jesuits. The inmates were Syrian converts. Although the Dutch destroyed many churches, there are even today many churches with baroque facades in villages along the backwaters and on the sea shore. Revisionist and communal historians of 19th and 20th centuries have suppressed all these concrete evidences to bolster their fake claim to Brahmin and Assyrian pedigree to local caste Christians of the pre-Coonen Cross pledge. Menezes was a dynamic and sincere Christian who can be rightly called the architect of Catholic church in Kerala, but maligned by Syrian Christian writers claiming false heredity to mask their lower caste parentage. Even Buchanan, Leslie Brown .and many foreign authors were misled by them. Menezes was later appointed viceroy of Portugal during the Iberian Union in 1612 and he died in 1617. He was buried with great honor at the Populo Church in Braga. All Christians in Kerala( former local Syrian converts and Portuguese converts) remained loyal to Catholic church. But early in 1661 a Dutch expedition under Van Der Meyden landed near Cranganore, concluded an agreement with the Zamorin, and seized the Portuguese fort of Pallipuram. Taking advantage of the declining power of the Portuguese and also to have financial and property control , some disgruntled elements under the leadership of Archdeacon Thomas rebelled against the Catholic Church in 1653 by taking a pledge called “Coonen Cross.” The Coonen Cross revolt was also not a success because the majority (84) congregations remained loyal to the Catholic Church. The claim of some Syrian Christian writers is that the Coonen Cross revolt was the immediate sequel to the Synod of Diamper convened by Menezes and that incident is being used by them to demonstrate their pseudo- patriotism in opposing colonial Portuguese Christianity and their superior caste status over low caste converts by CMS missionaries. But in reality it had happened about 54 years (over half a century) after the Synod when the Dutch were winning in some wars against the Portuguese. So the Coonen Cross pledge was not a patriotic struggle as portrayed by communal writers but a sectarian opposition to an emerging monolithic Catholic Church.The Portuguese rule lasted for about 155 years and during this long period Syrian Christians were elevated to a status superior to Nambudhiris and Nairs and were also given administrative and military powers.
ReplyDeleteThe Zamorin of Calicut had no forethought. He was guided by local Moplah merchants and Arab traders. Local Moplahs and Arab traders were in close and intimate contact with the Sultan of Gujarat. The Sultan of Gujarat had a grandiose plan to bring many Hindu kingdoms under his sultanate and finally to make it a part of the pan-Islamic caliphate of the Ottoman Empire. When the Zamorin wanted to get rid of the Portuguese, he sought the advice of Kunjali and other Moplah merchants. The Kunjali and local Moplah leaders approached the Sultan of Gujarat to get his assistance to defeat the Portuguese. He immediately contacted the Sultan of Ottoman and the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. The Ottoman Empire was expanding in Europe and Asia. Ottoman expansion reached its peak in the 16th century under Selim I. The Asian borders of the empire were pushed deep into Persia and Arabia. The Zamorin was ignorant of the political developments in the Middle East. He agreed to the suggestion of Kunjali and Moplah leaders to join the forces of the Sultan of Gujarat. The Sultan of Gujarat had previously contacted the Ottoman Sultan recommending that a sufficient naval force could help tip the balance of power and allow large portions of India to be added to the Ottoman Empire. On the recommendation of Kunjali and Moplah leaders the Zamorin sought the help of the Sultan of Gujarat and it was to assist him a coalition was formed. Zamorin agreed to support, at his invitation, the then Muslim Sultan of Gujarat, Mahmud Begada. The Zamorin unhesitatingly joined the coalition without the slightest idea that the defeat of the Portuguese would ultimately lead to the annexation of Malabar by the Sultan of Gujarat. According to the original plan chalked out by the Ottoman sultan, Gujarat Sultanate including Malabar would become a part of the expanding Ottoman Empire after defeating the Portuguese. Almeida had to face the forces of the formidable coalition of the Ottoman Sultan, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, Gujarat Sultan and the Zamorin. The Naval Battle of Diu, one of the most celebrated in the history of the Portuguese Navy, was a decisive battle of decimation, where Gujarat had to lose all its naval power. Almeida burned and pillaged their ports and smashed the combined fleets of the Sultans of Egypt, Gujarat and the Zamorin of Calicut. Although the Zamorin was defeated along with the coalition powers, Malabar was saved from being annexed by the Sultan of Gujarat to be incorporated later as a part of the far flung Ottoman Empire.
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