History of Mangalorean Catholics
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The History of Mangalorean Catholics comprises three major eras. The first era consists of the cultural heritage shaped by Indo-Aryan migration into the Indus valley (banks of the Sarasvati river), later the migration to Govapuri (pre-Portuguese Goa) and other prominent areas of the Konkan region, possibly due to a natural disaster that caused the drying up of the Sarasvati. Also, the various invasions and the political upheavals that followed in the pre-Partition eras of the northwest Indian subcontinent might be responsible for migration to Konkan in Western India. The second era was the legacy of Lusitanian culture, from the conversion of their Konkani ancestors to Roman Catholicism in the colonies of the Portuguese in Goa and Bombay, and the final era being the migration of the Roman Catholics in Goa to Mangalore and other parts of South Canara between the mid-16th and mid-18th centuries, forming a unique Mangalorean Catholic identity, and the subsequent growth and development of the community.[1] Four centuries of living in South Canara gave these Catholics an identity of their own, distinct from Goans and Bombay East Indians.[2]
Roman Catholics from Goa migrated to Mangalore in three major waves, the first after 1560, the second after 1570, and the third in about 1683. The first wave of migrants left due to the Goan Inquisition that made the use of Konknni, a punishable offence for converts to Western Christianity.[citation needed] The second wave left Goa because of famines, epidemics & political upheavals. The third and last wave resulted from the violent Mahratta Invasion of Goa and Bombay.[3] Until the time of Hyder Ali's regime, the community had flourished. Soon after his son Tippu Sultan gained possession of Mangalore in January 1784, he issued orders to seize the Christians in Canara, confiscate their estates, and deport them to Seringapatam. They had to suffer extreme hardships, torture, death by execution, and other kinds of persecution during the captivity, in which many were forcibly converted to Sunni Islam. Of the 60,000-80,000 Christians taken captive, only 15,000-20,000 made it out alive as Christians.[4] The captivity ended with the defeat and death of Tippu at the Battle of Seringapatam (1799).