History of Mangalorean Catholics - British Era (1799–1947)

British Era (1799–1947)

In the Battle of Seringapatam on 4 May 1799, the British stormed the fortress, breached the town of Seringapatam, and killed Tippu. After his death in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, the Mangalorean Catholics were freed from his captivity. Of the 60,000-80,000 Mangalorean Catholics taken captive, only 15,000-20,000 made it out as Christians. After deliverance from captivity, while returning home to South Canara the King of Coorg offered the Mangalorean Catholics safe stay in their lands and many of them settled in Coorg. British general Arthur Wellesley helped 10,000 of them return to South Canara and resettle on their lands. According to the Mangalorean genealogist Michael Lobo, the present Mangalorean Catholic community is descended almost entirely from this small group of survivors. Later, the British took over South Canara. In 1800, they took a census of the region. Of the 396,672 people living in South Canara, 10,877 were Christians. Padre José Miguel Luis de Mendes, a Goan Catholic priest, was appointed Vicar of Our Lady of Rosary at Mangalore on 7 December 1799. He took a lot of interest in the re-establishment of the community from 1799 to 1808. Later, British general John Goldsborough Ravenshaw II was appointed collector of South Canara. He took active part in the re-establishment of their former possessions and recovery of their estates. He constructed a church for them, which was completed in 1806. Their population almost doubled in 1818. According to various parish books existing that time, Mangalorean Catholics numbered 19,068 in South Canara (12,877 in Mangalore and Bantwal, 3,918 in Moolki, 2,273 in Cundapore and Barcoor). Seventeen churches which were earlier destroyed by Tippu were rebuilt. After relocation, the community prospered under the British, and the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Goa commenced again. Regarding the Christians, Stokes mentioned, "They have raised themselves to a name unquestionably the most respectable in every situation in which they move in Kanara, whether as holding high public". The Mangalorean Catholics gradually prospered under the British.

The opening of the Protestant German Basel Mission of 1834 in Mangalore brought many handicraft and tile-manufacturing industries to the region and led to a large-scale rise in employment. In 1836-7, when the political situation in Portugal was in turmoil, Antonio Feliciano de Santa Rita Carvalho, a Portuguese priest, was appointed Archbishop-elect of Goa in September 1836 without authorization from the Pope. Many Mangalorean Catholics did not accept the leadership of Carvalho but instead submitted to the Vicar Apostolic of Verapoly in Travancore, while some of them continued to be under the jurisdiction of Goa. The parishes in South Canara were divided into two groups — one under Goa and the other under Verapoly. Under the leadership of Joachim Pius Noronha, a Mangalorean Catholic priest, and John Joseph Saldanha, a Mangalorean Catholic judge, the Mangalorean Catholics sent a petition to the Holy See in 1840 to establish Mangalore as a separate Vicariate to ward off the differences. Conceding to their request, Pope Gregory XVI established Mangalore as a separate Vicariate on 17 February 1845 under the Verapoly Carmelites. The Mangalore Mission was then transferred to the French Carmelites by a Bull dated 3 January 1870. During the regime of Carmelites, the Mangalorean Catholics constantly sent memorandums to the Holy See to send Jesuits to Mangalore to start institutions for higher education, since the youth frequently had to go to Bombay and Madras for educational purposes. The Roman Catholic Church studied the situation and Pope Leo XIII by the Brief of 27 September 1878 handed over the Mangalore mission to the Italian Jesuit of Naples, who reached Mangalore on 31 December 1878. The Italian Jesuits played an important role in education, health, and social welfare of the community and built the St. Aloysius College in 1880, St Aloysius Chapel in 1884, and many other institutions and churches. On 25 January 1887, Pope Leo XIII established the Diocese of Mangalore, which is considered to be an important landmark in the community's history. In 1901, Mangalorean Catholics accounted for 76,000 of the total 84,103 Christians in South Canara., while in 1962, they numbered 186,741. During the mid-nineteenth century, Bishop Victor R. Fernandes, a Mangalorean Catholic priest, erected a large cross at former outskirts of Mangalore in Nanthoor near Padav hills to honour the memory of Mangalorean Catholic martyrs who died on the march and during their 15-year captivity at Seringapatam. During the later 20th century, they started migrating to other parts of India, especially Bombay and Bangalore. Till 1930 it was boom time when educated young Mangalorean Catholic men were drawn to Bombay from Mangalore in search of lucrative employment. It is to be noted however that the lower working class received no support from those of the upper class of their community in Bombay, Westernisation of habits and the rejection of the mother tongue was the reason for a sharp cleavage between the two classes. In 1930s, the profession taken up by the lower classes were as taxi drivers and fitters and as domestic service in homes. The men lived in koods mainly in Central and South Bombay. There were about 400 Mangalorean Catholics then in Bombay. The first Mangalorean Catholic to settle down in Madras in the 1940s was Dewan Bahadur Alexio Pinto.