The island of Bombay and its neighbouring bigger island of Salsette have been below the sway of Sultans of Gujarat and shaped an integral although distant outpost of their territories. It began on the finish of the thirteenth century when the military of Alauddin Khilji conquered Gujarat and North Konkan from its Rajput rulers in 1297-98. Somewhat later the generals of Khilji’s son tightened their maintain on the brand new conquest.
The province was positioned answerable for the Muslim governors whose headquarters have been within the historical capital of Anhilwad Patan in Gujarat and garrisons below subordinate navy officers have been stationed at strategic factors, considered one of which was at Thane. After the breakup of the Delhi sultanate a 100 years later, and the rise of impartial dynasty of Sultans of Ahmedabad within the first decade of the fifteenth century, Bombay and Salsette have been included of their intensive Kingdom together with North Konkan. It remained so until 1534, when the Mughal emperor Humayun invaded Gujarat.
The beleaguered Sultan of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah To be able to safe the assistance of Portuguese in opposition to the invader entered into the fateful treaty
of Bassein (Vasai) with the Portuguese Viceroy, Nuno da Cunha below which, he transferred to the king of Portugal the fort & island of Bassein, the entire of Salsette the group of islands now forming Bombay moreover smaller islands like Karanja, Elephanta and others.
By the second Treaty of Bassein in October 1535, between the identical two events, the Portuguese got permission to construct a fortress at Div (current Diu). The Portuguese seized town of Div after drowning Bahadur Shah within the Div harbour, in 1537. After the lapse of one other 10 years in 1538, they secured the cession of the fort and the city of Daman.
Management over the 2 key ports of Diu and Daman gave the Portuguese management over the essential Gulf of Cambay, which was very important to the commerce with Malacca (in Malaysia) from the port of Cambay (present-day Khambhat), dominated by Gujarati retailers. Textiles have been key in such a sample of intra-Asian commerce.
The Javanese and Malays, for example, wouldn’t settle for every other merchandise aside from textiles in trade for foodstuffs and spices. Burma (Myanmar) exchanged rice and silver from Pegu (historical metropolis of Burma) for the textiles traded by Indian retailers. Business hyperlinks between South Asia and Southeast Asia have been so sturdy that in keeping with the Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires, Malacca couldn’t ‘reside with out Cambay, nor Cambay with out Malacca’.
Thereafter, for the following 130 years these locations remained below the Portuguese rule because the nucleus of their ‘Province of the North’ with Bassein because the capital. The 2 divisions into which the Portuguese territory within the North Konkan was divided: Daman, had jurisdiction over 4 districts of Sanjan, Tarapore, Dahanu and Mahim; Bassein’s jurisdiction prolonged from Agashi within the north to the island of Karanja within the South.
Collectively they shaped what the Portuguese referred to as the ‘Province of the North’, to differentiate it from their essential possessions spherical about Goa in South Konkan. In Could 1661, as per the wedding alliance between Charles II of England and Catharine of Braganza, the Portuguese king’s daughter, Bombay was given to the English as dowry.
Nonetheless, the Portuguese nonetheless retained possession of Bassein, Salsette, Sion, Dharavi, Mazagaon, Worli, Parel and Wadala. Subsequently, the king of England handed Bombay over to East India firm in 1668 for the nominal give up hire of 10 British kilos yearly.
Bombay’s contacts with Gujarat have been thus restored, and the primary 4 Governors of the island have been the Presidents of the English manufacturing facility at Surat. In 1712 it was determined to lastly shift the Firm’s headquarters from Surat to Bombay. The island acquired an impartial political entity the place the English have been the only masters. Nonetheless, it continued its contacts with Gujarat by advantage of the commerce nonetheless carried on by the Surat manufacturing facility and by growing participation within the political and historic occasions that have been going down in Surat and within the Mughal Empire, till in 1800 your entire administration of Surat was performed by the English elements there, below the instructions of their superiors at Bombay.
It nevertheless must be remembered that apart from its lovely setting, Bombay of thosedays had nothing that’s attribute of its greatness immediately. It consisted of a gaggle of seven islets, which have been divided by creeks via which sea water flowed at each excessive tide leaving marshy swamps and unhealthy exhalations when it receded. An important of those seven islands was Mahim. By 1673 that they had been diminished to 4 by the silting up of seashores. These in flip have been, by the top of 18th century, joined collectively by raised causeways and embankments and the filling up of low-lying tracks.
Considered one of these islands Mumbai, got here in time to present its identify to the entire group extending from Colaba to Mahim creek. The Portuguese rulers corrupted the identify to Bombaim or Mombaim, which was additional reworked into Bombay after it handed on to the arms of
the English firm.
The sooner references to the contact of Portuguese with Bombay previous to its acquisition are from the years 1509 and 1517. It’s not nevertheless, until 1529 February that we discover a specifically attention-grabbing episode recorded within the Portuguese Chronicles. On this 12 months the governor of Portuguese India arrived together with his fleet off Chaul and Bombay in quest of the Gujarat fleet to fulfil their ambition to seize the Indian seas. Considered one of his squadrons below a courageous officer Heitor de Silveira defeated the Gujarat fleet on the mouth of Nagothna river.
Subsequently, he and his males made incursions into the assorted islands on this aspect of the coast and gave Bombay the identify of Ilha da bon Vida (the island of fine life) due to the nice days they spent there with a lot sport and abundance of meat and rice. This joyful title given to the island for the time being when the very seedlings of its life and progress have been being planted is of curiosity as being prophetic of the prosperity that was in retailer for it, within the years to come back.
Silveira afterwards went to the fort of Bassein, which he discovered nicely defended, however he stormed the fortifications of this Muslim citadel, plundered and burnt the city after which returned to Bombay. In January 1531, the Portuguese organised an imposing naval and navy pageant at Bombay to showcase their naval may & overawe the native rulers. This was adopted by the deputation of an officer
in March 1531, to harry the coast of Gujarat. In pursuance of this coverage the cities of Mahua, Valsad, Tarapur, Surat, Ghogha and others have been attacked and plundered.
Thereafter, in December 1532, some 2000 Portuguese troopers along with 800 Kanarese made a decided assault on Bassein. The Muslim fort was taken after a fierce resistance. Thana, Bandra and island of Mahim and Bombay have been captured subsequent.
The Gujarat Sultan laborious pressed as he was by the Mughal invasion of his kingdom, despatched an envoy to rearrange the phrases of peace. A treaty was signed within the port of Bassein on board the galleon St. Mathew between Nuno de Cunha and the envoy of Sultan Bahadur Shah on twenty third December 1534. By this fateful treaty, the fertile pargana of Bassein with its dependencies and islands handed into the arms of the Portuguese. The treaty is memorable as being in all probability the primary of its type between a European energy and an Indian sovereign. It gave the Portuguese the primary foot maintain on the coast of north Konkan.
The envoy of Bahadur Shah managed to insert a clause within the Treaty to make sure the safety of his faith within the ceded territory. After the switch of sovereignty had been affected, 5000 larins have been to be utilized by the Portuguese out of the revenues yearly to fulfill the bills on the mosques as earlier than. This stipulation was earlier than lengthy repudiated by the brand new rulers who utilised the revenues for the propagation of Christianity whereas the mosques have been persistently destroyed by the zealous missionaries who quickly
established themselves within the newly acquired territories.
(Dr Amarjit Singh is a retired IAS officer from Gujarat cadre who has held posts within the Central and State governments)
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