Canberra, 18 February 2023 Venad was an early-medieval kingdom in the southern tip of Kerala with its capital at Quilon (Kollam). It was one of the four major principalities that made up the region of Kerala, the other three being Kolathunadu (Cannanore/Kannur), Nediyiruppu (Calicut/Kozhikode) and Perumpadappu (Cochin/Kochi). The rulers of Venad trace their ancestry to […]
Continue readingEuropeans in India The Portuguese Part 5 Of Cruelty and Religion – The Indelible Connection
Canberra, 9 January 2023 The Arrogance of Ignorance Vasco da Gama was the first European to reach the western coast of India by sea direct from Europe. He had expected to find a ‘backward’ country that had to be ‘civilised’, since the Europeans of the 15th and 16th centuries illogically and erroneously assumed that their […]
Continue readingEuropeans in India The Portuguese Part 4 Governance, Policies and Operations
Canberra, 5 January 2023 There are two viewpoints regarding the Portuguese attempt to establish a ‘State’ in the Indian sub-continent, headquartered at Goa. One, a sort of sweeping assessment, states that the defeat of the Arab coalition at Diu in 1509 by Almeida ended all threats to Portugal’s hegemony in the Indian Ocean region. The […]
Continue readingEuropeans in India – The Portuguese Part 3 A Viceroy and Three Governors Section III: Lopo Soares & Diego Lopes
Canberra, 3 December 2022 [Detailed accounts of the tenures of the first Viceroy and three Governors who succeeded him have been given for the reader to get a flavour of the activities that these individuals undertook to perpetuate Portuguese presence in the Indian sub-continent and to create a monopoly on the lucrative spice trade, which […]
Continue readingEuropeans in India – The Portuguese Part 3 A Viceroy and Three Governors Section II: Afonso D’Albuquerque
Canberra, 03 December 2022 When he assumed the office of Governor of Estado da India on 5th November 1509, Afonso D’Albuquerque, was 56 years of age, an old man for that period. His first action was to assist Marshal Coutinho to attack Calicut, which he was reluctant to do, but had to agree considering the […]
Continue readingEuropeans in India The Portuguese Part 3 A Viceroy and Three Governors Section I Francisco D’Almeida (1505-1509)
Canberra, 03 December 2022 ‘The Portuguese of the 16th and 17th centuries had nothing to teach the people of India except improved methods of killing people in war and the narrow feeling of bigotry in religion. Surely these were not matters of such importance as to make it necessary for Indians to feel grateful towards […]
Continue readingEuropeans in India – The Portuguese Part 2 The Portuguese Vanguard
Canberra 19 November 2022 The Zamorin of Calicut welcomed the Portuguese in a friendly manner, as he was his custom with all merchants who came to trade at his port. He sent a local pilot to take the foreign ships to shelter from the fury of the on-coming South-West Monsoon rains. However, Vasco da Gama […]
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