Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam

[14] Propagation of Christianity in the region only began after the arrival of the Portuguese in 1498,[14] when Vasco da Gama's landed on St Mary's Islands in South Canara and planted a cross there on his voyage from Portugal to India.

[16] In 1500, the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral arrived at Anjediva in North Canara with eight Franciscan missionaries under the leadership of Frei Henrique Soares de Coimbra.

[20] By 1686, Seringapatam, capital of the Kingdom of Mysore, was home to a community of more than 400 Catholic Christians who were severely harassed in the following two decades when their churches were destroyed and the priest's house confiscated.

[32] Hyder's army included several Catholic soldiers and he allowed Christians to build a church within the Seringapatam Fort where French generals offered prayers and priests visited.

[49][50] The History of the Diocese of Mangalore by J. Moore and Angelus Francis Xavier Maffei also purports to show that the Christians of Canara were charged with assisting the British during the Second Anglo-Mysore War.

[57] "We instantly directed the Divan of the Havur Kutchery to prepare a list of houses occupied by Christians, taking care not to omit a single habitation.

Soon after Tipu gained possession of Mangalore in January 1784, he issued orders for the seizure of the Christians in Canara, confiscation of their estates, and their subsequent deportation to his capital at Seringapatam along the Jamalabad fort route.

[60] On 24 February 1784, (Ash Wednesday), in a secret and well planned move, Tipu arrested a large number of Christians across the province of Canara and other parts of his kingdom.

[66] Many were actively assisted by the Hindus whilst the few Christians in Canara who escaped Tipu's initial captivity fled to Coorg and Malabar, where they were protected by the native rulers.

[78][79] A few buildings escaped destruction, including a small chapel at Shantigramma near Hassan, built in 1768 and said to have been saved by Tipu's Muslim officers on the pretext that it was used to store cotton.

[84] The town of "Nettrekere" or "Netterkedu" in Tulu, on the cross roads from Maripalla to Kalpane, derives its name from the large pool of blood which resulted from the execution of rebellious Mangalorean Catholics on their march to Mysore.

[86] The Barcoor Manuscript along with other British Government records suggest that 20,000 captives (one-third of the total) died on the march to Seringapatam due to hunger, disease, and ill treatment by soldiers.

[86] One English prisoner related that two risalas (regiments of soldiers) arrived daily in Seringapatam to select girls they could take as prizes to join their harems.

[89] Historian Lewin Bentham Bowring reports that, "Tipu demanded the surrender of the daughters of some of these Christians in order to have them placed in his seraglio, and that, on the refusal of their parents, the latter had their[89] noses, ears and upper lips cut off, and were paraded through the streets on asses, with their faces towards the tails of the animals.

[84] One of his most faithful servants, a Mangalorean Catholic named Manuel Mendes, saved Tipu's life in Travancore when he donned his master's robes and sat in his palanquin.

[97] The Christians, believing that this tribulation came upon them for their neglect of the Law of God and their religious duties, began to fervently read the Krista Purana, an epic poem on the life of Jesus Christ written by the English Jesuit Thomas Stephens (1549––1619).

[87] According to Mr. Silva of Gangollim, a survivor of the captivity, if a person who had escaped from Seringapatam was found, the punishment ordered by Tipu was amputation of the ears, nose, feet and one hand.

Wherefore he had dispatched these his trusty messengers who might convey the words of his mouth in all variety, begging the Governor and the Archbishop not to refuse every needful exertion towards succoring their brethren Christians according to the obligations of their religion.

[102] After considering the changed circumstances, the Archbishop of Goa, by a provision issued on 20 February 1795, appointed Minguel José Louis Mendes interim vicar of the four sub-districts of Mangalore, Barcoor, Onore and Moolki.

[108] Soon after the death of Tipu, a detachment from the Bombay army under Lieutenant-Colonel Wiseman took possession of Mangalore on 4 June 1799, as well as the entire province of Canara, with the exception of the fortress of Jamalabad.

In determining ownership of land, he sent two Mangalorean Hindus, Muthsuddy Vencappah and Saly Purvoe Dur Shetty along with other Christians to investigate and report back to him about these estates.

[114] Padre José Miguel Luis de Mendes, a Goan Catholic priest, was appointed Vicar of Our Lady of Rosary at Mangalore on 7 December 1799.

"[122] British Colonel Mark Wilks in his Historical Sketches of the South of India, cites an account in which Tipu mentions that, "the cause arose from the rage of Islam began to boil in his breast when informed of the circumstances of the spread of Christianity in Goa and Canara.

As evidence of this, Prabhu states that Tipu does not mention a large scale Christian conspiracy in his writings in the Sultan-ul-Tawarikh, where he justifies his action instead as arising from the "rage of Islam that began to boil in his breast.

[54] Therefore, according to Prabhu, through coerced confessions of prominent Mangalorean Catholics, Tipu fabricated evidence of a large-scale Christian conspiracy against him, even though he knew it wasn't true.

Nor were our ancestors disappointed, for they found that the main object of British rule in India was to secure the happiness of the people over whom it was held.Thirty years after the event the apparent lack of resistance from the Christian captives drew criticism from the French priest Abbe Dubois.

[130] The treatment of the prisoners of Tippu Sultan's Coorg and Mangalore campaigns is recorded in the Arabic and Farsi inscriptions on the south wall of the mosque at Seringapatam, dated 1787 AD.

[131][non-primary source needed] Now followed the fate of the poor[132] Malabar Christians,[b] of which I shall consider myself the innocent cause, in reading what was written by General Mathews, as stated in the preceding note.

Their country was invested by Tippu's army, and they were driven men, women and children to the number of 30,000 to Sirangapatam where all who were fit to carry arms were circumcised and forwarded into four battalions.

The sufferings of these poor creatures were most excruciating: one circumstance which came under my immediate notice, I will attempt to describe: when recovered they were armed and drilled, and ordered to Mysore, nine miles from the capital, but for what purpose we could not learn.