The story of the evolution of the East Indians on the North Konkan coast runs parallel to the growth of a few marshy islands into India’s prima urbis.
Few communities in India have their history so intertwined with that of a great metropolis. The story of the evolution of the East Indians on the North Konkan coast runs parallel to the growth of a few marshy islands into India’s prima urbis.
That is the reason why Neville Gomes, author of Viva Queimada, a coffee table book on the community, starts his story in 1498 when Vasco da Gama landed in India. This was also the time when Mumbai’s history as a great port city began.
When Gomes started his research for the book, he did not want to write yet another book on the East Indians. “I did not want to do a pedestrian book. We are not antediluvian East Indians; I said the book will be about Mumbai. The history of this community runs parallel with the city,” says Gomes, who studied history at St Xavier’s College and runs an advertising and public relations firm.
The battle of Diu in 1509 AD when the Portuguese defeated a coalition of Muslim rulers and maritime powers is in the first chapter of the book. Gomes said the battle which paved way for the expansion of European colonialism in Asia is as important as the battle of Panipat, which brought Muslim sultanates to India.
The title of the book comes from Keemadh, the spice-flavoured punch served at community functions. The loss of the community’s land to Mumbai’s growing sprawl is the subject of one chapter. The book explores the competition for jobs and commissions in the East India Company between the local Catholics and those who migrated from Goa. The locals petitioned the queen of England for the privilege to be called East Indians, said Gomes.
This information solves the mystery why a community living on India’s west coast should be called East Indians. The queen is reported to have issued an ordinance to this effect though the diktat document has not been traced to any archives. “But we have been able to prove, by deducing reports, that such a diktat was issued,” said Gomes. The 134-page book is priced at Rs2,500 and proceeds from sales go to three charities.
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