January 2007

January 2007

Mangalore Today

Mangalore is a beautiful place known to their citizens as their beloved city.

Like everyone on earth,  they say the sweetest place on this planet is their home. So let us find out a little more about this place.   Being on the coast it is studded with beautiful beaches, still unfettered with the clutter of civilization.

Sultan Battery
Situated in Boloor 6 Km. away from Mangalore, the structure was built in Black Stones by Tippu Sultan, who ruled Mysore,  to prevent British warships to enter Gurpur river.   The fort  is also known as . Sultan Battery.  Though It  is in a deserted spot  it still attracts some visitors.

St. Aloysius College and Chapel

The St. Aloysius college chapel is more than a 100 years old. Having its walls and ceiling, painted  with frescos  by the Italian artist, Brother  Antonio Moscheni, of the Jesuit Order.    The College started as a school has evolved into a major educational institution.   More

The Milagres Church in Hampankatta

Rev. Thomas de Castro in the year 1680  built this Church on the Inam (gift) land gifted by Queen Chennamma and the Bednore King at the site of the present cemetery.     Fr Antony Pinto built a new church on the site of the present one in 1756 as the earlier church was too old.      On February 24, 1784, Ash Wednesday, the soldiers of Tippu Sultan destroyed the Milagres church, the stones of which were used by Tippu to erect the Idgah on Light House Hill where the St. Aloysius College is located, and took many Catholics as captives to Srirangapattana.    Amongst those who returned from the captivity was   Mr Lawrence Bello, a baker to the Europeans at Mangalore, who built a chapel on the site of the present church to replace the destroyed church.  Fr Jose Minguel Mendy served in this chapel as the parish priest.

In 1811, Fr F. M. Mendez, the Vicar Vara laid the foundation for a spacious building.  The parish priest received a contribution of Rs 600/- from the government with the help of Salvadore Pinto, brother-in-law of Marianne Monteiro and former Munshi under Tippu, and built a new church. 100 years later in 1911, the façade of the church collapsed, and it was decided to demolish the whole building and raise a new one.

Fr S. Frank Pereira erected the present magnificent church in 1911, with Fr Diamanti s. j of the  Jeppu Seminary  as its architect    The spacious portico was added in 1956 by Fr Albert V. D’Souza, later the Archbishop of Calcutta.  The main altar has the privileged status, Altare Privilegiatum.

For more details on the history of this diocese you may read more

    Karkal, is a town in the Belthangadi  Taluka of the Mangalore District.   See the  map above.   This is a granite sculpture of Lord Buddha.

Karkal is situated 17 Kms from Moodabidri,   It is a center of effervescent activity where one can see young zealous sculptors engraving beautiful figures and bringing stones to life.  It also has a huge Chaturmukha Basti. In recent years Ranjal Gopal Sharma, a famous sculptor, has left behind a living tradition of the art of engraving.   Statues made here are appreciated over the world & exported to Japan.

Karkala's two main attractions are a massive 12.8 m monolithic Gomateshwara and the St Lawrence Church  close by.   These draw thousands of devotees from all communities.

The Western Ghats

These are the mountain ranges which separate the coastal region from the interior where Bangalore is situated.   To go from Mangalore to Bangalore one has to cross the western Ghats and it was a tedious journey just a few years ago, and in the beginning of the 20th century, my grandfather had to walk all this distance on foot to start his first coffee estate.    You can see here a picture of the road to Bangalore via the Ghats today:

Economic Prosperity

Mangaloreans took advantage of the British coffee planters leaving their estates and selling them to Indians, during the closing part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century   My grandfather was one of the early coffee planters.

Most of the coffee plantations are located in the Mercara district, on the highlands of Coorg.    My grand father started his coffee estates in the early part of the 20th century with his friend and cousin Saturnine Mathias and both of them used to walk the 60 miles from Mangalore to the estates.   They used to take a bullock cart ride on carts that were going that way, and on the way used to climb coconut trees and take tender coconuts and eat them with beaten rice and jaggery as their nourishment.    From these hardships they acquired their wealth which they also used for good causes like funding schools and hospitals.    The next generation however, lost it, as the war broke out and all coffee sales were restricted by the British.

Basel Mission

The German Missionary Society (subsequently became the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society) came into being as a result of a pledge taken by few dedicated Christians at Basel in the face of a military threat. It was the year 1815 when Napoleon had escaped from the Island of Elba (where was a prisoner), and landed in France. The War continued in Europe. The City of Basel was very close to the borders of Germany and France

As early as 1840 the Mission tried  to rehabilitate people  on a piece of land near Mangalore presented by the Collector    Rev. Samuel Hebich tried coffee plantation and sugar manufacture  from toddy but  had to give it up it did not prove successful.   The Missionaries conceived of an Industrial Establishment as a better alternative for creating jobs.

Way back in 1846, the Basel Mission started an Industrial school to train people in weaving, carpentry, clock making, etc., with the help of some local artisans. . In 1848, two lay-Missionaries, Bosinger and Muller, were sent to South Kanara to teach some new trades. These lay-Missionaries were by profession a carpenter and a locksmith. But both of them had learned watch and clock making before they were sent to India. They tried watch and clock manufacturing in Mangalore.   The first important Industrial undertaking which met with success was printing press with book binding department attached to it. The printing press was started in 1841 at Mangalore. First lithograph and later Kannada types were introduced. In 1851, a printer from Basel came with Kannada fonts/types for the press at Mangalore. The press thus provided employment to many people. Besides Christian books, books related to social sciences, arts and literature were also published at the press. A few well known works which came out of this press were Kittle's Kannada-English Dictionary, Ziegler's English-Kannada Dictionary, Malayam - English, English-Malayam, English-Tulu dictionaries and so on. Since the press was expanding, a big new building was built in 1913 giving regular employment to the people.  A separate book shop was opened in 1869, to sell the publications of the press.

In 1844 the Missionaries who knew a little about weaving business took initiative and started a weaving industry to give employment. Local weavers were also employed to train young boys.  As  the local looms could not compete with the Western mills.  Haller a European weaver was sent in 1851 to erect a little factory in Mangalore with 21 handlooms of European construction and a Dye house. He was the inventor of the color "Khaki" and Khaki cloth now known all over the world was first manufactured in Mangalore. Soon the weaving industry proved to be a success giving many people employment. A branch was opened in Mulki in 1853. The apprentices in this industry were also taught tailoring and embroidery. By 1870 the Basel Mission weaving Establishments in various places were not only paying for the cost of the Establishments but also made some profit.

In the year 1851-52  it was concluded that Industrial training must form part of the activities of the mission in India.   The new outlook and stress for greater involvement gave a boost to the Commission which was made a department of the Basel Missionary Society with a separate treasury. One of the most eminent Citizens of Basel, Mr. Carl Sarasin accepted the Presidency of it. The Commission felt that to run all the Industries good management was necessary.  Under Mr. Pfleiderer  the purchasing of the raw materials and the sale of the finished products was organized. This was the beginning of the commercial enterprise of the Mission, which aimed not at profit making but teaching how to conduct business on Christian Principles. The work of the Industrial and commercial activities required larger capital. To meet this need a joint stock company was formed under the name Mission-Handels-Gesellschaft (Mission Trading Company).

Manufacture of Tiles

One of the new major Industries started after this new policy was a Tile Manufacturing Factory. As south Kanara gets heavy rains during the Monsoons Missionaries thought that good tiles would be in great demand. Since the soil available was also suitable for the manufacture of tiles, a tile factory to manufacture flat tiles was started in 1865. (The tiles used for the roof of the Cantonment Orphanage or Cathedral High School on Richmond Road in Bangalore were from the first Basel Tile Factory, and dates back to 1865). The newly introduced tile industry progressed well and in 1877 the second factory was opened and the third one in 1880. These factories employed both men and women. The reports show that by 1913, the tile factories were employing 2,000 workers and were producing 60,000 tiles a day.

In 1874 the mechanical workshop was founded to train apprentices in jobs like carpentry, black smithy and watch making. The apprentices were given theoretical and practical training followed by the Government examinations in these Trades. This it provided technical training and produced many skilled artisans. The product of this workshop was also very much appreciated and the proof for this in the order issued in 1912 where the Government of Madras declared the Basel Mission mechanical Establishment as eligible for supplying safes for Government Institutions. It is also recorded that its products won awards at various exhibitions. Though all these efforts started in a small way, by 1914 it had become a major enterprise in South Kanara.

Though the Basel Mission Industrial Enterprises were often criticized, they inspired may other Missionary Societies to start work on similar lines. In 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War, the Industrial Establishment of Basel Mission was confiscated by the British Government to be a German Organization. This created a set back for the Basel Mission's work in India. After the war the Industries were managed under the Commonwealth Trust. One can say that these objectives of the Basel Mission were to a large extent fulfilled and gained desired results. Definite economic benefit was achieved for the society ad country through these Industries. However, many had to leave he district especially the carpenters and black smiths because of lack of openings in South Kanara. Since 1879, most of them ,migrated to Bombay (Mumbai). This can be seen negatively as disrupting community in South Kanara. But ready employment for Basel Mission Christian artisans at Bombay gave people satisfaction. This also resulted in the forming of the Basel Mission Canarese Church in Bombay.

Though the Basel Mission is best known in India for the Industries connected with it and through the Industrial department has in the course of time become an integral part of it. The Basel Mission itself never looked upon these Industries as anything else but as for the time being necessary and useful attendants of the Mission work in the useful sense of the term.

I like to take this opportunity to say that I had friends who were from the Protestant Community and belonged to this Mission.   One of them was my classmate, Ronald Soans and his father had a Photographic Shop which was famous in Mangalore.   The other was Melville Theodore who conducted music classes and was a pioneer in music.    The Weltha brothers too were musicians, and one of them was my classmate.    Today the youngsters from this community like the Mangalorean Catholics have spread to  all corners of the world, and we should be glad that we still remember our old friends with nostalgia.

Mr. Felix Albuquerque was a pioneer in the Catholic community to venture successfully into the tile business and his enterprise is carried forward by his sons.

Mangalore is a city which is slowly changing.  The hinterland is still lingering in the past amidst its greenery, fields and the coconut groves.    The people have changed little and their old traditions and customs are still followed.   Youngsters have moved to greener pastures, but still carry deep in their hearts the culture they inherited from their ancestors.

Mangalore brings to mind the smell of roasted cashew nuts, immaculate beaches, colonial bungalows high churches, divine temples, mystical dargas, hospitable people, rich food, sweltering heat   People of different communities have lived together for centuries in amity and without any friction.    It is my endeavor to teach our present generation the good that has existed in their land which they had to leave for better prospects and they should appreciate the good that exists still in themselves.

Mangalorean were cradled in this coastal town ever since their ancestors migrated from Goa.   They retained their lands and fields by marrying within the community and with arranged marriages within their close circles.    But this all ended with India gaining independence, and when the Government passed new laws to  reform the agricultural holdings and all those who had invested in lands and fields lost them to the tillers and then they had nothing to hold them back.   Many left Mangalore immediately after 1947 and settled down in Bangalore and others migrated to UK, USA, Canada and Australia.   This migration has continued up to this day, primarily for advanced education, and ultimate settlement in their host countries.

A spark that was lit 500 years ago, has spread like bush fire, and today we find visitors to my website from all corners of the globe.   It is very refreshing to see, that our people are looking for partners outside their communities and thus expanding the horizon of the points of views.    Cultures are getting assimilated and a new India is being born as a result.   More broad minded and all embracing.   This should help the ending of communal conflicts.   It can be done by people who have inter-married with partners of other communities by trying to understand each other's back grounds and from where they have inherited their outlooks.

Perhaps this little gesture from this website will be well received and communal harmony will spread as a result.