The island of Bombay and its neighbouring larger island of Salsette were under the sway of Sultans of Gujarat and formed an integral though remote outpost of their territories. It all started at the end of the 13th century when the army of Alauddin Khilji conquered Gujarat and North Konkan from its Rajput rulers in 1297-98. A little later the generals of Khilji’s son tightened their hold on the new conquest.
The province was placed in charge of the Muslim governors whose headquarters were in the ancient capital of Anhilwad Patan in Gujarat and garrisons under subordinate military officers were stationed at strategic points, one of which was at Thane. After the breakup of the Delhi sultanate a 100 years later, and the rise of independent dynasty of Sultans of Ahmedabad in the first decade of the 15th century, Bombay and Salsette were included in their extensive Kingdom along with North Konkan. It remained so till 1534, when the Mughal emperor Humayun invaded Gujarat.
The beleaguered Sultan of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah In order to secure the help of Portuguese against the invader entered into the fateful treaty
of Bassein (Vasai) with the Portuguese Viceroy, Nuno da Cunha under which, he transferred to the king of Portugal the fort & island of Bassein, the whole of Salsette the group of islands now forming Bombay besides smaller islands like Karanja, Elephanta and others.
By the second Treaty of Bassein in October 1535, between the same two parties, the Portuguese were given permission to build a fortress at Div (present Diu). The Portuguese seized the city of Div after drowning Bahadur Shah in the Div harbour, in 1537. After the lapse of another 10 years in 1538, they secured the cession of the fort and the town of Daman.
Control over the two key ports of Diu and Daman gave the Portuguese control over the crucial Gulf of Cambay, which was vital to the trade with Malacca (in Malaysia) from the port of Cambay (present-day Khambhat), dominated by Gujarati merchants. Textiles were key in such a pattern of intra-Asian trade.
The Javanese and Malays, for instance, would not accept any other products apart from textiles in exchange for foodstuffs and spices. Burma (Myanmar) exchanged rice and silver from Pegu (ancient city of Burma) for the textiles traded by Indian merchants. Commercial links between South Asia and Southeast Asia were so strong that according to the Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires, Malacca could not ‘live without Cambay, nor Cambay without Malacca’.
Thereafter, for the next 130 years these places remained under the Portuguese rule as the nucleus of their ‘Province of the North’ with Bassein as the capital. The two divisions into which the Portuguese territory in the North Konkan was divided: Daman, had jurisdiction over 4 districts of Sanjan, Tarapore, Dahanu and Mahim; Bassein’s jurisdiction extended from Agashi in the north to the island of Karanja in the South.
Together they formed what the Portuguese called the ‘Province of the North’, to distinguish it from their main possessions round about Goa in South Konkan. In May 1661, as per the marriage alliance between Charles II of England and Catharine of Braganza, the Portuguese king’s daughter, Bombay was given to the English as dowry.
However, the Portuguese still retained possession of Bassein, Salsette, Sion, Dharavi, Mazagaon, Worli, Parel and Wadala. Subsequently, the king of England handed Bombay over to East India company in 1668 for the nominal quit rent of 10 British pounds annually.
Bombay’s contacts with Gujarat were thus restored, and the first four Governors of the island were the Presidents of the English factory at Surat. In 1712 it was decided to finally shift the Company’s headquarters from Surat to Bombay. The island acquired an independent political entity where the English were the sole masters. Nevertheless, it continued its contacts with Gujarat by virtue of the trade still carried on by the Surat factory and by increasing participation in the political and historical events that were taking place in Surat and in the Mughal Empire, until in 1800 the entire administration of Surat was conducted by the English factors there, under the directions of their superiors at Bombay.
It however needs to be remembered that except for its beautiful setting, Bombay of thosedays had nothing that is characteristic of its greatness today. It consisted of a group of seven islets, which were divided by creeks through which sea water flowed at every high tide leaving marshy swamps and unhealthy exhalations when it receded. The most important of these seven islands was Mahim. By 1673 they had been reduced to four by the silting up of beaches. These in turn were, by the end of 18th century, joined together by raised causeways and embankments and the filling up of low-lying tracks.
One of these islands Mumbai, came in time to give its name to the whole group extending from Colaba to Mahim creek. The Portuguese rulers corrupted the name to Bombaim or Mombaim, which was further transformed into Bombay after it passed on to the hands of
the English company.
The earlier references to the contact of Portuguese with Bombay prior to its acquisition are from the years 1509 and 1517. It is not however, till 1529 February that we find a specially interesting episode recorded in the Portuguese Chronicles. In this year the governor of Portuguese India arrived with his fleet off Chaul and Bombay in search of the Gujarat fleet to fulfil their ambition to capture the Indian seas. One of his squadrons under a brave officer Heitor de Silveira defeated the Gujarat fleet at the mouth of Nagothna river.
Subsequently, he and his men made incursions into the various islands on this side of the coast and gave Bombay the name of Ilha da bon Vida (the island of good life) because of the pleasant days they spent there with much game and abundance of meat and rice. This happy title given to the island at the moment when the very seedlings of its life and growth were being planted is of interest as being prophetic of the prosperity that was in store for it, in the years to come.
Silveira afterwards went to the fort of Bassein, which he found well defended, nevertheless he stormed the fortifications of this Muslim citadel, plundered and burnt the town and then returned to Bombay. In January 1531, the Portuguese organised an imposing naval and military pageant at Bombay to showcase their naval might & overawe the local rulers. This was followed by the deputation of an officer
in March 1531, to harry the coast of Gujarat. In pursuance of this policy the towns of Mahua, Valsad, Tarapur, Surat, Ghogha and others were attacked and plundered.
Thereafter, in December 1532, some 2000 Portuguese soldiers in addition to 800 Kanarese made a determined assault on Bassein. The Muslim fort was taken after a fierce resistance. Thana, Bandra and island of Mahim and Bombay were captured next.
The Gujarat Sultan hard pressed as he was by the Mughal invasion of his kingdom, sent an envoy to arrange the terms of peace. A treaty was signed in the port of Bassein on board the galleon St. Mathew between Nuno de Cunha and the envoy of Sultan Bahadur Shah on 23rd December 1534. By this fateful treaty, the fertile pargana of Bassein with its dependencies and islands passed into the hands of the Portuguese. The treaty is memorable as being probably the first of its kind between a European power and an Indian sovereign. It gave the Portuguese the first foot hold on the coast of north Konkan.
The envoy of Bahadur Shah managed to insert a clause in the Treaty to ensure the protection of his religion in the ceded territory. After the transfer of sovereignty had been affected, 5000 larins were to be applied by the Portuguese out of the revenues every year to meet the expenses on the mosques as before. This stipulation was before long repudiated by the new rulers who utilised the revenues for the propagation of Christianity while the mosques were persistently destroyed by the zealous missionaries who soon
established themselves in the newly acquired territories.
(Dr Amarjit Singh is a retired IAS officer from Gujarat cadre who has held posts in the Central and State governments)
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