Kanara Christians- the Early Agricultural Identity

A British census of South Kanara’s population in 1801 categorizes its Konkani-speaking inhabitants into two main classifications, Christians and Konkanies (non-Christians). While the professions of the latter are given as bankers, shopkeepers, and traders, those of Christians are identified as cultivators and merchants. This agricultural identity was acquired while the ancestors of Kanara’s Christians were still in Goa.

Agriculture came to Goa from Harappa via two likely routes. About 2200 BCE, a 300-year long mega drought afflicted an extensive global area. It was one of the prime reasons for the collapse of many civilizations. The year 1900 BCE, when summer monsoon precipitation had reached its lowest levels, is generally recognized as marking the end of the Mature Harappan Era. Skirting the Thar desert, Harappans migrated to other parts of India via the Gangetic basin, and Saurashtra.  

Rice, oryza indica, domesticated in Harappa from Indian and Chinese varieties, most likely reached Goa via the coast. Ragi, an African domesticate cultivated in Harappa, travelled with agro-pastoralists to the Deccan, and probably via sites like Usgalimal to Goa. There is good evidence that Dravidian-speakers dominated agriculture in southern Harappa (Sindh). The Dravidian word for rice, tandul, is preserved in Konkani.

In Goa, the agricultural economy developed in community owned village lands governed by the association of ganvkars (ganvkaria, communidade), who claimed to be descendants of the original settlers. Tradition records different origins for the institution of ganvkaria. The Foral records that four men cultivated two uninhabited islands and made them so productive that they became densely populated. The Portuguese chronicler Barros (1496-1570) writes that the founders came from Kanara (Karnataka, not to be confused with coastal Kanara) beyond the ghat in the Deccan. By 1526, every village had an elite group of ganvkars. The position was hereditary, passed on through the male line. No ganvkar could be removed from office, no matter what his offence.

The ganvkaria brought three types of land under cultivation: low-lying wetlands (kazan) by constructing embankments, level land with a high water table (ker), and upland or terraced fields for horticulture (morod). In recognition of their good governance, administration, and successful cultivation, these original settlers were given the title of ganvkar (governor, administrator, benefactor).

By the early 17th century, through laws favouring conversion and other means, most ganvkars had become Christians. Through this and the following century, ganvkarias underwent severe economic stress as the government increasingly turned to them for financial and manpower support during periods of continual warfare, especially against different Maratha powers. It resulted in large-scale emigration of Goan Christian cultivators to Kanara.

Kanara benefitted from the agricultural expertise of these immigrants. Buchanan writes that the Ikerri rulers had given great encouragement to Goan Christians to settle in Kanara. By Haidar’s time, these Christians possessed considerable landed estates, all confiscated by Tipu.

Munro, Kanara’s first British Collector (1799-1800), who was approached by 141 Christian survivors of the Captivity whose lands had been confiscated by Tipu and now cultivated by 235 tenants, attests they were the most industrious cultivators in Kanara. Ravenshaw, his successor, observed their lands fetched good prices for they were generally the best cultivated in Kanara. He writes, they claimed their lands were cleared, leveled, and first brought into cultivation by their forefathers. These properties consisted of paddy fields and plantations of coconut, mango, jack and other trees and crops. One such in Bantwal was sold by Tipu’s amildar for 132 pagodas (about Rs 525/-). The Machado family history remembers it owned paddy fields and gardens in Mermajal before the Captivity. The 1860 Memorial addressed by Christians to Bishop Bonand quotes a figure of Rs 5 lakhs as value of confiscated Christian lands.

In Srirangapatna, those too old to be forcibly conscripted into Tipu’s slave battalions, were given lands in the nearby villages of Yennehole and Palehalli to cultivate. Some family histories (Saldanhas and Bragas of Omzoor) claim their ancestors escaped deportation due their expertise in pan cultivation. In 1801, Buchanan observed that sugar cane and capsicum was mainly cultivated by Christians. The Jesuit expertise in coconut cultivation, documented in the 17th century work Arte Palmarica, may have been brought to Kanara by Goan Christians.

Back in Kanara, Ravenshaw wrote that the Christians were able to maintain themselves by their daily labour, and were in no need of any assistance from the government. However, my family history records my immediate ancestor Joachim, left Mermajal circa 1837 to cultivate lands belonging to Raja Bali Sait in Shiva Bagh, Marolli. Clearly, without property, survival in Omzur had become difficult.

On reflection, our dependence on agriculture, while being a major cause for emigration as economic pressures multiplied in Goa, also enabled our ancestors to re-establish themselves on their return from Srirangapatna. Perhaps nowhere else is it so forcefully visible today as in the celebration of the harvest festival, Monti Saibinnichem Fest.