History of Mangalorean Catholics - Captivity at Seringapatam

Captivity At Seringapatam

The captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam, which began on 24 February 1784 and ended on 4 May 1799, remains the most disconsolate memory in their history. Soon after the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784, Tippu gained control of Canara. He issued orders to seize the Christians in Canara, confiscate their estates, and deport them to Seringapatam, the capital of his empire, through the Jamalabad fort route. The account of the number of captives differ ranging from 30000 to 80,000. According to Thomas Munro, a Scottish soldier and the first collector of Canara, around 60,000 of them, nearly 92 percent of the entire Christian community of Canara, were captured, only 7,000 escaped. Francis Buchanan gives the numbers as 70,000 captured, from a population of 80,000, with 10,000 escaping. They were forced to climb nearly 4,000 feet (1,200 m) through the dense jungles and gorges of the Western Ghat mountain ranges along the Kulshekar-Virajpet-Coorg-Mysore route. It was 210 miles (340 km) from Mangalore to Seringapatam, and the journey took six weeks. According to the Barkur Manuscrpt, written in Canarese by a Mangalorean Catholic from Barkur after his return from Seringapatam, 20,000 of them (one-third) died on the march to Seringapatam due to hunger, disease and ill treatment by the soldiers. Those who resisted were thrown down from the Jamalabad fort route. According to James Scurry, a British officer, who was held captive along with Mangalorean Catholics, 30,000 of them were captured. The young women and girls were forcibly made wives of the Muslims living there. The young men who offered resistance were disfigured by cutting their noses, upper lips, and ears and paraded in the city. According to Mr. Silva of Gangolim, a survivor of the captivity, if a person who had escaped from Seringapatam was found, the punishment under the orders of Tipu was the cutting off of the ears, nose, the feet and one hand.