Valladares - Portuguese Rule

Portuguese Rule

During Portuguese rule in the region, the converts came to be known as Salsette Christians and because Christianity does not recognise caste boundaries, a Portuguese education and conversion to Catholicism began to set them apart from the neighboring non-Christian populations, members of the family began to identify themselves with other converts in the region. As a consequence, they intermarried with converts from other castes - Koli, Vadval, Panchkalshi Brahmins, etc. As a consequence, cultural practices in terms of food, dress and daily rituals - traditional indicators of caste, became blurred.

In 1661, the Islands of Bombay came into the possession of the British as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza when she married Charles II of England.

During the Raj, the British set up a military base with training, medical and R&R facilities for their soldiers and officers on ‘The Rye’in Kalina. They apparently bombarded Sion Fort whenever they had a disagreement with the Catholic clergy! Their military base, provided employment to many of the local people. Chances are the Valladareses who are the subject of this article, seized this opportunity. Around this time one section of the family settled in Matarpacady, some in Bandra and one group moved to Girgaum.

Bombay's real transformation took place after 1668 when it was transferred to the East India Company for an annual rental fee of ten pounds, as Charles II found it too expensive to govern. Under the East India Company these islands off of the west coast of India were joined together and expanded by dams and reclamations over the following centuries to form the Island of Bombay. The growth of the Presidencies of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras in India were a result of the East India Company's well-defined strategy of developing land bases to facilitate trade. They needed clerks and scribes for the fledgling businesses which opened up within the Fort (Fort St George in the area which is now South Bombay) and Eurasians and people from different parts of the hinterland, including Portuguese India, stepped in to fill the breach. By the 1850s, the Valladares family, who by then had come to invest the wealth they acquired from fishing and trade in the education of their sons (and in those times, to a lesser-extent their daughters), encouraged their sons to exploit their familiarity with the Roman Script and Christian names and seek work in the growing city of Bombay.