Mangalorean Catholics - Ethnic Identity

Ethnic Identity

The Roman Catholics from the Mangalore Diocese (erstwhile South Canara district) and their descendents are generally known as Mangalorean Catholics. The diocese is located on the southwestern coast of India. It comprises the civil districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in Karnataka state, and Kasaragod in Kerala state. This region was collectively referred to as South Canara during the British regime, prior to the States Reorganisation Act (1956).

In 1526, Portuguese ships arrived in Mangalore, and the number of local converts slowly increased. However, a sizeable Christian population did not exist until the second half of the 16th century, when there was a large-scale immigration of Christians from Goa to South Canara who were reluctant to learn the local languages of South Canara. They continued to speak Konkani, the language which they brought from Goa, and local Christians had to learn Konkani to converse with these people. After migration, the skilled Goan Catholic agriculturists were offered various land grants by the native Bednore rulers of South Canara. They observed their traditional Hindu customs in conjunction with the newfound Catholic practices, and preserved their lifestyle.

Most migrants were people from the lower economic strata who had been left out of government and economic jobs; their lands had been confiscated due to heavy taxation under the Portuguese in Goa. As a consequence of the wealth and privileges which these Goan migrants enjoyed in Mangalore, they began feeling superior to their landless brethren in Goa. Their captivity at Seringapatam (1784–1799), where many died, were killed, or were forcibly converted to Islam, led to the formation of a separate and common Mangalorean Catholic cultural identity among members of the group, who hitherto had considered themselves an extension of the larger Goan Catholic community. They no longer self-identified as Goan Catholics. After the captivity, employment on British ships, prosperity under the British and Italian Jesuit regimes, and migration for employment to Bombay, Calcutta, Poona, Persian Gulf Arab states, and the Anglosphere, enabled the community to restore their identity. The overwhelming majority of Mangalorean Catholics are of Goud Saraswat Brahmin lineage. Historian Alan Machado Prabhu estimates that almost 95 per cent of Mangalorean Catholics have Goan origins.