Salsette Island - History

History

The word Sasashti (also shortened to Sashti) is Marathi for "sixty-six", referring to the original "sixty-six villages" on the island. It was inhabited by farmers, agriculturists, toddy tappers, artisans, fisherfolks who trace their conversion to Christianity back to 55 AD with the arrival of Christ’s disciple St. Bartholomew in North Konkan, west Maharashtra and who later were converted to Roman Catholicism by four different Religious orders —Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians and Jesuits who arrived in the 15th century along with the Portuguese. These original natives of Salsette island are the East Indian Catholics and Kolis.

109 Buddhist caves, including those at Kanheri, can be found on the island, and date from the end of the 2nd century. The island was ruled by a succession of Hindu kingdoms, the last of which to rule the islands were the Silharas. In 1343, the islands were annexed by the Muslim Sultanate of Gujarat. In 1534, the Portuguese took the islands from Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. Sashti became part of the northern province of Portuguese India, which was governed from Baçaím (present-day Vasai) on the north shore of Vasai Creek, it was leased to Dom Diogo Rodrigues also called as Mestre Diego from 25 October 1535 to 1548. In 1661, the seven Bombay islets were ceded to Britain as part of the dowry of Catherine of Bragança to King Charles II of England while Salsette remained in Portuguese hands. King Charles in turn leased the Bombay islets to the British East India Company in 1668 for £10 per year. The company found the deep harbour at Bombay eminently apposite, and the population rose from 10,000 in 1661 to 60,000 by 1675. In 1687, the East India Company transferred their headquarters there from Surat. In 1737 the island was captured by the Marathas, and most of the Portuguese northern province was ceded to the Marathas in 1739.

The British occupied Salsette in 1774, which was formally ceded to the East India Company in the 1782 Treaty of Salbai. In 1782, William Hornby, then Governor of Bombay Presidency, initiated the project of connecting the isles of Bombay. By 1845 the seven southern islands had been connected to form Old Bombay, with an area of 435 km². Railway viaducts and causeways were built in the 19th century to connect Bombay island to the mainland via Salsette. The channel separating Bombay from Salsette and Trombay islands were bridged by the Sion Causeway in 1803. Accessibility considerably increased after construction of this causeway. Mahim and Bandra were connected by a causeway in 1845. These railway lines and roads encouraged wealthier merchants to build villas on Salsette Island, and by 1901 the population of Salsette increased to 146,993 and the region began to be referred to as Greater Bombay.