Advent of Europeans: The sea route and the Portuguese

The Portuguese had built up Hooghly (Hugli) as their main base in Bengal in the late 16th century. Complaints of slave-raiding, piracy in the delta and the evasion of customs led the Mughal governor Qasim Khan to besiege and take the town in 1632, in the reign of Shah Jahan. Many Portuguese were taken prisoner to Agra. The episode marks the end of Portuguese power in Bengal.

Vasco da Gama's fleet anchored at Kappad near Calicut in May 1498, after a pilot engaged at Malindi on the East African coast guided it across the Arabian Sea. Calicut's Hindu ruler bore the title Zamorin (Samoothiri). He allowed limited trade, but the Arab merchants who dominated the pepper trade resented the newcomers, and relations soon turned hostile. The Kolathiri ruled the Kannur region to the north and became a Portuguese ally.

Albuquerque (governor 1509-15) captured Goa in 1510 and tried to build a settled Portuguese population there: he encouraged soldiers to marry local women (the casados) and he prohibited sati in Goa. He also extended Portuguese power to Malacca (1511) and Hormuz (1515). But the capital of the Estado da India moved from Cochin to Goa only in 1530, under Nino da Cunha, fifteen years after Albuquerque's death.

Francisco de Almeida, sent in 1505 as the first Portuguese viceroy, held that Portugal should control the sea lanes and not spend its small manpower on land forts and territory. This is called the Blue Water Policy (cartaz-backed naval control). His defeat of the combined Gujarati-Egyptian fleet off Diu in 1509 was its high point. His successor Albuquerque reversed the emphasis and seized key bases on land, such as Goa (1510).

Claiming lordship of the sea, the Portuguese required Asian ships in the waters they patrolled to carry a cartaz, a pass that named the ship, its captain and its cargo, and which bound it to call at Portuguese-held ports and pay duties there. Ships without one could be seized and their cargo confiscated. Even the Mughal state accepted the system: after the conquest of Gujarat (1572-73), Akbar's government obtained passes for pilgrim ships to the Red Sea. The system was general, and pilgrim and textile ships were ==not exempt==. So statements 1, 2 and 3 are correct.

Textbooks list several causes of Portuguese decline. The Iberian Union (1580- 1640) made Portugal's overseas posts targets for Spain's enemies, above all the Dutch, who took Malacca (1641), Ceylon's ports and Cochin (1663). The northern European companies had more capital and stronger fleets. At home in Asia, forced conversions and the Goa Inquisition (1560) created hostility. Other factors include a small population, corruption and the lure of Brazil. All three statements are correct.

The Kunjali Marakkars were the hereditary naval commanders of the Zamorin of Calicut and fought the Portuguese at sea through the 16th century. Rani Abbakka of Ullal, near Mangalore, resisted Portuguese attempts to control her port in the mid-16th century. The Maratha general Chimaji Appa, brother of Peshwa Baji Rao I, took Bassein from the Portuguese in 1739. Marthanda Varma of Travancore is famous for defeating the ==Dutch==, not the Portuguese, at Colachel in 1741. So three are correct.

The naval battle off Diu came first (February 1509, under Almeida). Goa was taken by Albuquerque in 1510 (finally in November). The capital of the Estado moved from Cochin to Goa in 1530 under Nino da Cunha. The Treaty of Bassein, by which Bahadur Shah ceded Bassein and its dependencies, was signed in December 1534. So the order is 2-1-4-3.