Michael Lobo | |
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| Born | 12 September 1953 Mangalore, India |
| Occupation | Writer, historian |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Genre | Genealogy |
Michael Lobo (born 12 September 1953) is an Indian scientist, writer, and genealogist. [1] [2] He is the author of three self-published books on the Catholic community in Mangalore, India. [3]
Michael Lobo was born in Mangalore, India to Maisie Lobo (née Fernandes) and Camillo Lobo, both of Mangalorean Catholic descent. He belongs to the Bejai branch of the Lobo-Prabhu clan, that has its roots in the Makhale suburb of Kulshekar, Mangalore. [3] Lobo's father was a British Army soldier who served during World War II. [3] He studied at Montfort High School in Yercaud, Tamil Nadu, and graduated from St. Aloysius College. [3] In 1975, he was one of the "National-A" level chess players in the country, which put him among India's top 20 chess players. [4] In 1982, he obtained a PhD from IISc Bangalore, with a degree in applied mathematics. His doctoral thesis on Transonic Aerodynamics earned him the "Young Scientist Award" from the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). [4] In 1982, he earned a PhD in aerodynamics mathematics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, receiving the 1983 Young Scientist Award from Indian National Science Academy. [3]
In 1984, Lobo moved to England where he entered the Cranfield Institute of Technology on a Commonwealth Scholarship, eventually becoming a faculty member. While employed there, Lobo authored papers on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), including Time Marching – A Step-by-step Guide to a Flow Solver (Ashgate Press, 1997). In his spare time he compiled a 1000-page dictionary of English words derived from Classical Greek and wrote a book on the origins of popular Rock'n'roll songs, but neither was published. He returned to Mangalore in 1993, because of "personal crises". [3] [4]
Lobo's interest in genealogy began in 1992, upon his discovery of an antique baptismal register belonging to the period 1810–80 at Milagres Church. While browsing through this register, he discovered the birth record of his great-grandfather, Anthony Peter Lobo. The record traced his parentage to Lawrence Lobo (a Munsiff and eminent member of the 19th century Mangalorean Catholic community) and Ignatia Tellis. He then subsequently scoured the register to locate the birth records of the other children of Lawrence and Ignatia. [5]
This register became the nucleus of his first genealogical project—a biographical compilation of all the descendants of Lawrence Lobo (through both male and female lines of descent). From late 1992 to late 1993, Lobo began working during his spare time on this project, and by the end of 1993, had completed the first draft of his genealogical work on the Lobo-Prabhus of Makhale and their related families. [5] After the end of his contract at the Cranfield Institute of Technology, rather than renew his contract or pursue a contract elsewhere, Lobo decided to give up his mathematical career and pursue a personal project to write the history and genealogy of the Mangalorean Catholic families. [5]
He moved to Mangalore in 1994, and settled down in his family manor "Camelot Residency" on Bijai church road. [4] During 1994–95, Lobo was involved, on a full-time basis, on a research project on the history and genealogy of the Catholic community of Mangalore. He copied almost every 19th century baptismal, marriage and death record he could locate at Rosario Cathedral and Milagres Church, cataloguing them according to surnames. [5] Lobo initially experienced difficulties in the project since only the baptismal registers were maintained in reasonably good condition, while large sections of the marriage and death registers were missing, and it was not feasible to build the genealogy of any family on the basis of baptismal records alone. [5]
However, he had access to other sources of information on the major families, such as the Vas-Naiks of Falnir (the first published work on the genealogy of a Mangalorean Catholic family), Mascarenhas-Prabhus of Falnir, and the Fernandes-Prabhus of Tonse. [5] There were also unpublished genealogies of various other families, most of them written by Mangalorean genealogists Rao Saheb Francis Xavier Lobo and Marian Saldanha. [5] The project took shape as A Genealogical Encyclopaedia of Mangalorean Catholic Families. [4] Lobo also conducted and still conducts personal interviews with many Mangalorean Catholics, who have settled in Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and various other parts of India and abroad. [5] This work is expected to be about 8 to 10 volumes and as of March 2011, had already crossed 7000 pages. [4]
Although his work is unfinished, Lobo has self-published three offshoots on the subject: Mangaloreans Worldwide – An International Directory (1999), Distinguished Mangalorean Catholics 1800–2000 – A Historico-Biographical Survey of the Mangalorean Catholic Community (2000), and The Mangalorean Catholic Community – A Professional History / Directory (2002). His encyclopaedia covers more than a thousand families and is being continually updated with names and records of new families. [3] He claims that the Mangalorean Catholic community has the distinction of being the only community in the world to possess its own genealogical encyclopaedia. [3]
Lobo has also authored two books on music entitled A Hundred Pages of Classics, Opera and Popular Instrumental Pieces – A Thousand Pages of Songs with Historical Notes and its companion edition Popular Music – A Historical and Thematic Analysis, both of which were released in 2011. [6]
Mangalorean Catholics are an ethno-religious community of Indian Christians adhering to the Latin Rite of worship, from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mangalore, of the erstwhile South Canara area, by the southwestern coast of present-day Carnataca.
The Milagres Church is a historic Roman Catholic Church situated in the Hampankatta locality of Mangalore. The church was built in 1680 by Bishop Thomas de Castro, a Theatine from Divar, Goa. The original structure was constructed at the site of the present-day cemetery. It is one of the oldest churches in Dakshina Kannada.
Dr. Oscar Fernandes was an Indian politician, a senior Indian National Congress leader and was the Union Cabinet Minister for Transport, Road and Highways and Labour and Employment, Government of India in UPA government. He was one of the closest confidants of the former Congress President Rahul Gandhi and one of the major leaders in the taking of important decisions of Congress Party. He was closely associated with the late Mogaveera community leader Mr.Ananda Mendon and worked for the social upliftment of rural areas of coastal Karnataka.
A genealogy book or register is used in Asia and Europe to record the family history of ancestors.
Roman Catholic Brahmin is a caste among the Goan, Bombay East Indian and Mangalorean Catholics who are patrilineal descendants of Konkani Brahmin converts to the Latin Church in India, in parts of the Konkan region that were annexed into the Portuguese East Indies, with the capital (metropole) at Velha Goa, and of which Bom Bahia was the largest territory (province). They retain some of the ethno-social values and customs of their ancestors, and most of them exhibit a noticeable hybrid Latino-Concanic culture. They were known as the Brahmins among the "New Christians".
Joachim Ignatius Sebastian Alva or Joachim Piedade Alva was an Indian lawyer, journalist and politician from Mangalore. He was a prominent Christian figure involved in the Indian independence movement.
The culture of Mangalorean Catholics has been shaped by their Christianisation in Goa, their migrations& their captivity. They adopted elements of the local Mangalorean culture, but retained many of their Konkani customs and values. The ethnic Mangalorean houses of the older generation have spacious porticos, red oxide cemented floors, terra cotta roofs layered with the once famous Mangalore tiles. The houses are usually accompanied by their own private wells or ponds, and are normally attached to orchards of coconut trees, jackfruit trees, ice apple trees, Alphonso mango trees, areca nut trees etc.
The History of Mangalorean Catholics comprises three major eras. The first era consists of the cultural heritage shaped by Indo-Aryan migration into the Indus valley, later the migration to Govapuri and other prominent areas of the Konkan region, possibly due to a natural disaster that caused the drying up of the Sarasvati. Also, the various invasions and the political upheavals that followed in the pre-Partition eras of the northwest Indian subcontinent might be responsible for migration to Konkan in Western India. The second era was the legacy of Lusitanian culture, from the conversion of their Konkani ancestors to Roman Catholicism in the colonies of the Portuguese in Goa and Bombay-Bassein, and the final era being the migration of the Roman Catholics in Goa to Mangalore and other parts of South Canara between the mid-16th and mid-18th centuries, forming a unique Mangalorean Catholic identity, and the subsequent growth and development of the community. Several centuries of living in South Canara gave these Catholics an identity of their own.
The Mangalorean Catholic Cuisine is the cuisine of the Mangalorean Catholic community and is largely influenced by Mangalorean, Goan, Bombayer& Portuguese cuisines.
Mangalorean Catholic names and surnames encompass the different naming conventions of the Mangalorean Catholic community. Historically, many of them had names of Christian saints, while Portuguese-language surnames were most commonly found. A formal Mangalorean Catholic name consists of a given name, a middle name, and a surname.
Mangalorean Catholic literature is diverse.
The 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka refer to the wave of attacks directed against Christian churches and prayer halls in the Indian city of Mangalore and the surrounding area of southern Karnataka in September and October 2008 by Hindu nationalist organisations, Bajrang Dal and the Sri Ram Sena. The attacks were widely perceived by Christians in southern Karnataka to be punishment from right-wing Hindu nationalist organisations because they had been outspoken about 2008 anti-Christian attacks in Orissa, and also because the New Life Fellowship Trust (NLFT), a non-denominational Christian Church, was alleged by Bajrang Dal to be responsible for forced conversions of Hindus to Christianity.
The Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam (1784–1799) was a 15-year imprisonment of Mangalorean Catholics and other Christians at Seringapatam, in the Carnataca region of India by Tippu Sultan, the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. Estimates of the number of captives range from 30,000 to 80,000 but the generally accepted figure is 60,000, as stated by Tipu in the Sultan-ul-Tawarikh. The captivity was the most disconsolate period in the community's history.
Monti Fest is a major Catholic festival held on 8 September every year by the Latin Christian community of Konkani people, originating in the Konkan region of India, and their descendants in the Canara region of south India. This festival celebrates the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in the Mangalorean Catholic community involves blessing of Novem. In certain Goan Catholic dialects the festival's name is corrupted to "Moti Fest".
Vincent John Peter Saldanha was an Indian Konkani language littérateur, dramatist, novelist, short-story writer and poet. He made significant contributions to Konkani literature as a poet, dramatist, novelist, and a litterateur.
Mudartha is a family name and title held by some Mangalorean Catholic Bamonn clans hailing from Udupi district in Karnataka.
Padval is a subgroup of the Christian Cxatria caste, bearing the same paik (pre-conversion) surname among Mangalorean Catholics, they converted from the Jain Bunt varna that is native to Canara.
Participation of Mangalorean Catholics in the Indian Independence Movement recounts the community's role in the Indian Independence Movement.
Aloysius Paul D'Souza is the former Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mangalore. He was consecrated on 8 November 1996, succeeding his predecessor Basil Salvadore D'Souza.
Basil Salvadore D'Souza was the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mangalore from 22 March 1965 until his death on 5 September 1996. He was the longest-serving bishop in the diocese's history.
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