Norteiro people

Norteiros
Regions with significant populations
Província do Norte	0 (extinct)
Languages
	Primary:; Konkani ; Additional:; Portuguese
Religion
	Roman Catholicism
Related ethnic groups
	Other Konkani and East Indian people & Luso-Indian ; Descendants:; Bombayers, Basseinites, Damanese people, Korlai Portuguese people of Chaul,

Last updated November 05, 2024

Norteiros (literally "Northerners") were a historical people who lived in the former Portuguese exclaves of the western littoral parts of the northern Konkan region, in the present-day Greater Bombay Metropolitan Area and the Damaon territory.

Norteiro means "northerner" in the European Portuguese language and its Indo-Portuguese creoles; the term referred to the people inhabiting the territory of the Northern Province (Província do Norte), centred in and around the present-day Bassein (Vasai), headquartered at Fort San Sebastian of Bassein which was styled "the Court of the North" (A Corte do Norte). It included the Bombay harbour and stood second only to the capital (metropole) of Velha Goa in south Konkan, among Portuguese East Indies colonies in Portuguese India.

Norteiro has largely fallen into disuse, the descendants are the Luso-Indians as in the case of the Damanese of Damaon territory and the Korlaite Christians of Chaul, the natives identify as the Bombay East Indians, that is those Christians who inhabit Bassein (Vasai), Old Bombay, New Bombay and other locales in Greater Bombay. The latter are still known as Nodtheir (male), Nodtheirni (female) and Nodtheira (plural) in the Konkani language.

Culture

Except for Dio district, which lies in the historical "Sorath" or Saurashtra (region), the remaining settlements were all within the north Konkan region, partitioned between the union territory of Damaon, Diu & Silvassa and Maharashtra state. They were populated predominantly by native Konkani people.

Basseinites spoke a distinct Norteiro creole of Indo-Portuguese, it was described in detail and compared with other varieties by Rodolf Dalgado.^[1]

History

Capture of Bassein

During the period of Peshva Brahminical rule of the Mahratta confederacy, territory of Portuguese Bombay was sacked repeatedly whenever the Portuguese refused to pay the "protection tax" to stop Mahratta raids. Under the Peshva, Mahrattas seized and occupied most of the settlements, including the territorial administrative centre headquartered at Fort Bassein. A brother to the Peshva Brahmins, Chimaji Appa ordered the destruction and vandalism of nearly all Christian places in the area including Basilica of Mount Bandra (Bombay), the St. Michael's Church (Bombay) was one of the few structures spared. Mahratta jaatis (castes) didn't discriminate among the two religious groups,^{[ citation needed ]} and many Norteiros switched loyalties, they also switched to speaking Marathi in place of Konknni in the Konkan region. When the English East India Company later took over the seven islands of Bombay from the Portuguese at Goa and Anjediva, and Bassein (Vasai) and Taana (Trombay) from the Mahrattas, they called the Norteiros "Bombay Portuguese".

British era

After the involvement of England in Goan affairs as a result of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, England occupied Portuguese Goa for several years, ostensibly to protect it from a French takeover. The Goans were encouraged to migrate to Bombay and find employment. Because of the influx of Goans, called "Goan Portuguese" by the English, the "Bombay Portuguese" decided to rename themselves with a name emphasising their status as subjects of the English Crown, to distinguish them from the Goans, who were Portuguese citizens (since Pombal enfranchised Goa). These Norteiros began calling themselves "Bombay East Indians", to identify with the English East India Company which ruled them on behalf of England.

Other communities, such as that of Kristi creole people of Chaul, Damaon and Dio, continued to identify Luso-Indians.

Both the Damanese and the Kristi communities are often wrongly called Norteiro people,^{[ citation needed ]} derived from the native Marathi people.^{[ how? ]} However, the Dioese, Damaonese and Kristi Norteiros share a single trait, as compared to the Bombay East Indians who are culturally different from them.

Related Research Articles

Korlai Portuguese is an Indo-Portuguese creole based on the Portuguese language, spoken by approximately 1,000 inhabitants of the Korlai village at the Korlai fort, a former possession of the Portuguese in Goa and Bombay. Their speech is referred to as Korlai creole, Korlai Portuguese, Kristi or Nɔw-ling by the speakers themselves, which translates to "our language" in the creole. The speakers are a part of a very close-knit community, and refer to themselves as the Kristi community bound by their affiliation to the Christian denomination, of Roman Catholicism in India. Korlai is situated in the Raigad district of the Konkan division named after the Colaba fort, 150 kilometers south of Mumbai (Bombay), in Maharashtra, India. The speakers are of a homogenous Roman Catholic pocket in an area otherwise dominated by Konkani Muslim and Hindu Marathi-Konkani speaking inhabitants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daman and Diu Portuguese Creole</span> Portuguese-based creole of western India

The Daman and Diu Portuguese Creole, Portuguese: Língua Crioula de Damãon e Dio & by its speakers as Língua da Casa meaning "home language", refers to the variety of Indo-Portuguese creole spoken in the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, in the northern Konkan region of India. Before the Indian annexation of the territory, the creole spoken by the Damanese natives underwent a profound decreolisation in the erstwhile Portuguese Goa and Damaon colony, a phenomenon whereby the Indo-Portuguese creole reconverged with European Portuguese.

Konkani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Konkani people, primarily in the Konkan region, along the western coast of India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages mentioned in the Indian Constitution, and the official language of the Indian state of Goa. It is also spoken in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat as well as Damaon, Diu & Silvassa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vasai</span> City in Maharshtra, India

Vasai is a historical place and city located in Palghar district; which was partitioned out of the Thana district in 2014. It also forms a part of Vasai-Virar twin cities in the Konkan division, Maharashtra, India, and comes under the Police Jurisdiction of Mira-Bhayander, Vasai-Virar Police Commissionerate.

Fort Vasai is a ruined fort of the town of Vasai (Bassein), Konkan Division, Maharashtra, India. The structure was formally christened as the Fort of St Sebastian in the Indo-Portuguese era. The fort is a monument of national importance and is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.

The Konkani people are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the Konkan region of the Indian subcontinent. They speak various dialects of the Konkani language. Following the Konkani language agitation, Konkani became the premier official language of Goa state, while Marathi remains as the associate official language of Goa. Konkani is also spoken by populations in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Damaon, Kerala, & Gujarat. A large percentage of Konkani people are bilingual.

Sandor is a census town falling within the Vasai (Bassein) municipality of the Palghar district, in the Konkan division of Maharashtra, India. Sandoris, the natives of Sandor, are predominantly Roman Catholic Kshatriyas of the Christian Bombay East Indian community, they converted in the colony centred around Bassein, the richest possession of the former Portuguese East Indies with the capital at Velha Goa, in the southern edge of the Konkan region. Prior to the arrival of Portuguese Armadas, there had also been some Nestorians descended from Jewish converts, by the efforts of the apostles Thomas or Bartholomew.

Indo-Portuguese creoles are the several Portuguese creoles spoken in the erstwhile Portuguese Indian settlements, Cochin Portuguese Creole, Fort Bassein, Goa and Damaon, Portuguese Ceylon etc; in present-day India and Sri Lanka. These creoles are now mostly extinct or endangered. They have substantial European Portuguese words in their grammars or lexicons:

Kuswar or Kuswad is a set of festive sweets and snacks made and exchanged by Christians of the Konkan region in the Indian subcontinent for the Christmas season or Christmastide. These goodies are major parts of the cuisines of the Goan Catholic community of Goa in the Konkan region, and the Mangalorean Catholic community of Karnataka. There are as many as 22 different ethnic recipes that form this distinct flavour of Christmas celebration in Goa and Mangalore. Kuswad is also made and exchanged by Karwari Catholics of Carnataca and the Kudali Catholics of Sindhudurg, in the Konkan division of Maharashtra.

The Marathi—Konkani languages are the mainland Southern Indo-Aryan languages, spoken in Maharashtra and the Konkan region of India. The other branch of Southern Indo-Aryan languages is called Insular Indic languages, which are spoken in Insular South Asia.

A sanna is a spongy, steamed, and savoury unfilled dumpling originally made of red rice, black lentil and coconut in the Konkan region, by the western coast of the Indian subcontinent. They originated in Goa and Damaon, Mangalore, Bombay and Bassein (Vasai), and are especially popular among Goans, both the Goan Hindus and Goan Christians, and also among the Konkani migrants outside Konkan in Karachi, Sindh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Kerala. They are also loved by the people of the Konkan division, such as the Kuparis of the Bombay East Indian community.

Bombay, also called Bom Bahia or Bom Baim in Indo-Portuguese creole, Mumbai in the local language; is the financial and commercial capital of India and one of the most populous cities in the world. It's also the cosmopolitan city centre of the Greater Bombay Metropolitan Area, and the cultural base of the Bollywood film industry. At the time of arrival of the Portuguese Armadas, Bombay was an archipelago of seven islands. Between the third century BCE and 1348, the islands came under the control of successive Hindu dynasties. The Delhi Sultanate had been ruling the area along with Chaul, New Bombay (Thana) & Damaon; with the local administration at Bassein (Vasai) since the raids of Malik Kafur in the Konkan region and across the Indian subcontinent. This territory in North Konkan along with the Bombay islands were later taken over by the Sultan of Guzerat from 1391 to 1534, when he had declared the end of the suzerainty to Delhi, after the Timurid invasion of it. Growing apprehensive of the power of the Moghal emperor Humayun, Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat was obliged to sign the Treaty of Bassein on 23 December 1534; according to which, the Seven Islands of Bombay, Fort San Sebastian of Bassein in strategic town of Bassein (Vasai), and its dependencies were offered to the Portuguese East Indies. The places were only later officially surrendered on 25 October 1535, by the Sultan of Guzerat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Maharashtra</span>

Christianity is a minority religion in Maharashtra, a state of India. Approximately 79.8% of the population of Maharashtra are Hindus, with Christian adherents being 1.0% of the population. The Roman Catholic archdiocese whose seat is in Maharashtra is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay. There are two different Christian ethnic communities in Maharashtra: the Bombay East Indians, who are predominantly Roman Catholic, and the Marathi Christians, who are predominantly Protestant with a small Roman Catholic population.

Roman Catholic Kshatriyas are a modern Christianised caste among Goan, Bombay East Indian, Mangalorean, Kudali & Karwari Catholics. They are patrilineal descendants of Kshatriya and Vaishya Vani converts to the Latin Church, in parts of the Konkan region that were under Portuguese Goan rule. They are known as Chardo in Goan Konkani, Charodi in Canarese Konkani & as Sandori or Vadval in Damanese-Maharashtrian Konkani; while others also identify as Khatri in their Bombay East Indian dialects.

The Konkani language agitations were a series of protests in India, concerning the uncertain future of the Konkani language. They were held by Goans in the former territory of Goa, Damaon & Diu; then under the administration of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). The protests involved citizen journalism, student activism & political demonstrations. The civil unrest ceased when premier official status for Konkani in the Devnagari script was granted. Marathi was declared an associate official language of Goa.

Luso-Indians, or Portuguese-Indian, is a subgroup of the larger Eurasian multiracial ethnic creole people of Luso-Asians. Luso-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and Portuguese ancestry or people of Portuguese descent born or living or originating in former Portuguese Indian colonies, the most important of which were Goa and Damaon of the Konkan region in the present-day Republic of India, and their diaspora around the world, the Anglosphere, Lusosphere, the Portuguese East Indies such as Macao, etc.

The East Indian language or East Indian dialect, also known as Mobai Marathi and East Indian Mahratti; is the form of Marathi-Konkani languages spoken in Bombay (Mumbai). It has a significant amount of Indo-Portuguese loanwords. It does not have a unique script of its own. Devanagari and the Roman script are used by its speakers, who are the native Christians of the Seven Islands of Bombay in the northern Konkan division. The dialect is losing popular usage due to immigration, depopulation & anglo-americanisation among the younger generation. However, it is still used to make songs and dramas, as well as in Christian worship since the Novus Ordo was approved in the 1960s.

The Portuguese controlled Goa until 1961, when India took over. Only a very small fraction of Goans speak Portuguese nowadays. Although an essential religious language, there were 1,500 students learning Portuguese in Goa in 2015; totaling a number of 10,000 – 12,000 Portuguese speakers in the state.

The Maratha–Portuguese War of 1683–1684 refers to the Mahratta invasion of the Portuguese-controlled portions of Goa and the Bombay area of Konkan. The conflict between the Mahratta Confederacy and the Portuguese in Goa and Bombay, continued on various fronts in between 1683–1684.

The Luso–Maratha War was an armed conflict between the Portuguese in Goa and Bombay and the Mahratta Confederacy, who invaded and raided Portugal-controlled villages near the walled city of Damaon.

References

↑ Jarnagin, Laura (August 2003). Portuguese and Luso-Asian Legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511-2011, vol. 2. Flipside Digital Content Company. ISBN 9789814517676.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Jarnagin, Laura (August 2003). Portuguese and Luso-Asian Legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511-2011, vol. 2. Flipside Digital Content Company. ISBN 9789814517676.

[1]