page_title: Mangalorean Catholics
section_title: Post-migration era and captivity
hierarchical_section_title: Mangalorean Catholics / History / Post-migration era and captivity
caption_attribution_description: dungeons of Seringapatam.
context_page_description: Mangalorean Catholics are an ethno-religious community of Catholics following the Latin Rite from the Mangalore Diocese on the southwestern coast of Karnataka, India. They are Konkani people and speak the Konkani language.
  Contemporary Mangalorean Catholics descend mainly from the New Christians of Portuguese Goa, who migrated to South Canara between 1560 and 1763 throughout the course of the Goa Inquisition, Portuguese–Adil Shahi wars, and the Portuguese–Maratha wars. They learned Tulu, and Kannada whilst in South Canara, but retained Konkani as their mother tongue and preserved much of their pre-Portuguese ways of living. Their 15-year captivity at Seringapatam imposed by Tipu Sultan, the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, from 24 February 1784 to 4 May 1799 led to the near extinction of the community. After Tipu's defeat and subsequent death in battle against the British in 1799, the community resettled in South Canara, and later prospered under British rule.
  Although early assertions of a distinct Mangalorean Catholic identity date from the migration period, a developed Mangalorean Catholic cultural identity only emerged following the captivity.
context_section_description: In 1686, Seringapatam, the capital of the Kingdom of Mysore, had a community of more than 400 Catholics. The community was severely harassed in the following two decades, with the churches destroyed and the priest's house confiscated. The destruction was undertaken under the name of the Wodeyar king, Kanthirava Narasaraja I, by his finance minister. The priest's house was returned to the church in 1709. Relations between the Wodeyars and the Mangalorean Catholics improved until 1717, when there was an anti-Christian outburst. The resident priest was expelled and forbidden to preach. Several more anti-Christian outbursts followed. By 1736, there were better relations between the two groups.
  From 1761 onwards, Hyder Ali, a distinguished soldier in the Mysore army, took de facto control of the throne of the Kingdom of Mysore through the Wodeyar dynasty. Hyder occupied Mangalore in 1763. The Mangalorean Catholics numbered 80,000 in 1767. In February 1768 the British captured Mangalore from Hyder. Toward the end of 1768, Hyder and his son Tipu Sultan defeated the British and recaptured Mangalore fort. After the conquest, Hyder was informed that the Mangalorean Catholics had helped the British in their conquest of Mangalore. Hyder believed that this behaviour of the Christians amounted to treachery against the sovereign.
  The Christians were alleged to have helped General Mathews with a sum of Rs. 3,30,000/-. Hyder summoned a Portuguese officer and several Christian priests from Mangalore to suggest the punishment for the Mangalorean Catholics for treachery. The Portuguese officer suggested the death penalty for those Catholics who helped the British, because it was a fitting punishment for people who betrayed the sovereign. But Hyder exhibited a diplomatic stance and imprisoned the Christians, rather than killing them.
  Later, he opened negotiations with the Portuguese. As a result of the agreement, the suspicion against the clergy and the Christians was removed. During Hyder's regime, the Mangalorean Catholic community continued to flourish. After Hyder's death in the Second Anglo-Mysore War on 7 December 1782, the British captured the fort again. Hyder was succeeded by his son Tipu Sultan. Tipu laid several assaults on the Mangalore fort until January 1784, all of which resulted in failure. The fort was finally delivered to Tipu when the British capitulated on 30 January 1784.
  Tipu received highly exaggerated reports about the role of the Mangalorean Catholics and their help to the British in the Second Anglo-Mysore War. To minimise the British threat to his kingdom and in the Sultan-ul-Tawarikh, due to "the rage of Islam that began to boil in his breast", Tipu banished the Mangalorean Catholic community from their lands, and imprisoned them at Seringapatam, the capital of his empire. The captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam, which began on 24 February 1784 and ended on 4 May 1799, remains the most disconsolate memory in their history.
  Soon after the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784, Tipu gained control of Canara. He issued orders to seize the Christians in Canara, confiscate their estates, and deport them to Seringapatam, through the Jamalabad fort route. All this was accomplished in a secret and well-planned move on Ash Wednesday (24 February 1784). Accounts of the number of captives differ, ranging from 30,000 to 80,000. The generally accepted figure is 60,000, as per Tipu's own records. They were forced to climb nearly 4,000 feet (1,200 m) through the dense jungles and gorges of the Western Ghat mountain ranges along two routes; one group travelled along the Bantwal-Belthangadi-Kulshekar-Virajpet-Coorg-Mysore route, and the other along the Gersoppa falls (Shimoga) route. It was 200 miles (320 km) from Mangalore to Seringapatam, and the journey took six weeks.
  According to the Barcoor Manuscript, written in Kannada by a Mangalorean Catholic from Barcoor after his return from Seringapatam, 20,000 of them (one-third) died on the march to Seringapatam due to hunger, disease, and ill treatment by the soldiers. At the 
caption: A dungeon at Seringapatam. Many Mangalorean Catholics who refused to embrace Islam were imprisoned in such dungeons.
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