Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
principal churches of the city, which he dedicated to Santa Catherina.
The names of some members of the community at Calicut recalled to
mind Pedro Alvares Cabral, who anchored before Calicut in 1500,
and established a factory at Cochin; the first Portuguese Governor,
Dom Franciso de Almeida; André Furtado de Mendonca, who concluded
a treaty with the king of Calicut; and many others, whose exploits
are handed down to posterity in the Indo-Portuguese archives. Though
Portuguese names persist at the present day, it does not follow of
necessity that their owners have any Portuguese blood in their veins,
for some are merely descendants of Native converts to Christianity,
or of household slaves of Portuguese officers. "In Malabar," writes the
Census Commissioner, 1881, "there is a section of Europeanized Native
Christians--Goa Roman Catholics--some of whom have adopted European
dress and customs; and in all districts the popular interpretation
of the word Eurasian is very liberal. There are many Pariahs and
Native Christians, who have adopted a travesty of European clothes,
and who would return themselves as Eurasians, if allowed to do so."
A social distinction is made at Calicut between Eurasians and
East Indians. With a view at clearing up the grounds on which this
distinction is based, my interpreter was called on to submit a note on
the subject, which arrived couched in language worthy of Mark Twain. I,
therefore, reproduce it in the original Indo-Anglian.
"Eurasians are classified to those who stand second in the list of
Europeans and those born in any part of India, and who are the Pedigree
of European descendants, being born of father European and mother East
Indian, and notwithstanding those who can prove themselves as really
good Indian descendants, such as mother and father of the same sex,
therefore these are called Eurasians.
"East Indians are those offsprings of Christians of the East, and
they atimes gather the offsprings of Eurasians to the entering their
marriage to the East Indian females in the East Indian community,
thereby they are called East Indians.
"Native Christians are those of Hindu nations converted into Christians
by their embracing the poles of Christianity. All Hindus thereby
converted are made Christians by a second Baptism are called Native
Christians.
"Coaster. They are alluded to those who belong to the Coast, and who
come from a country that has a Sea Coast into that country that has
not got a Sea Coast is therefore called a Coaster. A very rude word."
Speaking in general terms, it may be said that Eurasians are of greater
stature, and possess skins of lighter hue than the East Indians,
who, as the result of intermarriage with Native Christian women,
have reverted in the direction of the Native type.
The Eurasians examined by me at Calicut, nearly all of whom were Roman
Catholics, were earning a livelihood in the following capacities:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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