SEAFARING GROUPS

Explain the role of sea-faring groups in the structure of Indian Maritime trade.

Seafaring and employment on ships was a specialization that appears to have been well provided in the 17^th century. The commercial and shipbuilding areas also produced a large body of people who were suitable for employment on ships.

Gujarat produced some of the best ship hands in this period due to which it was easy to recruit crews to man ships (to provide workers on ships) from several maritime communities of Kathiawar and North Gujarat. These cam from several Hindu caste groups whose occupation was seafaring and working on ships as well as Muslims, perhaps converted, were employed on ships.

To the south, in Konkan, there were several maritime groups who were professional mariners among Hindus and Muslims. Portuguese recognized their expertise and recruited many of their ship crews from them – they were called as Canarims.

In both Malabar and Kanara, the age-old tradition of maritime activity had produced a variety of groups of coastal people living off the sea. They came from several Hindu fishing and seafaring as well as from domiciled Muslim communities.

The Mapillas were a community of seafarers who provided the manpower for numerous ships and small vessels as well as the militia on board these vessels.

The entire East Coast from the Southern tip to Orissa was replete (full of) with seafaring castes, mostly Hindu. There was also strong Tamil or Chulia Muslim community of the far south which produced expert seamen. The demand for specialist manpower increased. The Portuguese had begun recruiting specialized people on ships from Konkan, Kanara and Malabar.

The merchants who live by overseas trade and resides at a port does not necessarily ever go to sea himself. A sea trader does not have to be a sea traveler, a sailor or a navigator.

Most of the ships were owned by the Hindus and Muslims. They were usually shore-based. Sometimes, the owner was also the captain or Nakhoda of the ship. The Nakhoda was not the actual navigator who was called the Sarang. He was usually a private individual on the Red Sea Route, on the pilgrim ships, he was a Mughal official and mansabdar. Most of the trade was done by nakhodas on behalf of their shore-based owners of the ships.

Shipping in the Indian ocean in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was dominated by Muslims from Bengal and Gujarati Muslims controlled practically all the ships of the Malabar coast. Hindu traders, particularly Gujarati Vanias and Coromandel Tamils were also involved in the trade.

The Portuguese recognized the skill of Indian pilots and in 1541, they hired two Indian pilots who knew sailing conditions in the Red Sea. The Gujaratis were also better seamen and did more navigating than the other people of these parts, they had larger ships and more men. The Portuguese also used Arab and Kanarese sailors.

In the south, most of the ships were operated from Malabar. Those controlled by the Kunjalis, Marakkars were crewed by the Kunjali’s fellow Moplas.

Other groups of lower castes were widely used in South West Indian waters as common sailors. These groups were often fishermen and sailors by hereditary occupation and were close to the bottom of the Malabar Hindu hierarchy. These seafaring castes included Mukkuvars, Tivars, Mogers and Pulayars.

The demand for specialist manpower increased in the second half of the seventeenth century with eh increase in Indian shipping and recruitment by Europeans. The Portuguese had been recruiting in the Konkan, Kanara and Malabar. The crew of an Indian vessel had to be versatile in their abilities. Evidence of the eighteenth century on recruitment to vessels owned by South Indian Chulia Muslims shows that they engaged in cost saving measures. The Lascars they employed worked as artisans and laborers when the ship was in port and unless so employed, they were not paid wages. The crew doubled up as carpenters, caulkers, riggers, etc. Also, each Lascar appears to have been allowed to take a small venture with him. Thus, this chulia practice was community oriented and patron-client relationship would have operated at sea as they did on land.

The commercial activities of the seventeenth century expanded the opportunities for employment. Specialized mariners and seafarers were in great demand to man the large number of ships. Skilled craftsmen were also in great demand to serve the increasing building activity in port towns. These was also similar demand for unskilled labor.

In the initial period of the Maratha power in the Deccan and Konkan region, trade and commerce through waters was not encouraged and permits were issued ot other powers to trade through waters. Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha rule and Peshwa Madhavrao I sent ships every year to the ports of Arabia and Persia. Peshwa Madhavrao I tried to improve maritime trade due to which the coastal communities got encouragement and there developed the Bhandaris, Dalits, Sonkolis, gabits, Bhois and Kharvis s the main seafaring castes in Konkan. They supplied crew for the Maratha navy. All these castes were well trained for seamanship. The sea was in tehri veins. The Bhandaris supplied the nimble crew as they were experts in climbing the tall palms. The Kolis and Bhandaris were a daring people. Their knowledge of seafaring and fishing was handed down from father to son. The fisheries were the training schools for seamanship. They possessed practical knowledge required for sea voyages – the geography of the surrounding coast, the sunken reefs (rocks), the shallow banks and other points of danger. The sailor in general was an illiterate fellow. Even today most of the seafaring classes are illiterate.

The Hindu seafaring classes were more conservative in character than their Muslim counterparts. They were quite satisfied in venturing in their own coast and normally did not venture a voyage to the countries beyond their own seas. They never enquired about the country of the white man (Topikar) who came to their coast form beyond the seven seas.

The Muslim sailors – the Daldis and the Kharvis of Gujarat on the other hand were more enterprising and ready to quit home whenever better remuneration was available. Many of them were employed as gunners in the navy. They have always exhibited a keener aptitude for sea trade than the Hindus.

The sources tell us little about how many Hindus from the central West Coast of India travelled by sea. A letter of 1598 refers to vanias, native of Gujarat, trading in their own ships to Chaul, Goa and Cochin.

In the later sixteenth century the main coastal trade for Vanias was that from Gulf of Cambay to Goa, carried in convoys (protecting force) under the protection of the Portuguese warships. For these seafaring Vanias, trade was not the only reason for sea travel. They travel for various reasons. The crew of the Gujarati ships were probably Navayat Muslims.

There were also other Gujarati Hindus apart from vanias who travelled by sea. In the early nineteenth century, the goldsmiths, lapidaris and other workmen, occupied with the finer crafts were all banias and Brahmins of Cambay and were found living in Goa. In 1634, the brahmin natives of Gujarat living in Goa and Diu, petitioned the Portuguese authorities and other brahmin caste that freely travel across the seas to collect payments from Kachh vania traders in Mozambique and Arabia were Saraswat brahmins.

There are evidences of Vanias residing in Middle Eastern ports. They must have travelled and settled there and in old age they must have returned back home. The Vanias were also trading in Persia and settled in Baghdad. There are also examples of Vanias or Hindus residing in Hurmuz from 1400 AD to seventeenth century. These Vanias had their own captains during Portuguese times.

Vanias also settled all along the Hadramant Coast and within the Red Sea. They were found at Masua, Suakin on the Ethiopian shore and at Aden, Mocha, and Jeddah. It is clear that these Vanias prospered despite occasional harassment from the authorities.

Thus, Hindus of many different castes including brahmins travelled by sea in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.