Travelure
Mussoorie: Love Child of the Himalayas
By Hugh & Colleen Gantzer
The Circassian people had reputedly produced the most beautiful women in the world. They were the closest to the Greek ideal but were natives of the Caucasian region of Russia. Sadly, they fell out with their rulers. The Circassians were slaughtered and, taking advantage of this, the Crimean Tartars sold many of their women into the harems of warlords of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Though accurate figures are not available, it is more than likely that there were over 1,700 women residing in the harems.
But they certainly were not all slim, dark-haired, green-eyed, graceful beauties.
Contrary to popular opinion, the inhabitants of harems were not all meant for the physical ecstasy of the male rulers. A harem was the protected residence of the women of the royal family, their servants and ladies-in-waiting. When the Queen had been born into the ruling family of another nation, they came along with their own ladies-in-waiting and female staff.
In other words, harems were far more complex organisations then common perception would have us believe.
It is important for us to realise the very significant but seldom acknowledged authority exercised by women all through history but particularly in the formation and control of the British Empire. This extended as far as 1939, in a very obvious way, and on to the 15th of August 1947.
We hope to bring out in this book that the whole British Empire had a strong, feminine bias which was epitomised in our little hill station Mussoorie.
From all the tales passed down to us by people who have lived in harems, we understand that they are riven by petty squabbles based on slight variations in jealously held beliefs. As the first European colonist to land in India, Vasco da Gama experienced this. The Portuguese navigator was a staunch Roman Catholic. He believed that his version of the Christian faith had been handed down to him by St Peter, the leading apostle of Christ. Inflamed with enthusiasm to spread Roman Catholicism in India, he had brought along priests of the Roman Catholic Church. To his surprise, and the dismay of the Priests, he was greeted by Indians who had been Christians for more than a thousand years. They claimed that their ancestors had accepted the message of Christ when it had been brought to them by St Thomas, another Apostle of Jesus.
When the stubborn Portuguese insisted that the local Christians follow the practices of the Roman Catholic Portuguese, the Christians of St Thomas swore an oath that they would not. The first European settlers in India were astounded to learn that they were not the first to carry the Cross of Christianity. They were greeted by a line of Christians who had received their Faith from St Thomas, one of the 12 original apostles of Jesus Christ. The version of this faith brought by Vasco da Gama was far more recent than the faith brought by St Thomas. The Thomas Christians, as they are sometimes called, had practiced their faith for almost one thousand five hundred years.
Then the Portuguese had to contend with another religious obstacle.
From 1095 to 1291, the Crusades had pitted the Christians against the Muslims. The Christians had claimed that the Muslims had no right to rule the land associated with the Foundations of their religion. But the Muslims, who also revered much of the Bible, the Holy Book of the Christians, contended that they had every right to stay on in the land associated with their faith. Now, in India, most of the land was ruled by the Moghuls, who were Muslims.
In the end, however, the interest of trade won over the concerns of faith. The Portuguese were allowed to set up trading stations in the land ruled by the Moghuls.
The Portuguese, as a sea-faring nation, had kept an eye on all the ports of India, but they did not realise that there was a growing threat to their monopoly of the Indian trade from within. Merging with the native population of the Christians of St Thomas, there was another group of Christians.
In AD 345, 3 ships sailed into a port in what is now the southern state of Kerala. Centuries later, Vasco da Gama would also sail into a port in that southern state. But there was a great difference between the attitude of the people brought by Vasco da Gama and those brought on those 3 ships in AD 345. The earlier immigrants did not seek to convert the Christians of St Thomas. They just wanted to trade with them. They were also Christians of a different sect and they brought their own priests so they would not interfere with the practices of St Thomas. The Hindu ruler of Kerala at that time welcomed the 400 members of 72 families. Because of their trading skills and contacts, they were a distinct value addition to Kerala.
The King realised how these would add to the daily contact and revenue of his people. Rather than insist they merge their identity with his subjects, he gave them a whole range of status enhancing privileges.
By the time the Portuguese came to Kerala the descendants of these special immigrants had merged with the St Thomas Christians while still maintaining their identity. They spoke the local language but with a slight difference which came from their original Aramaic. The arrogant Portuguese, with a typical European contempt for the languages of non-whites, mispronounced Aramaic as Armenian.
They were familiar with Islamic ways of life practiced in West Asia, and even dressed like Muslim traders and used some of their titles. Senior Armenian traders carried the title “Khawaja”, which was occasionally referred to as “Khoja”. They merged very easily with the Moghul Overlords and were given much of the respect that the Moghuls commanded even though they were Christians. They were canny businessmen and managed very gracefully to corner much of the trade associated with other communities.
Suddenly, in the smoke-filled Inns of Court and crowded Coffee Houses, and in the Stately Homes of England and the Grouse Moors of Scotland, in the Pubs of Ireland, and the Chapels of Wales there was only one topic, the Lure of India. Concealed in this collective greed was the idea of the East India Company.
(Hugh & Colleen Gantzer hold the National Lifetime Achievement Award for Tourism among other National and International awards. Their credits include over 52 halfhour documentaries on national TV under their joint names, 26 published books in 6 genres, and over 1,500 first person articles, about every Indian state, UT and 34 other countries. Hugh was a Commander in the Indian Navy and the Judge Advocate, Southern Naval Command. Colleen is the only travel writer who was a member of the Travel Agents Association of India.) (The opinions and thoughts expressed here reflect only the authors’ views!).
