Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 2

Fort Kochi’s water metro service welcomes you in many languages. Surprisingly, Sanskrit is one of the first. The above photo I took shows only just a few of the many languages which are there on a series of boards. Kochi welcomes everyone.

It welcomed the Arabs long before Prophet Muhammad received his divine inspiration and gave the people a single God in the place of the many they worshipped. Those Arabs made their journey to Kerala for trade. There are plenty of Muslims now in Fort Kochi.

Trade brought the Chinese too later in the 14^th-15^th centuries. The Chinese fishing nets that welcome you gloriously to Fort Kochi are the lingering signs of the island’s Chinese links.

The reason that brought the Portuguese another century later was no different. Then came the Dutch followed by the British. All for trade.

It is interesting that when the northern parts of India were overrun by marauders, Kerala was embracing ‘globalisation’ through trades with many countries. Babur was just a teenager when Vasco da Gama was shipping pepper and other spices from Kerala. Akbar was struggling with the strife among his own sons, many of whom wanted to succeed him at once, when the Dutch landed on Kerala’s coasts, for trade again.

The Mughal Empire was a shadow of its former self when the British established their stronghold in Kerala. The British altered the very topography of Kerala in addition to bringing new roads and railways, modern education, administrative reforms, and social reforms. The Willingdon Island that lies between the mainland and Fort Kochi island is a creation of the British.

Kochi is a cluster of 14 islands along with a part of the mainland

The influences of each of these traders – many of whom established political power too – are all too obvious in today’s Fort Kochi. The best part probably is that Kochi remains open to all with its warm hospitality.

Take a walk in the cool morning on the narrow streets of Fort Kochi, breathing in the salt tang of the breeze that wafts in from the Arabian Ocean. If you go beyond that present tang, you may hear the whispers of continents. The scent of Arabic frankincense mingles with Dutch gables, Portuguese balconies that overlook a Jewish synagogue, and Chinese fishing nets which rise like slow, ancient prayers from the sea. Few places in India carry the memory of global trade as visibly as this tiny peninsula.

I forgot hunger and thirst while I was wandering on those streets a couple of days back. I went there without any reason other than that it was the city where I did my college studies for five years. Some nostalgia. But there was a lot more than nostalgic gratification that the place gave me now. Centuries of history and memory can make you forget hunger and thirst.

However, before leaving the place I decided to have some food. On the way from St Francis Church to Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica (walking distance only), I entered a restaurant which looked more like a private residence. It was indeed an old dwelling with wooden floors, now a restaurant manned by Hindi-speaking young men from North India. The roasted prawns were delicious with the chapattis.

The murals on the walls of the restaurant consisted of intentional graffiti

The Santa Cruz Basilica was originally another Portuguese contribution to Fort Kochi. It withstood the Dutch attacks on Catholic churches in a religious rivalry between Catholics and Protestants. Both followers of Jesus but sworn enemies of each other. But in 1795, the British brought it down, apparently to construct a warehouse for ammunition but really out of spite for Catholics. A century later, it was rebuilt in its present shape. Standing in front of the Basilica, I contemplated the absurdity of religions for a moment. They may worship the same God, follow the same theology, and recite the same prayers, and yet hate each other so much that they will pull down the prayer-houses of each other.

Santa Cruz Basilica

Inside the basilica

To be continued

 For Chapter 1: Click Here