User:Kensplanet/Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam/The 15 year captivity

After arriving at Seringapatam, the Christian captives were made to forcibly embrace Islam. All those who embraced Islam were freed. Those captives who refused to proselytize to Islam, Tippu ordered them to be tied to the feet of the elephants to be dragged and trampled upon them and to be mutilated in the most barbarous manner. An English prisoner relates that, two risalas were sent daily to Seringapatam to select girls that they could take as prizes to join their harems. Often, when they seized the girls, their young men would offer resistance and smash their dhoolies. The officers would capture the men and administer five hundred strokes with whips and canes, from the effects of which many men died. Historian Lewin Bentham Bowring reports that, "Tipu demanded the surrender of the daughters of some of these Christians in order to have them placed in his seraglio, and that, on the refusal of their parents, the latter had their noses, ears and upper lips cut off, and were paraded through the streets on asses, with their faces towards the tails of the animals." Such treatments towards the Christians for the refusal of girls is also confirmed in the accounts of the British officer James Scurry, who was held captive along withe Mangalorean Catholics. In his book  The Captivity, Sufferings, and Escape of James Scurry, who was Detained a Prisoner During Ten Years, in the Dominions of Hyder Ali and Tippoo Saib (1824), Scurry also reports that Tippu relented the demand of the captive girls, when one captive fell from his beast and expired on the spot through loss of blood. About 200 young women, the prettiest and fairest of them, were selected for Tippu's seraglio. The rest of the women were distributed as wives to Muslim officers and favourite's living there. The future Christian progeny of these young girls and women were lost forever in the harems of the Sultan's officers and minions, and their descendants are fully Islamic as of today.

The Jemadars, Subedars, and Havildars meted out more ignominious punishment by slitting off their ears and noses, who refused to accept Islam. They were seated on asses, paraded through the city, and thrown into the dungeons of Seringapatam. The able-bodied young Christian men were drafted into the army after being circumcised and converted to Islam. The Bakur Manuscript records, "On four occasions the young able-bodied Christian men were thus drafted for the Army. Some of them were appointed jemadars, subedars, and havildars. The Sircar supplied them with ghee, butter, curds, firewood, etc. One hundred men were formed into one company, four companies into a risala, four risalas into a sufedar, and four sufedars were placed under a bakshi. Out of every company twenty-five men were taken and circumcised at the end of every month. When the wounds were healed, another twenty-five were taken and circumcised, and so on, until the whole company was initiated into Islamism." The risalas (army companies) of the captives were formed as the Ahmedy Corps in 1785. They were employed in the campaigns of the Marathas, Nizam, and the British during 1786 and 1787. They suffered heavy casualties, and very few returned back. Those who remained, such as the lame, the blind and the aged, employed themselves in cultivating the land and in doing various manual works. Many were made to carry baskets filled with gobra (cowdung) for three days as a public display of warning to others. The stubborn Christians were given the most menial tasks, and made to work in the paddy fields, They were underfed, and whenever they got into a fight were immediately imprisoned. The men were completely isolated from any women, the idea being that they would die of old age without creating any new progeny.

In 1787, when half the number of Christians had perished by disease and starvation, Tippu attempted to proselytize the remaining Christians in Canara, and took them into custody. As the Christians settled down in Seringapatam, they slowly reorganised themselves with the elders forming a secret group named "Council of Ten", to help keep their faith alive. Tipu specifically banned any political gathering of the existing Christians.. According to Balthazar of Belthangady, a Mangalorean Catholic captive, in the "Coucil of Ten", the Christians used to meet together from time to time to deliberate on issues concerning the community. In 1789, Tippu came to know of the group through an officer, and he specifically banned any political gathering of the existing Christians. The Christians believing that this tribulation came upon them for their neglect of the Law of God and their religious duties, began to read the Krista Purana with fervor. Some Muslims coming to know of this, destroyed the books, but the Christians constructed subterranean refuges to perform religious duties, read the books, and strengthened their faith. According to Mr. Silva of Gangolim, a survivor of the captivity, if a person who had escaped from Seringapatam was found, the punishment under the orders of Tipu was the cutting off of the ears, nose, the feet and one hand.

Reports of Joachim Miranda and the Portuguese Government confirm that the Christians were forcibly circumcised and converted to Islam. These Christians openly practiced Islam. Some writers hold the view that the Christians did not voluntary submit to the conversions. Some Christian missionaries had also been appealing to the Roman Catholic Church to intervene on behalf of the captive Christians. A priest had also written a letter to the Holy See to put pressure on Tippu to allow the priests. When Tippu's embassy visited the court of the French King Louis XVI, Pope Clement XIV's representative conveyed the appeal to the embassy. In the Third Anglo-Mysore War (1789–92), English and their allies defeated Tippu. Desperate to break the alliance of powers surrounding him on all sides, he sought to make peace with Portugal, the Marathas, and other powers. According to Severine Silva, Tippu consequently gave up the persecution of Christians, opened negotiations with the Portuguese Government and with the Archbishop of Goa, with a promise that he would no more molest the Christians, and asserted that he would build all destroyed churches at his own cost. The following letter was alleged to be sent by Tippu to the Archbishop of Goa, "Several thousand Christians in the dominion of Tippu Sultan had often in past years represented to him the discomfort attending the due exercise of their religion. He had hitherto paid no manner of regard to their supplications. Nevertheless, the present state of affairs in his extensive empire had inclined his heart to mercy and not to harshness. Wherefore he had dispatched these his trusty messengers who might convey the words of his mouth in all variety, begging the Governor and the Archbishop not to refuse every needful exertion towards succoring their brethren Christians according to the obligations of their religion. And he would as soon as might be convenient rebuild at his own expense the Churches that the fate decreed agents of destruction had leveled to the ground." The Christians found the supervision over them relaxed and Tippu was more conciliatory in his attitude. The Christians now escaped from the camps of Seringapatam and gradually began to enter the neighboring kingdoms of Coorg and Malabar. During this time, many Christians performed daring feats in rescuing the captives from Seringapatnam and taking them to places of safety. One Domingo Pinto (brother of Salvador Pinto, who rose to high rank in the services of Tippu) excelled himself particularly in this, rescued many persons and took them secretly to Mangalore or Tellichery. He proposed to those who were anxious to regain their liberty at right time to rescue at great risk provided they paid him a certain sum of money. He fixed the price of rescuing the captives at 8 hoons and 4 hoons to each male and each female respectively.