Maritime Histories, Indian Ocean and Port-Towns: Changing Dynamics of Urban Spaces in Pre-Modern India

Maritime histories is a very important tool in the study of the development of Port towns in Pre-modern India - as it enables researchers to come closer to the crucial dynamics of the urban historical process, embracing aspects such as international politics, navigation, oceanic currents, oceanic society, maritime transportation, sea-borne trade and commerce, port-hinterland relations and heritage aligned with it. The changing social character of these port towns are also indicative of the changing roles that were ascribed to them and the type of meanings that the new power wielders inscribed onto their urban spaces. In the transition phase of eighteenth century, the English towns of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, which had a large number of Indo-Portuguese population and were relatively lying on the commercial periphery in the second half of seventeenth century, emerged as principal maritime exchange centres and towns in maritime India attracting traders, artisans, and financiers from other economic enclaves of India. This paper is an attempt to explore the dynamics of change and evolution of these port towns, not only as a conduit for providing trade and commerce, but also as a space for communication and the development of tangible and intangible heritage

Criminality and Legitimization in Seawaters: A Study on the Pirates of Malabar during the Age of European Commercial Expansion (1500-1800)

RESUMO:A pirataria no mar incluía variedade de atividades criminosas, tais como ataques e aprendimento de barcos e mercadoria, prisão e tortura de mercadores e governantes em troca de resgate, assaltos às zonas habitacionais e centros comerciais no litoral, rompimento das principais linhas de navegação e comércio dos rivais. Tudo isto se aplicava no sudoeste da península indiana durante o período aqui analisado. Os grandes senhores de comércio de Cannanore, tais como Mamale Marakkar e mais tarde Pokar Ahamad e Pokar Ali, eram os protagonistas mais conhecidos destas atividades que desafiaram os Portugueses. Mas os corsários do Malabar não eram exceções. Os corsários ingleses e sicilianos no Mediterrâneo faziam igual.ABSTRACT:The maritime piracy included a wide variety of associated criminal activities including attack and confiscation of vessels and merchandise, imprisonment or torturing of merchants and rulers in sea-space in return for ransom money, attack and raiding of coastal trading centers and villages, creation of fear and terror in chief channels of navigation and attacking commercial competitors as a strategy to weaken the trading ability and the wealth-mobilizing ability of their rivals. All this applied to coastal south west India during the period under study. The merchant chiefs of Cannanore like Mamale Marakkar and later under Poca Amame (Pokar Ahamad) and Pocarallee (Pokar Ali) were some of the better known protagonists that the Portuguese had to deal with. But the Malabar corsairs had their corresponding English and Sicilian corsairs in the Mediterranean

Criminality and Legitimization in Seawaters: A Study on the Pirates of Malabar during the Age of European Commercial Expansion (1500-1800)

RESUMO:A pirataria no mar incluía variedade de atividades criminosas, tais como ataques e aprendimento de barcos e mercadoria, prisão e tortura de mercadores e governantes em troca de resgate, assaltos às zonas habitacionais e centros comerciais no litoral, rompimento das principais linhas de navegação e comércio dos rivais. Tudo isto se aplicava no sudoeste da península indiana durante o período aqui analisado. Os grandes senhores de comércio de Cannanore, tais como Mamale Marakkar e mais tarde Pokar Ahamad e Pokar Ali, eram os protagonistas mais conhecidos destas atividades que desafiaram os Portugueses. Mas os corsários do Malabar não eram exceções. Os corsários ingleses e sicilianos no Mediterrâneo faziam igual.ABSTRACT:The maritime piracy included a wide variety of associated criminal activities including attack and confiscation of vessels and merchandise, imprisonment or torturing of merchants and rulers in sea-space in return for ransom money, attack and raiding of coastal trading centers and villages, creation of fear and terror in chief channels of navigation and attacking commercial competitors as a strategy to weaken the trading ability and the wealth-mobilizing ability of their rivals. All this applied to coastal south west India during the period under study. The merchant chiefs of Cannanore like Mamale Marakkar and later under Poca Amame (Pokar Ahamad) and Pocarallee (Pokar Ali) were some of the better known protagonists that the Portuguese had to deal with. But the Malabar corsairs had their corresponding English and Sicilian corsairs in the Mediterranean