Green Kerala: Fort Kochi*

The story of Fort Kochi is the story of the foreigners who have settled there at some point or another. The name Cochin actually means “like China”, and comes from Chinese traders from the court of Kublai Khan who settled in the area in the 14^th century¹.





The foreigners came because of the spices². Kochi was the centre of Indian spice trade for many centuries; Kerala has some of the most important spice and tea plantations in India and Cochin is still a major trading post for them. As you walk past the different warehouses in the market you see people unloading sacs of all possible spices; you can smell the peppers, cardamom, anise seed, cumin, and cinnamon in the air. And if you get close enough you can also smell the tea leaves packed and ready to be shipped. There is so much happening all around it is difficult to walk and take it all at once, the emaciated people carrying heavy loads on their heads, the covered women buying groceries, the dilapidated buildings from colonial times, the heat. It’s easy to imagine this place two or three hundred years ago. As in many other situations V.S. Naipaul’s words ring true: India exists in a multiplicity of time periods at once. Behind the old warehouses and the traditional coolies you can see the modern port, full of ships and containers ready to be sent off around the world.

Next to the spice market there is the Jewish quarter that was founded by the so-called Malabar Jews. According to tradition the oldest community was founded in Cranganore in the year 70 AD after the destruction of the Temple of Jersualem by the Romans and the resulting diaspora. They controlled a major portion of the world spice trade until the 16^th century, when neighboring princes took advantage of internal divisions in the community and attacked them. The Jews fled to nearby Cochin (legend has it that the Rabbi escaped swimming with his wife on his back), where the Rajah welcomed them and gave them land. Today there are very few Jews left in Cochin (they actually need outsiders to have enough people for a minyan), since most of them went to Israel after 1948³ or converted to Christianity. For this reason the Pardasi Synagogue (from 1568) and the neighborhood around it is now mostly full of antiques shops for tourists and bookstores (where I obviously bought more books).

Across town from the synagogue is the Church of Saint Francis (originally St. Anthony’s) built in 1503 by the Portuguese. It is the first Roman Catholic Church in India⁴ founded by the Franciscan monks who arrived with the Vasco de Gama expedition⁵. He died in Fort Kochi in 1524 on his third voyage to India and was buried in this church for fifteen years until his remains were taken back to Portugal to the Mosterio dos Jerónimos (built to commemorate his success in securing a trade route from India to Portugal around Africa). Fort Kochi was the first European colonial settlement in India. It remained the capital of Portuguese India until 1530, when they opted for Goa as their capital.

Also in the search for spices, the Dutch arrived in 1683 and destroyed many of the Portuguese buildings, particularly the churches (although even today Cochin has one of the largest Christian populations in India and there's a church in every corner). The Dutch stayed in Kochi until 1795 when they were defeated by the English. It was only in 1947 with Independence that Cochin ceased to be under foreign control. No wonder it was the first princely state to willingly join the Indian Union…

Today foreigners keep shaping the history of the town. Fort Cochin is still a main trade post and an important tourist destination as the gateway to the famous Kerala backwaters. It is very enjoyable for its calm pace, lush vegetation and delicious food.

*Two weekends ago we went to Kerala to celebrate 3 birthdays: mine, Olga's and Dany's. We spent one day in Fort Kochin and 2 days on a houseboat in the backwaters. Kerala is one of the most beautiful places I've been to. This is the first post on this trip.

¹All that remains of them are the Chinese fishing nets that are still used by the local fisherman. They are very large nets that hang from wooden structures and are lowered when the tide comes in.

²f you remember from primary school one of the reasons for the discovery of the New World was the search for a new route to India to get spices (the Turks had closed the route through the Middle East). From the confusion that America was in fact India comes the use of the word indians to describe the indigenous people of that continent.

³ A very good movie that deals with Indian Jews' migration to Israel is Au bout du monde à gauche (2004). Very recommendable.

⁴The church founded by Saint Thomas is known as Syrian Church of India. As with the Jews, the Portuguese also persecuted them since they wanted them to be part of the Roman Church!

⁵I’m always impressed at the Franciscan monks who would travel with the explorers and just get off on unknown lands and found churches. In Mexico with Hernan Cortes arrived 12 Franciscan Monks who started converting and baptizing the Indians. Can you imagine arriving at a place like Tenochtitlan and start telling people that their gods (who like human sacrifices) are wrong? That takes courage and a bit of madness I think.