Unmasking the brutal history of Vasco da Gama and Portuguese piracy in India
Many European pirates began their careers as legitimate sailors on ships authorized by kings or trading companies, but when opportunities dried up or when violence became more profitable, they turned to piracy. Their activities harmed not only Indian rulers like the Mughals and Marathas but also their own East India Companies—English, Dutch, and French alike. Madagascar became one of their main bases, from where they raided Indian, Arab, and even European ships.
Vasco da Gama, remembered in Portuguese schoolbooks as a heroic sailor, was in reality a pirate whose journey was written in blood. In the history of the Indian Ocean, his name stands more as a scar than as an honor, a symbol of greed and religious fanaticism. Born in Portugal but not from a merchant family, he carried government permits that were effectively licenses to plunder. His raids spread across the African coast, where he was repeatedly rebuffed by local rulers in Mozambique, Kenya, and Zanzibar. Without Indian sailors, their skills, and their equipment, he could hardly have navigated beyond his own shores.
In 1497, da Gama left Lisbon with four small ships and little to trade beyond Christian slaves. Selling Christian girls to Africa had been a profitable business in Europe since the mid-15th century, and the Portuguese were already aware of a sea route around the southern coast of Africa. Da Gama was the first of his countrymen to reach the east coast of Africa with the help of Gujarati sailors. Though uneducated and untrained as a navigator, he was nevertheless entrusted with a deep-sea voyage, growing up in an economy where trafficking in both African and European slaves was highly lucrative.
By the time his ships reached East Africa, disease had weakened his crew and he had no understanding of local sea routes. Rejected in Mozambique and resisted in Mombasa, he finally secured help in Malindi, where a Gujarati sailor—sometimes identified as Kanha, sometimes as Ibn Majid—guided him across the Arabian Sea. With Indian navigational tools such as fishing gear and compasses, the crossing became possible. On 20 May 1498, he arrived at Kappad near Calicut, then a thriving center of maritime trade where Arabs, Persians, Chinese, and Indians met. The Zamorin (Samudrin) of Calicut allowed him to trade at first, but da Gama’s arrogance, his refusal to pay gold, and his worthless goods soon exposed him. His reputation as a Christian slave trader—seeking both African slaves and European girls in Kerala’s markets—provoked outrage. Ordered to apologize in a local temple, he mistook the idol of Parvati with Kartikeya on her lap for Mary with the infant Jesus, bowed in prayer, and begged forgiveness. Later, during his second voyage, he destroyed that temple and a Catholic church was eventually built over the site.
Chased from Kerala, he fled toward Tanzania, escaping only because of his strong, multi-decked ship, which outclassed the European caravels of the day. He took refuge in Madagascar, bought spices on credit, and returned to Lisbon claiming to have reached India by sea. Far from being hailed, he was pressed by creditors to repay debts. To escape, he planned a second voyage, this time with armed fleets.
In 1502, da Gama returned with violence. He captured unarmed Indian and Arab vessels, burning hundreds of pilgrims alive aboard the ship Mirim. He shelled Calicut, destroyed homes of Hindu and Muslim merchants, and desecrated temples in Goa, exposing his true nature as a bandit. His acts were sanctioned by papal bulls like Romanus Pontifex (1452) and Inter Caetera (1493), which had authorized Christian Europeans to conquer and enslave non-Christians. These doctrines extended to the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and even influenced later American legal history.
On his return to Portugal, da Gama was arrested for unpaid debts and spent nearly twenty years in prison. He died around 1520, yet the Catholic Church celebrated him as a hero and even considered canonizing him. During his 1502 expedition, he also managed to kill the Zamorin of Calicut, after which Afonso de Albuquerque established Portuguese control over Goa in 1509. Portuguese pirates spread their influence into Bengal, setting up a base at Hooghly from where they robbed local rulers, merchants, and rival Europeans.
By 1579–80, they had secured Emperor Akbar’s permission to build a colony at Hooghly, which grew into Bandel. Their piracy, smuggling, and slave trade, however, soon turned the local rulers against them. In 1632, Emperor Shah Jahan ordered Qasim Khan to destroy the Portuguese stronghold, wiping out their presence in the region. Hooghly, once part of the Bhursut kingdom, saw the Portuguese barracks burned to the ground, though later a small church was erected on the ruins. Today, the church survives in Bandel, but the Portuguese themselves are long gone.
The Bible entered India late. Not until the Synod of Udayamperur in 1600 did the Latin Bible appear in Kerala. Before that, no copies in any language circulated in India, even in Goa. After 1600, its presence spread slowly. Meanwhile, Nestorian Christians who had settled in Kerala centuries earlier faced severe persecution from the Portuguese between 1550 and 1599. Their houses were burned, women raped, and churches destroyed. Archbishop Alexio de Menezes forced most into Catholicism, though a small group resisted and preserved their Syriac Christian traditions, which continue today.
Centuries later, in 1961, India finally liberated Goa through Operation Vijay, ending the last chapter of Portuguese rule on Indian soil.
Modified Version
Originally published in Sahitya Samrat
বাংলা ভাষা এবং সাহিত্যের বিশ্বকোষ (Encyclopedia of Bengali Language and Literature)
September 10, 2025
