Title: The Career and Legend of
Vasco da Gama
Author: Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1997 (First)
ISBN: 81-7596-226-7
Pages: 368
Vasco da Gama was a historical
figure whose stature reached astronomical heights in one part of the world for
the discoveries he had made, whereas in the other, it was downgraded to abysmal
depths for his brutal and spiteful displays of outrage. Sanjay Subrahmanyam has
tried to put both these contrasting assessments in a proper historical
perspective. Being a professor of history at University of California, Los
Angeles, and the author of noted treatises like The Political Economy of
Commerce and The Portuguese Empire in Asia 1500-1700, this book is
the product of painstaking research and references, as attested by the lengthy Notes
section which literally overflow with cross references. The author’s
attention and grasp of Portuguese history is notable, without which a book of
this caliber would not have seen the light of day.
Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) was the
first Portuguese to discover an all-sea route to India. The book begins with
allusions to the legendary status of Gama in Portugal, with reference to a 19th
century opera, L’Africaine in which he is characterized as the hero. The
narrative is drab and colourless. Subrahmanyam’s attempts to establish the
political conditions in Portugal in late 15th century is also
unconvincing and packed with nothing other than lists of nobles who went in and
out of royal favour. Expeditions to West Africa began around this time in
search of colonies, slaves and new disciples for Christianity. Bartolomeu Diaz
rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1487. Columbus’ travels to the New World
prepared the ground for seeds of exploration to sprout. Gama, born in a petty
noble family was assigned the task of discovery of spices and Christians in the
east by king Dom Manuel. He set sail with three ships and 118 men on July 7,
1497 from Lisbon and encountered several settlements on the East African coast,
but almost everywhere the dealings ended in violence or the threat of it.
Muslim traders who’d monopolized maritime commerce in the Indian Ocean littoral
was not willing to let go of it easily. At Malindi, Gama obtained the services
of a Gujarati Muslim pilot to steer the way to Calicut at which he arrived on
May 20, 1498. The Portuguese could converse with the king of Calicut in Arabic,
as the state employed a lot of traders from the Middle East. The relationship
between Gama and the Zamorin, who was the ruler of Calicut was strained from
the very outset. Muslims enjoyed prominent positions in court and the king was
vulnerable to their machinations. Besides, the gifts submitted by Gama was
unimpressive which made the ruler suspect that the Portuguese were in fact
pirates. The affairs soon nosedived and Gama restrained twenty nobles of
Calicut in his ships as ransom against his own men and goods under the
Zamorin’s custody. Some of the prisoners were interchanged and Gama returned on
Aug 29, 1498, reaching Lisbon on July 10, 1499 in an arduous journey in which
he lost 55 men and a ship. The curious thing we notice from a Portuguese
account of one of the travelers is that Gama and his men was under the
impression that they’d encountered Christians at Calicut, even after he
returned to Portugal after a stay of three months there. He believed the practices of oriental Christians to be so deviant and different that even a
visit to a local temple didn’t help to dispel the myth.
Gama’s successful journey prompted
other expeditions, Cabral following him on the heels. Cabral was however, less
tactful and ended up in skirmishes along the Kerala coast. Gama himself
returned in 1502 at the head of a larger fleet. The objectives had changed this
time. Instead of promoting trade with India, he was keen on blocking the spice
trade between India and the Red Sea ports, thus enforcing an economic blockade
against the Mameluk sultans of Egypt. With the vigour and cruelty of a pirate,
Gama attacked and sacked ships. His fanatical temper was blood curdling. He
intercepted a ship returning with Haj pilgrims from Mecca off Calicut coast.
The people on board, which included 240 men, women and children gave away all
precious articles they possessed in return for their lives. Gama accepted the
booty and then set the ship on fire in cold blood killing almost all of them.
He took 17 children alive from the ship and converted them to Christianity.
Gama’s violent methods and foul temper soon alienated the kings of Cannanore
and Calicut, the latter city he bombarded for days on end. He moved to Cochin
and established cordial relations with the king there and spices were laden at
that port. Gama returned to Portugal in April 1503 and reached by September,
making the Muslims arch-enemies of the Portuguese. Gama’s career slid into an
eclipse during the period 1504-18 when the king Dom Manuel found his licentious
deeds in India unpalatable, unjustifiable and also due to palace intrigue.
However, he was being elevated to great public acclaim as the man who opened up
a strange land for commerce. He was honoured as the Count of Vidigueira in 1518
and made a prominent official in the Manueline court. Gama came to India for
the third time in 1524 and died in the same year at Cochin.
The book is littered with
footnotes on every page, in a vain bid to assume the spirit of a reference
book. This makes reading cumbersome which was already hard labour due to
tasteless diction overburdened with liberal quotes from original sources.
Readability was never a concern for the author. Most of the monochrome plates
interspersed with the narrative do not follow the story line and is inserted
just for the sake of it. The readers won’t feel any loss of relevance even if
the plates are printed as a whole towards the end of the book or even if it is
omitted altogether. The work sadly doesn’t include an afterword about the beginnings
of colonialism which was a transformation of early commerce and which would
have added some interest to the book. Also, the author is silent about the
nationalist spirit which exhumed the physical remains of Gama from Cochin back
to Portugal.
Whatever drawbacks one may point
out against the book, there is no denying that it reveals the ruthless nature
of Gama. He treated non-Europeans as subhuman and even his compatriots
sometimes tasted his cruel bend of mind. He refused sick sailors permission to
have treatment at a new hospital built in Goa on the grounds that “the king,
his lord has no need of hospitals in India, for if they were there, the men
would always claim to be sick” (p.318). All this frugality was practiced
when Gama himself attired and conducted in royal style, with ushers in silver
livery, pages in gold collars and royal etiquette at his table.
The book is very difficult for an
easy read. One gets the impression that it was made more intricate than there
was a need for it. Totally uninteresting, the book presents a marked variance
with other titles from the same publisher, Cambridge University Press. Probably
the writer would derive some good by learning the methods of J F Richards as
shown in his splendid book The Mughal Empire, published by CUP and
reviewed earlier in this blog. In the present form, this book is very tedious
and a waste of time.
The book is not recommended.
Rating: 2 Star
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