History of The INdigenous Peoples of Bombay / MOBAI

Hi Im Luke Mendes an indigenous inhabitant of Bombay / Mumbai which is really known historically as Mobai. The Portuguese and the Moguls could not pronounce it hence the Portuguese called it Mobaim the ‘Good Bay’ which is what it meant in Modi [Old marathi – Included Sanskrit and Asoka (sounds) in it] in the first place.

For want of uniformity Marathi became the norm of language for Maharashtra and for Mumbai too.

Now It is true that there were first century Christians here in Mobai, where influences of St Bartholomew and St. Thomas were strong. Whatever remnants of Churches and Cohesive new bodies [Churches merging with Temples to evolve] were destroyed. The Moguls considered the non muslim world to be pagans and without questioning or learning about the local culture, they destroyed what they thought wrong.

As with early Christianity in the Roman Empire, it is assumed that the initial converts were largely Jewish proselytes among the Cochin Jews who are believed to have arrived in India around 562BC, after the destruction of the First Temple. Many of these Jews presumably spoke Aramaic like St. Thomas, also a Jew by birth, who is credited by tradition with evangelizing India.

More likely to be historical than the tradition that the apostle Thomas himself went to Inida is the claim of Eusebius of Caesarea that Pantaenus, the head of the Christian exegetical school in Alexandria, Egypt went to India during the reign of the Emperor Commodus and found that Christians already existed in India, and that these Christians were using a version of the Gospel of Matthew with "Hebrew letters." This is plausibly a reference to the earliest Indian churches using the Syriac New Testament, which we know to have been the case. Pantaenus' evidence thus indicates that Syriac-speaking Christians had already evangelized parts of India by the late second century.

Although little is known of the immediate growth of the church, Bar-Daisan (A.D. 154-223) reports that in his time there were Christian tribes in North India which claimed to have been converted by Thomas and to have books and relics to prove it. But at least by the time of the establishment of the Second Persian Empire (A.D. 226), there were bishops of the Church of the East in northwest India, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, with laymen and clergy alike engaging in missionary activity.

The Proselytising activities of the Church of Thomas and Bartholomew travelled from the south to the north, spreading Christianity along the way which is the western and central areas of India.
The Western region being Mobai / Mumbai [Bombay]. Being followers of Buddhism, the locals found the teaching of Christianity similar to their existing faith. Hence their conversion was with little effort.

The whole idea of mentioning this fact is because the Portuguese had heard of this history and wanted to genuinely revive Christianity. With the help of their rulers or queens, the Portuguese had made various deal with the Moguls in matters of trade and administration.
The above research and etymological connections prove that the natives were first century Christians. Prior to that they were Buddhists and prior to that they were Hindus.

What makes the natives of Mobai unique? Their skill for survival and their ability to not succumb to plagues and diseases easily, their ability for foresight and adaptation to rulers and faiths, all this to maintain continuity – hence till date they exist.

Indigenous peoples were tagged as East Indians to identify them from the Goans and Mangaloreans who migrated to Mobai for work opportintiy. The British cited this difference and to preserve the unique identity and heritage of the natives they termed as them as East Indians. Placing them apart from the Native American Indians of the west, they coined this term maintaining order in the ‘Company’ accounts about its resources and places. The term West Indies was named so, because Christopher Columbus was headed to the Indies in the east but landed there among a cluster of islands off the Americas.
Hence the term East Indian in no way refers to the people of the east of India, but refers to the Indigenous peoples of Bombay / Mumbai / Mobai [Real Name] in the British Parlance.

So this here is the introduction of the East Indian name. I will follow up with more info when needed. There is a website being prepared. If you do like my research kindly let me know. If there need some correction to be done also let me know. But please mention your references. Lets never go by Hearsay.