![Port City of Kochi -A Cultural Mosaic: A Study of Monsoon battered Port City of Kochi through the Lenses of History, Economy and Social Anthropology (1405-2019)](https://cdn.ibpbooks.com/images/sdf/port-city-of-kochi-a-cultural-mosai.jpeg)
Port City of Kochi -A Cultural Mosaic: A Study of Monsoon battered Port City of Kochi through the Lenses of History, Economy and Social Anthropology (1405-2019)
$81.00
Author: | Sachchidanand Joshi, K S Mathew and J Kuriakose |
ISBN 13: | 9789391045524 |
Binding: | Hardbound |
Language: | English |
Year: | 2022 |
Subject: | History/Medieval Period |
About the Book
Monsoons, both South West and North East, played a significent role in the socio-economic and political history of the subcontinent of India as well as that of a number of nationsconneacted with India from time immemorial. The port of Cochin which began to attract the merchants from China and West Asia since the first decade of the fifteenth century subsequent to the establishment of the headquarters of Perumpadappu Swarupam in 1405 CE, gradually turned out to be a major centre of trade in spices. The merchants like the foreign Muslims and jews besides those from the Coromandel, Konkan and Gujrat coasts settled down in the vicinity of the port with their mercantile establishments. Thus the port town of Cochin started to develop as a centre bustling with various activities connected with trade and commerce. This port town, with a rich hinterland, opened itself to the European foreland, prior to any other port in the subcontinent of India and became a target for various European powers like the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English vying with each other for a foothold. Cochin, right in the third decade of the sixteenth century, became a charted city on par with a developed European city with autonomous administration carried out by elected persons. The society in the port city grew by leaps and bounds with inhabitants descending from interracial conjugal and extra marital relations. It presented itself as a cultural mosaic. With the astute and calculated hard work of Robert Ristow,the well-known harbour Engineer, the natural and all-weather port of Cochin became the haven of all those ships that pass through Suez Canal and moor in the harbour conveniently. The present willingdon Island was formed out of an existing tiny island offering necessary infrastructural facilities for shipping and related activities replacing Fort Cochin. The two wharves namely Mattancherry and Ernakulam are housed on this Island along with attendant installations. The colonial port city of Cochin was converted into a major port of India with immense developmental potentiality by the Union Government of India since it is the only port in India in close proximity to the maritime thoroughfare connecting Australia with the West. International Container Transshipment Centre, first of its kind in India, the Cochin Shipyard, the largest shipbuilding and maintenance Center in India and the Cochin Refinery are in fact the precious jewels on the crown of the