Fort Kochi: A melting pot of cultures

During our stay in Kerala, we visited another town called Fort Kochi, which was a melting pot of cultures from all over the world. The culture of Fort Kochi was shaped by cultural influences from Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese, Mughals, and British people. Walking around the city you can see the influences of all these cultures integrated into everyday life of people and in the infrastructure of the city.

Historically, since the beginning of Common Era (CE), this region was connected to the middle east and Europe by Arabian traders (middle east) who traded spices. Around 6th century this region had population consisting of Hindus, Christians, and Jewish. The name Kochi/Cochin means (co-chin) like China. Kochi was a fishing village, and partially it still is. The Chinese fishermen came here in the 13th century and installed the Chinese fishing nets which are still a tourist attraction today.

Around 15th century the first Portuguese ships arrived in this region and along came the explorer Vasco da Gama. The king of that region invited them to setup a trade centre and soon his power was diminished and Fort Kochi became the first European colony in India. The locals converted to Christianity (Syrian Christians) even before the Europeans arrived, and later the Portuguese tried to merge the Syrian Church with Latin Church which caused a considerable amount of conflict in the region.

In the early 17th century, Dutch came to Kochi at the invitation of Kochi royal family, and soon Kochi became the capital of Dutch Malabar and also the capital of Dutch East India company. During this period, Dutch destroyed many catholic institutions.

In the 18th century came the Mughals (especially the Turks) who ruled the region and was known to have been devastated by them.
Around late 18th century, British took over and it was part of the British Colonial Empire. British ruled India until the 20th century and Kochi was one of the most important trading harbours.

The tourist attractions from Fort Kochi represent the mixture of cultures that range from the Indo portuguese museum, Chinese fishing nets, Fort Kochi beach, Promenade with fresh sea breeze, Dutch Cemetery, Southern Naval Command Maritime Museum, Cochin Thirumala Devaswom, Sree Gopalakrishna Devaswom Temple (The Only Daivajna Brahmin Temple in Kerala), Koonan Kurish Old Syrian Church, St. Francis Church, Santa Cruz Basilica, Bishop's House, Fort Emmanuel, Jewish Synagogue, Mattancherry Palace, and a Jain Temple.

Walking around Fort Kochi, we could see the influences of all these cultures in the buildings, peoples attitudes, land marks in the city, and the religious organisations.

This was a good experience for us to see first hand how the culture of India is shaped by many cultures around the world over the past centuries.