Armenians
in Chandernagore
There was a small settlement of Armenians in Chandernagore from the middle of
the 17th century till the end of the 19th century. Very little is known about
this settlement. As is known, there was a French colony in Chandernagore and
the Armenians had good relations with them, both social and commercial.
The oldest tombstone in the Chandernagore French Church is in the memory of
an Armenian lady, Catherine Vosky Hyrapiet, who married the French Governor,
Monsieur Francis Daguin de la Blanchetier in 1696 and mothered eleven children.
There lived also an Armenian priest, Father Joao Armenio who was a member of
the Armenian Monastic Order of St.Anthony the First Hermit and the “Missionary
Apostolic to the Armenians in India”.44
Armenians
in Saidabad
Emperor Aurangzeb (1658-1707) continued the policy of Emperor Akbar of giving
privileges to Armenian settlers. In 1665 the Armenians obtained a Firman from
the Emperor which permitted them to form a settlement in Saidabad, a suburb
of Murshidabad which was the capital of Bengal at that time. By the middle of
the 18th century a large number of Armenians resided in Saidabad. By the order
of the Emperor it was stated that the property and the state of the expired
Armenians should belong to Armenian community, as well as five percent of tax
was reduced to three-and-half percent.45
Bolts wrote about the Armenian settlement of Saidabad in his Considerations
in India Affairs (published in London, 1782), the following:
“The Armenians,
who have ever been a great commercial body in Hindustan, have also long had
considerable settlements in Bengal, particularly in Syedabad. Their commerce
was likewise established by the Mogul’s Firman, whereby the duties on the two
principal articles of their trade, piece-goods and raw silk, were fixed at three-and-a-half
per cent.”
In 1758 an Armenian Church of the Virgin Mary was built in Saidabad. It is located
at Sweta Khan’s Bazar. From the 19th century Armenians began to leave the city.
From the 17th
to 19th centuries there were also small Armenian settlements in Monghyr, Narwar,
Gwalior, Lucknow.
Armenians
in Narwar
A few Armenian tombstones, which still exist prove the existence of an Armenian
colony in Narwar. Inscription on one of the tombstones says that an Armenian
priest was buried there in 1743. From this it could be assumed that there was
an Armenian settlement with its priest.
Father Tiefentaller, a Jesuit missionary, who traveled all over India in the
middle of the 18th century, wrote in his notes that there was an Armenian in
Narwar “who stood in high favour with the Great Moghul and was subsequently
appointed Governor of that province. He resided in one of the first palaces
of the city and has houses built for his numerous relatives and employees, as
well as a chapel, in which he and all his Christian retinue attended divine
service on Sundays”. However, when the Armenian Governor died, the Christian
community of Narwar dwindled away.46
Armenians
in Gwalior
In the 18th and 19th centuries there was an Armenian settlement in Gwalior.
There was a famous Armenian here, Colonel Jacob Petrus, who was the Commander
of Scindia’s army. Colonel Petrus built an Armenian cemetery near the small
Armenian Church in 1825. By the end of the 19th century no Armenians were left
in Gwalior.
Armenians
in Calcutta
From the end of the 16th century Armenians also settled in Calcutta. As is known,
Calcutta was founded by Job Charnock. Archaeologists succeeded in finding an
Armenian tombstone of 1630 in Calcutta. Thankappan Nair in his book Calcutta
in the 17th Century writes:
“Who founded
Calcutta? How was Calcutta founded? Why was Calcutta founded? These are three
questions that every student of history frequently asks. There was no dispute
about who founded Calcutta till 1895 when an Armenian historian produced an
epitaph bearing the date July 1630 from one of the churchyards of the city.
This apparently casts doubts about the claim of Job Charnock being the founder
of Calcutta on the scene.”
Another scholar, Rev. James Long states that “the Armenians are among the oldest
residents, and their quarter attracts by its antique air contrasted with conspicuous
modern buildings in Calcutta. The Armenians, like the Jews, were famous for
their mercantile zeal… The Armenians had settled in this quarter as early as
the days of Job Charnock”.
In the first half of the 19th century the population of Calcutta was 229,714
of which British were 3,138 and Armenians – 636.47
Calcutta has
been and is the centre of the Armenian community of India. There are Armenian
schools, three churches there. We will elaborate on this in the later chapters.
Armenians
in Lucknow
When Lucknow was the capital of the Nawab Viziers of Oudh (1775-1856)
there was a small Armenian settlement there in the end of the 18th century.
It is known that the first king of Oudh, Ghaziuddin Hyder, married an Armenian
lady.
The list of the Armenian settlements will be incomplete if we do not mention
about the Armenian settlements in Lahore (now in Pakistan), Kabul (now the capital
of Afghanistan) and Dhaka (now the capital of Bangladesh).
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