West Bengal polls: Ex-Portuguese colony’s brush with SIR ends on a happy note

Mahisadal (East Midnapore): In Mahisadal's Mirpur village, the SIR has not been an unpleasant experience.

Only two out of 824 people have fallen foul of the SIR in this village in a marked — and happy — deviation from what has happened in the rest of the state.



Residents here with surnames like Nunes, Rozario, Lobu, Tesra and D'Cruz in Mahisadal's Mirpur village are part of a 300-year-old history linking them to mercenaries from Goa with Portuguese lineage.

Ranjan Tesra, a descendant of the Tesra family, said, "There are around 400 voters from the area known as Christian Para or Firingi Para (most with the Tesra surname), but none of our names were removed, nor were we called for a hearing. We carry Portuguese blood, but there was no discrepancy in any of our names."

TOI visited the village, which is located close to Triveni Sangam. The settlement was established after 1742. At that time, the region was under constant attack by Maratha marauders, locally known as the "Borgis".

A number of Portuguese mercenaries were hired by Rani Janaki Devi — the queen who then ruled from Mahishadal Rajbari — as part of her militia to fight back.

Some of them returned to Goa, but a few stayed. Their descendants still carry Portuguese lineage in Bengal, far from Portugal.

Among the Portuguese descendants in the village, 60% carry the surname "Tesra", which is a distorted form of the original Portuguese surname "Teresa". The change is mainly due to the influence of local accent. Several other surnames, such as Lobu, Rozario and Perera, still exist, though together they account for only about 5%-10% of the village population.

Ratan, who looks after the local church under CNI-Kolkata Diocese, said, "Other than the surname, we are cut off from our roots because of the remote location. We came to know that some rare items had been kept by some villagers, but those were lost after they died. Our appearance is also quite different from that of the Portuguese."

Two officials from Portuguese govt visited our village some years ago. The only traces left of their history in the church are the baptismal and marriage record books, but their condition is deteriorating.

"There was a lot of confusion about how many Portuguese soldiers were hired, but it is clear that soldiers with 12 different surnames came here, and later some of them returned. Those who settled here married village women. Those families are still living here, but their food habits and rituals show no reflection of Portugal. Hindu and Muslim families also live here and they celebrate Eid, Durga Puja and Christmas together."

Purnima Tesra, another villager, said, "I heard many things from my father and grandfather years ago. I am a homemaker with two daughters. I know that we have Portuguese lineage, but I have no clear idea where the country is." There are 824 voters in Christian Para. Of them, names of a Muslim voter and a Hindu voter were deleted. The rest will vote in two booths on Thursday: Suklalpur Primary School and Betkundu New Primary School.
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