The Portuguese

Vasco da Gama arrived at Kappad, near Kozhikode in Kerala, in May 1498, and that arrival opened the way for European colonisation in India.

He was well received. But his aggressive ways failed to build friendly relations with local rulers, and on his second voyage four years later he seized, tortured and killed Indian merchants and bombarded Calicut from the sea.

The Portuguese captured important ports, including Goa in 1510, which became the capital of their Indian colony, along with trading posts on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts.

Their key tool was the cartaz, a pass. Every ship in the Arabian Sea had to buy a Portuguese permit to sail; ships without one were seized.

Think about what that claimed: the right to decide who could sail in Indian waters, and to charge for it. That control of the sea let them monopolise the spice trade between India and Europe (be the only sellers) for nearly a century.

Along with trade came religious persecution. In Goa they set up the Inquisition in 1560: a court first set up by the Roman Catholic Church to judge heretics (people with 'wrong' beliefs), which across Europe had tortured and executed many thousands over some 600 years.

In Goa it severely persecuted Hindus, Muslims, Jews, and Christian converts suspected of secretly keeping their old faith, with forced conversions and the destruction of many Hindu temples. It was abolished only in 1812.

There was also resistance from the start. At Ullal, in present-day southern Karnataka, Rani Abbakka I blocked repeated Portuguese attacks by forming alliances with neighbouring kingdoms; captured at last, she died fighting in prison. Rani Abbakka II is said to have made fireballs out of coconut shells and set several Portuguese ships on fire. Their stories are still told in the Yakṣhagāna dance-drama.