The Islamic, Portuguese, and Dutch Slave Trade Of Indians:
“ … the Portuguese in this matter followed the custom of the Muslims. “Linschoten recorded that they never worked, but employed slaves, who were sold daily in the market like beasts, and della Valle notes that the ‘greatest part’ of people in Goa were slaves.” The Portuguese not only employed Indian slaves for domestic and other duties, but they also regularly brought slaves from Abyssinia and Mozambique for sale at good price in Goa and Surat. They dominated the Indian seas where they pirated non-chalantly, captured slaves and sold them in the markets of Hugli, Tamluk, Pipli, St. Thome, Ceylon and Goa. Pyrard (1608-11) observed that goods of all the world must pass Ormuz and pay tribute to the Portuguese. It so happened that their Governor in Hugli, Manoel Travers, infuriated Shahjahan when as a prince, he was in rebellion and in a helpless position. Travers seized some of the prince’s richly laden boats and carried away some of Mumtaz Mahall’s slave girls. When Shahjahan became king he ordered the Mughal governor of Bengal to cha chastise the Portuguese. After a sanguinary battle on the famous river port Hugli in 1632 they were expelled from Bengal. As a matter of fact the people of India hailed the other European adventurers as liberators from Portuguese tyranny, their forcible conversions and their obnoxious slave trade.
The Dutch also indulged in slave trade. In this regard the views of Coen, the great Dutch Governor-General, are worth noting. In 1623, he advised his successor, not merely the prosecution of Asiatic trade, “but the investment of all available capital in principal means of production (‘many thousands of slaves’)… so that the returns for our native country be made out of the gains of the inland trade and the ordinary revenues”. From about 1620 the Dutch requirements from India were, first, a large initial supply of slaves, and then a steady stream of reinforcements to make good the losses. For example, Dutch families in the Spice Islands needed a sufficient number of slaves, “mostly of Indian origin” besides those who had experience of working on the spice fields. Many imported slaves, “Bengalders, Arakandars, Malabars, etc.,” were greatly affected by sickness owing to the change of climate on arrival in their on arrival in the Islands and losses had to be made up. “There is nothing to suggest that the Dutch merchants practiced either force or fraud, and we find them buying regularly from Indian dealers after obtaining the permission of the authorities.”
In 1661 a ship belonging to the Sultan of Golkunda carried 300 slaves to Achin and slave trade was regarded by Muslims as well as the Dutch, “precisely as any other branch of commerce”. The Portuguese and the Dutch were followed by the British. The export of slaves and indentured Indian labor by the British to various parts of the British Empire when it was in the making, is beyond the scope of this study. But the genesis of endeavours and achievements of the European nations in the field of making and exporting Indian slaves was a continuation of the practice by the Muslims in medieval times. It is even said that the profits accruing to the Muslims from slave trade tempted many foreign nations to in in the race. However, in contrast to the foreign imported slaves, whose market price was rendered high by cost of transportation and deaths in transit, the price of Hindu slaves, sold abroad remained low. For example, Hindu Kush (Hindu-killer) mountain is so named because thousands of enslaved Hindus died in crossing it. But their numbers were so large that the price of survivors remained low in foreign markets.”
References
Ibn Khaldun. Islam In History. https://archive.org/details/islaminhistoryid00lewi.
Lal, K. L. Muslim Slave System In Medieval India. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://dn720002.ca.archive.org/0/items/muslim-slave-system-in-medieval-india-k.-s.-lal_202111/Muslim%20Slave%20System%20in%20Medieval%20India%20%28K.S.%20Lal%29.pdf.
History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India (Tarikh e Firishta), Complete Volumeshttps://archive.org/details/history-of-the-rise-of-the-mahomedan-power-in-india-vol.-1/History%20Of%20The%20Rise%20Of%20The%20Mahomedan%20Power%20In%20India%2C%20Vol.%201/.
Elliot & Dawson. History of India told by its own Historians vol 2. https://archive.org/details/dli.pahar.0662.
