When Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called the fishermen the “state's own army”, it was widely taken as a honorary title bestowed on the bravehearts for the selfless, death-defying service they had offered during the floods. But historians have dug up accounts that reveal that the fishermen had once upon a time functioned as an army unit for the mighty Travancore kings.

Their contribution was especially decisive during the Battle of Colachel in 1741 when a badly unprepared Travancore army made the Dutch fleet, then the world's most dreaded Navy, bite the dust. The Wikipedia is silent about the role of fishermen but a descendant of no less a person than captain Eustachius de Lannoy, the commander of the Dutch fleet that surrendered to Travancore king Marthanda Varma, had recorded the deeds of 'mukkuvar' during the Colachel battle. Mark de Lannoy, in the chapter on Colachel War in his doctoral thesis 'The Kulasekhara Perumals of Travancore', writes about the 'non-cooperation' of the local fisherfolk, and how their refusal to help the Dutch finally cost them the war.

Lannoy's was the kind of evidence that Fr Antony Claret, a priest and an avid historian belonging to the fishermen community, had been seeking. “The Battle of Colachel had spawned innumerable folk tales, but authentic verifiable history was in short supply,” said Fr Antony Claret. These folktales had succeeded in sidelining the fishermen.

Marthanda Varma's cannon trick

A hugely popular tale, which has now been given the imprimatur of truth by constant repetition, tells how the Travancore army had fooled the Dutch. It is said that the Travancore army, to mask its ridiculously primitive weaponry, had placed large trunks of palm trees on bullock carts at an angle so that it looked like deadly cannons to the Dutch Navy that was approaching from the sea. Lore has it that the Dutch, terrified at the sight of hundreds of cannons lined up along the shore, conceded defeat.

“Such a popular lore, which mocks at historical truths, effectively masks the involvement of fishermen. Bullock carts and palm trees are not something that you normally associate with the fisherfolk,” Fr Claret said. The Nair army was already feted for their role. Other communities, too, attempted to insert themselves into history.

The Anandapadmanabhan cult

A mysterious personality named Anandapadmanabhan, made popular through C V Rama Pillai's 'Marthanda Varma', was sought be be usurped by Nair, Nadar and Channar communities as their own. The man is said to have played a crucial role in saving the life of king Marthanda Varma during the Colachel war. The retelling of history became such a potent political weapon that an AIADMK MLA rose up in the Tamil Nadu Assembly and demanded that a memorial be erected for 'Ananthapadmanabha Nadar'. In C V Raman Pillai's fictional account, Anandapadmanabhan was a Nair. But there are no historical documents or accounts to give life to the person.

The descendent's luck

Fr Claret wanted “indisputable, irreproachable, and incontrovertible” proof of the involvement of fisherfolk in the Colachel battle. The existing manuals did not contain much. This was when he and his co-writer Dinakar, a Nadar, stumbled upon a reference to De Lannoy's work. Eventually, he managed to get a copy of the Lannoy's research text from the University of Leiden in Netherlands. Fr Claret and Dinakar wrote a Tamil book, titled 'Colachel War', based on de Lannoy's thesis.

The Dutchman's work was crucial in two ways. One, it was based on all available historical writings, foreign and local, available; de Lannoy had travelled extensively in the state in the eighties to refer all historical documents generated locally and interact with all living South Indian historians. Two, the Dutch researcher had access to Dutch East India Company records that other historians had.

End of Colachel War, live

“What is more important is that in no other accounts will you get an eye witness account of the Colachel war,” Fr Claret said. The account de Lannoy has used was from the personal dairy of a man named Theuniz, which he had found among the Dutch East India records. Theuniz, who was on the Dutch ship called Porca, watched live as the Travancore army, armed by the British then stationed in Anchuthengu (near Attingal), bombarded the make-shift tent near the shore where the Dutch had gathered all their ammunition. That one big explosion ended the war on August 10, 1741.

Fishermen's loyalty and courage

de Lannoy had two references about the fishermen in Colachel. First, he made it clear that however much the Dutch tried, the 'mukkuvars' did not betray the Travancore king. As the Dutch approached the shore, the Travancore army had made a retreat, and the locals fled the area. It was not enough for the Dutch to bombard a place and then barge in. To continue the war they required fortifications, trenches, and make-shift sheds and storerooms. The Dutch captain wanted his generals to talk to the fishing community in the most peaceful manner, and get them to their side. They wanted the 'mukkuvars' for the work on the fortifications, and also for local support. Pots of money was offered. The fishermen refused.

The Dutch then approached the local Jesuit priests to get the fishermen on board. de Lannoy writes that the Jesuits told the Dutch point blank that the fishermen would not betray their king. In retaliation, the Jesuit church in Colachel was bombarded by the Dutch. A priest was killed, and three were abducted and taken to a Dutch ship to be tortured.

The second reference reveals how members of the 'mukkuva' community delayed Dutch reinforcements from reaching Colachel. A small mail boat with an officer and a mukkuva was sent to the Kanyakumari Dutch camp to fetch reinforcements. de Lannoy writes that the fisherman toppled the boat and took the officer to the Travancore camp. The fishermen were also instrumental in tricking many unsuspecting Dutch soldiers who were shipped in as reinforcements to march straight into the mouth of the Travancore army. It were some of these trapped Dutch soldiers who gave the Travancore army tips about Dutch strategy.

Gun-mounted fishing boats

According to historian Melvin Vinod, the fishermen had demonstrated their heroics even two centuries before the Colachel war. “When the ruthless Vijayanagara army marched into Travancore in 1544, it were the fishermen led by St Xavier who stood in the way,” Melvin said. There are, however, no historical documents to irrefutably prove his claim.

However, he said there are archival materials that showed that the forefathers of the fisherfolk who now live in areas like Valiyathura were adequately armed. He was referring to the dairy of a Vatican missionary named Jorge de Castro who had carried out conversion activities in a place then called Rettora, a linguistically contorted form of Raithura. (Raithura is now Valiyathura.)

The priest, in his annual report to the Vatican, had claimed that he had baptised 240 people in Rettora that year. He had also written that the moment the church bells go off during a baptism, the fishermen positioned along the shore in Rettora would ritually fire their boat-mounted cannons.

Moves are on to gather as much historical data as possible to create a more definitive history of the fisherfolk in the state. “We plan to hold many informal seminars where historians can come together and contribute to the process. We will go ahead only on the basis of authentic records. But we eventually will have to change the general impression that fisherfolk are mere drunkards are wastrels, an image established by pop culture,” said T Peter, the general secretary of National Fishworkers' Federation.