Note 74 — P (Continued) (continued 2)

In the Census Report, 1871, the Paravas are summed up as being a fishing caste on the Madura and Tinnevelly coast, who “were found by the Portuguese, on their arrival in India, to be groaning under the Muhammadan yoke, and were assisted by the Portuguese on condition of their becoming Christians. This general conversion, for political ends, explains why the fishing population of the present day along the south-east coast is to a considerable extent Roman Catholic.” It is noted by Mr. S. P. Rice74 that the fishermen “who live in the extreme south are devout Catholics, and have preserved the Portuguese names by which their fathers were baptized into the Church, so that, incongruous as it sounds, Josē Fernandez and Maria Santiago are but humble folk, catching fish in a primitive way, with no more clothing on than a small loin cloth and a picture of the Virgin.”