KOCHI: Among the many by-lanes of Fort Kochi, one might come across a little street called Burgher Street. Because of its central position, the presence of a Children’s Park close to it and a number of art galleries and other tourist attractions around it, the board is often noticed by passers-by. But like the many pieces of forgotten history, the Burgher Street too has lost its history somewhere sometime in the folds of time. The Burgher connection was lost.So what is the Burgher connection? (No! it has nothing to do with food.) Burghers are in fact a Eurasian minority community that has its presence in many parts of the colonised world, especially in Sri Lanka.But on the Burgher Street there are no Burghers today. There are some Portuguese descendents and Anglo-Indians yes, but no Burghers.“The real Burghers are actually Dutch descendents. The word Burgher is derived from Dutch language. There are only two streets in Fort Kochi which still bear Dutch names, Burgher Street and Petercelli Street. The other streets have been renamed by the British who came later.But today there are no Burghers on the street anymore, they all vanished in the 300 years after the decline of the Dutch reign,” says Austin Paul, president, International Forum for Cultural Heritage and Tradition (IFCHAT). But today the former Dutch street has a number of Portuguese descendents nevertheless but no Dutch. One of the residents of the street, Ivan D’Costa says: “This strange paradox too has a story behind it, a story which dates back to the origin of Fort Kochi itself.”In the 15th Century when the Portuguese first came to Kerala, they soon became a force to reckon within the Malayali land. After coming to Kochi, a little port at that time, many in the community settled here. “It was the Portuguese who built a fort in the area and the city around it was called Fort Kochi. But soon the Dutch came in and they destroyed the fort,” says Austin Paul.“The Portuguese had by then mingled with the local community here. The descendants of the local population and the Portuguese were included into the Portuguese community of the city. They were given good education and skills by the Portuguese. Soon we were a substantial population with skilled labourers like traders, shipwrights, master mariners, dubashes, stevedores etc. But when the Dutch came in, they were not very kind to us. This was in the context of the reformation. We Portuguese were Catholic but the Dutch were Protestants,” says Austin.The Dutch destroyed many of the Portuguese buildings here and the Protestant reign came in. “The Dutch were not as liberal as the Portuguese with inter-ethnic marriages and incorporation of the native population.This was a weakness. Soon they were short of skilled labourers. As many of the Portuguese here were skilled, they took in these skilled Portuguese in their fold and provided facilities for them.This is where the Burgher Street comes in. The word Burgher in Dutch means ‘clerk.’ The street was built for the Portuguese descendants of clerks here. But the real Burghers, the Dutch descendants, have gone elsewhere. They were a very small population with surnames like Burbys, Van Rosses, Dunns and Branderburgs. Some say, they moved to other islands like Vypeen and mingled with the local population and slowly lost their origin,” says Ivan D’Costa.On the other hand, the Burgher Street still holds shadows of Dutch architecture, including high ceilings, thick walls, a little courtyard and so on but no Burghers.“Even the architecture is now slowly dying. Many of the houses are privately owned, so the government does not give any attention to its heritage. Many structures have come up in the area which violate the norms of heritage sites. If it goes on like this the heritage of the area would be lost,” says Austin Paul.
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