Past Events

  Beginnings of Nandurbar

Once the glorious capital of the Nanda kings, it is the most important town on the railway line between Surat and Bhusaval. The lamp atop the mausoleum is plainly visible even at night. Muslim fakir, centuries ago, came to the palace of the Nanda king but had his hands chopped off (so the story goes so he went to the neighbouring Muslim kingdom of Ajmer where the ruler, Iman Badshah, set a powerful army to sack the fortress of the Nandas. Both rulers were locked in deadly combat on the hill and fell by each others’ swords. And so they rest atop the hill. The old town of Nandurbar is noted for its exquisite wood carvings that adorn the portals and pillars of the houses. The new town has many modern structures – 1/3 of the population is Muslim, 2/3 Hindu …

Years ago it is used to be visited by the missionary from Dhule. Later, Dominic Gonsalves, once a Jesuit Brother, started extensive social work in the area, and in 1968
Fr. B. Massot found the time ripe to step in. He began by staying in a rented room of someone’s house, and used to have his meals in a restaurant built over a gutter. Hard days. (Massot died in Nairobi in 1990). He started a boarding in an old cotton-ginning mill which had gone bankrupt. Years later, much progress is visible and the new Jesuit team has also gone in for making the people self-reliant and proud of indigenous medicines, etc. The people in the villages of Nandurbar taluka belong to 3 diff. tribes: the Canjaras, the Bhils and the Koknas. Of these, the Bhils are in the majority. The people speak Bhilli, a tough dialect which has no written dictionary or grammar.

Joe Rosario SJ