Our Story

Timeline

Ten thousand years of this coast, in the moments that mattered.

The Ancient Coast

  1. ~11,700 years ago — The Sea Arrives

    The last Ice Age ends and sea levels rise, drowning the plain that connected this coast to Bhavnagar. The Gulf of Khambhat is born. The land our ancestors walked on is now underwater.

  2. ~7,500 BCE — The Submerged City

    Researchers find evidence of a substantial settlement beneath the sea near Hazira, 27 km from our villages. Carbon dating suggests it is around 9,500 years old — among the oldest ever found.

  3. ~2500 BCE — The Indus Valley Next Door

    Bhagatrav, a thriving port just 12 km away, is part of the Indus Valley trade network. Lothal's dockyard nearby is believed to be the oldest known dock in the world.

  4. ~200–800 CE — The Buddhist Coast

    Monasteries line the shore from Bharuch to Saurashtra. Valabhi, near our coast, becomes one of India's greatest centres of learning — spoken of alongside Nalanda. Sea trade pays for it all.

  5. Medieval — The Coast Reshapes Itself

    Tidal flooding submerges land around Delasa, Dandi, and Bhagwa. The shoreline the community depends on changes again.

Named in the Records

  1. 1050 AD — First Written Mention

    Copper plate inscriptions record King Trilochanpal at Bhagvadandi. The earliest known document placing our village in history.

  2. 1347 AD — The Gohils Cross the Gulf

    Samarsi Gohil arrives in Bhagwa from Saurashtra, bringing Rajput ancestry into the community's lineage. A sword carried on that crossing was still found in a family home in the 1930s.

  3. 1590 — Bhagwa in Akbar's Records

    The village appears as 'Bhankora' in the Ain-i-Akbari, the administrative record of the Mughal empire.

  4. Mid-1600s — 'Bhekara' in Dutch Records

    Our village turns up in Dutch East India Company documents. European traders knew this coast and used it.

  5. 1617 — An Englishman Dies on Our Shore

    Thomas Coryat, England's earliest travel writer, reaches this coast sick and dying. A local Muslim man cares for him and gives him a burial — possibly at the Kazi Pir Dargah.

  6. Late 1600s onward — The Parsis Arrive

    Parsi families settle in Bhagwa, own land and tad palms, and provide maritime employment. Their presence shapes the village for three centuries.

  7. 17th–19th century — The Smuggling Years

    High customs duties at the major ports make the quiet creeks of our coast valuable. A sustained illegal trade runs through them for two hundred years.

  8. ~1750 onward — Surat Port Silts Up

    The Tapti River fills with silt and large ocean ships can no longer reach Surat. Trade shifts south. The era of great ships calling at our shore begins to close.

Under the British

  1. ~1850s — The Palms Come Down

    British policy against toddy tapping destroys palm trees across the district — over 1.2 million at peak. The tad palm landscape that defined this shore begins its long disappearance.

  2. 1867 — The First School

    Bhagwa Prathmik Shala opens. One room, perhaps thirty students, no electricity. Everything that followed in education starts here.

  3. 1872 — The Census Fixes Us on Paper

    The first all-India census permanently classifies every jati, including ours. What had been fluid for generations becomes a fixed government record.

  4. 1883 — Mor Gets a School

    Mor Mukhya Primary School opens, extending formal education further along the coast.

  5. 1886 — The Lighthouse

    A lighthouse is installed at Bhagwa Dandi, recorded in British navigation guides. Our coast is now marked on the charts of the world.

  6. ~1880 — Africa Begins

    Jogi Bava, the first recorded pioneer, makes the journey to East Africa. Others follow. A pattern is set that will last a century.

  7. 1891 — A Warning to Foreign Ships

    The US Hydrographic Office names Bhagwa as a navigational landmark and warns that ships should not enter these waters without a local pilot. Our men were that good.

  8. 1907 — Inland to Jamshedpur

    Tata Steel is established and the first men from our community travel inland for work. The beginning of a century of migration away from the coast.

  9. 1930 — The Salt March Passes By

    Gandhi's march to Dandi passes 10 km from our villages through Bhatgam. Community members join him. Their names are kept in the village library.

After Independence

  1. 1947 — Independence

    The end of British rule changes land rights, caste records, migration routes, and the political ground beneath our families in East Africa.

  2. 1949 — The First Officer

    Nathu Morar joins the merchant navy as an Electrical Officer — the first from our villages to hold officer rank on a modern vessel. A standard is set.

  3. 1950 — The First Oras at Kazi Pir

    The great interfaith gathering begins. Parsi singers from Surat, Muslim singers from Bharuch. Qawwali and bhajans on the same stage, the same night, the same crowd.

  4. 1952 — Gando Bawad Arrives

    Sheep brought by traders from Kathiawar carry the seeds of an invasive tree. Vitthal Nathu remembers it arriving as small, harmless-looking plants. It is still spreading.

  5. 1958 — The First Engineer

    Durlabh Bhana graduates from L.D. Engineering College, Ahmedabad. The ceiling comes down. Others follow immediately.

  6. 1959 — The First Concrete House

    Nathu Morar builds a house of ground plus two floors in Mor at a cost of Rs 1.5 lakhs — an enormous sum. He also builds the village's first covered cremation area.

  7. 1959 — The First Man in Britain

    Gora Kaka walks off a ship in England and does not go back. The UK migration has begun, entirely by accident.

  8. ~1960 — The Land Changes Hands

    Gujarat's land ceiling act — khede eni jamin, the land belongs to the one who tills it — redistributes surplus Parsi-owned farmland to community families. A typical holding: 7 vingha.

  9. June 13, 1960 — Mor High School Opens

    Sixty-one students walk in on the first day. Two of them are girls. Mor is the only village in the entire area granted government permission for a secondary school.

  10. December 25, 1961 — Khariya Mahadev Consecrated

    The Shivling is moved at precisely 9:55 AM, on the strength of Nathu Morar's dream. The temple is named for the salt water that had covered it for years.

  11. 1960s–70s — The Parsis Leave

    Three centuries end quietly. The land had been redistributed, the trade had moved south. They simply stopped coming back. The stone peepholes and hand-carved furniture stayed.

  12. ~1963–1975 — The Second Crossing

    As East African nations gain independence, community families read the signs and leave while leaving is still their own decision. Leicester, Preston, Bradford.

  13. 1967 — The Flood Uncovers Treasure

    Floodwater near the Bhagwa beach exposes old coins and jewellery. A five-year-old boy named Sunil trades his find for roasted chickpeas.

The Village Changes

  1. ~1970 — Electricity

    The kerosene fanas era ends. Ceiling fans arrive, then televisions. The village night changes permanently.

  2. 1973 — America

    Mahesh Sarang becomes the first from our community to reach the USA. He had held a valid visa for three years before using it.

  3. 1975 — The First Doctor

    Dr. Thakore completes his MBBS and returns to serve the three villages. His fee is five rupees.

  4. ~1978 — The Gulf Opens

    Salaries five to eight times higher than India draw the first wave of workers to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar.

  5. ~1980s — Five Hundred Men at Sea

    At any given moment, 500 men from the community are on ships. The Vapur area of Mor becomes so associated with the profession that in some fadias it is simply the family trade.

  6. 1987–88 — Ramayan on Television

    Formal Hinduism arrives in the village by Doordarshan. The stories of Ram and Krishna enter homes that had never held them before.

  7. ~1980s–90s — The Peak, Then the Quiet

    Village population reaches its highest point and begins to fall. City migration accelerates. Houses that were full stand empty for most of the year.

Now

  1. August 24, 1994 — BMD Mandal Founded

    At a meeting in Leicester, the diaspora formally organises itself.

  2. ~1995 — The Sardar Bridge

    The bridge transforms the commute to Surat, and Rander Road becomes the main settlement area for community families in the city.

  3. ~1995–96 — The First Shrimp Ponds

    Safri begins shrimp farming in Delasa. The early attempts fail. He keeps going, and becomes the pioneer everything afterwards is built on.

  4. 2000 — Vidhyadan Trust Founded

    UK community members establish a trust to support education in the villages. Around 200 scholarships follow over the next decade.

  5. 2003 — The Village on Video

    Satish Patel films every corner of Mor. What began as one recording is now hundreds of videos spanning two decades.

  6. 2010–2016 — The Golden Era

    Thailand's shrimp industry collapses and Indian prices rise. Returns run 60–140%. Luxury cars appear in the village. New houses go up.

  7. July 7, 2016 — On the Stock Exchange

    Zeal Aqua Limited, founded by Shanti Ishwar Patel, becomes the first company from our community listed on an Indian exchange.

  8. 2024 — The Gate and the Bridge

    A forty-foot entrance gate marks the village on the map. The new Saroli bridge cuts the drive from Surat to forty minutes.

  9. 2024 — The Matrimony Gathering

    Over 500 people attend the first BMD matrimony event at Gayatri Mandir — the largest of its kind in the community's history.

  10. 2025 — All India Rank 130

    Kshitij Master places 3rd in Surat city in NEET and 130th nationally out of 22 lakh students. The highest academic result in the community's recorded history.

  11. 2026 — Standing for Election

    Donika Patel becomes the first from our community to contest a Surat Municipal Corporation election. She loses. The threshold is crossed anyway.

  12. 2026 — This Book Is Published

    Mor Bhagwa: This Is Where We Come From, written by Hitesh Bhana. Offered to the community, and to whoever comes after.

This is the short version. The complete timeline runs to 126 entries, and the book goes further still — archaeological sources, Gazetteer references, the full documentation behind every date above, and the stories these single lines only point at.

Read the book free online →