By John B Monteiro
Mangaluru, Nov 1: The Department of Posts, Karnataka Circle, released a special cover on Mangalore tiles in Mangalore on October 30, 2022. It brought back nostalgic memories of my decades of writing on Mangalore tiles over the last few decades. To me, the postal department’s initiative, well intentioned and laudable, looked like requiem for Mangalore tile industry and what I write now about it could well be its epitaph.
Mangalore tiles are a type of tiles native to the city of Mangalore. The tiles were first introduced to India in 1860 by a German missionary. Since that time, the industry had flourished in Mangalore with these red tiles, prepared from hard laterite clay, having been in great demand throughout the country and beyond. They were exported to Burma (Myanmar), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and the Far East and even as far as East Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Australia. These were the only tiles recommended for government buildings in India under the .British Raj. The tall chimneys of tile factories still define Mangalore's skyline and characterize its urban setting along the eastern river banks. Mangalore tiles were a popular form of roofing – now progressively being replaced by cement-concrete structures.
The German missionary George Plebot set up the first tile factory in Mangalore in 1860, after he found large deposits of clay by the banks of the Gurpur and Netravati rivers. It was called the Basel Mission tile factory, and was the first ever tile factory in India, located on the northern bank of the Netravati river, near the present-day Ullal bridge.
Several other tile factories were established in the years that followed. In 1868, the Albuquerque tile factory producing these tiles was started by Alex Albuquerque near Panemangalore. Since the opening of the Albuquerque tile factory, Mangalureans have been actively involved in manufacturing these red Mangalore tiles which were in great demand throughout the Indian subcontinent and East Africa. Abundant deposits of clay, plenty of firewood from the Western Ghats and cheap skilled labour helped the industry flourish. By the 1900s there were around 25 tile factories situated in and around Mangalore. By 1994 around 75 tile factories were active in Mangalore. The factories along with these tiles also manufactured materials such as ridges, limestone and bricks. In 2007, the industry suffered a loss with about 10 tile factories shutting down due to scarcity of raw materials like clay. Factories struggled to find skilled and cooperative workers.
Mangalore tiles provide excellent ventilation especially during summer and are aesthetic as well. Some of them are especially made to be placed over kitchen and bathroom for the smoke to escape. Over a period of time, these tiles become dark to black from constant exposure to soot and smoke. These red coloured clay tiles, unique in shape and size, were very famous and exported to all the corners of world. They are unique and are made or available in different sizes and shapes depending on the users’ need.
However, the tile scene changed over recent decades with accelerated popularity of concrete slab houses. If once the aspiration was to move from thatched houses to tiled roof houses, now people want to move from tile-roof houses to concrete slab houses.
Mangalore tiles, because of their high quality and strength, became a generic term for clay roofing tiles – just as Xeroxes for photocopiers. As the Bombay Gazetteer notes: "Mangalore tiles are much superior to the ordinary Bombay tiles, as they last for years without requiring removal, while Bombay tiles have to be turned every year."
Incidentally, when iconic landmark of Bombay, Western Railway headquarters and terminus were built in mid-19th century Mangalore tiles were used.
Alex Pai – Indian Tile Pioneer
In 1834 German Basel Mission came to Mangalore and introduced modern industries including tile manufacture. A. Albuquerque & Sons, founded by Alexis (Alex) Albuquerque Pai in 1868, is the first Indian tile manufacturer. It is a grand saga of setbacks and successes.
Alex Albuquerque Pai, from whom the enterprise derives its name, was born in Pezavar (also Pezar), a village 28 KM from Mangalore, in 1841. The impatient and ambitious young Alex could not cope with the slow motion that marked farming joint families. He sought his share of family property in cash and set out for Mangalore on foot. On the way he had to swim across Gurpur River. As bad luck would have it, due to swift currents and physical contortions involved in swimming against the current, his loin cloth came loose and all the hard cash he had crashed to the bottom of the river. There is still a joke over this. When lorries are sent to Gurpur River to extract sand, the crew are told by the manager to be alert and look for the sunken treasure of Alex. Undaunted, Alex came to Mangalore and closely monitored the various activities of Basel Mission – weaving, printing and tile manufacturing – and opted to work for the tile factory. A keen learner, Alex carefully studied the tricks of the trade. According to his descendants, Plabat, a German, took special interest in Alex and put him through various operations – from handling raw clay to the final stage of manufacture of tiles.
Alex started the manufacture of tiles on his own with simple pans in 1868 at Nandavar, on the banks of Netravati River, known for its rich clay deposits. With a pair of bullocks he started mixing and forming clay into bricks and had them baked in a crude type of kiln. An unprecedented flood washed away his Nandavar venture and he shifted the enterprise to the present campus at Hoige Bazar on the east bank of Netravati and Gurpur Rivers at their confluence. From the modest start there, the enterprise built up a capacity to ten million tiles a year.
Even as he progressively shifted his equipment and constructed four crude kilns, once again floods ruined the foundations of a promising enterprise. Alex rebuilt with fresh vigour and ended up with more efficient kilns on foundations well above the flood level. He installed steam engine and business flourished, giving rise to rumours that, while excavating for clay at Nandavar, Alex had found a treasure trove. Alex went on to build more tile factories at Hoige Bazar and Ullal.
Alex died in 1912. In the family partition that followed, the mother tile factory came into the hands of his son, Felix Pascal Simon (1884 – 1953). He had the enterprising genes of Alex and consolidated and expanded the business. The original campus of one acre was expanded to seven acres. He started filling up the river bank with broken tiles and other debris and dredged the channel with the help of port authorities. Felix was the first among the Mangalore tile manufacturers to install electric motor.
Felix was a multi-faceted personality. He diversified into building construction – notably Felix Pai Bazar near Central Market (now being pulled down and re-built). Felix was also a pioneer in introducing hollow bricks, instead of laterite stones. Beyond business, he was active in public life, holding various positions. When Jawaharlal Nehru came to Mangalore in 1937, he first landed at Sea View, the Albuquerque family residence on the factory campus, and then taken in procession to attend a public meeting in Falnir, the expenses of which were underwritten by Felix.
On the death of Felix in 1953, his son Cyril (1917 –1974 ) took charge of the mother factory. He mechanised and streamlined the factory operations. On his untimely death at the age of 57 years, his widow, Octavia, had the businesses divided between her three sons, with the second son, George, taking over the tile business. He has carried forward his father’s mechanisation programme. He has also successfully weathered the ill winds the tile industry is facing.
Rego Tiles Transits into Computer Age
My first temptation, after meeting the part owner of Rego Sons, one of the pioneer tile manufacturers of Mangalore, was to title the piece “Ph.D. in Maths Messes up with Mud”. For Christopher Rego, the younger brother, 55 years old (then, held a doctorate while his elder brother Gerard, 71 (then) years, is BSc and BTech. (in ceramics ) -- perhaps jointly highest academically qualified tile factory owners. They are heir to a business legacy which traces its origin to 1871. It has crossed the post-centenary silver jubilee landmark. But, there does not seem to have been any great celebration of the jubilee. This is in keeping with the mourning mood in the Mangalore tile industry where only 10% of the units have barely managed to survive.
Brothers Gerard and Christopher were Mumbai based and managed their tile enterprise by remote control – harnessing modern communication systems to the hilt. Christopher, who visited Mangalore once a month for a short stay, said that his role in the business was peripheral and he likened himself to a doctor trying to keep the enterprise on life support system. Even that is creditable considering dozens of units downing their shutters over the last two decades. But the story of the surviving centurion should start at the beginning.
The partnership firm of Rego Sons was started by Peter (Pedru) Paul Lobo ( 1844 –1894 ) who was considered a pioneer tile manufacturer, being the third after Commonwealth ( Basel Mission ) and Albuquerque. He was uncle to Domingo John Rego (b. 1856) who eventually became a partner in the business. It may be noted that before Rego Tiles, there was Lobo logo on the tiles some of which are still in place on the roof of the bungalow, over a century old, in the Rego Tile Factory Complex.
Pedru died at the age of 50 years after marrying thrice, his last wife being Juliana. The genealogist declares that Pedru “died young”, though he couldn’t have been a spring chicken. Perhaps he was influenced by the longevity of Juliana who outlived her husband by 74 years when she died in 1967 at the age of 101.
On the death of Pedru, his nephew Domingo Rego took over the business paying his aunt, Juliana, a sum of Rs.1000 over the best offer she got – the total sum being either Rs.17,000 or Rs.19,000. This was in about 1895. By 1905, Domingo had two assets – the tile factory and a coffee plantation. People pointed out that he was sailing on two boats with a leg on each. So, Domingo sold his estate for Rs.20,000 and concentrated on his tile business.
Domingo was succeeded by his sons, J.P. Rego and L.X. Rego. J.P. consolidated the business on a sound footing so that it could tide over the difficult period of recession that commenced in early 1930s. He took leading part in promoting the formation of Western India Tile Manufacturer’s Association and was its President for several years. The business was later partitioned, around 1959, between them, with the mother unit going to L.X. and a smaller factory located close by at Bolar going to J. P. The brand name of the smaller factory was “Coronation Tiles”.
At the zenith of its operations, Rego Sons had 140 employees and sold their products not only all over India but exported to Africa and Australia. Exports to the Gulf and other coastal destinations were by large country craft called manjis which are now becoming an extinct species. There was a sales and display office on Mazgaon Road in Bombay since 1915. The tiles went north up to Dehradun for roofing military barracks.
The industry started declining in the 1980s. Many shut shop while others tried to cope with productivity- oriented mechanisation like conveyers for handling raw materials and end products. Rego Sons responded by non-mechanised rationalisation of systems which yielded economy and productivity. The labour force was pegged down to 70 and need-based multi-tasking was introduced.
Even with all this, the enterprise could not sustain itself viably and closed down in 2001. Then the workers appealed to the partners to keep the unit going on the plea of their long, and often hereditary, association with it. They also offered to work more earnestly and extra time. These commitments seem to have been kept and the enterprise soldiers on. But, as one of the partners points out, strictly on economic considerations the enterprise is not viable as it is using the assets of the owners without any returns on them. Thus, the talk of life support system portends ominous sunset possibilities for this 124 years old enterprise.