The Portuguese came to India in 1498, and their policy was to convert the Indian Christians to Roman Catholicism. Although Brahmins and other high-status Hindus who were ceremoniously converted by the Portuguese were treated with honor and distinction, groups engaged in agriculture, fishing and other rural occupations handed down by their ancestors received neither secular nor religious education. Among the Portuguese converts were a number of descendants of the Christian community reportedly founded by Apostle St. Bartholomew, whom the Portuguese molded into a community sometimes known as "Portuguese Christians".