The Goa Inquisition

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The Goa Inquisition
Author Anant Kakba Priolkar
CountryIndia
LanguageEnglish
Subject Goa Inquisition
Publisher Bombay University Press
Publication date
1961
Pages264
ISBN 978-0-8364-2753-0

The Goa Inquisition, Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India is a book published by Bombay University Press and authored by Anant Priolkar. It is a narrative of the Goan Inquisition organised by the Portuguese-Christian colonial rulers of Goa.

Contents

Details

Part I

The book is divided into two parts. Part I, titled "The Goa Inquisition", is divided into ten chapters. The first two chapters detail the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition in Europe providing background material and context that would lead to the inquisition in India. A fictional story of unrequited love is used as the basis for the anti-Semitism of Tomas de Torquemada . The book also makes the origin of the Portuguese Inquisition based on the love of King Manuel I of Portugal for Princess Isabella of Aragon, instead of politics. (The arrival of Jews to Portugal after their expulsion from Spain was a security threat to the Kingdom of Portugal, because Sephardic Jews had an established reputation in Iberia for joining forces with Moors to overthrow Christian rulers. [1] )

Chapter 3 begins with the advent of the Inquisition in India, with a discussion of the French spy Dellon's account of the inquisition in Chapter 4. The successive chapters describe the wars that led to the establishment of Portuguese rule in Goa, and the alleged massacre of Hindus during the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510. However, various sources claim that only Bijapur Muslims were killed during the conquest, by both the Portuguese led by Afonso de Albuquerque and the local Hindus led by Timoji. [2] [3] [4]

Successive chapters in Part I also describe the forced conversion of Hindus to Christianity by the Goa Inquisition. Délio de Mendonça claims that the book completely contradicts contemporary historical accounts of voluntary conversions of entire villages in Goa by the various religious orders (Dominicans, Jesuits and Franciscans), [5] but the book doesn't provide[ citation needed ] any contemporary basis for its version of history. The book details the organization and procedures of the Inquisition and the anti-Hindu laws that were passed in Goa during the inquisition banning Hindu religious ceremonies and customs from being continued by converted Hindus, as well as reducing the status of Hindus to second-class citizens by banning them from public gatherings and so on.

The book also discusses the various methods of torture used by the Inquisition, such as burning by sulphur, water-torture, rape, the use of pulleys to stretch victims and the "strappado" method of torture. The study of Agostino Borromeo from the University of La Sapienza in Roma into the Vatican archives and the subsequent 783-page report [6] denies the allegations made in the book.

Part II

Part II discusses the accounts of the Inquisition given by Dellon [7] and Buchanan [8] in two separate chapters. Priolkar cites Buchanan as an authoritative source, although Buchanan's work was a Protestant polemic written in the 19th century that denounced Catholicism in Goa and it did not use any historical records.[ citation needed ]

Editions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afonso de Albuquerque</span> Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman (1453–1515)

Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa, was a Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across the Indian Ocean and built a reputation as a fierce and skilled military commander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portuguese India</span> Colony in South Asia (1505–1961)

The State of India, also referred as the Portuguese State of India or simply Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded six years after the discovery of a sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the Kingdom of Portugal. The capital of Portuguese India served as the governing centre of a string of military forts and trading posts scattered all over the Indian Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Goa</span>

The history of Goa dates back to prehistoric times, though the present-day state of Goa was only established as recently as 1987. In spite of being India's smallest state by area, Goa's history is both long and diverse. It shares a lot of similarities with Indian history, especially with regard to colonial influences and a multi-cultural aesthetic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portuguese Inquisition</span> System of tribunals enforcing Catholic orthodoxy

The Portuguese Inquisition, officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of its king, John III. Although Manuel I had asked for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515 to fulfill the commitment of his marriage with Maria of Aragon, it was only after his death that Pope Paul III acquiesced. In the period after the Medieval Inquisition, it was one of three different manifestations of the wider Christian Inquisition, along with the Spanish Inquisition and Roman Inquisition. The Goa Inquisition was an extension of the Portuguese Inquisition in colonial-era Portuguese India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goa Inquisition</span> Portuguese Inquisition in colonial-era Portuguese India

The Goa Inquisition was an extension of the Portuguese Inquisition in Portuguese India. Its objective was to enforce Catholic orthodoxy and allegiance to the Holy See. Conversions took place through the Goan Inquisition with the persecution of Hindus and the destruction of Hindu temples.

The Konkani people are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the Konkan region of the Indian subcontinent who speak various dialects of the Konkani language. Konkani is the state language of Goa and also spoken by populations in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Damaon and Kerala. Other Konkani speakers are found in Gujarat state. A large percentage of Konkani people are bilingual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chorão (island)</span> Island in Goa, India

Chorão, also known as Choddnnem or Chodan, is an island along the Mandovi River near Tiswadi, Goa, India. It is the largest among other 17 islands of Goa. It is located 5 kilometres away from the state capital, the city of Panaji and 10 kilometres away from the city of Mapusa.

Anant Kakba Priolkar was an Indian polemicist, author and political activist. Born in 1895, he started writing while he was in school and his writing stopped only with his death. He was also elected as the President of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in 1951 at Karwar. His book The Goa Inquisition remains his bestselling work. He also considered Konkani as a dialect of Marathi language. He died in Maharashtra in 1973.

Roman Catholic Brahmin is a caste among the Goan, Bombay East Indian and Mangalorean Catholics who are descendants of Konkani Brahmin converts to the Latin Catholic Church, in parts of the Konkan region that were annexed into the Portuguese East Indies, with the capital (metropole) at Velha Goa, while Bombay was the largest territory (province) of Portuguese India. They retain some of the ethno-social values and customs of their ancestors, and most of them exhibit a noticeable hybrid Latino-Concanic culture. They were known as the Brahmins among the "New Christians".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuncolim Massacre</span>

The Cuncolim Massacre or Cuncolim Revolt was an incident that involved the massacre and mutilation of Christian priests and civilians by Hindu chieftains in the Portuguese Goa village of Cuncolim on Monday, 15 July 1583.

History of Goan Catholics recounts the history of the Goan Catholic community of the Indian state of Goa from their conversion to Christianity to date.

Gomantak Maratha Samaj is a Hindu community found in the Indian state of Goa. They are known as Nutan Maratha Samaj in the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra and Naik Maratha Samaj in Maharashtra, Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, also Telangana respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianization of Goa</span> Conversion of Goan natives to Christianity

The indigenous population of the erstwhile Portuguese colony of Goa, Damaon & Diu underwent Christianisation following the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510, which was followed by the Goa Inquisition from 1560 onwards. The converts in the Velhas Conquistas to Roman Catholicism were then granted full Portuguese citizenship. Almost all present-day Goan Catholics are descendants of these native converts; they constitute the largest Indian Christian community of Goa state and account for 25 percent of the population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portuguese conquest of Goa</span> 1510 military campaign in India

The Portuguese conquest of Goa occurred when the governor Afonso de Albuquerque captured the city in 1510 from the Adil Shahis. Old Goa became the capital of the Portuguese India which included territories such as Fort Manuel of Cochin, Bom Bahia, Damaon & Chaul. It was not among the places Albuquerque was supposed to conquer. He did so after he was offered the support and guidance of Timoji and his troops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Goa</span> Type of religion in Goa, India

The Christian population of Goa is almost entirely Goan Catholics, whose ancestors converted to Christianity during the Portuguese rule in India. Christianisation followed the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510, which was followed by the Goa Inquisition from 1560 onwards. The Hindu population is mostly descended from immigrants from other states of India, who have been arriving in Goa since the last century There is a higher proportion of Christians in Velhas Conquistas than in Novas Conquistas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goan Muslims</span>

The Goan Muslims are a minority community who follow Islam in the Indian coastal state of Goa, some are also present in the union territory of Damaon, Diu & Silvassa. They are native to Goa, unlike recent Muslim migrants from mainland India and are commonly referred to as Moir by Goans in Goan Konkani. Moir is derived from the Portuguese word Mouro. The Portuguese called them Mouros because they were in contact with the Moors, people of predominantly Muslim Maghreb country, who had conquered and colonised the Iberian peninsula for centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konkani literature</span>

Konkani literature is literature in the Konkani language, mostly produced in three scripts: Roman, Devanagari and Kannada. Konkani literature is eligible for the Sahitya Akademi Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Churches and convents of Goa</span> Indian World Heritage site

Churches and Convents of Goa is the name given by UNESCO to a set of religious monuments located in Goa Velha, in the state of Goa, India, which were declared a World Heritage Site in 1986.

Crypto-Hinduism is the secret adherence to Hinduism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Hindus". Crypto-Hinduism was observed during a period of forced religious conversions in South Asia, as well as suspected against Hindus who were forcibly converted to the religion of the invaders or colonizers. Many crypto-Hindus were arrested for practicing Hinduism after professing to have converted to Christianity, some sentenced to death for being a crypto-Hindu such as in colonial Portuguese Goa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xenddi</span> 18th-century religious tax

Xenddi, sometimes spelled as Xendi, was a discriminatory religious tax imposed on non-Christians by the colonial era Portuguese Christian government in Goa, Daman and Diu in 1704 and expanded to all of Portuguese colonies in the Indian subcontinent by 1705. It was similar to the discriminatory Jizya religious tax imposed on Hindus by Muslim rulers in the region.

References

  1. Roth, Norman (1994), Jews, Visigoths and Muslims in medieval Spain : cooperation and conflict, pp.79–90, Leiden: Brill, ISBN   978-90-04-09971-5
  2. Roger Crowley (2015). "19". Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire. Faber and Faber. For four days without any pause our men have slaughtered…wherever we have been able to get into we haven't spared the life of a single Muslim. We have herded them into the mosques and set them on fire. I have ordered that neither the [Hindu] peasants nor the Brahmans should be killed. We have estimated the number of dead Muslim men and women at six thousand.
  3. Bulhão Pato, R.A.; Lopes Mendonça, H. (1884). Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque seguidas de documentos que as elucidam. Vol. 1. Lisbon. p. 26. Allgums gentios homens principaes, a que os turquos tem tomado suas terras, sabendo a destruição de gooa, decérão da sera onde estam Recolhidos, e vieram em mynha ajudaa e tomarão os passos e camynhos, e todolos mouros que escaparam de goa trouxeram á espada, e nom deram vida a viva creatura.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. de Oliveira e Costa, João Paulo; Rodrigues, Vítor Luís Gaspar (2008). Campanhas de Afonso de Albuquerque: Conquista de Goa, 1510–1512. Lisbon: Tribuna da História. pp. 55–56.
  5. Délio de Mendonça (1958). Conversions and Citizenry : Goa under Portugal, 1510-1610.
  6. Agostino Borromeo (2003). L' inquisizione : atti del simposio internazionale: Città del Vaticano, 29-31 ottobre 1998. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
  7. Dellon, G.; Amiel, C.; Lima, A. (1997). L'Inquisition de Goa: la relation de Charles Dellon (1687). Editions Chandeigne.
  8. Claudius Buchanan (1811). Christian Researches in Asia. Cambridge.