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Goa Inquisition

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St. Francis Xavier

The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Inquisition acting in the Indian state of Goa and the rest of the Portuguese empire in Asia. It was established in 1560, briefly suppressed from 1774-1778, and finally abolished in 1812. The inquisition was aimed primarily at Hindus with inquisitions against Indian Muslims, Indian Jews, and wayward new converts. By the time it was suppressed in 1774, the inquisition had had thousands of people executed and tortured. In Europe, the Goa Inquisition became notorious for its cruelty and use of torture, and the French philosopher Voltaire wrote "Goa is sadly famous for its inquisition, which is contrary to humanity as much as to commerce. The Portuguese monks deluded us into believing that the Indian populace was worshipping The Devil, while it is they who served him."

Beginning

The first inquisitors, Aleixo Dias Falcão and Francisco Marques, established themselves in what was formerly the raja of Goa's palace, forcing the Portuguese viceroy to relocate to a smaller residence. The inquisitor's first act was forbidding Hindus from publicly practice of their faith through fear of death. Sephardic Jews living in Goa, many of whom had fled the Iberian Peninsula to escape the excesses of the Spanish Inquisition to begin with, were also persecuted. The narrative of Da Fonseca describes the violence and brutality of the inquisition. The records speak of the necessity for hundreds of prison cells to accommodate fresh victims. Seventy-one "autos da fe" were recorded. In the first few years alone, over 4000 people were arrested, with 121 people burnt alive at the stake.

Persecution of Hindus

The Hindus of Goa were one of the most affected by the inquisition. The condemned Hindus were publicly burned at the stake in the square outside the Sé Cathedral in batches during ceremonies known as auto da fé (Portuguese: act of faith). Those who confessed to their accused heresy would be strangled prior to the burning. In this case, heresy was to practice a faith other than Christianity. Historian R.N. Sakshena writes ".. in the name of the religion of peace and love, the tribunal(s) practiced cruelties to the extent that every word of theirs was a sentence of death".

Anti-Hindu laws and prohibitions

Laws were passed banning Christians from keeping Hindus in their employ, and the public worship of Hindus were deemed unlawful.

A large number of restrictive religious laws were enacted, including the banning of Hindu musical instruments, dhoti, betel leaves and cholis. Many Hindu temples were converted or destroyed, and Christian churches built in their place, often from the materials of the temples they replaced. Throughout this period several important Hindu texts were burned in an effort to saturate the area with Christian religious texts. Most notably, the Kama Sutra increased in infamy with its "lewd" alternatives to the endorsed Missionary position.

Orders were issued that Hindu children who were orphaned be "taken immediately and handed over to the College of St. Paul of the society of Jesus of the said city of Goa, for being baptized, educated and indoctrinated by the Fathers of the said College and being directed by them and placed in positions according to their respective aptitudes and abilities".. The order was endorsed by the viceroy of Goa, Antao de Noronha and the Governor, Antonio Moniz Barrette.While the original order applied only to orphans, there were frequent complaints that Hindu children with parents were kidnapped from their families and forcibly baptized. Some Hindu families secretly smuggled their children out of Goa. Other less fortunate Hindus paid extortion money to Christian priests to keep their children from being kidnapped and baptized.

Many Christian priests disagreed with these draconian measures and sympathized with the Hindus, generating a brief lull in the forced conversions. However, the "Father of the Christians", upon hearing of this, complained to the Archbishop and reinstated a new wave of forced conversions.

Several anti-Hindu laws were enacted with the expressed intent to "humiliate Hindus" and encourage conversions to Christianity. The viceroy ordered that Hindu pandits and physicians be disallowed from entering the capital city on horseback or palanquins, the violation of which entailed a fine. Successive violations resulted in imprisonment, Christian palaquin-bearers were forbidden from carrying Hindus as passengers.Christian agricultural laborers were forbidden to work in the lands owned by Hindus and Hindus forbidden to employ Christian laborers.The inquisition guaranteed "protection" to Hindus who converted to Christianity. Thus, they initiated a new wave of baptisms to Hindus who were intimidated by their brutality into converting.

The inquisition supplied the ecclesiastic Jesuit priests with a strong state-sanctioned weapon to use against the Hindu population of the region. Moderate Catholics who tried to build bridges with Hindus were also persecuted. Even the governor of Goa from 1588-1591 was investigated when he consulted Hindu clerics about the auspicious dates concerning the arrival of ships. The adverse effects of the inquisition were tempered somewhat by the fact that Hindus were able to escape Portuguese hegemony by migrating to other parts of the subcontinent.

Use of torture

Hindus who were arrested for repeated violations of the laws were taken in by the inquisition to the "Palace of the Goa Inquisition" for "confessions". The confessions were attained by various torture techniques. Techniques included Hindus being tied up and having their feet burned slowly with sulphur, water torture techniques and racks to which the victims were manacled and their joints slowly dislocated by stretching. This "strappado" method was a particular favorite among the inquisitors. Thumb-screws and leg-crushers called "Spanish boots" were also employed. Often, boiling oil was poured on their legs and sulphur dropped on their bodies with lighted candles held beneath their armpits. Another technique involved fixing the victims to revolving tables and whirling them round until they were nauseous. These techniques were applied to the victims until they were weakened to the point of being persuaded to "convert" to Christianity and "confess".

Executions

Those who "confessed" were strangled to death and their corpses burned. Those who did not were burned alive at the stake. All the victims of the inquisition eventually had their shirts steeped in sulphur. Those who did not confess had their shirts painted with flames pointing upward. Those who did had their shirts painted with flamed pointing downward. They were taken from the palace to the Church during Sunday mass. Then, they were subjected to ridicule by the Christian parishioners. Once that ritual was complete, the confessors were strangled and their corpses, together with the living non-confessers, were "conducted to the Campo Sancto Lazaro" and burned at the stake in the presence of onlookers.

Persecution of Christians (non-Catholic-Syrian Christians)

In 1599 under Aleixo de Menezes the Synod of Diamper converted the Syriac Saint Thomas Christians (of the Orthodox faith) to the Roman Catholic Church under the excuse that they allegedly practiced Nestorian heresy. The synod enforced severe restrictions on their faith and the practice of using Syriac/Aramaic. The Kerala Christians of Malabar were independent of Rome. What resulted in it was the persecution of the Syrian Christians of Malabar. They were first made politically insignificant and their Metropolitanate status was discontinued by blocking bishops from the Middle East. There were assassination attempts against Archdeacon George so as to subjugate the entire church under Rome. The first martyr of consequence was Mar Ahathalla who was the bishop from Syria, who was staked by the Goan Inquisition. What followed was the literary holocaust of the St. Thomas Christian history and faith. Even the common prayer book was not spared. Every known item of literature was burnt and any priest professing independence was imprisoned. Some altars were pulled down to make way for altars conforming to Catholic criteria. St. Thomas Christians resentful over these acts later swore the Coonan Cross Oath, severing relations with the Catholic Church. They swore that from that day they nor their children would have any relations with the church of Rome thereby raising the first freedom movement against the western powers in India.

In addition, non-Portuguese Christian missionaries who were in competition with the inquisition were often persecuted even though they were outside the sphere of influence of the inquisition. When the local clergy became jealous of a French priest operating in Madras, they lured him to Goa, then had him arrested and sent to the inquisition. He was saved when the Hindu King of Carnatica (Karnataka) interceded on his behalf, laid siege to St. Thome and demanded the release of the priest.

Persecution of Jews

The Jews in the region were rounded up, together with the Hindus. Both groups were charged with "paganism", but the Jews were doubly charged with "Judaism".

The anti-semitic aspect of the inquisition ran parallel to the contemporaneous inquisitions in Spain and Portugal, working its havoc in Goa, among other places in the Iberian sphere of influence. There was a large population of Jews in the Konkan region. The inquisition mandated that celebrating the Jewish Sabbath in Goa was enough to get an Indian Jew burned at the stake. The Indian Jews were shackled in irons and imprisoned in filthy prisons for long periods of time before they were tried and executed.

The Jewish presence in the South Indian state of Kerala has been notable. In the 16th century, the Portuguese massacre of South Indian Jewry led to a significant decline in Jewish settlements in the region. Eventually, they sought refuge with the Hindu King of Cochin. In a letter written by the Portuguese to their king in 1513 permission is sought for their extermination. The Portuguese destroyed the remnants of the Jewish population in Kodungallore. They also destroyed the Jewish settlement in Cochin and damaged the Jewish synagogue as well as their historical documents.

In 1662 CE the Dutch attacked Cochin but were driven out. The Jews were severely punished by the Portuguese for allegedly aiding the Dutch. In 1663 CE the Dutch returned and defeated the Portuguese. The Jews were treated more tolerantly by the Dutch rulers. The Cochin Jews reestablished their links with European Jews. In 1687 a Jewish delegation from Amsterdam arrived under the leadership of Mr. Thomas Perera. His report published in 1687 under the name "NOTSIAS DOS JUDEOS DE COCHIM " details the history of Cochin Jews.

End of the Inquisition

Though officially repressed in 1774, it was reinstated by the Queen Maria I in 1778. The last vestiges of the Goa Inquisition were finally swept away when the British occupied the city in 1812. The inquisition has been viewed retrospectively as a failure by scholars of Christian history, since it failed in its objective of eradicating non-Catholic societies in India.

Footnotes

  1. Voltaire, Lettres sur l'origine des sciences et sur celle des peuples de l'Asie (first published Paris, 1777), letter of 15 December 1775
  2. Hunter, William W, The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Trubner & Co, 1886
  3. ^ The Goa Inquisition: Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition of India by Gabriel Dellon, Claudius Buchanan, Anant Kakba Priolkar, Bombay University Press 1961
  4. Priolkar, A.K, The Goa Inquisition. Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in Goa(review), Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 84, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1964), pp. 483-484
  5. ^ Sakshena, R.N, Goa: Into the Mainstream, Abhinav Publications, 2003,p24
  6. Shirodhkar, PP, Socio-Cultural life in Goa during the 16th century, P35
  7. ^ Benton, Lauren A, Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900, P122
  8. Shirodhkar, PP, Socio-Cultural life in Goa during the 16th century P123
  9. ^ Rule, William Harris, History of the Inquisition, Wesleyan Conference Office, London 1868
  10. AUTO DA FÉ,Jewish Encyclopedia
  11. P K John, Kerala History - Jews of Kerala on ananthapuri.com. Accessed 11 December 2006.
  12. Heard, J.B (Rev.), Prize Essay on Christianity in India, Dublin University Magazine Vol. LIII, Jan-June 1859

References

  • Streatfeidl-James, Douglas and Thomas, Bryn. Lonely Planet - Goa. Lonely Planet Publications, 1998.
  • Henry James Coleridge, ed. The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier. 2d Ed., 2 Vols. London: Burns & Oates, 1890.
  • The Goa Inquisition (book) by Anant Priolkar

See also

External links

Hinduism
History of the Jews in Asia
Sovereign states
States with
limited recognition
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