Christianization of Goa

The indigenous population of the erstwhile Portuguese colony of Goa, Daman and 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 (Old Conquests) 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.

Quotes

• In this land of Goa and the whole of India there are numerous ancient edifices of the pagans. In a small island nearby called Divari, the Portuguese in order to build the land of Goa have destroyed an ancient temple called Pagoda, which was built with a marvellous artifice, with ancient figures of a certain black stone worked with the greatest perfection, of which some still remain standing in ruins and damaged because the Portuguese do not hold them in any esteem. If I could obtain one of these sculptures thus ruined, I would have sent it to your lordship, so that you may judge in what great esteem sculpture was held in antiquity.
  • Destruction of temple in Goa by the Portuguese, letter by the Florentine, Andrea Corsali in 1515 to Duke Giuliano de’ Medici in Partha Mitter, Much Maligned Monsters, History of European Reactions to Indian Art, Oxford University Press, 1977, p., 34. quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 5

• In 1534 Goa was made a bishopric with authority extending over the entire Far East. Special instructions were issued to the Portuguese Viceroy to root out the infidels. Hindu temples in Goa were destroyed and their property distributed to religious orders (like the Franciscans) in 1540 . The Inquisition was established in 1560.
  • Panikkar, K. M. (1953). Asia and Western dominance, a survey of the Vasco da Gama epoch of Asian history, 1498-1945, by K.M. Panikkar. London: G. Allen and Unwin.

• The Portuguese power became ruthless the more it got itself established in India. Royal Charters were issued from time to time making invidious distinctions between Christians and non-Christians and subjecting the latter to untold disabilities. In 1559 an enactment was passed debarring all Hindus from holding any public office. In the same year another law was enacted confiscating the properties of non-Christian orphans if they refused to be converted to Christianity. Yet another law ordered destruction of Hindu temples and images and prohibited all non-Christian religious festivals. In 1560 all the Brahmans and goldsmiths were ordered to accept Christianity otherwise they were to be turned out of Goa. By a law passed in 1567 the Hindus were prohibited from performing their important religious ceremonies such as investiture of sacred thread, marriage ceremonies and even cremation rites. Hindu religious books were proscribed. All non-Christians above the age of 15 were forced to attend the preaching of Christian religion. Hindu temples were destroyed and in their place churches were built. In 1575 another law was passed by which the Hindu nationals were debarred from their civic right of renting state land. People of Goa were prohibited to use their native language by an order of 1684 and were allowed three years to learn the Portuguese language under pain of being proceeded against under law of the land.
  • Quoted in Madhya Pradesh (India), Goel, S. R., Niyogi, M. B. (1998). Vindicated by time: The Niyogi Committee report on Christian missionary activities. ISBN 9789385485121 (citing Religious Liberty, pp. 267-268: Bates.) PART III CHAPTER I. – RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN OTHER COUNTRIES

• At least from 1540 onwards, and in the island of Goa before that year, all the Hindu idols had been annihilated or had disappeared, all the temples had been destroyed and their sites and building materials were in most cases utilised to erect new Christian churches and chapels. Various vice regal and Church council decrees banished the Hindu priests from the Portuguese territories; the public practice of Hindu rites including marriage rites, was banned; the state took upon itself the task of bringing up the Hindu orphan children; the Hindus were denied certain employments, while the Christians were preferred; it was ensured that the Hindus would not harass those who became Christians, and on the contrary, the Hindus were obliged to assemble periodically in churches to listen to preaching or to the refutation of their religion.
  • Dr. T. R. de Souza in M. D. David (ed.), Western Colonialism in Asia and Christianity, Bombay, 1988, p. 17. Quoted in S.R. Goel: History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)

• It would be a service to God to destroy these temples, just in this island of Goa, and to replace them by churches with saints. Anyone who wishes to live in this island should become a Christian, and in that case may retain his lands and houses just as he has them at present; but, if he is unwilling, let him leave the islands…It may be that these people will not become good Christians, but their children will be…and so God will be served…
  • Duarte Nunes, bishop of Dume, on the need to root out idolatry in Goa, 12 January 1522 .Neill, Stephen, A History of Christianity in India, Cambridge University Press, 1984. 15 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 14

• All the Hindu temples be destroyed, not leaving a single one on any of the islands.
  • Order of Portuguese Governor of 30 June 1541 on conversion of Hindus Rao, R.P., Portuguese Rule In Goa, Asia Publishing House, 1963. 42 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 14

• Whereas all those who came out here were soldiers, who went about conquering lands and enslaving people, these same soldiers began to baptize the said people whom they enslaved without any respect and reverence for the sacrament, and without any catechizing or indoctrination. And since the inhabitants of these countries are very miserable, poor and cowardly, some were baptized through fear, others through worldly gain, and others for filthy and disgusting reasons which I need not mention…Many people come in order to be baptized, and I ask them why they want to become Christians. Some reply because the lord of the land tyrannizes and oppresses them, and others reply that they must become Christians because they have nothing to eat. I then make them a little speech, explaining briefly what it means to be a Christian and why they should become one, for which purpose they must come for fifteen or twenty days to the church for instruction in the Christian faith, after which I will baptize them. They usually answer that they will become Christians if I baptize them there and then. Otherwise they will go away and not return, and this in fact is what they do.
  • Fr. Nicolas Lancilotto in a letter dated 5 December 1550 from Goa. C.R. Boxer, Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire, Clarendon Press, 1963, pp., 59-60 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 14

• Since the goal of the conversion of infidels was the most important incentive that led the King our Lord to conquer these parts of India, once the island of Goa was conquered and its inhabitants at peace and accepting to be his vassals, the king sought to bring his holy intention to execution. He was informed that many inhabitants of the island were already Christians, but that the rest remained strong in their pagan faith. This was because they had been allowed to perform their rites and ceremonies to the idols they adore. The king therefore ordered that these idols be destroyed and that none would exist in the island of Goa and within its boundaries, and that in the lands under his dominion no pagan worship would be allowed. The purpose was that with this rigour of mercy (rigor de misericordia) they would forget their pagan cult and be converted to our holy faith, as already many had accepted and continue to accept conversion. In the fulfilment of this holy decision in the year [fifteen] forty the above mentioned idols were broken and destroyed.
  • A document written in 1595 by Francis Pais, while giving an account of the rents of the temples in the islands of Goa. Leonard Fernando and G. Gispert-Sauch, Two Thousand Years of Faith, Penguin, Viking, 2004, p., 117. quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 14

• “Until 1560 in Salsete there existed but one church and mission house in the fort of Rachol. In the course of less than 50 years a major part of the inhabitants of that province had embraced Christianity and 28 parishes had been established. It is known how such rapid and extensive conversions took place : some by fear of physical force; others from moral cowardice ; many because they could not overcome the love for the country of their birth from which they would otherwise be expelled ; not a few to avoid the loss of their properties and interests ; some with their eyes on lucrative jobs—and almost none from conviction. The conviction, the faith, these would come later....’’
  • A India Portuguesa, Vo. II, Nova Goa 1923, p. 261 in :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India.

• As regards the first duty, viz., conversion of unbelievers, in these parts of India this does not commonly occur as a result of sermons and doctrine, but is effected by other just means, such as, obstructing the idolatrous practices of the unbelievers and meting out just punishment therefor, refusing them favours which can justly be refused, and offering them to those who are newly converted, and honouring, assisting and protecting the latter in order that others might thereby get converted. The Father of Novices should try his best to see that none of these means is left unavailed of and thus help the conversion of unbelievers. Since almost all of these means have already been approved by the sessions of Concilio Provincial in Goa and in the measures promulgated by the king of Portugal and his viceroys of India in favour of Christianity, the Father of Novices should strive to be thoroughly versed in all these things and try hard to see that all comply therewith and implement them, inasmuch as experience has shown, that many are thus converted.
  • Fr. Alexandre Valignano in Cunha Rivara, .{rchivo Portuguez Oriental, Fasc. V, pt. III, Nova Goa 1866, pp. 1496-7. (Doc. 1022), in :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India.

• In this land of Goa and of the whole of India there are innumerable ancient edifices of the gentiles and in a little neighbouring island that is called Divari, the Portuguese in order to build the land (town) of Goa, have destroyed an ancient temple called a pagoda which was built with wonderful skill, with ancient figures of a certain black stone worked with very great perfection, of which some are standing, ruined and spoilt, but which these Portuguese hold in no esteem. Should I have in hand any (figure) thus ruined, I shall send it to Your Highness that Your Highness may see how in ancient times sculpture was appreciated every- where .
  • Letter written to Duque Giuliano de Medicis on January 6, 1515 from Cochin by André Corsali in (Pa A. B. Braganga Pereira, Historia Religiosa de Goa, vol. 1, Bastord n.d.), p. 44. in :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India. 65. also in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Episodes from Indian history. 216 ff

• You will be rendering great service to God if from this island you send to Portugal a Hindu individual Krishna by name, a great servant of yours, who is here sunk in heathenism but has come very near to Christ as I have spoken many times to him, and gives no excuse other than that in Portugal after seeing Your Majesty he will convert himself to Christianity. Your Majesty should order that the poor mendicants who are known as Jogis should not enter this island from the mainland, because they bring flowers used in worship and other relics of their temples and devils with which they restore the heathenism of local people. In this island of Goa a friar has placed some crosses in the Hindu temples and the Hindus say that others come and tell them that they are already Christians and the latter would not speak with them any longer. ‘Sir, there is a great temple in this island of Divar which has much freestone and a large part of it is already destroyed. We pray Your Majesty to make a gift of it to this monastery.
  • Friar Antonio , in a letter addressed to the king of Portugal on November 4, 1518, in Silva Rego, Documentagdo para a Historia das Missdes do Padroado Portugues do Oriente, in :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India.

• “‘ Around the territories of the neighbours of Goa, there exist in that island temples in which statues of the enemy of the Cross are worshipped and every year their festivals are celebrated. These are attended by many Christians, both Europeans and natives, which is very wrong in that it promotes idolatry. “It will be service to God if these temples in the island of Goa are destroyed and in their stead churches with saints are erected, and it is ordered that whosoever desires to live in this island and have house and lands.there should become a Christian, and if he does not wish to be one should go out of the island. I assure Your Majesty that there would then be no individual who did not turn to the faith of Our Lord Christ, because if exiled from, this island he will have no means of livelihood.
  • report submitted to the king from Cochin on January 12, 1522, Bispo de Dumense in Silva Rego, Documentagdo para a Historia das Missdes do Padroado Portugues do Oriente, in :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India.

• On the 28th of June of 1541 in his own dwelling at Goa, ...they were informed by the same Controller of Finances, that a few days earlier they were told that they should, with free will, be prepared to give and donate the income of the lands belonging to the temples and situated in this island, since these temples were entirely destroyed and there was no chance of their ever being built again and as previously they did not use this income fruitfully but spent all of it towards the same temples and its Gurous (ministers), dancing girls, brahmins, blacksmiths, carpenters, washermen, barbers, shoemakers, painters and other servants of the aforesaid temples...”, it was resolved that the income should in future be applied towards and donated to the chapels built in this island, and also to defray the expenses of the confraternity of the converts to the faith.
  • resolution adopted by the leaders of the Hindu community in 1541 , in :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India.

• Since idolatry is so great an offence against God, as is manifest to all , it is just that Your Majesty should not permit it within your territories, and an order should be promulgated in Goa to the effect that in the whole island there should not be any temple public or secret, contravention whereof should entail grave penalities ; that no oiticial should make idols in any torm, neither of stone, nor of wood, nor of copper nor of any other metal; that no Hindu festival should be publicly celebrated in the whole island ; that Brahmin preachers from the mainland should not gather in the houses of the Hindus ; and that persons who are in charge of St. Paul’s should have the power to search the houses of the Brahmins and other Hindus, in case there exists a presumption or suspicion of the existence of idols there. ... If Our Lord defend the lands of Salsete and Bardez, which he caused Idalc&io (Adilshah) to give to Your Majesty, as it will please Him to do on account of your piety, it will be just and proper that in His interest and that of Your Majesty, you should, for commendation and honour of God, remove all traces of idolatry which exist therein and work for the conversion of these adjoining lands.
  • The Vicar General, Fr. Minguel Vaz in 1545, from his 41-point plan to effect the conversion of natives and which he sent to the king from Evora in the month of November 1545. in : J. Wicki, Documenta Indica, Rome 1948, Silva Rego, Documentagdo para a Historia das Missdes do Padroado Portugues do Oriente, quoted from :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India. 73 also in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Episodes from Indian history. 216 ff

• Minguel Vaz, was so much favoured by the king, and a man of such quick despatch and se-much in a hurry that, having left India in January of 1545, he was back in Goa once again in October of 1546. He commenced to destroy Hindu temples and to suppress idolatry in accordance with the amplest provisions and powers which he had brought, and provoked against himself the odium of the Hindus to such an extent that they gave him poison, of which he came to die at Chaul as generously as he had lived. There were in India men who had the temerity to impute his death to the jealousy of Bishop D. Joao de Albuquerque and wrote’ to Portugal to that effect.
  • The Jesuit historian Francisco de Sousa . Francisco de Souza, ee Conquistado a Jesus Christo, pt. I. (Conq. I., Div. I, § 81), in :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India.

• Since my principal aim in regard to matters relating to these parts, which I have in mind oftener than any other, is that our Lord should be served and His faith increased, to me it appears good that from the mainlands of Bardez and Salsete which Idalcio presented to me should be abolished all vestiges of idolatry which therein exist and that efforts should be made to effect the conversion of the Hindus living therein.
  • letter addressed to the Governor of Goa in 1546 by the king. in Silva Rego, Documentagdo para a Historia das Missdes do Padroado Portugues do Oriente, in :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India.

• I order that no Hindu temple be erected in any of the territories of my King, the lord of these parts, and that Hindu temples which already have been erected be not repaired without my special permission, contravention of which will entail the penalty of such temples being destroyed and their value applied towards the expenses of pious works.
  • On 29th August, 1566, vice-roy D. Antiéo de Noronha promulgated the order which applied to the entire territory under Portuguese rule. J. H. Cunha Rivara, Archivo Portuguez Oriental, Fasc. V, pt. II p. 613, (Doc. 576). in :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India.

• There also took place in this year the destruction of the Hindu temples which existed in these territories of Your Majesty, of which none remains, for the priests of St. Francis also razed out of memory all those which existed in Bardez.
  • Gomes de Vaz in Silva Rego, Documentagdo para a Historia das Missdes do Padroado Portugues do Oriente, in :Priolkar Anant Kakba and Gabriel Dellon. 2008. The Goa Inquisition : Being a Quatercentenary Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India.