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The Roman Catholic Inquisition In Goa, India

1541: Francis Xavier landed in Goa – sent there by Ignatius Loyola of Jesuit order under the direction of the King João III of Portugal.
 1545: Francis Xavier comes to the following conclusions that Hindus are an “unholy race” that they are “They are liars and cheats to the very backbone.”. that’St’.Xavier who started this crime against humanity”the Indians being black themselves, consider their own color the best” and also that

 ”they believe that their gods are black. On this account the great majority of their idols are as black as black can be, and moreover are generally so rubbed over with oil as to smell detestably, and seem to be as dirty as they are ugly and horrible to look at.”

 He writes to Rome to install inquisition in Goa immediately.
 1560: Viceroy’s building modified to become the palace of inquisition with 200 cells with residence of the first inquisitor, house of secret, house of doctrine, any number of cells, and other special ones: of secret, of penitence; of perpetual confinement; of the tortures etc. Inquisition installed with powers higher than those of viceroys.

http://www.rupeenews.com
by Moin Ansari

Like many other parts of Asia, Muslim sailors and businessmen traded with Chandrapur on the Easternshoreline of South Asia. Over a period of time many in Sindbur converted to Islam. Sindubar, as it was known to the Arabs became a thriving metrpolis of commerce. The city Chandrapura owes its existance to its earlier association with the Arab Sindabur. Old Arab geographers, referred to Goa as Sindabur. The Turkish book Mohit, a treatise on the seas of the Industan, written in AD 554 by Sidi Ali Kodupon, refers to Guvah-Sindabur, joining the names Guvah (Goa) and  Sindabur (Chandrapur).
Al-Masudi (AD943) an Arab voyager, considered Sindabur as the foremost 38 of 80 of the coastal cities of Malabar. Though the advent of Muslims in Goa took place much later in history, there are old Arab geographers, referring to Goa as Sindabur. The Arabs held the opinion that Goa had one of the best ports in Western India. In AD 554, Sidi Ali Kodupon wrote the Turkish book “Mohit”. In the book Goa is referred to as Guvah- Sindabur – an amalgamation of the names Guvah (Goa) and Sindabur (Chandrapur). The Arab voyager, Al-Masudi, too held the opinion that Sindabur was the leading coastal city in Malabar.
 The Delhi Sultanate took over Goa in 1312. However, they were forced to surrender it by 1370 to Harihara I of Vijayanagara. The Vijayanagara monarchs ruled Goa for the next hundred years – till 1469. From them it passed on to the Bahmani sultans of Gulbarga. After the empire of the Bahmani sultans collapsed, the Adil Shahis of Bijapur took over. They made Velha Goa their ancillary capital.
During this era, Muslim pilgrims from all over India embarked on their journey to Mecca from here. A
permanent settlement was established by the Portuguese in 1510, in Velha Goa or Old Goa, when the
Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque defeated the ruling Bijapur king, Yusuf Ali Adil Shah, on behalf
of a local sovereign, Timayya. One of the defences that the Portuguese built during their reign was the Fort
Aguada in north Goa. It was a gruesome fight that terminated with the massacre of majority of the Muslims. To further spurn the Muslims, the Portuguese appointed a Hindu Governor. Henceforth, relations were  established between the Vijayanagara and Portuguese empires strengthened and the Muslims came to be  despised as a common adversary.
One of the worst misfortunes of Asia and the world was the voyage of Vasco De Gama. Using Arab maps, Vasco de Gama sailed East and using Arab and Muslim maps and sailor Columbus sailed West. Columbus landed in the Americas, which Vasco De Gama hugging the shoreline from Europe via Africa and the Cape of Good Hope reached Goa.
The first European to set foot in India was Vasco da Gama. He landed in India in 1498, via the sea route. He arrived in Old Goa following his landing in Kozhikode in Kerala. The Portuguese came to Goa with designs  to make it their colony and also a naval base. As a colonizer their intention was to grab inclusive power over the spice trade from other European colonizers. A permanent settlement was established in 1510, in Velha Goa or Old Goa, when the Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque defeated the ruling Bijapur kings on behalf of a local sovereign, Timayya. One of the defences that the Portuguese built during their reign was the Fort Aguada in north Goa .The imposition of the Inquisition, during the 1560–1812, led to the forcible conversion many of the local populace to Christianity by missionaries – who either threatened punishment or confiscation of land, titles and property. The converts, however, retained parts of their Hindu heritage. By the 16th century, with the advent of the other European European colonial powers in India, most Portuguese holdings were encircled by the British and the Dutch colonies. Goa was the largest of the Portuguese holdings.
King Manuel gave the command of the third Indian expedition to Vasco da Gama. His mission was to destroy Egyptian power in the Indian Ocean, which would allow the monopoly of the oriental trade to pass into Portuguese hands. Of the fifteen vessels in the fleet, five were left to patrol the Arabian coasts and to deny entry from the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean. Another five vessels would be sent from Lisbon to reinforce da Gama within a month. The first incident of this military expedition was an attack on a large merchant ship. On board were 250 men and many women and children. The Portuguese quickly boarded and dismantled the ship and then set it on fire. The crew and passengers beat out the flames only to have the Portuguese attempt to rekindle them. After eight days of bombardment the doomed ship was betrayed by one of its crewman. In return for his life he set an all-consuming fire that killed everyone on board except for a small number of children.
After this successful engagement da Gama set course for Calicut where he was refused exclusive trading
privileges. Enraged, da Gama slaughtered 800 fishermen and bombarded the town for two days before sailing for Cochin. The king of Cochin, although a rival to Calicut, did not want anything to do with the
Portuguese. Da Gama ignored the king and constructed a fortified trading factory before departing for
Cannanore, leaving a single squadron to defend the port. Shortly after da Gama’s departure, that
squadrons commander abandoned Cochin to raid the Arabian coast. Calicut’s forces soon overran Cochin.
It would have been destroyed if it had not been for the timely arrival of six Portuguese ships. After the
Portuguese left, fighting continued between the two cities until the first Viceroy, Francisco de Aleida,
arrived. The viceroy’s responsibility was to prevent the annual fleet captains from following their own whims
and ambitions, which had created an atmosphere of antagonism among the local people.
A permanent settlement was established by the Portuguese in 1510, in Velha Goa or Old Goa, when the Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque defeated the ruling Bijapur king, Yusuf Ali Adil Shah, on behalf  of a local sovereign, Timayya. One of the defences that the Portuguese built during their reign was the Fort  Aguada in north Goa. It was a gruesome fight that terminated with the massacre of majority of the Muslims. To further spurn the Muslims, the Portuguese appointed a Hindu Governor. Henceforth, relations were  established between the Vijayanagara and Portuguese empires strengthened and the Muslims came to be  despised as a common adversary.
Thus began the one of the worst holocausts of the century and the civil war between the Tribals of Europe. While Thomas Jefferson was negotiating with the French for the Lousina purchase, Lord Clive was conquering Bengal. When a Portugues princess married a British prince she brought the Bombay presidency and other areas of the Portugues empire to the British Empire.
The first British settlement in the Bombay Presidency was in 1618, when the East India Company established a factory at Surat in present-day Gujarat, protected by a charter obtained from the Mughal  Emperor Jahangir. In 1626 the Dutch and British made an unsuccessful attempt to gain possession of the  island of Bombay in the coastal Konkan region from Portugal, and in 1653 proposals were suggested for its  purchase from the Portuguese. In 1661 it was ceded to the British crown, as part of the dowry of the infanta  Catherine of Braganza on her marriage with Charles II of England. Bombay Presidency .
After the success of the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 Spain where all Jews and Muslims were  eliminated from the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish eliminated all Muslims from the Phillippines. The Portuguese used the formulea of their Spanish neighbors in all her colonies also. The Portuguese were the first to reach the Subcontinent of Dinia called Hindustan. Unable to pronounce Hindustan they used the Arab name which actually referred to the people of Indus.

The Inquisition In Goa Starts

Not a lot of information is available on the Spanish/Portuguese Inquisition in Goa. Goas was a Muslim  Sultante taken over by the Portuguese. Five hundred years later, very few Muslims remain in Goa, and it is  still a Catholic enclave in a Hindu country. Rediff News highlighted the work of Mr. Zimler. “Richard  Zimler’s novel, Guardian of the Dawn, documents the little-known Portuguese Inquisition in India, in 16th  century Goa. He points out that, apart from their laws and religion, the Portuguese also imported and  enforced their infamous methods of interrogation to subdue troublemakers”
The Portugese Catholic Inquisition in Sindabur (Goa): 1550-1892. 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.[1]
The Inquisition was established to punish relapsed New Christians – Jews and Muslims who converted to Catholicism, as well as their descendants – who were now suspected of practicing their ancestral religion in  secret. In Goa, the Inquisition also turned its attention to Indian converts from Hinduism or Islam who were  thought to have returned to their original ways. In addition, the Inquisition prosecuted non-converts who  broke prohibitions against the observance of Hindu or Muslim rites or interfered with Portuguese attempts
to convert non-Christians to Catholicism.[2] While its ostensible aim was to preserve the Catholic faith, the  Inquisition was used against Indian Catholics and Hindus as an instrument of social control, as well as a  method of confiscating victims’ property and enriching the Inquisitors.[3]
Most of the Goa Inquisition’s records were destroyed after its abolition in 1812, and it is thus impossible to  know the exact number of the Inquisition’s victims. Based on the records that survive, H. P. Salomon and I.  S. D. Sassoon state that between the Inquisition’s beginning in 1561 and its temporary abolition in 1774,  some 16,202 persons were brought to trial by the Inquisition. Of this number, it is known that 57 were  sentenced to death and executed in person; another 64 were burned in effigy. Others were subjected to  lesser punishments or penanced, but the fate of many of the Inquisition’s victims is unknown.[4]
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 worshiping The  Devil, while it is they who served him.”[5]

Roman Catholic Inqisition In Goa

The first inquisitors, Aleixo Dias Falcão and Francisco Marques, established themselves in the palace once  occupied by Goa’s Islamic sultan, forcing the Portuguese viceroy to relocate to a smaller residence. The  inquisitor’s first act was to forbid any open practice of the Hindu faith on pain 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[9].
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 material  was in most cases utilized to erect new Christian Churches and chapels. Various viceregal and Church  council decrees banished the Hindu priests from the Portuguese territories; the public practices of Hindu rites including marriage rites, were banned; the state took upon itself the task of bringing up 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.”
Christian historian, Dr. T. R. de Souza
“A particularly grave abuse was practiced in Goa in the form of ‘mass baptism’ and what went
before it. The practice was begun by the Jesuits and was alter initiated by the Franciscans also. The Jesuits staged an annual mass baptism on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25), and in order to secure as many neophytes as possible, a few days before the ceremony the Jesuits  would go through the streets of the Hindu quarter in pairs, accompanied by their Negro slaves, whom they would urge to seize the Hindus. When the blacks caught up a fugitive, they would  smear his lips with a piece of beef, making him an ‘untouchable’ among his people. Conversion to Christianity was then his only option.”
The Goan inquisition is regarded by all contemporary portrayals as the most violent inquisition ever  executed by the Portuguese Catholic Church. It lasted from 1560 to 1812. The inquisition was set as a tribunal, headed by a judge, sent to Goa from Portugal and was assisted by two judicial henchmen. The judge was answerable to no one except to Lisbon and handed down punishments as he saw fit. The Inquisition Laws filled 230 pages and the palace where the Inquisition was conducted was known as the Big House and the Inquisition proceedings were always conducted behind closed shutters and closed doors. The screams of agony of the culprits (men, women, and children) could be heard in the streets, in the stillness of the night, as they were brutally interrogated, flogged, and slowly dismembered in front of their relatives. Eyelids were sliced off and extremities were amputated carefully, a person could remain conscious even though the only thing that remained was his torso and a head. Diago de Boarda, a priest and his advisor Vicar General, Miguel Vazz had made a 41 point plan for torturing Hindus. Under this plan Viceroy Antano de Noronha issued in 1566, an order applicable to the entire area
under Portuguese rule :
“I hereby order that in any area owned by my master, the king, nobody should construct a Hindu temple and such temples already constructed should not be repaired without my permission. If this order is transgressed, such temples shall be, destroyed and the goods in them shall be used to meet expenses of holy deeds, as punishment of such transgression.”
In 1567 the campaign of destroying temples in Bardez met with success. At the end of it 300 Hindu temples were destroyed. Enacting laws, prohibition was laid from December 4, 1567 on rituals of Hindu marriages, sacred thread wearing and cremation. All the persons above 15 years of age were compelled to listen to Christian preaching, failing which they were punished.
A religious fatva was issued on the basis of the findings of Goa Inquiry Commission. It stated,”…Hereby we declare the decision that the conventions mentioned in the preamble of the fatva as stated below are permanently declared as useless, and therefore prohibited”.
Prohibitions Regarding Marriages

-The instruments for Hindu songs shall not be played.
-While giving dowry the relatives of the bride and groom must not be invited.
-At the time of marriage, betel leaf packages (pan) must not be distributed either publicly or in private
to the persons present.
-Flowers, or fried puris, betel nuts and leaves must not be sent to the heads of the houses of the bride or
groom.
-Gotraj ceremony of family God must not be performed.
-On the day prior to a wedding, rice must not be husked, spices must not be pounded, grains must not
be ground and other recipes for marriage feast must not be cooked.
-Pandals and festoons must not be used.
-Pithi should not be applied.
-The bride must not be accorded ceremonial welcome. The bride and groom must not -be made to sit under pandal to convey blessings and best wishes to them.

Prohibitions Regarding Fasts, Post-death Rituals

-The poor must not be fed or ceremonial meals must not be served for the peace of the souls of the dead.
-There should be no fasting on ekadashi day.
-Fasting can be done according to the Christian principles.
-No rituals should be performed on the twelfth day after death, on moonless and full moon dates.
-No fasting should be done during lunar eclipse.
Conventions
-Hindu men should not wear dhoti either in public or in their houses. Women should not wear cholis .
-They should not plant Tulsi in their houses, compounds, gardens or any other place.
-Following the law of 1567, orphans were kidnapped for converting them to Christianity.
On September 22, 1570 an order was issued that :
-The Hindus embracing Christianity will be exempted from land taxes for a period of 15 years.
-Nobody shall bear Hindu names or surnames.

 from..http://www.sikharchives.com/?p=14758