Summary
The Portuguese Inquisition in India was a brutal and horrific period of religious persecution that began in the 16th century and lasted for over 250 years. The Inquisition was established to enforce religious conformity among the population and was modeled after the Spanish Inquisition.
The Inquisition targeted Jews, Muslims, and Hindus, forcing them to convert to Christianity or face severe punishments, including unspeakable torture and cruel death sentences.
Many people were accused of being heretics or secret Jews and were subjected to brutal interrogations and trials.
The Inquisition had a profound impact on Indian society and culture, as it also included the destruction of many ancient temples and religious sites, and forced many people to flee their homes and communities. It also resulted in the loss of many important historical and cultural artifacts.
The Inquisition was finally abolished in 1821, but its legacy continues to impact India to this day.
The Portuguese In India
The Portuguese Empire conquered the province of Goa in 1510 CE, and made it the capital of Portuguese India.
The video with an overview
Video with more details – a descendant’s account
The Inquisition – a high level summary
In 1560 CE, the Portuguese brought their Catholic Inquisition to Goa to establish a Catholic stronghold in Asia where religious laws would be strictly enforced.
What we know about the inquisition has been lost due to the destruction of records by the Portuguese government in 1821 when the inquisition was abolished
Facts
Everyone is affected
Both natives and Portuguese settlers were subject to extreme punishment, including imprisonment, torture, and even death by immolation. The Goan Inquisition created a persecution hell, and many people fled for India hoping to escape persecution.
The Portuguese inquisition became a theocratic arm of the state subject to the authority of the king, and it served a political function as well, censoring books, attacking political dissidents, banning non-standard cultural practices, and more.
Policies regarding Indian Muslims were oppressive, though mosques were not outright destroyed in the pre-inquisition era.
The Portuguese also established an inquisition in Goa which lasted for nearly three centuries and was characterized by oppression and bloodshed.
Hidden History
The Inquisitor
The Goan Inquisition was jump-started in 1543 CE with the arrival of Saint Francis Xavier, co-founder of the Jesuits. The Inquisition had an influence on colonial administration, and Portuguese religious and secular infrastructure was deployed to destroy the enemies of the Inquisition.
The Goan Inquisition was a period of intense religious persecution in which the Portuguese targeted Jews, Hindu and Muslim converts to Christianity, and Hindus in an effort to expunge native culture and religion and incentivize conversion to Christianity.
Those convicted of religious crimes were subject to fines, public whipping, imprisonment, torture, execution, and burning alive at the stake. The Portuguese even banned Jews from Goa outright, causing an exodus of Jewish new Christians to the Malabar coast and the Middle East.
The target of the Inquisition
The Inquisition’s primary target was Hindus, and sweeping anti-Hindu laws were imposed by the colonial administration, including the outlawing of open practice of Hinduism and prohibitions against constructing new temples or repairing damaged ones.
The oppression led to a mass exodus of non-Christians out of Goa, and even those who converted to Christianity faced restrictions from maintaining their old customs.
The persecution resulted in the loss of well-connected merchants, formerly Jewish new Christians, and Hindus, which ultimately crippled the competitive ability of the Portuguese in India.
Warning – this section has graphic information about the tortures
Some of the the documented atrocities from the article above:
Conversion method
M. D. David, author of Western Colonialism in Asia and Christianity, writes: “…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 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 African 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 below examples do not include seizure of lands, property, destruction of temples, banning of local religion, books, traditional customs and what would be considered run of the mill sexual assault, torture & executions. So read with caution.
Unspeakable atrocities
The Archbishop living on the banks of the Ethora said in a lecture that, “The post of Inquiry Commission in Goa is regarded as holy.” Thus, the Indian ladies who opposed or resisted the sexual advances of the assistants of the commission were put behind bars and then forcibly used by them to satisfy their carnal desires. Then they were burnt alive as opponents or heretics of the established tenets of the Catholic Church.
Mentions in Literature
Also, the famous writer of the 19th century, Alexandre Herculano, wrote in his book, Fragment about the Inquisition, how no one was excused from the tortures of the Inquisition: “… the terrors inflicted on pregnant women made them abort… Neither the beauty nor decorousness of the flower of youth, nor the old age, so worthy of compassion in a woman, exempted the weaker sex from the brutal ferocity of the supposed defenders of the religion… There were days when seven or eight were submitted torture.”
Paul William Roberts, in Empire of the Soul, Some Journeys in India, writes about the methods of the Portuguese Inquisition: “Children were flogged and slowly dismembered in front of their parents whose eyelids had been sliced off to make sure they missed nothing. Extremities were amputated carefully, so that a person could remain conscious even when all that remained was a torso and a head… Those subjected to other diabolical tortures could also be counted in the thousands and the abominations continued until a brief respite in 1774… The evil resumed, continuing, almost incredibly, until June 16, 1812. At that point, British pressure put an end to terror (with) the presence of British troops stationed in Goa.”
Dr. Trasta Breganka Kunha, a Catholic citizen of Goa, had written: “In spite of all the mutilations and concealment of history, it remains an undoubted fact that religious conversion of Goans is due to methods of force by the Portuguese to establish their rule. As a result of this violence the character of our people was destroyed. The propagation of Christian sect in Goa came about not by religious preaching but through methods of violence and pressure. If any evidence is needed for this fact, we can obtain it through law books, orders and reports of the local rulers of that time and also from the most dependable documents of the Christian sect.”
The article linked above has more sources in it.
The top image is also from that article
A more detailed article
Translation of the book by a French Doctor written during the Inquisition in India
A recap of the Portuguese Inquisition
The Portuguese arrived in Goa in the early 16th century and established a trading post. They also brought with them their religion, which eventually made Goa less attractive as a trade center.
The Dutch were able to take advantage of this and became the dominant European trading force in the subcontinent.
The Portuguese also established an inquisition in Goa which lasted for nearly three centuries and was characterized by oppression and bloodshed.
Sadly, much of what we know about the inquisition has been lost due to the destruction of records by the Portuguese government in 1821 when the inquisition was abolished. The terror and oppression brought by the inquisition will never be forgotten.