Historians suppressing the facts of Christians killing Hindus: The Goa Inquisition

NDTV yesterday carried out blatant Christian propaganda without any historicity

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080071099"ch=633613856678531250

“Any debate on conversions takes us back to history — to the shadow of colonialism on Christianity, which arrived and settled in India on the coast of Kerala 2,000 years ago."

Thus asserted!

The banner of Inquisition in India by the fanatic Catholics!
Moreover, it went on its bundle of lies of “2000 years old Christianity", without even whispering the Goa Inquyisition, in which lakhs of innocent Hindus were killed, thousands of temples demolished; sacred Idols smashed……..

The procession of Inquisition - the heathen Hindus were taken for killing in different torture-machines etc.

Another depiction of killing the “pagan" Hindus!

Jesuit Monks tells the gripping story of the Catholic order of Jesuit Priests who became the militant arm of the Roman Catholic Church, engaging in assassinations, murders, slavery, political intrigue, and torture in the name of Jesus.

Historical background

The Portuguese colonial administration enacted anti-Hindu laws with the expressed intent to “humiliate Hindus" and encourage conversions to Christianity. Laws were passed banning Christians from keeping Hindus in their employ, and the public worship of Hindus was deemed unlawful^[1]. Hindus were forced to assemble periodically in churches to listen to preaching or to refutation of their religion.^[2] 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.^[3] 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^[4].

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^[5].

1. Sakshena, R.N, Goa: Into the Mainstream (Abhinav Publications, 2003), p. 24
2. M. D. David (ed.), Western Colonialism in Asia and Christianity, Bombay, 1988, p.17
3. Priolkar, A. K. The Goa Inquisition. (Bombay, 1961)
4. Shirodhkar, P. P., Socio-Cultural life in Goa during the 16th century, p. 35
5. Shirodhkar, P. P., Socio-Cultural life in Goa during the 16th century, p. 123.

RECALL THE GOA INQUISITION TO STOP THE CHURCH FROM CRYING FOUL

By Kanchan Gupta, Rediff On The Net, March 16, 1999
But these are not extracts taken from firmans issued from the court of say, Aurangzeb. They have been taken from firmans issued by the Portuguese who ruled Goa and recognised no religion other than Christianity as the legitimate means of communion with god. It was no secular rule that they imposed, but a ruthless system of pillage disguised as trade and a cruel administration for whom the heathens, especially Brahmins, unless they embraced Christianity, were nothing more than “supplicants" to be crushed into submission or exiled into oblivion.

The horrors inflicted on Galileo Galilei by the Inquisition — the Vatican has only recently admitted that the Church was wrong and Galileo was right — are well known. Not that well-known, and tragically so, are the horrors inflicted by the Goa Inquisition. Every child reads about Galileo"s trial and how it is symbolic of the triumph of science over blind faith. But there is no reference — indeed, all reference is scrupulously avoided — to the brutal attempts of the Church to triumph over Hinduism by seeking to destroy all that was Hindu in territories conquered by the Portuguese in India.

And this silence is not because there exists no evidence: There exist, in full text, orders issued by the Portuguese viceroy and the governor. There exist, in written records and travelogues, penned not by the persecuted but by the persecutors, full details of the horrors perpetrated in the name of Christ. Yet this silence has been maintained - a silence willed by secular historians and politicians; an illegitimate silence legitimised by the popular belief that missionaries and their patrons were, and remain, a benign lot who could never hurt a fly.

Hindus who dared oppose the religious persecution by the Portuguese administration or the Christian clergy, were punished, swiftly and mercilessly. Those who were fortunate, got away with being banished from Portuguese territory. The less fortunate had their property seized and auctioned — the money was used, in large measures, for furthering proselytisation. The least fortunate were forced to serve as slave labour on the galleys that transported loot from Indian shores to Portuguese coffers.

Viceroy Constantine de Braganca issued an order on April 2, 1560, instructing that Brahmins should be thrown out of Goa and other areas under Portuguese control. They had a month"s time to sell their property - it is obvious who gained from such distress sale. Those found violating the viceregal order, it was declared, would have their properties seized. Another order was issued, this time by Governor Antonio Morez Barreto, on February 7, 1575, decreeing that the estates of Brahmins whose “presence was prejudicial to Christianity" would be confiscated and used for “providing clothes to the New Christians".

The attitude of the Portuguese administrators in India and the Church hardened over the years, to a point where each fiat, each decree, each order, each letter, became an instrument of religious persecution. The Third Concilio Provincial — a gathering of bishops and other clerics — met in 1585 to review, among other things, the progress of converting the “heathens" to the “only faith".

The Concilio adopted a resolution which said, ‘His Majesty the king has on occasion ordered the viceroys and governors of India that there should be no Brahmins in his lands, and that they should be banished therefrom together with the physicians and other infidels who are prejudicial to Christianity, after taking the opinion of the archbishop and other religious persons who have experience in the matter. As the orders of His Majesty in this regard have not been executed, great impediments in the way of conversion and the community of New Christians have followed and continue to follow."

It is apparent from the resolution that the Brahmins stood as an obstacle between the Church and the masses, preventing the former from converting the latter by exhorting the people not to discard their ancient faith to embrace an alien god.

It is also evident from the operative portion of the resolution that the Church had no compunctions about using the administration to remove this obstacle. The Third Concilio Provincial ordered that ‘from now onwards at certain times in each year the archbishop should obtain information regarding Brahmins, physicians and any other infidels who might be prejudicial to conversion to Christianity, and in consultation with the Christian priests, prepare a roll of their names which should be signed by him. This should be presented to the viceroy or the governor in order that the latter might issue orders for banishing them from the lands of the king, as His Majesty has ordered…"

However, to the great dismay of the Church, threats of banishment, loss of estates and forced slave labour on galleys did not quite break the spirit of the Hindus. So, the bishops, the viceroy, the governor and the prelates had to come up with something more draconian, something which would reduce the religion of the heathens into one that could neither be practiced nor preached. For this, they decided to ban all Hindu rites and rituals.

One of the orders, issued on January 31, 1620, to achieve this goal, declared that ‘…no Hindu, of whatever nationality or status he may be, can or shall perform marriages in this city of Goa, nor in the islands or adjacent territories of His Majesty, under pain of a fine of 1000 Xerafins." The Hindus petitioned the king and he agreed to let them conduct Hindu marriage rituals behind the closed doors of their homes, but prohibited Christians from attending these marriage ceremonies.

The Holy Office was incensed and wrote to the viceroy: ‘The marriages of the supplicants are superstitious acts or functions which include Hindu rites and ceremonies as well as cult, adoration and prayers of Hindu temples…" The king hastily withdrew permission to Hindus to conduct their marriage rituals even behind closed doors.

One could quote from endless such orders, dictated by the Church and implemented by the state, that sought to destroy the Hindu way of life root and branch, supplanting it with Christianity. For instance, the Third Concilio Provincial recommended a ban on the traditional thread ceremony and the ban was imposed with great vigour. Those who tried to beat the law by going outside Portuguese territory for the ceremony were prevented from doing so with the strength of a viceregal order that said ‘I hereby order that no Hindu subject proceed beyond the borders of the state to celebrate the thread ceremony…"

Another order was issued prohibiting Hindu women from wearing a bindi on their forehead. Yet another order, issued by Governor Francisco Barreto, barred Hindus from seeking employment — all officials were instructed not to ‘utilise the services in any way whatsoever of any Brahmin or other infidel in matters of his office." The most blatant abuse of state power by the clergy to increase the number of its faithful was to issue an order that allowed the Church to baptise all orphans.

Compare these excesses, these crimes against an entire race and religion, committed in the name of Christ, though not decreed by the man who Christians believe is god"s own son, with the shrill cry of denunciation we hear today about ‘excesses" against Christians. Compare the record of the Goa Inquisition with the popular belief, so assiduously fostered by our "secular" establishment, that the Church and its missionaries came to India to preach the Gospel and serve the poor.

The history of Portuguese rule, and that of the Goa Inquisition in particular, is nothing short of sustained war against Hinduism and Hindu society. You may say that all these terrible things happened hundred of years ago and have little relevance today. But, it is precisely such thinking that has enabled the perpetrators of religious persecution in India in the name of Christ to get away without even an apology. And, emboldened them to make threatening noises against the government of sovereign India over stray incidents of protest against the revived zeal among missionaries who continue to believe that the heathens need to converted - an official trade delegation from Portugal is believed to have raised more than an eyebrow during a recent visit to Delhi.

The Vatican has apologised for the agony inflicted on Galileo Galilei. But the terrible agony inflicted on the Hindus of India during the Goa Inquisition remain buried in the carefully crafted history of the Church as a benign institution. It is time India demanded and secured an apology from the Vatican for the Goa Inquisition. In fact, we should go a step further and demand reparation from Portugal.

- Kanchan Gupta

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