Goa Inquisition

[Silverado]

Catholic Church Apologises For Rwandan Genocide: When Will It Do So For The Goa Inquisition?

Snapshot

• Among the comparatively milder measures of the Goa inquisition were forbidding more than 42 Hindu customs, including wearing the sacred thread, the tilak on the forehead, greeting people with a Namaste and removing of slippers outside a place of worship.

The palace has been razed to the ground. Hordes of chattering tourists walk over the site now, clicking selfies against the massive white-washed facade of Saint Catherine’s Church in Old Goa. Children crowd around an ice-cream cart. Couples canoodle under an ancient banyan tree nearby. No traces remain of the dreaded ‘Vhodle Ghor’ or the ‘Big House’ as it was referred to in hushed tones by the terrified people of Goa, except a few moss-covered blocks of laterite stones that lie scattered in the grass. Those stones are the only surviving witnesses of the bloodiest chapter in Goan history — that of the Goa Inquisition.

Return to the ruins of the Palace of The Inquisition in the evening, after the last busload of tourists has departed. Sit a while on a laterite block as the sun goes down. If you are sensitive enough, you can still hear the terrified screams of hapless victims being tortured inside the ‘Vhodle Ghor’ by the Inquisitor’s court. In 1560, the erstwhile palace of Adil Shah, the sultan of Bijapur, in Old Goa was turned into a terrible torture chamber with the addition of a chapel, the residence of the inquisitor, more than 200 windowless prison cells and many torture chambers.

[Silverado]

Cardinal Henrique of Portugal sent Aleixo Díaz Falcão as the first inquisitor.^[49] He established the first tribunal which, states Henry Lea, became the most pitiless force of persecution in Portuguese colonial empire.^[49] The Goa Inquisition office was housed in the former palace of Sultan Adil Shah.^[50]

The inquisitor's first act was to forbid any open practice of the Hindu faith on pain of death. Other restrictions imposed by the Goa Inquisition included:^[51]

• Hindus were forbidden from occupying any public office, and only a Christian could hold such an office;^[51][52]
• Hindus were forbidden from producing any Christian devotional objects or symbols;^[51]
• Hindu children whose father had died were required to be handed over to the Jesuits for conversion to Christianity;^[51] This began under a 1559 royal order from Portugal, whereafter Hindu children alleged to be orphan were seized by Society of Jesus and converted to Christianity.^[52] This law was enforced on children even if mother was still alive, in some cases even if the father was alive. The parental property was also seized when the Hindu child was seized. In some cases, states Lauren Benton, the Portuguese authorities extorted money for the "return of the orphans".^[52]
• Hindu women who converted to Christianity could inherit all of the property of their parents;^[51]
• Hindu clerks in all village councils were replaced with Christians;^[51]
• Christian ganvkars could make village decisions without any Hindu ganvkars present, however Hindu ganvkars could not make any village decisions unless all Christian canvas were present; in Goan villages with Christian majorities, Hindus were forbidden from attending village assemblies.^[52]
• Christian members were to sign first on any proceedings, Hindus later;^[53]
• In legal proceedings, Hindus were unacceptable as witnesses, only statements from Christian witnesses were admissible.^[52]
• Hindu temples were demolished in Portuguese Goa, and Hindus were forbidden from building new temples or repairing old ones. A temple demolition squad of Jesuits was formed which actively demolished pre-16th century temples, with a 1569 royal letter recording that all Hindu temples in Portuguese colonies in India have been demolished and burnt down (desfeitos e queimados);^[53]
• Hindu priests were forbidden from entering Portuguese Goa to officiate Hindu weddings.^[53]

 

^{This was anti secularism but sickulars say modi is anti sickular}