Re: [Goanet] [Secular Goa] The Inquisition Lore
I am no historian just an ordinary Catholic. My ancestors may have been forcibly converted as may have been many of today's Goan Roman Catholics during the inquisition in Goa. (Kerala's Syrian Catholics were converted during the first century AD it is said) What is important for me and should be for all other Roman Catholics is whether today I want to remain a Catholic because of the faith I have in one God and Jesus Christ who willingly sacrificed Himself for me. Bringing up the Inquisition that took place about 4 centuries ago to say that because my ancestors were forcibly converted hence i should revert to being a Hindu (as the extreme right would have us do) does not make sense. marie On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 10:23 PM, Santosh Helekar chimbel...@gmail.com [seculargoa] secular...@yahoogroups.com wrote: Good to see that Vivek has provided a pertinent quote from Priolkar in which he appears to be expressing the concern that his account would be dismissed as biased because it was not written by a Portuguese historian. Legitimate specific criticisms of any scholarly work is always a good thing. What is wrong is its outright dismissal without producing contrary facts, but rather, just by using such baseless canards as guilt by association and various ideological devices. As alluded to by Vivek, there is no detailed alternative historical account on Goan inquisition based on primary sources. I understand that this is in large part due to destruction or loss of original records. In this context, I remember that Teotoniobab de Souza once mentioned that some of the remaining records were transferred to the Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil. So all we need is a competent, committed and dispassionate secular historian, and proper funding from a secular source. Priolkar's book relies naturally on secondary sources. But it was well-received by eminent historians such as C. R. Boxer. Regarding Dellon and Buchanan, I should have said that they are eyewitness accounts rather than well-researched. No independent facts contradict what they have written. They have been maligned based on pure speculations and biases of their detractors, and generalization of such ideological concoctions as the Black Legend to the Goan situation. Cheers, Santosh On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 10:26 PM, V M vmin...@gmail.com [seculargoa] secular...@yahoogroups.com wrote: The problem with the state of Goa Inquisition Studies, such as they are, is the near-total absence of decent modern and contemporary historiography of the two-centuries-plus episode. Twenty-first-century historical understanding cannot be properly achieved by reading primary documents by witnesses or near-witnesses who (a) wanted to sell their accounts, (b) gain coniderably grom their accounts, or (c) were published in order to settle tertiary scores. I'd say Priolkar's book is a significant step in the right direction, but as he himself writes, while laying his bare to be considered, the story of the Inquisition is a dismal record of callousness and cruelty, tyranny and injustice, espionage and blackmail, avarice and corruption, repression of thought and culture and promotion of obscurantism and an Indian writer who undertakes to tell it can easily be accused of being inspired by ulterior motives. From this point of view, it would have been appropriate if the task had been undertaken by a Portuguese historian... But no such Portuguese historian has emerged, and no serious Indian historian has tried to develop the necessarily complex understanding required here either, and so Goans are left foundering, reacting by instinct and out of a misplaced sense of self-protection. As Priolkar also writes, rather piercingly, it is indeed an irony of history that some of the descendants of the New Christians in Goa, who suffered cruelly at the hands of the Inquisition, should be so anxious to prevent the truth about the working of the institution from coming to light. In that case, Priolkar was speaking directly about the contentions of Dr. Gerson da Cunha and Braz Fernandes that Dellon's account was fiction or fictionalized, despite no European scholar having similar doubts. Elsewhere, he is quite unreasonable and nasty - thus betraying considerable bias in his own history-making - as when thanking the Goud Saraswat Brahman Community of Bomay for the grant given for the publication of this volume but refraining to mention the names of other, presumably Goan Catholic contributors because it must be remembered that the Inquisition has been abolished but the spirit which guided its activities is not entirely extinct. In that passage and others, Priolkar attempts the trick of transposing 16th and 17th century European colonialist ideas, attitudes and policies to the Goan Catholics of the 20th century, which is both morally shabby and useless as historiography. VM
Re: [Goanet] [Secular Goa] The Inquisition Lore
There is no fun in converting to Hinduism or remaining a Catholic. There are many new religions that you might find more interesting and rewarding. Cheers, Santosh On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 8:54 PM, marie dsouza.ma...@gmail.com [seculargoa] secular...@yahoogroups.com wrote: I am no historian just an ordinary Catholic. My ancestors may have been forcibly converted as may have been many of today's Goan Roman Catholics during the inquisition in Goa. (Kerala's Syrian Catholics were converted during the first century AD it is said) What is important for me and should be for all other Roman Catholics is whether today I want to remain a Catholic because of the faith I have in one God and Jesus Christ who willingly sacrificed Himself for me. Bringing up the Inquisition that took place about 4 centuries ago to say that because my ancestors were forcibly converted hence i should revert to being a Hindu (as the extreme right would have us do) does not make sense. marie On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 10:23 PM, Santosh Helekar chimbel...@gmail.com [seculargoa] secular...@yahoogroups.com wrote: Good to see that Vivek has provided a pertinent quote from Priolkar in which he appears to be expressing the concern that his account would be dismissed as biased because it was not written by a Portuguese historian. Legitimate specific criticisms of any scholarly work is always a good thing. What is wrong is its outright dismissal without producing contrary facts, but rather, just by using such baseless canards as guilt by association and various ideological devices. As alluded to by Vivek, there is no detailed alternative historical account on Goan inquisition based on primary sources. I understand that this is in large part due to destruction or loss of original records. In this context, I remember that Teotoniobab de Souza once mentioned that some of the remaining records were transferred to the Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil. So all we need is a competent, committed and dispassionate secular historian, and proper funding from a secular source. Priolkar's book relies naturally on secondary sources. But it was well-received by eminent historians such as C. R. Boxer. Regarding Dellon and Buchanan, I should have said that they are eyewitness accounts rather than well-researched. No independent facts contradict what they have written. They have been maligned based on pure speculations and biases of their detractors, and generalization of such ideological concoctions as the Black Legend to the Goan situation. Cheers, Santosh On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 10:26 PM, V M vmin...@gmail.com [seculargoa] secular...@yahoogroups.com wrote: The problem with the state of Goa Inquisition Studies, such as they are, is the near-total absence of decent modern and contemporary historiography of the two-centuries-plus episode. Twenty-first-century historical understanding cannot be properly achieved by reading primary documents by witnesses or near-witnesses who (a) wanted to sell their accounts, (b) gain coniderably grom their accounts, or (c) were published in order to settle tertiary scores. I'd say Priolkar's book is a significant step in the right direction, but as he himself writes, while laying his bare to be considered, the story of the Inquisition is a dismal record of callousness and cruelty, tyranny and injustice, espionage and blackmail, avarice and corruption, repression of thought and culture and promotion of obscurantism and an Indian writer who undertakes to tell it can easily be accused of being inspired by ulterior motives. From this point of view, it would have been appropriate if the task had been undertaken by a Portuguese historian... But no such Portuguese historian has emerged, and no serious Indian historian has tried to develop the necessarily complex understanding required here either, and so Goans are left foundering, reacting by instinct and out of a misplaced sense of self-protection. As Priolkar also writes, rather piercingly, it is indeed an irony of history that some of the descendants of the New Christians in Goa, who suffered cruelly at the hands of the Inquisition, should be so anxious to prevent the truth about the working of the institution from coming to light. In that case, Priolkar was speaking directly about the contentions of Dr. Gerson da Cunha and Braz Fernandes that Dellon's account was fiction or fictionalized, despite no European scholar having similar doubts. Elsewhere, he is quite unreasonable and nasty - thus betraying considerable bias in his own history-making - as when thanking the Goud Saraswat Brahman Community of Bomay for the grant given for the publication of this volume but refraining to mention the names of other, presumably Goan Catholic contributors because it must be remembered that the Inquisition has been abolished but the spirit which guided its
Re: [Goanet] [Secular Goa] The Inquisition Lore
Dear Brothers Sisters, reading this. As i read through the write up whch appeared on my laptop page, tears rolled in mine eyes. Hence i thought id take some time to share the few following thoughts: So what you are saying is that the inquisition did happen, but the details were not *that bad*? Is that what we are saying here? A couple of Jewish businesses burnt, the Jesuits slitting the throats of children? not that bad? it was just a holy purging, 3000 Jews including Garcia de Orta's sister being killed in Ela, Old Goa was an exaggeration! Was it? Even One Hindu temple burnt, or one mosque destroyed, even one Jewish family destroyed, is no big deal? As long as we can defend Our Holy Catholic Church, yes? Myth-ification is an amazing manner how to deny the past facts!! Just as how the Gopakapatnam Harbour has been left to ruins, so also as the Augustinian tower (which was actually an ancient synagogue) was been destroyed, just as Curca Springs is left to ruins. This is all mythification!! Dear Fellow researchers, I greatly congratulate your studies that you have done, however i'd suggest if i may, that you continue your research, if possible personal research, by visiting the ancient sites, and you will see the glorious hidden truths revealed there. Indeed Goa was a Glorious place EVEN before the Portuguese settled here! Hence, can we agree? The Inquisition was a very Sad Dark Period in the Roman Church, a very painful period, where, Jesus our Lord, asked Peter to put his sword into his cover, when he cut off the soldier's ear, Jesus NEVER propagated ANY Violence, yet the Roman Pope had the audacity to declare the EVIL Inquisition! And our Beloved Saint Francis Xavier CALLED for it!! This FACT is historical, and documented, and cannot be revised, to meet the whims and fancies of the Goan bishop and his clan. However, we pray that the truth is revealed, and people WILL realize the Lies that they have been forced to believe all through these years. We pray, that when the Church Sincerely Apologises, THEN, they will receive True Forgiveness from Christ Himself, for Tarnishing His Holy Name. Hence i remember Gandhi's words, I love Christ, but i hate christians. Till Then. best regards, Adrian Simoes Managing Director The Judeo-Christian Heritage of the West Coast of India. Panjim - Goa On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 10:30 PM, Santosh Helekar chimbel...@gmail.com wrote: Priolkar's, Dellon's and Buchanan's accounts are well-reasoned descriptions of the inquisition. Buchanan's account in particular is a fairly objective and even-handed account. For example, he also describes all the fanatical suicides and sacrificial killings of the Hindus in gory detail. Those who are trying to malign these authors and to whitewash all the atrocities have a self-serving apologist religious agenda of their own. Cheers, Santosh On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 7:01 AM, Gabe Menezes gabe.mene...@gmail.com [seculargoa] secular...@yahoogroups.com wrote: By Frederick Noronha It’s 2012 and Vincent and Martha are falling “instantly in love with Goa”. Four sentences into Ashwin Sanghi’s The Rozabal Line (Westland, 2008), we encounter the Inquisition. Predictable? Like few others, the Inquisition motif is one which comes up repeatedly in writing on Goa. It does so once more in “India’s bestselling theological thriller”. This has happened with so much regularity, that we just seem to take it as a given now. From novels to works in Konkani, translated texts, video CDs and even official accounts of Goa’s history, this story is writ large. But how much of this is really true? You get a hint of something not quite being right if search up for information on the Black Legend. Put briefly, the Black Legend is a style of writing – or propaganda – that demonises the Spanish Empire, its people and its culture. As if to suggest that the blackest were the Spaniards, while other colonial empires were rather pleasantly-run enterprises. For understandable reasons, this at times extends to the Portuguese too. Spanish history gets projected in a deeply negative light; the reasons why this happens is interesting in itself but beyond the scope of this discussion. Suffice to note that depicting exaggerated versions of the Spanish Inquisition form a key part of this. Ever since Priolkar’s book on the subject (The Goa Inquisition: The Terrible Tribunal for the East), published thrice by a State university, a Hindutva publishing house, and locally, the first time being just before Liberation, this motif is taken for granted in Goa too. Expectedly, over time, it gets new life of its own. Scratch a bit below the surface, and it becomes obvious that there’s a whole different reality out there. Globally too, questions are being asked. One place to start unwrapping the knotted ball of thread and mythification is perhaps a 1994 BBC documentary on the myths of the
Re: [Goanet] [Secular Goa] The Inquisition Lore
The problem with the state of Goa Inquisition Studies, such as they are, is the near-total absence of decent modern and contemporary historiography of the two-centuries-plus episode. Twenty-first-century historical understanding cannot be properly achieved by reading primary documents by witnesses or near-witnesses who (a) wanted to sell their accounts, (b) gain coniderably grom their accounts, or (c) were published in order to settle tertiary scores. I'd say Priolkar's book is a significant step in the right direction, but as he himself writes, while laying his bare to be considered, the story of the Inquisition is a dismal record of callousness and cruelty, tyranny and injustice, espionage and blackmail, avarice and corruption, repression of thought and culture and promotion of obscurantism and an Indian writer who undertakes to tell it can easily be accused of being inspired by ulterior motives. From this point of view, it would have been appropriate if the task had been undertaken by a Portuguese historian... But no such Portuguese historian has emerged, and no serious Indian historian has tried to develop the necessarily complex understanding required here either, and so Goans are left foundering, reacting by instinct and out of a misplaced sense of self-protection. As Priolkar also writes, rather piercingly, it is indeed an irony of history that some of the descendants of the New Christians in Goa, who suffered cruelly at the hands of the Inquisition, should be so anxious to prevent the truth about the working of the institution from coming to light. In that case, Priolkar was speaking directly about the contentions of Dr. Gerson da Cunha and Braz Fernandes that Dellon's account was fiction or fictionalized, despite no European scholar having similar doubts. Elsewhere, he is quite unreasonable and nasty - thus betraying considerable bias in his own history-making - as when thanking the Goud Saraswat Brahman Community of Bomay for the grant given for the publication of this volume but refraining to mention the names of other, presumably Goan Catholic contributors because it must be remembered that the Inquisition has been abolished but the spirit which guided its activities is not entirely extinct. In that passage and others, Priolkar attempts the trick of transposing 16th and 17th century European colonialist ideas, attitudes and policies to the Goan Catholics of the 20th century, which is both morally shabby and useless as historiography. VM On 3/29/15, Santosh Helekar chimbel...@gmail.com [seculargoa] secular...@yahoogroups.com wrote: Priolkar's, Dellon's and Buchanan's accounts are well-reasoned descriptions of the inquisition. Buchanan's account in particular is a fairly objective and even-handed account. For example, he also describes all the fanatical suicides and sacrificial killings of the Hindus in gory detail. Those who are trying to malign these authors and to whitewash all the atrocities have a self-serving apologist religious agenda of their own. Cheers, Santosh On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 7:01 AM, Gabe Menezes gabe.mene...@gmail.com [seculargoa] secular...@yahoogroups.com wrote: By Frederick Noronha It’s 2012 and Vincent and Martha are falling “instantly in love with Goa”. Four sentences into Ashwin Sanghi’s The Rozabal Line (Westland, 2008), we encounter the Inquisition. Predictable? Like few others, the Inquisition motif is one which comes up repeatedly in writing on Goa. It does so once more in “India’s bestselling theological thriller”. This has happened with so much regularity, that we just seem to take it as a given now. From novels to works in Konkani, translated texts, video CDs and even official accounts of Goa’s history, this story is writ large. But how much of this is really true? You get a hint of something not quite being right if search up for information on the Black Legend. Put briefly, the Black Legend is a style of writing – or propaganda – that demonises the Spanish Empire, its people and its culture. As if to suggest that the blackest were the Spaniards, while other colonial empires were rather pleasantly-run enterprises. For understandable reasons, this at times extends to the Portuguese too. Spanish history gets projected in a deeply negative light; the reasons why this happens is interesting in itself but beyond the scope of this discussion. Suffice to note that depicting exaggerated versions of the Spanish Inquisition form a key part of this. Ever since Priolkar’s book on the subject (The Goa Inquisition: The Terrible Tribunal for the East), published thrice by a State university, a Hindutva publishing house, and locally, the first time being just before Liberation, this motif is taken for granted in Goa too. Expectedly, over time, it gets new life of its own. Scratch a bit below the surface, and it becomes obvious that there’s a whole different reality out there. Globally too, questions are being
[Goanet] [Secular Goa] The Inquisition Lore
[Goanet] [Secular Goa] The Inquisition Lore By Frederick Noronha It's 2012 and Vincent and Martha are falling instantly in love with Goa. Four sentences into Ashwin Sanghi's The Rozabal Line (Westland, 2008), we encounter the Inquisition. Response: Unfortunately Goan writers (including historians) and most European writers (including historians) make a mishmash of the (religious) Inquisition with the laws and practices of the autocratic kings of the period in the respective countries and their colonies. Many of them had / have an agenda in their writings as well analyzed by Noronha. For example much is made of the Capital Punishment of burning of the victims at the Auto de Fe. This was the form of capital punishment practiced in Spain, Portugal and Italy. The French had their own form of capital punishment called the guillotine. The English had their capital punishment in the Tower of London or the ax and the chopping block. (See Henry VIII wives). The American had and have their own form of capital punishment - hanging, the electric chair and now the more humane lethal injection. I am not defending any of these practices except to state the obvious practices of the period. Capital punishment is needed for those cases of serious criminal offenses which exists in every society. These include murder, army desertion, spying, undermining the state and its ruler, repeat and unrepentant offenders, etc. In the 16th-19th century, the state (ruler) and religion often comingled and acted in unison; often one exploiting the other to abuse their respective powers and on occasion one keeping the other (or their civil/ military employees and in-check. In this historical period also called The Period of the Absolute Monarch, the rulers of the various European countries demanded full control of the religion (and its purse) within their territory. The Catholic Church after its experience with the monarchs of England and Germany had little leverage but to oblige / go along with monarchs of other European countries. In Goa things were even more complicated with the government coming to Goa to colonize the land and its people. The colonial government used and abused all legal and military tools at its disposal to maintain control of the local population, exploit and defend the territory. All foreign individuals in the colonial government were above the law and a law unto themselves. This had little to do with religion. The period of colonization coincided with the period of Inquisition. Worse atrocities (than the Portuguese inquisition) against the native population were committed by the Dutch in Ceylon and Indonesia (where whole villages were burnt); by the British in India and Middle-East; and the Spanish and French in their respective colonies; not to mention the massive slave trade. Perhaps many of the Goan writers (of fictional and non-fictional works) are unfamiliar with wider history and practices of the period. Would the presence of Inquisition in Portugal (only introduced in 1536) prevented the early explorers to the India Ocean behave more humanely rather than practice the gun-boat piracy of which Vasco da Gama, Cabral and others were criticized but not punished on their return to Portugal? Today's armchair historians should love to debate that issue ... if they are serious about analyzing history. Regards, GL
Re: [Goanet] [Secular Goa] The Inquisition Lore
Good to see that Vivek has provided a pertinent quote from Priolkar in which he appears to be expressing the concern that his account would be dismissed as biased because it was not written by a Portuguese historian. Legitimate specific criticisms of any scholarly work is always a good thing. What is wrong is its outright dismissal without producing contrary facts, but rather, just by using such baseless canards as guilt by association and various ideological devices. As alluded to by Vivek, there is no detailed alternative historical account on Goan inquisition based on primary sources. I understand that this is in large part due to destruction or loss of original records. In this context, I remember that Teotoniobab de Souza once mentioned that some of the remaining records were transferred to the Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil. So all we need is a competent, committed and dispassionate secular historian, and proper funding from a secular source. Priolkar's book relies naturally on secondary sources. But it was well-received by eminent historians such as C. R. Boxer. Regarding Dellon and Buchanan, I should have said that they are eyewitness accounts rather than well-researched. No independent facts contradict what they have written. They have been maligned based on pure speculations and biases of their detractors, and generalization of such ideological concoctions as the Black Legend to the Goan situation. Cheers, Santosh On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 10:26 PM, V M vmin...@gmail.com [seculargoa] secular...@yahoogroups.com wrote: The problem with the state of Goa Inquisition Studies, such as they are, is the near-total absence of decent modern and contemporary historiography of the two-centuries-plus episode. Twenty-first-century historical understanding cannot be properly achieved by reading primary documents by witnesses or near-witnesses who (a) wanted to sell their accounts, (b) gain coniderably grom their accounts, or (c) were published in order to settle tertiary scores. I'd say Priolkar's book is a significant step in the right direction, but as he himself writes, while laying his bare to be considered, the story of the Inquisition is a dismal record of callousness and cruelty, tyranny and injustice, espionage and blackmail, avarice and corruption, repression of thought and culture and promotion of obscurantism and an Indian writer who undertakes to tell it can easily be accused of being inspired by ulterior motives. From this point of view, it would have been appropriate if the task had been undertaken by a Portuguese historian... But no such Portuguese historian has emerged, and no serious Indian historian has tried to develop the necessarily complex understanding required here either, and so Goans are left foundering, reacting by instinct and out of a misplaced sense of self-protection. As Priolkar also writes, rather piercingly, it is indeed an irony of history that some of the descendants of the New Christians in Goa, who suffered cruelly at the hands of the Inquisition, should be so anxious to prevent the truth about the working of the institution from coming to light. In that case, Priolkar was speaking directly about the contentions of Dr. Gerson da Cunha and Braz Fernandes that Dellon's account was fiction or fictionalized, despite no European scholar having similar doubts. Elsewhere, he is quite unreasonable and nasty - thus betraying considerable bias in his own history-making - as when thanking the Goud Saraswat Brahman Community of Bomay for the grant given for the publication of this volume but refraining to mention the names of other, presumably Goan Catholic contributors because it must be remembered that the Inquisition has been abolished but the spirit which guided its activities is not entirely extinct. In that passage and others, Priolkar attempts the trick of transposing 16th and 17th century European colonialist ideas, attitudes and policies to the Goan Catholics of the 20th century, which is both morally shabby and useless as historiography. VM * No offense meant. But let the chips fall where they may. *
Re: [Goanet] [Secular Goa] The Inquisition Lore
Priolkar's, Dellon's and Buchanan's accounts are well-reasoned descriptions of the inquisition. Buchanan's account in particular is a fairly objective and even-handed account. For example, he also describes all the fanatical suicides and sacrificial killings of the Hindus in gory detail. Those who are trying to malign these authors and to whitewash all the atrocities have a self-serving apologist religious agenda of their own. Cheers, Santosh On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 7:01 AM, Gabe Menezes gabe.mene...@gmail.com [seculargoa] secular...@yahoogroups.com wrote: By Frederick Noronha It’s 2012 and Vincent and Martha are falling “instantly in love with Goa”. Four sentences into Ashwin Sanghi’s The Rozabal Line (Westland, 2008), we encounter the Inquisition. Predictable? Like few others, the Inquisition motif is one which comes up repeatedly in writing on Goa. It does so once more in “India’s bestselling theological thriller”. This has happened with so much regularity, that we just seem to take it as a given now. From novels to works in Konkani, translated texts, video CDs and even official accounts of Goa’s history, this story is writ large. But how much of this is really true? You get a hint of something not quite being right if search up for information on the Black Legend. Put briefly, the Black Legend is a style of writing – or propaganda – that demonises the Spanish Empire, its people and its culture. As if to suggest that the blackest were the Spaniards, while other colonial empires were rather pleasantly-run enterprises. For understandable reasons, this at times extends to the Portuguese too. Spanish history gets projected in a deeply negative light; the reasons why this happens is interesting in itself but beyond the scope of this discussion. Suffice to note that depicting exaggerated versions of the Spanish Inquisition form a key part of this. Ever since Priolkar’s book on the subject (The Goa Inquisition: The Terrible Tribunal for the East), published thrice by a State university, a Hindutva publishing house, and locally, the first time being just before Liberation, this motif is taken for granted in Goa too. Expectedly, over time, it gets new life of its own. Scratch a bit below the surface, and it becomes obvious that there’s a whole different reality out there. Globally too, questions are being asked. One place to start unwrapping the knotted ball of thread and mythification is perhaps a 1994 BBC documentary on the myths of the Spanish Inquisition. See it online at http://bit.ly/BBCSpIn. Turns out from a detailed and closer look that not only were accounts of the Inquisition grossly exaggerated, but there was in fact also a whole industry of creating these myths that survived centuries. It was promoted by various quarters, from manifold reasons. What one learn in the above documentary would go so much against what one is used to believing, that it takes quite some time for the reality to soak it in. In Goa itself, the accounts of the Inquisition depend largely on the versions of Buchanan (1766-1815) and Dellon (1650-1710). The first was a Scottish theologian, whose biases about faiths other than his own have been documented elsewhere. David Higgs (in The Inquisition in Late Eighteenth-Century Goa, in Goa; Continuity and Change, edited by Narendra K Wagle and George Coelho, University of Toronto 1995) gives us another perspective when he acknowledges the role Priolkar’s 1961 study played in shaping the debate. Higgs writes: “Priolkar drew heavily on secondary sources in his sketch on the Goan Inquisition, especially on a late seventeenth-century Frenchman, Gabriel Dellon, arrested in Goa, whose case was made famous by the denunciatory account of his experiences published after his return from France”. He calls Dellon’s version an “exuberant account of his misfortunes”. Likewise, Higgs points out, Priolkar also used the “over-imaginative account of a British clergyman, C Buchanan, who wanted to think that what he was not allowed to see in Old Goa in 1808 was what Dellon inveighed at more than a century earlier”. From the time these accounts first came about, they were taken to by a number of diverse quarters. For different reasons. Jansenists, Gallicians, pro-Protestants and anti-Spanish Frenchmen highlighted such writing. Dellon has himself been identified with pro-Calvanism and the Gallician policy of Louis XIV, to whose court Dellon had been admitted. Since then, the mythification of the Inquisition has been used to push 21st century communal battles. Perspectives from Judaism and Hindutva also take the debate along a road of its own. But it is not only the world of fiction that is shaped by the assiduously created Inquisition lore. When former top cop Julio Ribeiro voices alarm over the communalisation of Indian public life, someone in cyberspace thinks it fit to remind him: “We, perforce, have to talk
