I am attaching below an image of my article titled Os Martires de Cuncolim, which was published on OHERALDO (July 27, 2023 edition).
Also I am writing here the whole of the researched and compiled matter submitted for publication.
Os
Mártires de Cuncolim
Cuncolim
is a little village in South Goa, blessed with fertile soil and is bound by
deep rivers, which led to traders and artisans settling here. Historian
Teotónio Rosário de Souza, in his writings mentions that the metal industry in
this village, which made guns, was of extreamly good quality. Afonso de
Albuquerque mentions that they were comparable in quality to the arms
manufactured in Germany at that time. However in the 17th century,
the manufacturing of arms in Cuncolim was banned by viceroy Dom Jerónimo de
Azevedo.
It
is the month of July. The anniversary of the Cuncolim incident (15th
July 1583) has just been a few days ago. One may come across many, demanding
the need for the state to commemorate the chieftains (gãonkars) who were
executed by the Estado da índia for killing five Jesuit missionaries and
several native Catholics, as the first ever revolt against the Portuguese. This is certainly a great example of the
prevailing amnesia about Goa’s past. This amnesia is not wholly but at least
partially induced on purpose. This is clearly seen from how the well-known
Cuncolim incident has been woven to satisfy as many nationalist tropes as
possible. The Portuguese are regarded as continuous oppressors, Goa as a land
of the Hindus, religious conversions as forced and violent, natives as Hindus
alone and as united against foreign rulers with no mention of castes. All of
this, makes the Cuncolim revolt, the first war of independence.
It
is a fact that although nationalists insist that Goa was Hindu before the
arrival of the Portuguese, many Goans of the time were actually Muslim while
several others were part of indigenous communities with their own set of
distinct beliefs and traditions.
For
Nationalists it is truly a matter of pride, since they believe that the first
ever revolt against the Portuguese (foreign) rule, in India (did India exist in
1583?) took place in our beloved state
of Goa, in Cuncolim on the 15th day of July in 1583. However one
needs to understand that when the Portuguese (Afonso de Albuuerque) attempted to
conquer Goa in February 1510, he was
welcomed by by some Goans but opposed by others. The opposition was led by the
Sultan of Bijapur and succeeded in driving away the Portuguese by the end of
May. It was in November that Afonso conquered Goa for the second time.
Thousands of soldiers and laymen lost their lives in the battle and the turmoil
that followed. Shouldn’t these individuals who lost their lives (many of whom
were Goans or residants of Goa) during this period be considered as martyrs for
the cause of seeking independence?
During
the initial years of the first half of the 16th Century, the
southern parts of Goa were mainly ruled by Adilshah. During this time it was
only three talukas i.e Tiswadi, Bardez and parts of Salcéte which was inclusive
of today’s Mormugão, that were under Portuguese governance. Cuncolim was still
under the control of the local ‘Sanātana’
Chieftains. Salcéte came under the Portuguese rule in 1543.
Though
Goa was very important a port for trade and control, and a major strategic
advantage for the Portuguese, their prime aspiration was introduction and
promotion of Latin Christianity (though Christianity was first introduced into
India and Goa by Saint Thomas, the apostle of Christ Himself), in accordance
with the papal bull ‘Romanus Pontifex’,
which granted the patronage of the propagation of the Christian faith in Asia,
to the Portuguese.
Cuncolim
was inhabited by a devout ‘Sanatana’
population who mainly belonged the warrior ‘Kshatriya’ caste. There were 12 ‘vangodds’ (clans) of gãonkars living
here. Their names, were Mhal, Shetkar, Naik, Mangro, Shet, Tombdo, Porob,
Sidakalo, Lokakalo, Bandekar, Rounom and Benklo. These Gãoncars, had common
ownership of the village and paid all taxes and were also the ‘mahajans’
(founders and caretakers) of the main village temple. In 1583, five Jesuit
priests led by Pe. Rodolfo Acquaviva received orders from their superior to go
to Salcéte to find an appropriate site for constructing a church.
The
five Jesuit priests met at the Orlim Church on the 15th day of July in
1583, and from there proceeded to Cuncolim, accompanied by Gonçalo Rodrigues a European
(Portuguese) and 14 local neo-converts, with the purpose of setting up a cross
and finding a suitable space for building a church. Meanwhile, the gãonkars
from Cuncolim, after holding a meeting, showed up in large numbers, armed with
lances, swords and other weapons, towards the spot where the Clergy had
arrived.
In
accordance to the writings of one Mr. Anthony D'Souza, in the Catholic
Encyclopaedia, Gonçalo Rodrigues stretched his gun towards the advancing
crowd, but however was stopped by Pe. Pacheco who said "We are not here to
fight". Then, he addressed the crowd, saying "Do not be afraid".
Following this, the villagers began their attack on the party.
Pe.
Rudolph received five cuts from a spear and a scimitar and was killed on the
spot. As per D'Souza, he died asking God to forgive the attackers. The crowd
then turned on Pe. Berno who was horribly mutilated and Pe. Pacheco who was
badly wounded with a spear, knelt on the ground stretching his arms in the form
of a cross. Pe. Anthonio Francis was shot with arrows, and his head was split
open with a sword.
Brother
Aranha, wounded at the outset by a scimitar and a lance, fell down into the
thick crop of a paddy field, where he is believed to have layed until he was
discovered by an unknown person. Aranha was then carried to a Hindu idol, to
which he was forced to bow his head. Upon his refusal to do the same, he was
tied to a tree and was shot to death with arrows. The spot where this tree once
stood is marked with an octagonal monument surmounted by a cross, which was
renovated in 1885 by the Patriarch of Goa.
Gonçalo
Rodrigues and fourteen native new converts were also killed. Of the latter,
there was Dominic, a young boy of Cuncolim, who was a student at Rachol
Seminary, and had accompanied the priests on their expeditions to Cuncolim and
pointed out to them the Hindu temples. He was killed by his very own Hindu uncle
for being associated with the priests.
Alphonsus,
an altar-boy of Pe. Pacheco had followed him closely with a holy book. His
hands were cut off on his refusal to part with the book and was cut through his
knee-joints to prevent his escape. He survived in this condition until the next
day when he was found and killed. He was later buried in the church of the Holy
Holy Spirit in Margão in South Goa (the fourth edition of the building). The
remains were then transferred to the fifth edition of the church in 1675.
Following
the massacre in Cuncolim, the captain-major in charge of the Portuguese Army
garrison at the Fort in Assolna, was determined to inflict harm to the
chieftains in return of brutally killing the Jesuit priests. As punishment, the
Portuguese army raided and destroyed orchards and fields in the village and
unleashed many atrocities on the local population of Cuncolim.
The
Kshatriya gãonkars of Cuncolim were then invited for a talk at the Assolna fort
situated on the banks of the River Sal where today, stands the Assolna church
and in an act of betrayal of their trust, sixteen of them were summarily
executed by the Portuguese authorities. It is said that one among them escaped
execution by jumping into the River and swam to Karwar located , in the present
day state of Karnataka.
After
the execution of the the gãonkars, the villages of Cuncolim, Velim, Assolna,
Ambelim and Veroda refused to pay taxes on the produce harvested from their
orchards to the Portuguese government. Hence their lands were confiscated and
entrusted to the Condado da Marquis de Fronteira. The temple of the Goddess
Shri Shantadurga Cuncolikarian was relocated to the neighboring village of
Fatorpa, situated about seven kilometres away from Cuncolim. The Church of Nossa
Senhora de Sáude was constructed by the Portuguese at the site of the massacre.
It
is necessary to mention that the village of Cuncolim was not united as a whole
against the Jesuits and their companions. We can say this since firstly, the
elites were devided among themselves; a newly converted Christian local
villager is said to have rescued one of the Portuguese missionary attacked.
One
clear evidence of divisions amongst the villagers was the case of Domingos da
Costa, a Brahmin youth from Cuncolim, studying in Rachol who was killed for accompanying the soldiers who had earlier destroyed local
temples from Cuncolim.
The
bodies of the 5 priests were thrown into a well, which still stands today
inside the chapel of St. Francis Xavier, located in Cuncolim. The bodies, when
discovered after about two and a half days, but showed no signs of
decomposition. They were solemnly buried in the church of Our Lady of the Snows
at Rachol, and remained there until 1597. The bones were exhumed and were
shifted to the St Paul’s College, in Old Goa. The remains the Cuncolim Martyrs
are now housed at the Sé Cathedral and the Basilica de Bom Jesus in Old Goa.
The
five priests were declared as martyrs by the Catholic Church in 1741. On 16
April 1893, the five martyrs were beatified at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
This beatification was celebrated in Goa in 1894, and the feast has ever since
then been celebrated with great solemnity in Cuncolim. The Calendar of the Archdiocese
of Goa has fixed the 27th day of July as their feast day.
The
greatest fatality in the whole narrative of the Cuncolim massacre, is the
complete delebrate exclusion of the Bijapuri rule, even though the region
within which Cuncolim was geographically located, was managed by governors
appointed by the Adilshahi administration of Bijapur which was known for
supplying soldiers for Adilshah’s army.
Goa definitely did not even exist at that point in time, before the
Portuguese put it together out of many
territories, kingdoms, chieftains, some parts of which stretched out into
today’s Konkan and Canara coasts also
Deccan. Considering this, if one wants to wipe off all Portuguese traces in
today’s Goa, it means wiping off the map of Goa too!
Cuncolim’s
narrative was mainly about the local landed elites fighting to protect and
preserve their indigenous lifestyle which was inclusive of their casteist
peivilages over the village land and gãonkari.
In fact the natives of Cuncolim continued insisting that their
hereditary pre-Christian and caste dependent privileges in various rituals be
continued even in the 20th Century.
A lot of nationalists will not prefer
commemorating Adilshahi rebellions in the same manner as they do for the
Cuncolim rebellion. This is since the notion about the nation is that of it
being a Hindu one. However, one cannot deny that, as a struggle for the freedom
of Goan elites, the revolt of Cuncolim definitely wasn’t the first. The
Adilshahi revolts were considerably bigger, more costly in terms of ‘martyrs’
they yielded and were much earlier in time.
