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 [email protected] [seculargoa] <[email protected]> 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 [email protected] > [seculargoa] <[email protected]> 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 about the utterly violent and murderous record of >> Christianity in India, with specific reference to the Portuguese >> Inquisition in Goa”. >> >> In a recent online thread, the noted Indo-Portuguese historian Teotonio R >> de Souza spoke out publicly about how his writing on the Inquisition had >> been mauled and manipulated, to project a certain vision. >> >> He complained of his writing being hijacked, and text which he never >> wrote >> added under his name. Commented Souza: “One first paragraph is drawn from >> an article of mine in a book edited by M D David, and the rest is all >> added >> from elsewhere and with orthographic and syntax mistakes galore. That >> article is cited as footnote no 25 for the text on The Goa Inquisition in >> the Wikipedia”. >> >> It has survived in cyberspace over many years, and all attempts to get >> the >> situation corrected have failed so far. He added: “I am quoted from a >> book >> (without date) that I never wrote… it has misled many!” >> >> Such issues play a crucial role in shaping the debate and deciding on our >> ‘reality’. Unlike its counterpart in the Vatican, the Church in Goa seems >> unwilling to open up this debate, to separate the wheat from the chaff, >> to >> accept what it needs to, and to effectively challenge all the >> mythification. >> >> http://www.navhindtimes.in/the-inquisition-lore/-- >> DEV BOREM KORUM >> >> Gabe Menezes. >> >> >> >> > > > > -- > ***************************************************************** > No offense meant. But let the chips fall where they may. > ***************************************************************** > -- #2, Second Floor, Navelkar Trade Centre, Panjim, Goa Cellphone 9326140754 Office (0832) 242 0785
