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* G * O * A * N * E * T **** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S *
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A Hindutvavadi sent this to me. I do not know what is the truth in all this.
Sachin Phadte
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Details of the Goa Inquisition
Dr. T. R. de Souza
At least from 1540 onwards, and in the island of Goa before that year, all the
Hindu idols had been annihilated or had disappeared, all the temples had been
destroyed and their sites and building material was in most cases utilized to
erect new Christian Churches and chapels. Various viceregal and Church council
decrees banished the Hindu priests from the Portuguese territories; the public
practices of Hindu rites including marriage rites, were banned; the state took
upon itself the task of bringing up Hindu orphan children; the Hindus were
denied certain employments, while the Christians were preferred; it was ensured
that the Hindus would not harass those who became Christians, and on the
contrary, the Hindus were obliged to assemble periodically in Churches to
listen to preaching or to the refutation of their religion."
"A particularly grave abuse was practiced in Goa in the form of 'mass baptism'
and what went before it. The practice was begun by the Jesuits and was alter
initiated by the Franciscans also. The Jesuits staged an annual mass baptism on
the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25), and in order to secure as
many neophytes as possible, a few days before the ceremony the Jesuits would go
through the streets of the Hindu quarter in pairs, accompanied by their Negro
slaves, whom they would urge to seize the Hindus. When the blacks caught up a
fugitive, they would smear his lips with a piece of beef, making him an
'untouchable' among his people. Conversion to Christianity was then his only
option."
The Goan inquisition is regarded by all contemporary portrayals as the most
violent inquisition ever executed by the Portuguese Catholic Church. It lasted
from 1560 to 1812. The inquisition was set as a tribunal, headed by a judge,
sent to Goa from Portugal and was assisted by two judicial henchmen. The judge
was answerable to no one except to Lisbon and handed down punishments as he saw
fit. The Inquisition Laws filled 230 pages and the palace where the Inquisition
was conducted was known as the Big House and the Inquisition proceedings were
always conducted behind closed shutters and closed doors. The screams of agony
of the culprits (men, women, and children) could be heard in the streets, in
the stillness of the night, as they were brutally interrogated, flogged, and
slowly dismembered in front of their relatives. Eyelids were sliced off and
extremities were amputated carefully, a person could remain conscious even
though the only thing that remained was his torso and a h
ead.
Diago de Boarda, a priest and his advisor Vicar General, Miguel Vazz had made a
41 point plan for torturing Hindus. Under this plan Viceroy Antano de Noronha
issued in 1566, an order applicable to the entire area under Portuguese rule :
"I hereby order that in any area owned by my master, the king, nobody should
construct a Hindu temple and such temples already constructed should not be
repaired without my permission. If this order is transgressed, such temples
shall be, destroyed and the goods in them shall be used to meet expenses of
holy deeds, as punishment of such transgression."
In 1567 the campaign of destroying temples in Bardez met with success. At the
end of it 300 Hindu temples were destroyed. Enacting laws, prohibition was laid
from December 4, 1567 on rituals of Hindu marriages, sacred thread wearing and
cremation. All the persons above 15 years of age were compelled to listen to
Christian preaching, failing which they were punished.
A religious fatva was issued on the basis of the findings of Goa Inquiry
Commission. It stated,"...Hereby we declare the decision that the conventions
mentioned in the preamble of the fatva as stated below are permanently declared
as useless, and therefore prohibited".
Prohibitions Regarding Marriages
-The instruments for Hindu songs shall not be played.
-While giving dowry the relatives of the bride and groom must not be invited.
-At the time of marriage, betel leaf packages (pan) must not be distributed
either publicly or in private to the persons present.
-Flowers, or fried puris, betel nuts and leaves must not be sent to the heads
of the houses of the bride or groom.
-Gotraj ceremony of family God must not be performed.
-On the day prior to a wedding, rice must not be husked, spices must not be
pounded, grains must not be ground and other recipes for marriage feast must
not be cooked.
-Pandals and festoons must not be used.
-Pithi should not be applied.
-The bride must not be accorded ceremonial welcome. The bride and groom must
not -be made to sit under pandal to convey blessings and best wishes to them.
Prohibitions Regarding Fasts, Post-death Rituals
-The poor must not be fed or ceremonial meals must not be served for the peace
of the souls of the dead.
-There should be no fasting on ekadashi day.
-Fasting can be done according to the Christian principles.
-No rituals should be performed on the twelfth day after death, on moonless and
full moon dates.
-No fasting should be done during lunar eclipse. Conventions
-Hindu men should not wear dhoti either in public or in their houses. Women
should not wear cholis .
-They should not plant Tulsi in their houses, compounds, gardens or any other
place.
-Following the law of 1567, orphans were kidnapped for converting them to
Christianity.
On September 22, 1570 an order was issued that :
-The Hindus embracing Christianity will be exempted from land taxes for a
period of 15 years.
-Nobody shall bear Hindu names or surnames. In 1583 Hindu temples at Esolna and
Kankolim were destroyed through army action.
"The fathers of the Church forbade the Hindus under terrible penalties the use
of their own sacred books, and prevented them from all exercise of their
religion. They destroyed their temples, and so harassed and interfered with the
people that they abandoned the city in large numbers, refusing to remain any
longer in a place where they had no liberty, and were liable to imprisonment,
torture and death if they worshipped after their own fashion the gods of their
fathers." wrote Sasetti, who was in India from 1578 to 1588.
An order was issued in June 1684 eliminating Konkani language and making it
compulsory to speak Portuguese language. The law provided for dealing toughly
with anyone using the local language. Following that law all the symbols of
non-Christian sects were destroyed and the books written in local languages
were burnt.
The Archbishop living on the banks of the Ethora had said during one of his
lecture series, "The post of Inquiry Commission in Goa is regarded as holy."
The women who opposed the assistants of the commission were put behind the bars
and were used by them to satisfy their animal instincts. Then they were burnt
alive as opponents of the established tenets of the Catholic church. The
victims of such inhuman laws of the Inquiry Commission included a French
traveller named Delone. He was an eye witness to the atrocities, cruelty and
reign of terror unleashed by priests. He published a book in 1687 describing
the lot of helpless victims. While he was in jail he had heard the cries of
tortured people beaten with instruments having sharp teeth. All these details
are noted in Delone's book.
So harsh and notorious was the inquisition in Goa, that word of its brutality
and horrors reached Lisbon but nothing was done to stop this notoriety and
escalating barbarity and it continued for two hundred more years. No body knows
the exact number of Goans subjected to these diabolical tortures, but perhaps
it runs into hundreds of thousands, may be even more. The abominations of
inquisitions continued until a brief respite was given in 1774 but four years
later, the inquisition was introduced again and it continued un-interruptedly
until 1812. At that point in time, in the year of 1812, the British put
pressure on the Portuguese to put an end to the terror of Inquisition and the
presence of British troops in Goa enforced the British desire. Also the
Portuguese power at this time was declining and they could not fight the
British. The palace of the Grand Inquisitor, the Big House, was demolished and
no trace of it remains today, which might remind someone of inquisitions an
d the horrors inside this Big House that their great saint Francis Xavier had
commenced.
Dr. Trasta Breganka Kunha, a Catholic citizen of Goa writes, "Inspite of all
the mutilations and concealment of history, it remains an undoubted fact that
religious conversion of Goans is due to methods of force adopted by the
Portuguese to establish their rule. As a result of this violence the character
of our people was destroyed. The propagation of Christian sect in Goa came
about not by religious preaching but through the methods of violence and
pressure. If any evidence is needed for this fact, we can obtain it through law
books, orders and reports of the local rulers of that time and also from the
most dependable documents of the Christian sect
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