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Convenor of Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) Dr Oscar Rebello has been nominated
for CNN-IBN's Indian of the Year Award 2007 in public service category
Vote for him at:
http://www.cnnibnindianoftheyear.com/publicservice_voting_new.php
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The aspect that intrigues me on this topic is why / how do some otherwise
logical people (Goan Hindus and Catholics, RSS, Hindutva, etc, and European
writers) do not appreciate the time-sequence of events in Goa during this
early period of Portuguese colonization? As we know, there are some reasons
why events occur in history.
As Teo rightly points out, the restrictions against the Hindus, including
Temple destruction, started in 1540. The inquisition was introduced in Goa in
1560 (some place its introduction in 1565).
1. Why did the Portuguese need the Inquisition (20-25 years latter) to continue
to do the same thing - if that (persecution of Hindus) was the aim of the
Inquisition?
2. If the aim of the Goa Inquisition was to destroy Hindu temples and convert
Hindus (as is alleged), why was the Inquisition in place for 250 years? Were
the colonialists unable to achieve their goals in 5-10 years? These are the
same Portuguese that defeated the combined armies of the five Deccan Sultanates
in 1570; and these Muslim armies in 1565 ended the mighty Vijayanagar empire
with its more than one million army. The Portuguese confronted and withstood
the Dutch and the British. So did Portuguese soldados (with guns against
unarmed peace-loving natives in three small talukas) need 250 years to
accomplish their (alleged) objectives to "destroy Hindu temples and convert
Hindus"?
Since the reasons and objectives of the Goa inquisition have been recently
presented by me on Goanet ... with Miguel Braganza's help... I am not going to
repeat them again.
Of course those individuals (Hindus and Catholics) and groups that want to
merely demagogue, the historical facts and dates many mean nothing. Before we
seek apologies from Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Shiv Sena, etc., perhaps some Goanetters who
demagogued this issue and engaged in personal attacks in the past may want to
own up. Yet their goanet posts continue to be available in the archives for
other to use as "reference". I thank Sachin Phadte for giving us-Goanetters an
opportunity to factually revisit our history.
Finally, and importantly, it is PRECISELY the TERRIBLE practices that Teo
describes below, that Francis Xavier (who arrived in Goa 1542) bitterly
complained to Portugal's King Juan III about. Since the local colonial
administration (military and civilian) was not doing anything about these
colonial abuses, that SFX suggested that the inquisition may help to discipline
the Portuguese "who lived WITHIN the Forts". This is another fact in history
that many, including Goan Catholics, including authors like Alfred De Mello,
have misrepresented.
Hence as we condemn the anti-Catholic writings of Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS, Shiv
Sena, etc.; let us also condemn Catholics for their anti-Catholic writing. And
we do not have to go or see far for such scripts.
Kind Regards, GL
------------- Teotonio R. de Souza Subject:
Only the first para is mine, the rest is added by whoever is interested in a
different communal agenda! I consider it as a cyber-crime. I wrote to the
christianaggression website where I saw this text, but none cared to reply.
------------- Sachin Phadte
A Hindutvavadi sent this to me. I do not know what is the truth in all this.
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."
