2009/6/12 Sapna Shahani <[email protected]> As a non-Goan who's lived here on and off for 20 years, I'm very curious about Goa's history with the Inquisition. How is it that the gory history of Goa's past remains virtually unknown by outsiders or tourists?
The Basilica of Bom Jesus is a beautiful building but I find it odd that visitors don't know what cruelties once took place in the vicinity of the Basilica. Would love to hear the thoughts of people on this list... Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:28:49 -0400 From: "J. Colaco < jc>" <[email protected]> You apear to be a genuine person. So I say to you: If today is the day to wash clothes, and the washing machines are not being used, Let us wash ALL the dirty laundry - in public. Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 10:35:00 +0900 From: Joao Barros-Pereira <[email protected]> A sign of a civilized and mature people, in my view, is to let bygones be bygones. We have a recorded history of the Inquisition but it does not mean it has to have a place of pride on tourism billboards. Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:37:21 +0000 (GMT) From: Bernado Colaco <[email protected]> First off all your stay in Goa is illegal. Second the In quistion issue has been trashed on this forum. In fact could you tell us about Hatti Mere SATI. Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:31:33 +0530 From: Jason Keith Fernandes <[email protected]> If at all, there is more (mis)information about the Inquisition than there is information, so perhaps we would do well to investigate that. But I am curious, what exactly do you hope to achieve from broadcasting this information to the visitors to the site? Perhaps you know that the 'information' about the Inquisition, is very often used to place contemporary (and native) Catholics in an uncomfortable position. Is this the intent of your inquiry? If not, then perhaps the lack of awareness about contemporary politics is just another one of your blind spots. My apologies for the terseness of the message, the bite is not intended to offend, merely to make a point. Mario responds: Whoa! What the heck happened here? As the lone voice on Goanet of reason, truth and peace I am shocked at the responses so far to a simple question by a curious non-Goan Hindu lady about a historical FACT. It's like she poked a hornet's nest with a stick and a bunch of angry Goan Christians flew out to defend the faith and the Portuguese who perpetrated the Inquisition with considerable brutality in India. JC, along with sati, caste discrimination, female infanticide and bride burnings, the Inquisition is a FACT, so why try to obfuscate it by referring to those other gory facts of Indian history, and the ongoing female infacticide and bride burnings, without answering the question dispassionately? Joao, bygones are bygones by definition, but history requires an honest accounting of what happened so that we learn from the good and avoid repeating the bad. Bernardo, your comment that her stay in Goa was illegal is pure poppycock. Jason Keith, you were rude in addition to terse when you questioned Sapna's intentions and/or her "blind spot" both of which you have no way of knowing. The only point you made is that you are unnecessarily touchy and defensive about a FACT of Portuguese-Indian history that you had nothing to do with. Since I don't know Sapna, I prefer to give her the benefit of the doubt. So, let's get back to her question. Sapna asked, "How is it that the gory history of Goa's past remains virtually unknown by outsiders or tourists?" She says she finds it odd that "visitors" don't know the cruelties that once took place in the vicinity of Bom Gesu. Frankly, Sapna, you may have made an assumption that may not hold water. Since there are all kinds of outsiders and tourists who visit Old Goa, you have no way of knowing what all these outsiders and tourists know or not know. I know many Americans who are interested in history who are quite familiar with the entire dark period of Christian fascism, which included the Crusades and the Inquisition, when Christianity was essentially derailed by its own fanatics, paradoxically in the name of Christ. After all, YOU seem to know, and many of the visitors may know as well. However, if you are saying that there are no museums or exhibits of atrocities that took place during the Inquisition you are correct, there are none that I know of. Perhaps there should be. I would have no problem as long as it was factual, just as I have no problem with the possibility that my Hindu ancestors may have been forced to convert by Portuguese zealots, and I am perfectly happy with what the founder of my Christian faith taught, even though I find much to decry about some of the policies and practices of some of my fellow Christians. As with any dark event or period in a country's history that has since been stamped out hundreds of years ago, most countries try to focus on the good rather than emphasize the bad. This is simply human nature. Thus it is with the Inquisition, which was an absolutely diabolical period of Christian fanaticism that disgraced the religion and especially its founder who would have condemned every bit of what it entailed, from its intentions to its practices. If you know what Jesus Christ stood for, the perpetrators of the Inquisition were the worst kind of heretics, they were un-Christian by any standard preached by Christ, just like the Islamic terrorists of today are heretics and abusers of the essential teachings of Islam. You must have noticed the umbrage some Indians like Amitabh Bacchan took over Slumdog Millionaire's exposing some dark sides of Indian culture. Living as I do in the US I was often put in the position of explaining the negative scenes in the movie mostly to curious and well intentioned Americans who found the scenes disturbing. I chose to do so unabashedly - that I found most of the bad stuff shown in the movie to be authentic from my own knowledge, and other stuff that I had no personal knowledge of, like the police brutality, to be quite plausible. However, I also pointed out that there was a lot about India that is admirable, and concluded that to judge India by Slumdog Millionaire alone would be like judging America by many of its blighted inner-cities, or poverty-stricken Appalachia, or the psychotic killings at Columbine, or the Godfather movies. Thus nothing was swept under the rug about either India or America and everyone understood the good and the bad in proper context.
