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The Goan historian A. K. Priolkar has been gratuitously smeared in this forum
as being biased, communally and politically motivated, and by way of hints and
insinuations, as being aligned with Hindutva extremists. His credentials as a
historian have been shamelessly questioned, all because he has written a book
on the Goan inquisition, which somehow appears to be offensive or threatening
to these smear-artistes and their beliefs. The smearing and questioning has
been done by non-historians who have no track record of contributing anything
substantive to the study of Goan history, have no independent factual knowledge
about the inquisition, and in all likelihood, have not carefully read or
familiarized themselves with the contents of Priolkar’s book.
When asked to provide factual evidence to support their slander they have
quietly slunk away, and in one case, stuck to their self-serving belief that
their publicly stated adverse opinions about others do not have to be backed by
facts, among other convenient excuses.
In this thread, by critically reviewing Priolkar’s book in multiple parts in a
substantive manner, I would like to expose the dishonesty of the slurs against
him and rectify the grave disservice that the frivolous smear merchants have
done towards Goanetters and Goans by besmirching the reputation of this
illustrious son of the Goan soil.
To give you a sense of the honorable motives and dispassionate spirit with
which Priolkar undertook the writing of his book, I would like to begin in this
post by quoting what he said in the introduction to his book. It should give
you a good idea of the ethical responsibility and seriousness with which he
regarded his scholarly endeavor. Here is what he said:
QUOTE
But the book on the Inquisition was not deliberately delayed to make its
publication coincide with the quater-centenary of its establishment. The delay
in its publication is in large measure due to the fact that the task of writing
a history of the Inquisition was more difficult and much less pleasant and it
was undertaken after considerable hesitation. The history of the printing press
in India is a record of achievement and progress and an Indian writer who
traces it is called upon to discharge the pleasant duty of acknowledging with
gratitude the debt which India owes to the pioneering work of the Portuguese
and other Europeans. On the other hand, 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 of the stature of
Oliveira Martins, Pinheiro Chagas, Alexandre Herculano or Cunha Rivara. Such a
writer would have done fuller justice to the subject. But in the present
circumstances there is little chance that a popular work of this nature from
the pen of a Portuguese writer would be forthcoming in the near future. Works
of historical research like those by Antonio Baiao, which have been drawn upon
in the preparation of the present volume, are likely to interest the student of
history rather than the general reader. In the present volume scrupulous care
has been taken to eschew bias and present a dispassionate and objective account
of the working of the Goa Inquisition. In spite of this, the picture that
emerges is undoubtedly grim. But this could not be helped as truth had to be
told. In situations of this nature the
historian should be guided by the following memorable words of Pope Leo XIII:
"Endeavour most earnestly to refute all forgeries and false statements, after
investigating the sources of the subject matter. The historians should keep
foremost in their minds the fact that the first law of history is that no one
should dare to utter falsehood and hesitate to state the truth"
---- Letter of Leo XIII of 18th August 1883 to the Cardinals: De Luca, Pitra
Hergeuraether
UNQUOTE
......Introduction to “The Goa Inquisition, being a Quatercentenary
Commemoration Study of the Inquisition in India” by Anant Kakba Priolkar
Cheers,
Santosh
