: 1. Direct and threats of physical violence to natives human and life-stock, and property. 2. Destroying native institutions religious (temples), civic (local governing institutions) and economic (dams and bridges). 3. Imposing taxes and other regulatory burdens during sale or inheritance of property or when undertaking other cultural practices. 4. Other obvious and subtle discriminatory regulations on movement, occupations, lifestyle, language, etc.. Techniques used to displace native population Governments displace native poluation by While it may not be official sanctioned policy, it is very likely that bands of drunken soldiers and seamen took to plunder, murder, rape and wanton destruction of life stock and property. The colonists lived above he law.
So while the Portuguese priests and nuns sailed the dangerous oceans for six months to come to Goa to convert the natives, the colonial military and civilian government's top priority (beyond defense of colony) was to displace the natives to create more "living space" for themselves. This was one the major clashes between the religious hierarchy and the colonial govt. The other major irritants between the two was the total lack of discipline and corruption of the colonialists and lack of enforcing authority of the colonial govt. The goal of many in the colonial civilian and military authority was to maximize their wealth through legal or corrupt means (including pocketing the salary of soldiers) in their 3-year of tour of duty in Asia. See complaints in several of the letters Francis Xavier wrote to the King of Portugal. For non-religious evidence of the type of social life of Goa can be gleamed from the Royal Hospital records; which reported the most common cause of death among the Portuguese in 16th, 17th century Goa was Syphilis and other STDs (in the pre-penecillin era). Despite the lucrative trade and opportunity to quick riches (specially for officers), service in the colonies was not a prized aspiration of Portuguese or Spanish. Books recount that to get "volunteers", the king's officers would spread to small towns and villages. They would stop at the local tavernas (bars) and check on those who owed bar money. The debt would be repaid by the govt if the individual volunteered to go overseas. So too many convicts were offered the option of serving overseas instead of going to jail. A good example is Camoes, (Portugal's distinguished poet), who escaped jail time in Portugal; but still landed in jail in the colonies for continued criminal behavior. Nuns and priests coming to Goa had different motivations. Francis Xavier arriving in 1542 seeing that there were not many "souls to be converted" in Goa spent most of his three years in India outside Goa. It has been reported that totally the Goencho Saib only spent intermittently 6-9 months in Goa, of his 10 years in Asia as Nuncio of the Pope. Likely SFX felt that if he wanted to merely serve / minister to the Portuguese and other Europeans, he would have stayed in Europe. The often quoted report of the roaming bands of soldiers destroying the 300+ temples in Salcete and 200+ temples in Bardez is questionable. Most authorities that I have questioned do not believe there were that many temples in the landmass and Hindu population base that existed at that time. These districts even today, with a much larger Hindu population, do not have that many temples. The explanation provided are: 1. Certainly colonial authorities destroyed temples in Goa. 2. Above figures of temple destroyed was an exaggeration by the local military commander, further inflated by authorities in Old Goa in reporting the accounts to Lisbon. 3. The numbers likely included road-side religious shrines and other landmarks; and religious structures that may be in residential front-yards. As most Goans are aware, the single biggest cause of structural damage to buildings in Goa is the weather. Examples are all over the state, but the best proof exists in Tiswadi at Old Goa. Nearly three quarters of the Portuguese structures (churches, monasteries, colleges, govt buildings, monuments) are destroyed and some with minimal remains because of lack of up-keep, toll of the monsoon and the advancing forests devouring roofs, timber, bricks and mortar. However, while displaced off their ancestral land, Hindus continued their links through maintaining their language, oral history, marriages, gotra (extended family) ties and devotion with the ancestral family temple deity; specially at the time of marriage and death rituals. Final - Love and Peace Regards, GL
