Goa Inquisition

The Goa Inquisition (Portuguese: Inquisição de Goa, Portuguese pronunciation: [ĩkizɨˈsɐ̃w dɨ ˈɣoɐ]) was an extension of the Portuguese Inquisition in Portuguese India. Its objective was to enforce Catholic orthodoxy and allegiance to the Apostolic See. The inquisition primarily focused on the New Christians accused of secretly practising their former religions, and Old Christians accused of involvement in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Also among the targets were those suspected of committing sodomy; they were given the second most harsh punishments. The inquisition was established in 1560, briefly stopped from 1774 to 1778, and was reconvened and continued until it was finally abolished in 1812. Crypto-Hinduism practiced by the Goan Catholics was viewed as a challenge to the Church's doctrine. Those accused of such practices were often instructed to confess and realign with Catholic teachings. Imprisonment, torture, death penalties, and intimidating people into exile were used by the Inquisition to enforce Catholic religious control. The Inquisitors also seized and burned books written in Sanskrit, Dutch, English, or Konkani, as they were suspected of containing teachings that deviated from Catholic doctrine or promoted Protestant, Hindu or Muslim doctrine. The Inquisitors aimed to ensure Catholic teachings were absolutely enforced. The aims of the Portuguese Empire in Asia were trading spices, spreading Christianity, and suppressing Islam (due to the Al-Andalus Islamic rule of Iberia which lasted 781 years). The Portuguese were motivated by both missionary fervor and economic incentive. Examples of this include the Madura Mission of Roberto de Nobili, the Jesuit mission to the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar, as well as the subjugation of the Malankara Church to the Latin Church at the Synod of Diamper in 1599. In 1545, Francis Xavier wrote to King John III of Portugal requesting a Goan Inquisition. Between the Inquisition's beginning in 1561 and its temporary abolition in 1774, around 16,000 persons were brought to trial. Portuguese authorities sought to enforce Catholic doctrine in Goa. When the Inquisition ended in 1812, the majority of its records were destroyed by Portuguese officials, making it difficult to determine the exact figures of those prosecuted and the nature of their cases. However, the few records that remain indicate that approximately 57 individuals across the 249 year long inquisition were sentenced to execution for significant religious transgressions, while an additional 64 were symbolically condemned after they had died in custody. These numbers reflect the rarity of such punishments amid efforts to enforce compulsory Catholicism over many decades, partly because people avoided prosecution by fleeing Goa. From the 1590s onwards, the Goan Inquisition was the most intense, as practices like offerings to local deities were perceived as witchcraft. This became the central focus of the Inquisition in the East in the 17th century. In Goa, the Inquisition also prosecuted violators observing Hindu or Muslim rituals or festivals, and persons who interfered with Portuguese attempts to convert local Muslims and Hindus. The laws of the Goa Inquisition sought to strengthen the spread of Catholicism in the region by criminalising practices that conflicted with Catholic teachings. In this context, the Inquisition prohibited conversion to Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, as well as restricted the use of Konkani and Sanskrit, languages associated with Hindu religious practices. These measures were intended to force Catholicism on the local population. Although the Goa Inquisition ended in 1812, discrimination against Hindus under Portuguese rule continued in other forms such as the Xenddi tax implemented from 1705 to 1840, which was similar to the jizya levy.

Background

The Inquisition in Portugal

Ferdinand and Isabella were married in 1469, thereby uniting the Iberian kingdoms of Aragon and Castile into Spain. In 1492, they expelled the Jewish population of Spain, many of whom then moved to Portugal. Within five years, ideas of anti-Judaism and Inquisition were adopted in Portugal. Instead of another expulsion, the King of Portugal ordered the forced conversion of the Jews in 1497, and these were called New Christians or Crypto-Jews. He stipulated that the validity of their conversions would not be investigated for two decades. In 1506 in Lisbon, there was a massacre of several hundred conversos or marranos, as newly converted Jews or New Christians were called, instigated by the preaching of two Spanish Dominicans. Some persecuted Jews fled Portugal for the New World in the Americas. Others went to Asia as traders, settling in India. These ideas and the practice of Inquisition on behalf of the Holy Office of Catholic Church was spread by the missionaries and colonial administrators of Portugal to Portuguese colonies such as Estado da India. One of the most notable New Christians was Garcia de Orta, who emigrated to Goa in 1534. He was posthumously convicted of Judaism. The Goa Inquisition enforced by the Portuguese Christians was not unusual, as similar tribunals operated in South American colonies during the same centuries such as the Lima Inquisition and the Brazil Inquisition under the Lisbon tribunal. Like the Goa Inquisition, these tribunals arrested suspects, interrogated and convicted them, and issued punishments for secretly practising religious beliefs different from Christianity.

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