Goa Inquisition does not find mention in any book of history and has been silently forgotten under a motivated effort to paint the humane face of otherwise brutal missionaries in late medieval Goa.

The Inquisition was a judicial system introduced in India by Portuguese invaders. The sole objective was to promote Catholic Church at the cost of Hindu belief through an organized and brutal manner in their control of territory from 1560 to 1812. The Goa Inquisition ensured religious conversion, persecution of local Hindu and confiscation of Hindu`s Property in an outrageous manner.

The infamous Goa inquisition law made the reconversion back to Hindu and even practice of language Konkani as crime punishable under religious law. Just imagine the diabolical face of those missionaries who enacted such a bloody act.  

There is a historical proof of a letter dated 25th January 1545 written by a Jesuit Missionary Francis Xavier from Malacca to Portugal King John III where as he himself sought legal sanction for introducing this brutal inquisition law.  It was a fake move to declare otherwise an illegal conversion into a legal religious conversion in Christian belief.

The records and stories of brutality and lineage of all the converts were maintained for long with the Church. The Christian title and surname were awarded and their Hindu ancestry details were recorded and documented for quite long. However a conscious effort was made in 1812 to destroy all inquisition related records. Yet the Sin could not be erased. Like all other pogrom in Africa and Latin America by church, here too The Vatican never acknowledged or apologized for the brutality and violence unleashed by church in Goa Inquisition till date.

A small illustration of heart wrenching Missionary`s brutality which were displayed in Goa were like, Burning individuals in fire, cutting limbs, defacing nose and ear, removing breast of women and piercing eye.  Such despicable acts were made legal through the order of the Church under religious decree.

Even before the Goa Inquisition was enacted by the Church in Portuguese colonies, the local Catholic Church in 1541 enacted laws to destroy Hindu temples, seize temple wealth and transfer them to catholic missionaries.

Catholic Church was so suspicious and fanatic in Goa those days, that even New convert who were then called as new Christians were executed to death in mass through an order dated in 1539, if they were suspected to be practicing their old belief in private which was categorized as religious crime then.

Another order dated March 8, 1546 issued by King Joao III for its Portuguese colony had forbidden Hinduism, allowed local authority to destroy Hindu temples, asked to prohibit the public celebration of Hindu feasts and worst to expel Hindu priests from all religious as well as social activity.

It all culminated into severest of punishment for any one holding Hindu religious symbol or image or idol in the Portuguese colony those days. Not even Muslim escaped the Portuguese religious persecution in those days. A special religious tax was imposed before 1550 on Muslim mosques and non-compliance was brutally executed.

All these laws were later on combined and a special Goa inquisition was enacted in 1560 to institutionalize the religious conversion into catholic fold and Aleixo Díaz Falcão was appointed as the first inquisitor by the church. Tribunals were established, Judges were appointed and Henry Lea another catholic priest was selected as the cruelest face of Hindu persecution in Goa.

Historians shielded the misdeeds of these three crooks of inhumanity Francis Xavier, Aleixo Díaz Falcão, Henry Lea from the documented history of the world by rewriting words of piety, benevolence and social service.

It is no surprise that fake postcolonial Indian historians overlooked this treacherous and abhorrent practices of colonial persecution.

The inquisitor’s first act had restricted any open practice of the Hindu belief and rituals. List of beliefs were published and punishments to followers were announced. The Goa Inquisition act was supposedly the most inhumane law passed by Catholic Church for spreading the Christian faith anywhere in the world.

Here are some demonstrations of law that preached hate against Hindu and were enacted in the most violent and brutal manner on hapless innocent Hindu believers.

·         Hindus cannot occupy any public office, all appointments were reserved only for catholic Christians. Hence all Hindu clerks and appointments of the village were replaced with Christian’s believers.

·         Hindus cannot engage in professional pursuit where Christian devotional objects or symbols were manufactured, traded, sold or purchased.

·         A Hindu orphan child was seized by the Society of Jesus and converted to Christianity.  The 1559 royal order from Portugal facilitated this power to the church. Such orphanages were seized even if the mother was alive for religious conversion purposes.

·         Hindu women if they converted to Christian faith were awarded the right to inherit all the parental property. No division of property was allowed among their Hindu Sibling.

·         In Goan Village, with even the smallest proportion of Christian population, Hindu were summarily forbidden from participation of Village administration and decision making welfare groups. Only Christians could have participated and taken decisions.

·         In all legal proceedings, Hindus were inadmissible to become witnesses for all legal evidence. Only Christian witnesses were allowed as legal evidence. Thus all legality of legal decisions were appropriated by Christians and church.

·         Hindu temples were summarily demolished in Portuguese Goa. No repair, maintenance, reconstruction were permitted for Hindu Temple. In this process all Goan temples of pre 16th century were desecrated and demolished. And these acts of bigotry finds no mention in the historical books.

·         The Social engagement of Hindu priests in performing rituals and marriage and other social events were forbidden. And only the church was allowed to perform all the social events.

These hateful acts continued with the sole objective of spreading Christian faith at the cost of destroying Hindu belief. The missionary never apologized for their barbaric act done in the name of religion and till date the cruelty of missionary is concealed behind the deceitful veil of charity and benevolence.

Records display volume of evidence. One record mentions a French physician Charles Dellon, who mentioned if any Hindu who tried to follow his religious belief in most recluse private homes, were mercilessly treated.  An iota of suspicion even about these crypto Hindu, led to execution by the church. Such people were generally starved to death or burnt alive in public places.

The missionary and their penchant for religious conversion is no new and in the event of any territorial dominance they have proved to be fanatic barbaric and blood thirsty for religious conversion.

It is ironic that Indian history and Intellectual misled the masses and concealed these inhumane acts of church.

Today’s ream of papers with narrative of charity piety and benevolence has been manufactured to conceal and dissuade the masses from knowing the real character of these Goa Inquisition. No one now knows the sin and blood of the innocent which is stuck to Francis Xavier the architect of the infamous Goa Inquisition. What a Shame!!!

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