View source for Goa Inquisition

{{short description|Portuguese Inquisition in colonial-era Portuguese India}}
{{about|the historical inquisition|the 1961 book about this inquisition|The Goa Inquisition}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2013}}
{{Infobox legislature
| name             = Portuguese Inquisition in Goa
| native_name      = <small>{{Lang|pt|Inquisição de Goa}}</small>
| transcription_name = Goa Inquisition
| coa_pic          =  Banner of the Inquisition in Goa.jpg
| coa_res          = 220px
| coa_caption      = Seal of the Portuguese Inquisition in Goa
| house_type       = Part of the [[Portuguese Inquisition]]
| established      = 1561
| disbanded        = 1812
| meeting_place    = [[Portuguese India]]
}}

The '''Goa Inquisition''' ({{langx|pt|Inquisição de Goa}}, {{IPA|pt|ĩkizɨˈsɐ̃w dɨ ˈɣoɐ}}) was an extension of the [[Portuguese Inquisition]] in [[Portuguese India]]. Its objective was to enforce [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[orthodoxy]] and allegiance to the [[Apostolic See]] of the [[Pontifex]].

The inquisition primarily focused on the [[New Christian]]s accused of secretly practicing their former religions, and [[Old Christians]] accused of involvement in the [[Protestant Revolution of the 16th century]].<ref name="Elbl2012p12">{{cite book|author=Glenn Ames|editor=Ivana Elbl|title=Portugal and its Empire, 1250-1800 (Collected Essays in Memory of Glenn J. Ames).: Portuguese Studies Review, Vol. 17, No. 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hld-AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|year=2012|publisher=Trent University Press|pages=12–15 with footnotes, context: 11–32|access-date=11 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801082722/https://books.google.com/books?id=hld-AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|url-status=live}}</ref> Also among the targets were those suspected of committing [[sodomy]]; they were given the second most harsh punishments.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Opinions/11-sept-2010/39952 | title=11 Sept, 2010 | date=10 September 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thegoan.net/sunday-mag/pride-prejudice-forgotten-lgbt-people-of-early-modern-goa/73670.html | title=Pride & Prejudice: Forgotten LGBT people of early modern Goa }}</ref>

The inquisition was established in 1560, briefly stopped from 1774 to 1778, and was re-instated and continued until it was finally abolished in 1812.<ref>{{cite book|author=Lauren Benton|title=Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rZtjR9JnwYwC&pg=PA121|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-00926-3|pages=114–126|access-date=11 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801082726/https://books.google.com/books?id=rZtjR9JnwYwC&pg=PA121|url-status=live}}</ref> The Portuguese used forced conversion to spread Catholicism. The resulting [[crypto-Hinduism]] was viewed as a challenge to the Church's absolute religious control. 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.<ref name="Salomon, H. P 2001 pp. 345-7" /><ref name="Wojciehowski2011p215">{{cite book|author=Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski|title=Group Identity in the Renaissance World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XRY6rgYan00C&pg=PA215|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-00360-6|pages=215–216 with footnotes 98–100|access-date=11 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801082731/https://books.google.com/books?id=XRY6rgYan00C&pg=PA215|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Gustav Henningsen|author2=Marisa Rey-Henningsen|title=Inquisition and Interdisciplinary History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_AXXAAAAMAAJ|year=1979|publisher=Dansk folkemindesamling|page=125|access-date=11 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801082727/https://books.google.com/books?id=_AXXAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="couto148">{{cite book |author=Maria Aurora Couto |title=Goa: A Daughter's Story |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BMdU2Kj9RHcC&pg=PT148 |year=2005 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-93-5118-095-1 |pages=109–121, 128–131 |access-date=12 September 2017 |archive-date=1 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801082728/https://books.google.com/books?id=BMdU2Kj9RHcC&pg=PT148 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Augustine Kanjamala|title=The Future of Christian Mission in India: Toward a New Paradigm for the Third Millennium|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NweQBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA165|year=2014|publisher=Wipf and Stock|isbn=978-1-62032-315-1|pages=165–166|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801083718/https://books.google.com/books?id=NweQBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA165|url-status=live}}</ref> The Inquisitors also seized and burned books written in [[Sanskrit]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[English language|English]], or [[Konkani language|Konkani]], as they were suspected of containing teachings that deviated from Catholic doctrine or promoted [[Reformation|Protestant]], [[Polytheism|Polytheistic]] and/or [[Paganism|Pagan]] ideas. The Inquisitors aimed to ensure Catholic teachings were absolutely enforced.<ref>{{cite book|author=Haig A. Bosmajian|title=Burning Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UkAXPuObVBUC&pg=PA28|year=2006|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-2208-1|page=28|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801083720/https://books.google.com/books?id=UkAXPuObVBUC&pg=PA28|url-status=live}}</ref>

The aims of the [[Portuguese Empire]] in Asia were trading spices, spreading Christianity, and suppressing Islam (due to the [[Al-Andalus#History|Al-Andalus Islamic rule of Iberia]] which lasted 781 years).<ref>{{cite book|title=Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor|volume=1|page=17|first1=Keat Gin|last1=Ooi|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1576077702|year=2004}}</ref> The Portuguese were guided by missionary fervor and the 3 Gs of [[God, gold and glory]]. Examples of this include the Madura Mission of [[Roberto de Nobili]], the Jesuit mission to the court of the Mughal emperor [[Akbar the Great|Akbar]] as well as the subjection of the [[Nestorian Christianity|Nestorian Church]] to the [[Catholic Church|Roman Church]] at the [[Synod of Diamper]] in 1599.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Politics-and-the-economy#ref485980|title=India - Politics and the economy &#124; Britannica|access-date=28 October 2021|archive-date=28 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028202055/https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Politics-and-the-economy#ref485980|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1545, [[Francis Xavier]] wrote to King [[John III of Portugal]] requesting a Goan Inquisition.{{sfn|Neill|2004|p=160|ps=: "By another route I have written to your highness of the great need there is in India for preachers... The second necessity which obtains in India, if those who live there are to be good Christians, is that your highness should institute the holy Inquisition; for there are many who live according to the law of Moses or the law of Muhammad without any fear of God or shame before men".}}{{sfn|Rao|1963|p=43}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=How did St. Francis Xavier shape Catholicism? {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/story/how-did-st-francis-xavier-shape-catholicism |access-date=12 July 2022 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |quote= However, his actions in India were not without controversy, as he was involved with the establishment of the Goa Inquisition, which punished converts accused of continuing to practice Hinduism or other religions.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/student/Goa-Inquisition/2015/09/03/article2979630.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118130358/http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/student/Goa-Inquisition/2015/09/03/article2979630.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 November 2015|title=Goa Inquisition|website=The New Indian Express|access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Wojciehowski2011p215" /><ref name="Salomon, H. P 2001 pp. 345-7">Salomon, H. P. and Sassoon, I. S. D., in Saraiva, Antonio Jose. ''The Marrano Factory. The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians, 1536–1765'' (Brill, 2001), pp. 345–7.</ref> 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.<ref name="Saraiva 1975 p. 107">ANTÓNIO JOSÉ SARAIVA (1985), Salomon, H. P. and Sassoon, I. S. D. (Translators, 2001), ''The Marrano Factory. The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians, 1536–1765'' (Brill Academic), pp. 107, 345-351</ref><ref name="parker292">{{cite book|author1=Charles H. Parker|author2=Gretchen Starr-LeBeau|title=Judging Faith, Punishing Sin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVxEDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA292|year=2017|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-14024-0|pages=292–293|access-date=11 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801083723/https://books.google.com/books?id=dVxEDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA292|url-status=live}}</ref>

It is estimated that by the end of the 17th century, the [[Christianisation of Goa]] meant that there were less than 20,000 people who were non-Christians out of the total Goan population of 250,000.<ref name="IndianExpress">{{Cite web|date=3 September 2015|title=Goa Inquisition|url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2015/sep/03/goa-inquisition-809153.html|access-date=28 October 2021|publisher=New Indian Express|archive-date=28 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028212428/https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2015/sep/03/goa-inquisition-809153.html|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Article ignores contemporary accounts of voluntary individual conversions and also mass conversions of entire castes (eg Kshatriyas of Carambolim) from 1510 onwards, appears to be an Opinion piece|date=October 2021}} 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.<ref name="daSilva">{{Cite book|title=O Santo Ofício no Índico: perseguições, processos e a Inquisição de Goa (1561-1623) (PDF)|url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=pt-BR&user=4tpguhYAAAAJ&citation_for_view=4tpguhYAAAAJ:2osOgNQ5qMEC|year=2017|last=Silva|first=Luiza Tonon da|publisher=Anais eletrônicos da Jornada de Estudos Históricos Professor Manoel Salgado PPGHIS/UFRJ|volume=03|pages=252–256|access-date=11 November 2021|archive-date=11 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111181724/https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=pt-BR&user=4tpguhYAAAAJ&citation_for_view=4tpguhYAAAAJ:2osOgNQ5qMEC|url-status=live}}</ref>

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 polytheists.<ref name="Salomon, H. P 2001 pp. 345-7" /> 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 language|Konkani]] and [[Sanskrit]], languages associated with Hindu religious practices. These measures were intended to force Catholicism on the local population.<ref name=couto148/> Although the Goa Inquisition ended in 1812, discrimination against polytheists under Portuguese rule continued in other forms such as the [[Xenddi]] tax implemented from 1705 to 1840, which was similar to the [[Jizya]] tax.<ref name="Souza1994p93">{{cite book|author=Teotonio R. De Souza|title=Discoveries, Missionary Expansion, and Asian Cultures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtf1eRE8FC8C|year=1994|publisher=Concept|isbn=978-81-7022-497-6|pages=93–95|access-date=12 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801083757/https://books.google.com/books?id=vtf1eRE8FC8C|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Souza1994p112">{{cite book|author=Teotonio R. De Souza|title=Goa to Me|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wy9qBd8u0M0C&pg=PA112 |year=1994| publisher=Concept |isbn=978-81-7022-504-1|pages=112–113}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Rene J. Barendse|title=Arabian Seas, 1700 – 1763 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WyBZ7wVBdtoC&pg=PA697| year=2009|publisher =BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-04-17658-4|pages=697–698}}</ref> Religious discrimination ended with the introduction of [[secularism]], via the [[Portuguese Constitution of 1838]] & the subsequent [[Portuguese Civil Code of Goa and Damaon]].<ref>{{cite journal
|author=C K Mathew
|title=Uniform Civil Code: The Importance of an Inclusive and Voluntary Approach
|journal=Issue Brief
|volume=10
|url=https://www.thehinducentre.com/publications/issue-brief/article29796731.ece#seven77
|date=26 October 2019
|publisher=The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy
|access-date=9 November 2021
|archive-date=9 November 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109171112/https://www.thehinducentre.com/publications/issue-brief/article29796731.ece#seven77
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

==Background==
[[File:D423- ruines du palais de l’inquisition à goa - liv3-ch13.png|thumb|Illustration of the ruins of the headquarters of the Goa Inquisition, from ''L'Homme et La Terre'' by [[Élisée Reclus]] (1905)]]

===The Inquisition in Portugal===
{{Main| Portuguese Inquisition}}
[[Ferdinand and Isabella]] were married in 1469, thereby uniting the Iberian kingdoms of [[Crown of Aragon|Aragon]] and [[Crown of Castile|Castile]] into [[Spain]].<ref name="Campbell">''A Traveller's History of Portugal,'' by Ian Robertson (p. 69), Gloucestshire: Windrush Press, in association with London: Cassell & Co., 2002</ref><ref name="Pentateuch">[https://web.archive.org/web/20101124121412/http://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/country/portugal/portugal.htm "Jewish Heritage: Portugal"], Jewish Heritage in Europe</ref> In 1492, they expelled the Jewish population of Spain, many of whom then moved to Portugal.<ref name=chuchiak315/> Within five years, ideas of anti-Judaism and Inquisition were adopted in Portugal.<ref name="Campbell"/><ref name="Pentateuch"/> 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.<ref name=chuchiak315/> He stipulated that the validity of their conversions would not be investigated for two decades.<ref name="Daus_81_82"/> In 1506 in Lisbon, there was a [[Lisbon massacre|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.<ref name="Daus_81_82"/><ref name="Elbl2012p12"/> Others went to Asia as traders, settling in India.<ref name="Daus_81_82"/>

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''.<ref name="Elbl2012p12"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Ana Cannas da Cunha|title=A inquisição no estado da Índia: origens (1539-1560)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3BG2AAAACAAJ|year=1995|publisher=Arquivos Nacionais/Torre do Tombo|isbn=978-972-8107-14-7|pages=1–16, 251–258}}</ref> One of the most notable New Christians was [[Garcia de Orta]], who emigrated to Goa in 1534. He was posthumously convicted of [[Judaism]].<ref name="Daus_81_82">{{cite book|last=Daus|first=Ronald|title=Die Erfindung des Kolonialismus|publisher=Peter Hammer Verlag|year=1983|location=Wuppertal/Germany|pages=81–82|isbn=3-87294-202-6|language=de}}</ref> The Goa Inquisition enforced by the Portuguese Christians was not unusual, as similar tribunals operated in [[South America]]n colonies during the same centuries such as the [[Peruvian Inquisition|Lima Inquisition]] and the [[History of the Jews in Brazil#First Jewish arrivals|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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ana E. Schaposchnik|title=The Lima Inquisition: The Plight of Crypto-Jews in Seventeenth-Century Peru|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=GfF4CgAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=University of Wisconsin Pres|isbn=978-0-299-30614-4|pages=3–21}}</ref><ref name=chuchiak315>{{cite book|author=John F. Chuchiak|title=The Inquisition in New Spain, 1536–1820: A Documentary History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UqNOxF8nqVMC&pg=PT315| year=2012| publisher= Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=978-1-4214-0449-3|pages=315–317}}</ref>

===Portuguese arrival and conquest===
[[Goa]] was founded and built by ancient Hindu kingdoms and had served as a capital of the [[Kadamba dynasty]]. In late 13th-century, a Muslim invasion led to the plunder of Goa by [[Malik Kafur]] on behalf of [[Alauddin Khilji]] and an Islamic occupation.<ref name=ray127/> In the 14th century, [[Vijayanagara Empire|Vijayanagara]] Hindu rulers conquered and occupied it.<ref name=ray127>{{cite book|author=Aniruddha Ray|title=Towns and Cities of Medieval India: A Brief Survey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4TslDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA127|year=2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-351-99731-7|pages=127–129|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801084230/https://books.google.com/books?id=4TslDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA127|url-status=live}}</ref> It became a part of [[Bahmani Sultanate]] in the 15th century, thereafter was under the rule of [[Yusuf Adil Shah|Sultan Adil Shah of Bijapur]] when [[Vasco da Gama]] reached [[Kozhikode|Kozhekode]] (Calicut), India in 1498.<ref name=ray127/>

After da Gama's return, Portugal sent an armed fleet to conquer and create a colony in India. In 1510, the Portuguese Admiral [[Afonso de Albuquerque]] (c. 1453-1515) launched a series of campaigns to take Goa, wherein the Portuguese ultimately prevailed.<ref name=ray127/> The Christian Portuguese were assisted by the Hindu [[Vijayanagara Empire]]'s regional agent [[Timoji|Timmayya]] in their attempt to capture Goa from the Muslim ruler Adil Shah.<ref>{{cite book|chapter= Chapter 10. Portuguese Impact upon Goa: Lusotopic, Lusophilic, Lusophonic?| author= Teotónio de Souza|editor1= J. Philip Havik|editor2= Malyn Newitt|title= Creole Societies in the Portuguese Colonial Empire|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nwQDswEACAAJ|year= 2015|publisher= Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn= 978-1-4438-8027-5| pages=204–207 }}</ref> Goa became the centre of Portuguese colonial possessions in India and activities in other parts of [[Asia]]. It also served as the key and lucrative trading centre between the Portuguese and the Hindu [[Vijayanagara Empire]] and Muslim [[Bijapur Sultanate]] to its east. Wars continued between the Bijapur Sultanate and the Portuguese forces for decades.<ref name=ray127/>

===Introduction of the Inquisition to India===

After da Gama returned to Portugal from his maiden voyage to India, [[Pope Nicholas V]] issued the [[Papal bull]] ''[[Romanus Pontifex]]''. This granted a ''[[padroado]]'' from the [[Holy See]], giving Portugal the responsibility, monopoly right and [[patronage]] for the propagation of the Catholic Christian faith in newly discovered areas, along with exclusive rights to trade in Asia on behalf of the Catholic Empire.<ref>Daus (1983), "Die Erfindung", p. 33 {{in lang|de}}</ref><ref name="Flannery2013p11">{{cite book|author=John M. Flannery|title=The Mission of the Portuguese Augustinians to Persia and Beyond (1602-1747)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz5TO9BNFH8C|year=2013|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-04-24382-8|pages=11–15 with footnotes|access-date=16 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801084237/https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz5TO9BNFH8C|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title= The Oxford Encyclopaedia of South Asian Christianity|author= Roger E. Hedlund, Jesudas M. Athyal, Joshua Kalapati, and Jessica Richard| publisher=Oxford University Press|chapter= Padroado| isbn= 9780198073857| year=2011}}</ref> From 1515 onwards, Goa served as the centre of [[missionary]] efforts under Portugal's royal patronage (Padroado) to expand Catholic Christianity in Asia.<ref name="Flannery2013p11"/>{{refn|group=note|The institution of ''Padroado'' dates to the 11th-century.<ref name=flannery9>{{cite book|author=John M. Flannery|title=The Mission of the Portuguese Augustinians to Persia and Beyond (1602-1747)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz5TO9BNFH8C|year=2013|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-04-24382-8|pages=9–10 with footnotes|access-date=16 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801084237/https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz5TO9BNFH8C|url-status=live}}</ref> Similarly, Portuguese king's involvement in setting up, financing and militarily supporting Catholic missionaries pre-dated Portuguese Goa by centuries.<ref name=flannery9/> A number of Vatican bulls were issued to formalize this process before and after Portuguese Goa was established. For example, for the conquest of Ceuta where missionaries sailed with the Portuguese armada, the ''Inter Caetera'' bull of 1456, and the much later dated ''Praeclara Charissimi'' bull that bestowed upon the Portuguese king the responsibilities of "Grand Master of the military orders of Christ", and others.<ref>{{cite book|author=John M. Flannery|title=The Mission of the Portuguese Augustinians to Persia and Beyond (1602-1747)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz5TO9BNFH8C|year=2013|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-04-24382-8|pages=10–12 with footnotes|access-date=16 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801084237/https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz5TO9BNFH8C|url-status=live}}</ref>}} Similar ''padroados'' were also issued by the Vatican in the favour of [[Spain]] and Portugal in [[South America]] in the 16th century. The ''padroado'' mandated the building of churches and support for Catholic missions and [[evangelism]] activities in the new lands, and brought these under the religious jurisdiction of the Vatican. The [[Jesuits]] were the most active of the religious orders in Europe that participated under the ''padroado'' mandate in the 16th and 17th centuries.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Donald Frederick Lach|author2=Edwin J. Van Kley|title=Asia in the Making of Europe|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qBZg0OhbiXMC |year=1998| publisher= University of Chicago Press |isbn= 978-0-226-46767-2| pages= 130–167, 890–891 with footnotes}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|Early texts use the term "the Roman fathers" for Jesuits. The first Jesuits arrived in Goa in 1540.<ref name="Alden1996p25">{{cite book|author=Dauril Alden|title=The Making of an Enterprise: The Society of Jesus in Portugal, Its Empire, and Beyond, 1540-1750|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7nVIBhrRb9AC|year=1996|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-2271-1|pages=25–27}}</ref>}}

The establishment of the Portuguese on the Western coast of India was of particular interest to the [[New Christian]]s population of Portugal who were suffering harshly under the [[Portuguese Inquisition]]. The crypto-Jewish targets of the Inquisition in Portugal began flocking to Goa, and their community reached considerable proportions. India was attractive for Jews who had been forcibly baptized in Portugal for a variety of reasons. One reason was that India was home to ancient, well-established Jewish communities. Jews who had been forcibly converted could approach these communities, and re-join their former faith if they chose to do so, without having to fear for their lives as these areas were beyond the scope of the Inquisition.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6008|title=Jews & New Christians in Portuguese Asia 1500-1700 Webcast {{!}} Library of Congress|date=2013-06-05|website=loc.gov|others=Subrahmanyam, Sanjay|access-date=2018-08-26|archive-date=6 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706052813/http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6008|url-status=live}}</ref> Another reason was the opportunity to engage in trade ([[spice]]s, diamonds, etc) from which New Christians in Portugal had been restricted at the onset of the Portuguese Inquisition. In his book, ''The Marrano Factory,'' Professor [[Antonio Saraiva]] of the [[University of Lisbon]] details the strength of the New Christians on the economic front by quoting a 1613 document written by [[Lawyer|attorney]], Martin de Zellorigo. Zellorigo writes regarding "the Men of the Nation" (a term used for Jewish New Christians): "For in all of Portugal there is not a single merchant (''hombre de negocios'') who is not of this Nation. These people have their correspondents in all lands and domains of the king our lord. Those of [[Lisbon]] send kinsmen to the [[East Indies]] to establish trading-posts where they receive the exports from Portugal, which they barter for merchandise in demand back home. They have outposts in the Indian port cities of Goa and [[Cochin]] and in the interior. In Lisbon and in India nobody can handle the trade in merchandise except persons of this Nation. Without them, His Majesty will no longer be able to make a go of his Indian possessions, and will lose the 600,000 [[ducats]] a year in duties which finance the whole enterprise – from equipping the ships to paying the seamen and soldiers"<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ebooks.rahnuma.org/religion/Christianity/The_Inquisition_Collection5/3-%20Saraiva%20-%20The%20Marrano%20Factory%3B%20The%20Portuguese%20Inquisition%20and%20Its%20New%20Christians,%201536-1765%20(2001).pdf |title=The Marrano Factory |last=Saraiva |first=Antonio |website=ebooks.rahnuma.org |access-date=26 August 2018 |archive-date=22 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822050057/http://ebooks.rahnuma.org/religion/Christianity/The_Inquisition_Collection5/3-%20Saraiva%20-%20The%20Marrano%20Factory%3B%20The%20Portuguese%20Inquisition%20and%20Its%20New%20Christians,%201536-1765%20(2001).pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The Portuguese reaction to the New Christians in India came in the form of bitter letters of complaint and polemics that were written, and sent to Portugal by secular and ecclesiastical authorities; these complaints were about trade practices, and the abandonment of Catholicism.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X-yF4wPWF5EC&q=%22new+christians%22+goa&pg=PA249|title=Contra Iudaeos: Ancient and Medieval Polemics Between Christians and Jews|last1=Hayoun|first1=Maurice R.|last2=Limor|first2=Ora|last3=Stroumsa|first3=Guy G.|last4=Stroumsa|first4=Gedaliahu A. G.|date=1996|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|isbn=9783161464829|language=en|access-date=25 July 2021|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801084241/https://books.google.com/books?id=X-yF4wPWF5EC&q=%22new+christians%22+goa&pg=PA249|url-status=live}}</ref> In particular, the first archbishop of Goa [[Gaspar Jorge de Leão Pereira|Dom Gaspar de Leao Pereira]], was extremely critical of the New Christian presence, and was highly influential in petitioning for the establishment of the Inquisition in Goa.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Portugal also sent missionaries to Goa, and its colonial government supported the Christian mission with incentives for baptizing [[Hindu]]s and Muslims into Christians.<ref name="Daus 1983 pp. 61-66">Daus (1983), "Die Erfindung", pp. 61-66{{in lang|de}}</ref> A [[diocese]] was established in Goa in 1534.<ref name="Flannery2013p11" /> In 1542, [[Martim Afonso de Sousa]] was appointed the new Governor of Portuguese India. He arrived in Goa with the [[Society of Jesus]] co-founder [[Francis Xavier]].<ref name="ray127" /> By 1548, the Portuguese colonists had completed fourteen churches in the colony.<ref>{{cite book|author=Aniruddha Ray|title=Towns and Cities of Medieval India: A Brief Survey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4TslDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA127|year=2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-351-99731-7|pages=130–132|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801084230/https://books.google.com/books?id=4TslDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA127|url-status=live}}</ref>

The surviving records of missionaries from 16th to 17th century, states [[Délio de Mendonça]], extensively stereotypes and criticizes the gentiles, a term that broadly referred to Hindus.<ref name="delio2002p382">{{cite book|author=Délio de Mendonça|title=Conversions and Citizenry: Goa Under Portugal, 1510-1610|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mh3kKf0VSfQC|year=2002|publisher=Concept|isbn=978-81-7022-960-5|pages=382–385|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801085244/https://books.google.com/books?id=Mh3kKf0VSfQC|url-status=live}}</ref> To European missionaries, the Gentiles of India that were not outright hostile were superstitious, weak and greedy.<ref name="delio2002p382"/> One missionary claimed that Indians converted to Christianity for material benefits such as jobs or clothing gifts; freedom in the case of slaves kept by the Hindus and Muslims; and marriage to Christian women in the case of unmarried non-Christian men. After [[baptism]], these new converts continued to practice their old religion in secret in the manner similar to Crypto-Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity in Portugal earlier. Jesuit missionaries considered this a threat to the purity of Catholic Christian belief and pressed for Inquisition in order to punish the Crypto-Hindus, Crypto-Muslims and Crypto-Jews, thereby ending the [[heresy]].<ref name="delio2002p382"/>

The Goa Inquisition adapted the directives issued between 1545 and 1563 by the [[Council of Trent]] to Goa and other Indian colonies of Portugal. This included attacking Hindu customs, active preaching to increase the number of Christian converts, fighting enemies of Catholic Christians, uprooting behaviours that were deemed to be heresies and maintaining the purity of Catholic faith.<ref name=delio321>{{cite book|author=Délio de Mendonça|title=Conversions and Citizenry: Goa Under Portugal, 1510-1610|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mh3kKf0VSfQC|year=2002|publisher=Concept|isbn=978-81-7022-960-5|pages=29, 111–112, 309–310, 321–323|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801085244/https://books.google.com/books?id=Mh3kKf0VSfQC|url-status=live}}</ref> The Portuguese accepted the [[caste system]] thereby attracting the elites of the local society, states Mendonça, because Europeans of the sixteenth century had their estate system and held that social divisions and hereditary royalty were divinely established. It was the festivals, syncretic religious practices and other traditional customs that were identified as heresy, relapses and shortcomings of the natives needing a preventative and punitive Inquisition.<ref name=delio321/>

===Controversy regarding Saint Francis Xavier's involvement ===

Saint Francis Xavier led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly the [[Portuguese Empire in the East]], and was influential in [[evangelisation]] work, most notably in [[early modern India]]. He was extensively involved in the missionary activity in [[Portuguese India]]. In 1546, Francis Xavier proposed the establishment of the Goan Inquisition in a letter addressed to the Portuguese King, [[John III of Portugal|John III]] where he wrote

''"By another route I have written to your highness of the great need there is in India for preachers... The second necessity which obtains in India, if those who live there are to be good Christians, is that your highness should institute the holy Inquisition; for there are many who live according to the law of Moses or the law of Muhammad without any fear of God or shame before men"''{{sfn|Neill|2004|p=160|ps=: "By another route I have written to your highness of the great need there is in India for preachers... The second necessity which obtains in India, if those who live there are to be good Christians, is that your highness should institute the holy Inquisition; for there are many who live according to the law of Moses or the law of Muhammad without any fear of God or shame before men".}}{{sfn|Rao|1963|p=43}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=How did St. Francis Xavier shape Catholicism? {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/story/how-did-st-francis-xavier-shape-catholicism |access-date=12 July 2022 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |quote=However, his actions in India were not without controversy, as he was involved with the establishment of the Goa Inquisition, which punished converts accused of continuing to practice Hinduism or other religions. |archive-date=12 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220712172320/https://www.britannica.com/story/how-did-st-francis-xavier-shape-catholicism |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/student/Goa-Inquisition/2015/09/03/article2979630.ece|title=Goa Inquisition|website=The New Indian Express|access-date=26 June 2017|archive-date=24 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924045521/http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/student/Goa-Inquisition/2015/09/03/article2979630.ece|url-status=dead}}</ref>

He furthermore advocated for greater action by the Portuguese governor for the propagation of [[Christianity in Goa]] going as far as threatening the official with severe punishment in case of failure

''"Let the king warn the governor that] "should he fail to take active steps for the great increase of our faith, you are determined to punish him, and inform him with a solemn oath that, on his return to Portugal, all his property will be forfeited for the benefit of the Santa Misericordia, and beyond this tell him that you will keep him in irons for a number of years... There is no better way of ensuring that all in India become Christians than that your highness should inflict severe punishment on a governor"''{{sfn|Coleridge|1872|p=268}}{{sfn|Neill|2004|pp=160–161|ps=: [Let the king warn the governor that] "should he fail to take active steps for the great increase of our faith, you are determined to punish him, and inform him with a solemn oath that, on his return to Portugal, all his property will be forfeited for the benefit of the Santa Misericordia, and beyond this tell him that you will keep him in irons for a number of years... There is no better way of ensuring that all in India become Christians than that your highness should inflict severe punishment on a governor".}}

The inquisition was declared two decades after he left Goa, and the main laws were implemented in 1567, about 25 years after his departure. Around 15 years passed since his death and transfer of relics back to [[Old Goa]].<ref>Maria Aurora Couto (2005). Goa: A Daughter's Story. Penguin Books. pp. 109–121, 128–131. ISBN 978-93-5118-095-1.</ref>

The letter cited was one written to King [[John III of Portugal]], dated 20 January 1545 (3 years after leaving Goa) from [[Malacca]] in the Malay archipelago, in response to the scandalous lifestyle of the Portuguese sailors who had made the port city home, where he criticizes [[John III of Portugal|John III]] himself (something very rare at that time) about his officials who only care about collecting taxes and not about maintaining discipline amongst his subjects, and hence asks that a separate official with powers be sent to aid the old bishop to protect the new converts from ill-treatment from the undisciplined Portuguese commandants.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gbJSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA265|title = The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier|last1 = Coleridge|first1 = Henry James|year = 1872}}</ref>

==Launch of the Inquisition in India==
Even before the Inquisition was launched, the local government in Goa tried persons for religious crimes and punished those convicted, as well as targeted [[Judaizing]]. A Portuguese order to destroy Hindu temples along with the seizure of Hindu temple properties and their transfer to the Catholic missionaries is dated 30 June 1541.<ref name="Green2009p152">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Aq0_WB5IXYkC&pg=PA152|title=Inquisition: The Reign of Fear|author=Toby Green|publisher=Pan Macmillan|year=2009|isbn=978-0-330-50720-2|pages=152–154}}</ref> Prior to authorizing of the Inquisition office in Goa in 1560, [[King John III of Portugal]] issued an order, on 8 March 1546, to forbid [[Hinduism]], destroy Hindu temples, prohibit the public celebration of Hindu feasts, expel Hindu priests and severely punish those who created any Hindu images in Portuguese possessions in India.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eG8xUFivagkC&pg=PA348|title=The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536-1765|author=António José Saraiva|publisher=BRILL Academic|year=2001|isbn=90-04-12080-7|pages=348}}</ref>

A special religious tax was imposed before 1550 on Muslim [[mosque]]s within Portuguese territory.{{citation needed|date=November 2021|reason=Mosques were demolished in Goa following the 1510 conquest}} Records suggest that a New Christian was executed by the Portuguese in 1539 for the religious crime of "heretical utterances". A Jewish ''[[converso]]'' or Christian convert named Jeronimo Dias was [[garrote|garrotte]]d and burnt at the stake in Goa by the Portuguese, for the religious heresy of Judaizing in 1543 before the Goa Inquisition tribunal was formed.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ngqrCwAAQBAJ&q=jeronimo+Dias+converso+goa&pg=PA25|title=Medicine, Trade and Empire: Garcia de Orta's Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India (1563) in Context|last=Costa|first=Palmira Fontes da|date=2016-03-03|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317098171|language=en|access-date=25 July 2021|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801085251/https://books.google.com/books?id=ngqrCwAAQBAJ&q=jeronimo+Dias+converso+goa&pg=PA25|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

===The beginning of the Inquisition===
Cardinal [[Henrique of Portugal]] sent [[Aleixo Díaz Falcão]] as the first inquisitor and established the first tribunal.<ref name=lea2003>{{cite web|url=http://libro.uca.edu/lea3/8lea1.htm|title=A History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 3|author=Henry Charles Lea|publisher=The Library of Iberian Resources Online|access-date=1 November 2012|archive-date=7 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307002225/http://libro.uca.edu/lea3/8lea1.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The Goa Inquisition office was housed in the former palace of Sultan [[Adil Shahi|Adil Shah]].<ref name="Gazetteer"/>

Various orders issued by the Goa Inquisition included:
*All [[qadis]] were ordered out of Portuguese territory in 1567<ref name="benton123">{{cite book|author=Lauren Benton|title=Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rZtjR9JnwYwC&pg=PA121|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-00926-3|pages=120–123|access-date=11 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801082726/https://books.google.com/books?id=rZtjR9JnwYwC&pg=PA121|url-status=live}}</ref>
*Non-Christians were forbidden from occupying any public office, and only a Christian could hold such an office;<ref name=souza2829>{{cite book | title=The Portuguese in Goa, in Acompanhando a Lusofonia em Goa: Preocupações e experiências pessoais | year=2016 | author=Teotonio R. De Souza | url=http://recil.grupolusofona.pt/jspui/bitstream/10437/509/1/PortuGoa.pdf | pages=28–29 | publisher=Lisbon: Grupo Lusofona | access-date=15 September 2017 | archive-date=5 May 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505060958/http://recil.grupolusofona.pt/jspui/bitstream/10437/509/1/PortuGoa.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=benton123/>
*Hindus were forbidden from producing any Christian devotional objects or symbols;<ref name=souza2829/>
*Hindu children whose father had died were required to be handed over to the Jesuits for conversion to Christianity;<ref name=souza2829/> 
*Hindu women who converted to Christianity could inherit all of the property of their parents;<ref name=souza2829/>
*Hindu clerks in all village councils were replaced with Christians;<ref name=souza2829/>
*Christian ''ganvkars'' ([[freehold (law)|freeholders]]) could make village decisions without any Hindu ''ganvkars'' present, however Hindu ''ganvkars'' could not make any village decisions unless all Christian ''ganvkars'' were present; in Goan villages with Christian majorities, Hindus were forbidden from attending village assemblies.<ref name=benton123/>
*Christian members were to sign first on any proceedings, Hindus later;<ref name=souza30/>
*In legal proceedings, Hindus were unacceptable as witnesses, only statements from Christian witnesses were admissible.<ref name=benton123/>
*Hindu temples were demolished in Portuguese Goa, and Hindus were forbidden from building new temples or repairing old ones. A temple demolition squad of Jesuits was formed which actively demolished pre-16th century temples, with a 1569 royal letter recording that all Hindu temples in Portuguese colonies in India have been demolished and burnt down (''desfeitos e queimados'');<ref name=souza30/>
*Hindu priests were forbidden from entering Portuguese Goa to officiate Hindu weddings.<ref name=souza30/>

[[Sephardic Jew]]s living in Goa, many of whom had fled the [[Iberian Peninsula]] to escape the excesses of the [[Spanish Inquisition]], were also persecuted in case they, or their ancestors, had fraudulently converted to Christianity.<ref name="Gazetteer"/> The narrative of Da Fonseca describes the violence and brutality of the inquisition. The records speak of the demand for hundreds of prison cells to accommodate the accused.<ref name="Gazetteer"/>

From 1560 to 1774, a total of 16,172 persons were tried by the tribunals of the Inquisition.<ref>{{cite news|title=Goa was birthplace of Indo-Western garments: Wendell Rodricks|url=http://www.deccanherald.com/content/222426/goa-birthplace-indo-western-garments.html|access-date=31 October 2012|newspaper=Deccan Herald|date=27 January 2012|location=New Delhi, India|archive-date=3 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120403173235/http://www.deccanherald.com/content/222426/goa-birthplace-indo-western-garments.html|url-status=live}}</ref> While it also included individuals of different nationalities, the overwhelming majority, nearly three-quarters, were natives, almost equally represented by Catholics and non-Christians. Many of these were hauled up for crossing the border and cultivating lands there.<ref name="Pinto">''History of Christians in Coastal Karnataka, 1500–1763 A.D.'', Pius Fidelis Pinto, Samanvaya, 1999, p. 134</ref>

According to Benton, between 1561 and 1623, the Goa Inquisition brought 3,800 cases. This was a large number given that the total population of Goa was about 60,000 in the 1580s with an estimated Hindu population then about a third or 20,000.<ref name=benton123/>

Seventy-one ''[[Auto-da-fé|autos de fé]]'' ("act of faith") were recorded, the grand spectacle of public penance often followed by convicted individuals being variously punished up to and including [[burning at the stake]]. In the first few years alone, over 4000 people were arrested.<ref name="Gazetteer">Hunter, William W, ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India,'' Trubner & Co, 1886</ref> According to Machado, in its two-and-a-half centuries of existence in Goa, the Inquisition burnt 57 people to death at the stake and 64 in effigy, of whom 105 were men and 16 were women.<ref name="Tiswadi"/> The sentence of "burning in effigy" was applied to those convicted ''in absentia'' or who had died in prison; in the latter case, their remains were burned in a coffin at the same time as the effigy, which was hung up for public display.<ref name="Saraiva 1975 p. 107"/> Others sentenced to various punishments totalled 4,046, of whom 3,034 were men and 1,012 were women.<ref name="Tiswadi"/> According to the ''Chronista de Tissuary'' (Chronicles of [[Tiswadi]]), the last ''auto de fé'' was held in Goa on 7 February 1773.<ref name="Tiswadi">''Sarasvati's Children: A History of the Mangalorean Christians'', Alan Machado Prabhu, I.J.A. Publications, 1999, p. 121</ref>

==Implementation and consequences==
[[File:The procession of the Inquisition in Goa entering th Wellcome V0041645.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|The [[Auto-da-fé]] procession of the Inquisition at Goa.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Bethencourt | first=Francisco | title=The Auto da Fe: Ritual and Imagery | journal=Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes | publisher=The Warburg Institute | volume=55 | year=1992 | doi=10.2307/751421 | pages=155–168| jstor=751421 | s2cid=192167324 }}</ref> An annual event to publicly humiliate and punish the heretics, it shows the Chief Inquisitor, Dominican friars, Portuguese soldiers, as well as religious criminals condemned to be burnt in the procession.]]
An appeal to start the Inquisition in the Indian colonies of Portugal was sent by Vicar General [[Miguel Vaz]].<ref>{{cite book|author= Teotonio R. De Souza|title= Discoveries, Missionary Expansion, and Asian Cultures|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vtf1eRE8FC8C|year= 1994|publisher= Concept Publishing|isbn= 978-81-7022-497-6|pages= 79–82|access-date= 12 September 2017|archive-date= 1 August 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230801083757/https://books.google.com/books?id=vtf1eRE8FC8C|url-status= live}}</ref> According to Indo-Portuguese historian [[Teotonio R. de Souza]], the original requests targeted the "Moors" (Muslims), New Christian, Jews and those Hindus involved in propagating 'Gentility' and heresy, and it made Goa a centre of persecution operated by the Portuguese.<ref>{{cite book|author=Teotonio R. De Souza|title=Discoveries, Missionary Expansion, and Asian Cultures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtf1eRE8FC8C|year=1994|publisher=Concept|isbn=978-81-7022-497-6|pages=79–82|access-date=12 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801083757/https://books.google.com/books?id=vtf1eRE8FC8C|url-status=live}}</ref>

The colonial administration under demands of the Jesuits and Church Provincial Council of Goa in 1567 enacted [[anti-Hindu]] laws to end what the Catholics considered to be heretical conduct and to encourage conversions to Christianity. Laws were passed banning Christians from keeping Hindus in their employ, and the public worship of Hindus was deemed unlawful.<ref name="Sakshena">Sakshena, R.N, ''Goa: Into the Mainstream'' (Abhinav Publications, 2003), p. 24</ref><ref name=souza30>{{cite book |title=The Portuguese in Goa, in Acompanhando a Lusofonia em Goa: Preocupações e experiências pessoais |year=2016 |author=Teotonio R. De Souza |url=http://recil.grupolusofona.pt/jspui/bitstream/10437/509/1/PortuGoa.pdf |pages=28–30 |publisher=Lisbon: Grupo Lusofona |access-date=15 September 2017 |archive-date=5 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505060958/http://recil.grupolusofona.pt/jspui/bitstream/10437/509/1/PortuGoa.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Hindus were forced to assemble periodically in churches to listen to the Christian doctrine or to the criticism of their religion.<ref name=souza30/><ref>M. D. David (ed.), ''Western Colonialism in Asia and Christianity,'' Bombay, 1988, p.17</ref> Hindu books in [[Sanskrit]] and [[Marathi language|Marathi]] were burnt by the Goan Inquisition.<ref>{{cite book|author=Haig A. Bosmajian|title=Burning Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UkAXPuObVBUC&pg=PA28|year=2006|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-2208-1|pages=28–29|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801083720/https://books.google.com/books?id=UkAXPuObVBUC&pg=PA28|url-status=live}}</ref> It also forbade Hindu priests from entering Goa to officiate Hindu weddings.<ref name=souza30/> Violations resulted in various forms of punishment to non-Catholics such as fines, public flogging, banishment to [[Mozambique]], imprisonment, execution, burning at stakes or burning in effigy under the orders of the Christian Portuguese prosecutors at the ''[[auto-da-fé]]''.<ref name=couto148/><ref>{{cite book|author=António José Saraiva|title=The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536-1765|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eG8xUFivagkC|year=2001|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-12080-7|pages=352–354}}</ref><ref name="Priolkar">Priolkar, Anant Kakba; Dellon, Gabriel; Buchanan, Claudius; (1961), ''The Goa Inquisition: being a quatercentenary commemoration study of the Inquisition in India'', Bombay University Press, pp. 114-149</ref>

The inquisition forced Hindus to flee Goa in large numbers<ref name="benton123"/> and later the migration of its Christians and Muslims, from Goa to the surrounding regions that were not in the control of the Jesuits and Portuguese India.<ref name=souza30/><ref>Shirodhkar, P. P., ''Socio-Cultural life in Goa during the 16th century'', p. 123</ref> The Hindus responded to the destruction of their temples by recovering the images from the ruins of their older temples and using them to build new temples just outside the borders of the Portuguese controlled territories. In some cases where the Portuguese built churches on the spot the destroyed temples were, Hindus started annual processions that carry their gods and goddesses linking their newer temples to the site where the churches stand, after Portuguese colonial era ended.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Walker|first=Timothy D.|date=2021|title=Contesting Sacred Space in the Estado da India: Asserting Cultural Dominance over Religious Sites in Goa|url=http://journals.openedition.org/lerhistoria/8618|journal=Ler História|issue=78|pages=111–134|doi=10.4000/lerhistoria.8618|s2cid=237880974|issn=0870-6182|doi-access=free|access-date=26 August 2021|archive-date=26 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826141433/https://journals.openedition.org/lerhistoria/8618|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1= Robert M. Hayden |author2= Aykan Erdemir |author3= Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir |author4= Timothy D. Walker|display-authors=etal |title= Antagonistic Tolerance: Competitive Sharing of Religious Sites and Spaces |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3a3OCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA144 |year= 2016 |publisher= Routledge |isbn= 978-1-317-28192-4 |pages= 142–145}}</ref>

===Persecution of Hindus===
Hindus could be arrested for attempting to dissuade countrymen for converting to Christianity, abetting Goan Christians from fleeing Goa, or hiding abandoned/Orphaned children who had not been reported to the authorities.<ref name="Saraiva2001p351">{{cite book|author=António José Saraiva|title=The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536-1765|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eG8xUFivagkC|year=2001|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-12080-7|pages=351–352}}</ref> The Catholic descendants of Hindus were more likely to be prosecuted, although this could be due to their having been a higher proportion of the population. About 74% of those sentenced were charged with Crypto-Hinduism (practicing Hinduism privately despite being Christian officially), while Crypto-Muslims (practicing Islam privately despite being Christian officially) made-up about 1.5% sentenced, 1.5% were tried for obstructing the operations of the Holy Office of the Inquisition.<ref name="Saraiva2001p352">{{cite book|author=António José Saraiva|title=The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536-1765|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eG8xUFivagkC|year=2001|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-12080-7|pages=352–357}}</ref> Most records of the nearly 250 years of Inquisition trials were burnt by the Portuguese after the Inquisition had been banned. Those that have survived, such as those between 1782 and 1800, state that people continued to be tried and punished.<ref name="Saraiva2001p352"/> A larger proportion of those arrested, tried and sentenced during the Goa Inquisition, according to António José Saraiva, came from the lowest social strata.<ref name="Saraiva2001p352"/> The trial records suggest that the victims were not exclusively [[Hindu]]s, but included members of other religions found in India as well as some Europeans.<ref name="Saraiva2001p352"/>

{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Victims of Goa Inquisition<br>(1782-1800 trials){{refn|group=note|The per cent data includes those charged with Crypto-Hinduism and where the caste is identified. For about 50% of the victims, this data is unavailable.<ref name="Saraiva2001p352"/>}}
!Social group
!Per cent<ref name="Saraiva2001p352"/>
|-
| Non Brahmins
| 18.5%
|-
| Curumbins<br>(Tribal-untouchables)<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Serrão|first1=José Vicente|last2=Motta|first2=Márcia|last3=Miranda|first3=Susana Münch|editor3-first=Susana Münch|editor3-last=Miranda|editor2-first=Márcia|editor2-last=Motta|editor1-first=José Vicente|editor1-last=Serrão|volume=4|year=2016|title=Dicionário da Terra e do Território no Império Português|doi=10.15847/cehc.edittip.2013ss|url=https://edittip.net/2016/04/03/curumbim/|publisher=Lisbon: CEHC-IUL|series=E-Dicionário da Terra e do Território no Império Português|doi-access=free|access-date=17 September 2017|archive-date=17 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170917123408/https://edittip.net/2016/04/03/curumbim/|url-status=live}}</ref>
| 17.5%
|-
| Chardos<br>(warriors)<ref>{{cite book|author=Rene Barendse|title=Arabian Seas 1700 – 1763 (4 vols.)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fCywCQAAQBAJ|year=2009|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-474-3002-5|pages=1406–1407|access-date=17 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801085753/https://books.google.com/books?id=fCywCQAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>
| 7%
|-
| Brahmins
| 5%
|}

Fr. Diogo da Borba and his advisor Vicar General Miguel Vaz followed the missionary goals to convert the Hindus. In cooperation with the Jesuit and [[Franciscan]] missionaries, the Portuguese administration in Goa and military were deployed to destroy the cultural and institutional roots of Hindus and other Indian religions. For example, Viceroy and Captain General [[António de Noronha]] and, later Captain General [[Constantino de Sa de Noronha]], systematically destroyed Hindu and Buddhist temples in Portuguese possessions and during attempted new conquests on the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Jorge Manuel Flores|title= Re-exploring the Links: History and Constructed Histories Between Portugal and Sri Lanka |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=LspBFqePhpwC |year=2007| publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-05490-4|pages=117–121}}</ref>

Exact data on the nature and number of Hindu temples destroyed by the Christian missionaries and Portuguese government are unavailable.<ref name="Spicer2016p309"/> Some 160 temples were razed to the ground on the Goa island by 1566. Between 1566 and 1567, a campaign by Franciscan missionaries destroyed another 300 [[Hindu temple]]s in [[Bardez]] (North Goa).<ref name="Spicer2016p309"/> In [[Salcete]] (South Goa), approximately another 300 Hindu temples were destroyed by the Christian officials of the Inquisition although having conflicting evidence. Numerous Hindu temples were destroyed elsewhere at [[Assolna]] and [[Cuncolim]] by Portuguese authorities.<ref name="Spicer2016p309">{{cite book|author=Andrew Spicer|title=Parish Churches in the Early Modern World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1CaoDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT310|year=2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-351-91276-1|pages=309–311}}</ref> A 1569 royal letter in Portuguese archives records that all Hindu temples in its colonies in India had been burnt and razed to the ground.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Portuguese in Goa, in Acompanhando a Lusofonia em Goa: Preocupações e experiências pessoais | year=2016 | author=Teotonio R. De Souza | url=http://recil.grupolusofona.pt/jspui/bitstream/10437/509/1/PortuGoa.pdf | pages=28–30 | publisher=Lisbon: Grupo Lusofona | access-date=15 September 2017 | archive-date=5 May 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505060958/http://recil.grupolusofona.pt/jspui/bitstream/10437/509/1/PortuGoa.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref>

According to [[Ulrich Lehner]], "Goa had been a tolerant place in the sixteenth century, but the Goan Inquisition had turned it into a hostile location for Hindus and members of other Asian religions. Temples had been razed, public Hindu rituals forbidden, and conversions to [[Hinduism]] severely punished. The Goa Inquisition prosecuted harshly any cases of public Hindu worship; over three-quarters of its cases pertained to this, and only two percent to [[apostasy]] or [[heresy]]."<ref name="Lehner2016p122">{{cite book|author=Ulrich L. Lehner|title=The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_0gACwAAQBAJ&pg=PA122 |year=2016 |publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn =978-0-19-023291-7|page= 122}}</ref>

New laws promulgated between 1566 and 1576 prohibited Hindus from repairing any damaged temples or constructing new ones.<ref name="Spicer2016p309"/> Ceremonies including public [[Hindu wedding]]s were banned.<ref name="Priolkar"/> Anyone who owned an image of a Hindu god or goddess was deemed a criminal.<ref name="Spicer2016p309"/> Non-Hindus in Goa were encouraged to identify and report anyone who owned images of god or goddess to the Inquisition authorities. Those accused were searched and if any evidence was found, such "idol owning" Hindus were arrested and they lost their property. Half of the seized property went as reward to the accusers, the other half to the church.<ref name="Spicer2016p309"/>

In 1620, an order was passed to prohibit Hindus from performing their marriage rituals.<ref>{{cite news|title=Recall the Goa Inquisition to stop the Church from crying foul|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/mar/16gupta.htm|newspaper=Rediff|date=16 March 1999|location=India|access-date=1 November 2012|archive-date=2 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130102100456/http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/mar/16gupta.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> An order was issued in June 1684 for suppressing the [[Konkani language]] and making it compulsory to speak [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]. The law provided for dealing harshly with anyone using the local languages. Following that law, all non-Catholic cultural symbols and books written in local languages were to be destroyed.<ref name="Goa Inquisition for Colonial Disciplining">{{Cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/28411503/Goa-Inquisition-for-Colonial-Disciplining|title=Goa Inquisition For Colonial Disciplining &#124; PDF &#124; Society Of Jesus &#124; Ishmael|website=Scribd|access-date=9 September 2022|archive-date=9 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220909120027/https://www.scribd.com/document/28411503/Goa-Inquisition-for-Colonial-Disciplining|url-status=live}}</ref> The French physician [[Charles Dellon]] experienced first-hand the cruelty of the Inquisition's agents, and complained about the goals, arbitrariness, torture and racial discrimination against the people of Indian origin, particularly Hindus.<ref name="Dellon"/><ref name="Elbl2012p12"/><ref name="Wojciehowski2011p215"/> He was arrested, served a prison sentence where he witnessed the torture and starvation Hindus were put through, and was released under the pressure of the French government. He returned to France and published a book in 1687 describing his experiences in Goa as ''Relation de l'Inquisition de Goa'' (The Inquisition of Goa).<ref name="Dellon">[https://books.google.com/books?id=twawcm37sUkC&pg=PP1 L'Inquisition de Goa: la relation de Charles Dellon (1687)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404112951/https://books.google.com/books?id=twawcm37sUkC&pg=PP1 |date=4 April 2023 }}, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57889g Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021123014/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57889g |date=21 October 2016 }}</ref>

===Persecution of Buddhists===
The Goa Inquisition led the destruction of [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] sacred objects seized in Portuguese attacks in [[South Asia]]. In 1560, for example, an armada led by Viceroy Constantino de Bragança attacked [[Tamils]] in northeast [[Sri Lanka]].<ref name="Wojciehowski2011p187"/> They seized a reliquary with [[Relic of the tooth of the Buddha|Buddha's tooth]] preserved as sacred and called ''dalada'' by the local Tamils since the 4th century. Diogo do Couto – the late 16th-century Portuguese chronicler in Goa, refers to the relic as "the monkey's tooth" (''dente do Bugio'') as well as "the Buddha's tooth", the "monkey" term being a common racial insult for the collective identity of South Asians.<ref name="Wojciehowski2011p187"/> In most European accounts of that era, Christian authors call it "monkey's or ape's tooth", while some call it "tooth of the demon" or "tooth of the holy man". In a few accounts, such as that of the Portuguese chronicler Faria e Sousa, the tooth is called "a genuine Satanic source of evil that had to be destroyed".<ref>{{cite book|author=Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski|title=Group Identity in the Renaissance World|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XRY6rgYan00C |year= 2011|publisher =Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-00360-6|pages=198–201}}</ref> The news of the tooth's capture by the Portuguese spread rapidly in South Asia, and the King of [[Pegu]] offered a fortune to Portuguese in exchange for it. However, the religious authorities of the Goa Inquisition prevented the acceptance of ransom and held a flamboyant ceremony to publicly destroy the tooth as a means of humiliation and religious cleansing.<ref name="Wojciehowski2011p187">{{cite book|author=Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski|title=Group Identity in the Renaissance World|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XRY6rgYan00C |year= 2011|publisher =Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-00360-6|pages=32–33, 187–193}}</ref>

According to Hannah Wojciehowski, the "monkey" word became a racialised insult in the proceedings, but it may initially have been a product of [[syncretism]] between Hinduism and Buddhism, given the fact that the Buddha tooth relic was preserved and considered sacred by Tamil Hindus in [[Jaffna]], and these Hindus also worshipped [[Hanuman]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski|title=Group Identity in the Renaissance World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XRY6rgYan00C&q=Hanuman|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-00360-6|pages=187–199|access-date=27 May 2022|archive-date=4 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404064837/https://books.google.com/books?id=XRY6rgYan00C&q=Hanuman|url-status=live}}</ref> To the Portuguese inquisition officials and their European supporters, the term projected their stereotypes for the lands and people they had violently conquered as well as their prejudices against Indian religions.<ref name="Wojciehowski2011p187"/>

===Persecution of Jews===
Goa was a sanctuary for Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity on the Iberian peninsula. These forcibly baptized converts were known as [[New Christian]]s. They lived in what then came to be known as the Jew street.<ref name="Tavim2008p28"/> The New Christian population was so substantial that, as Savaira reveals,"in a letter which is dated Almeirim, 18 February 1519, [[King Manuel I]] promoted legislation henceforth prohibiting the naming of New Christians to the position of judge, town councillor or municipal registrar in Goa, stipulating, however, that those already appointed were not to be dismissed. This shows that even during the first nine years of Portuguese rule, Goa had a considerable influx of recently baptized Spanish and Portuguese Jews."<ref name=":0" /> However, after the start of the Goa Inquisition, Viceroy Dom [[Antão de Noronha]], in December 1565, issued an order that banned Jews from entering the Portuguese territories in India with violators liable to the penalties of arrest, seizure of their property and confinement in a prison.<ref name="Tavim2008p28">{{cite book |last=Tavim |first=José Alberto Rodrigues da Silva |contribution=In the Shadow of Empire: Portuguese Jewish Communities in the Sixteenth Century |year=2008 |title=Portuguese Colonial Cities in the Early Modern World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gIlT0Uhaq_oC&pg=PA6 |editor-last=Brockey |editor-first=Liam Matthew |location=Farnham, Surrey |publisher=Ashgate |pages=28–30 |isbn=978-0-7546-6313-3 |access-date=29 January 2023 |archive-date=5 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405015826/https://books.google.com/books?id=gIlT0Uhaq_oC&pg=PA6 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Portuguese built city fortification walls between 1564 and 1568. It ran adjacent to the Jew street, but placed it outside of the fort.<ref name="Tavim2008p28"/>

The Inquisition originally targeted New Christians, that is Jews who had been force-converted to Christianity and who migrated from Portugal to India between 1505 and 1560.<ref name="Elbl2012p12"/> Later it added in Moors, a term that meant Muslims who had previously invaded the Iberian peninsula from [[Morocco]]. In Goa, the Inquisition included Jews, Muslims and later predominantly Hindus.<ref name=benton123/>

A documented case of the persecution of the Jews (New Christians) that began few years before the inauguration of the Goa Inquisition was that of a Goan woman named Caldeira. Her trial contributed to formal launch of Goa Inquisition office.<ref name=Wojciehowski208/>

Caldeira, and 19 other New Christians, were arrested by the Portuguese and brought before the tribunal in 1557. They were charged with [[Judaizing]], visiting [[synagogues]] and eating unleavened bread.<ref name=Wojciehowski208/> She was also accused of celebrating [[Purim]] festival coincident with the Hindu festival of [[Holi]], wherein she was alleged to have burnt dolls symbolic of ''"filho de hamam"'' (son of Haman).<ref name=Wojciehowski208>{{cite book|author=Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski|title=Group Identity in the Renaissance World|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XRY6rgYan00C |year= 2011|publisher =Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-00360-6|pages=208–215}}</ref> Ultimately, all of them were sent from Goa to [[Lisbon]] to be tried by the Portuguese Inquisition. There, she was sentenced to death.<ref name=Wojciehowski208/>

The persecution of Jews extended to Portuguese territorial claims in Cochin. Their Synagogue (the [[Pardesi Synagogue]]) was destroyed by the Portuguese. The Kerala Jews rebuilt the Paradesi synagogue in 1568.<ref>{{cite book|author=Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski|title=Group Identity in the Renaissance World|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XRY6rgYan00C |year= 2011|publisher =Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-00360-6|pages=212–214 with Figure 4.8}}</ref>

===Persecution of Goan Catholics===
The Inquisition considered those Hindus who had converted to Catholicism, but continued to observe their former Hindu customs and cultural practices, as heretics.<ref name="Fuchs"/><ref name="Farias">{{cite book|last=Farias |first=Kranti K. |title=The Christian Impact in South Kanara |publisher=Church History Association of India |location=Mumbai |date=1999 |pages=34–36}}</ref> The Catholic missionaries aimed to eradicate indigenous languages such as [[Konkani language|Konkani]] and cultural practices such as ceremonies, fasts, growing of the [[tulsi plant]] in front of the house, the use of flowers and leaves for ceremony or ornament.<ref name="Mascarenhas">Mascarenhas-Keyes, Stella (1979), ''Goans in London: portrait of a Catholic Asian community'', Goan Association (U.K.)</ref>

There were other far reaching changes that took place during the Portuguese occupation, these changes included the prohibition of traditional musical instruments and the prohibition of the singing of celebratory verses, which were replaced with Western music.<ref>Robinson, Rowina (2003), Christians of India, SAGE,</ref>{{full citation needed|date=September 2017}}

People were renamed when they converted and they were not permitted to use their original Hindu names. Alcohol was introduced and dietary habits changed dramatically so that foods which were once taboo, such as pork which is shunned by Muslims and beef which is shunned by Hindus, became part of the Goan diet.<ref name="Mascarenhas" />

Nevertheless, many [[Goan Catholics]] continued to observe some of their old cultural practices and Hindu customs.<ref name="Fuchs"/> Some of those accused of Crypto-Hinduism were condemned to death. Such circumstances forced many to leave Goa and settle in the neighbouring kingdoms, of which a minority went to the Deccan and the vast majority went to [[Kanara|Canara]].<ref name="Fuchs"/><ref name="Farias" />

Historian Severine Silva states that those who fled the Inquisition preferred to observe a mixture of Hindu customs and Catholic practices.<ref name="Fuchs">[https://web.archive.org/web/20110719234523/http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/publications/afs/pdf/a173.pdf The Marriage Customs of the Christians in South Canara, India] – pp. 4–5, Severine Silva and [[Stephen Fuchs]], 1965, ''Asian Folklore Studies'', [[Nanzan University]] ([[Japan]])</ref>

As the persecution increased, missionaries complained that the [[Brahmins]] continued to perform the Hindu religious rites and Hindus defiantly increased their public religious ceremonies. This defiance by the Hindus, alleged the missionaries, motivated the recently converted Goan Catholics to participate in Hindu ceremonies and relapse into Hinduism.<ref name="Mendonca2002p309">{{cite book|author=Délio de Mendonça|title=Conversions and Citizenry: Goa Under Portugal, 1510-1610|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mh3kKf0VSfQC|year=2002|publisher=Concept Publishing|isbn=978-81-7022-960-5|pages=308–310|access-date=15 September 2017|archive-date=1 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801085244/https://books.google.com/books?id=Mh3kKf0VSfQC|url-status=live}}</ref> In addition, states Délio de Mendonça, there was a hypocritical difference between the preaching and the practices of the Portuguese who were living in Goa. The Portuguese Christians and many clergymen were gambling, spending extravagantly, practicing public [[concubinage]], extorting money from the Indians, and engaging in [[sodomy]] and [[adultery]]. The "bad examples" of Portuguese Catholics were not universal and there were also "good examples" in which some Portuguese Catholics offered medical care to the Goan Catholics who were sick. However, the "good examples" were not strong enough when they were contrasted with the "bad examples", and the Portuguese betrayed their belief in their cultural superiority and their assumptions that "Hindus, Muslims, barbarians and pagans did not possess virtues and goodness", states Mendonça.<ref name="Mendonca2002p309"/> Racial epithets such as ''negros'' and ''cachorros'' (dogs) were commonly used against the natives by the Portuguese.<ref name=Souza207/>

In the later decades of the 250-year period of the Goa Inquisition, the Portuguese Catholic clergy discriminated against the Indian Catholic clergy because its members were the children of previously converted Catholic parents. The Goan Catholics were referred to as "black priests" and they were also stereotyped as being "ill-natured and ill-behaved by their very nature, lascivious, drunkards, etc. and, based on these stereotypes, they were considered most unworthy to receive the charge of the churches" in Goa.<ref name=Souza207/> Friars who did not want to lose their careers and promotions alleged that unlike proper Europeans, those who grew up as native Catholics hated "white skinned" people because they were suffering from the "diabolic vice of pride". These racist accusations were used as grounds to keep the parishes and the institution of the clergy in Goa under the monopoly of the Portuguese Catholics rather than allow native Goan Catholics to rise in their ecclesiastical careers based on their merits.<ref name=Souza207>{{cite book|chapter= Chapter 10. Portuguese Impact upon Goa: Lusotopic, Lusophilic, Lusophonic?| author= Teotónio de Souza|editor1= J. Philip Havik|editor2= Malyn Newitt|title= Creole Societies in the Portuguese Colonial Empire|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nwQDswEACAAJ|year= 2015|publisher= Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn= 978-1-4438-8027-5| pages=206–208 }}</ref>

====Suppression of Konkani====
In stark contrast to the Portuguese priests' earlier intense study of the [[Konkani language]] and its cultivation as a communication medium in their quest for converts during the previous century, under the Inquisition, [[Xenophobia|xenophobic]] measures were adopted to isolate new converts from the non-Catholic populations.<ref name="Machado"/> The use of Konkani was suppressed, while the colony suffered from repeated [[Maratha Empire|Maratha]] attempts to invade Goa in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. These events posed a serious threat to Portugal's control of Goa, and they also posed a serious threat to its maintenance of its trade in India.<ref name="Machado"/> Due to the Maratha threat, Portuguese authorities decided to initiate a positive programme to suppress Konkani in Goa.<ref name="Machado">''Sarasvati's Children: A History of the Mangalorean Christians'', Alan Machado Prabhu, I.J.A. Publications, 1999, pp. 133–134</ref> The use of Portuguese was enforced, and Konkani became a language of marginal peoples.<ref name="Newman">Newman, Robert S. (1999), ''The Struggle for a Goan Identity'', in Dantas, N., The Transformation of Goa, Mapusa: Other India Press, p. 17</ref>

Urged by the [[Franciscans]], the Portuguese viceroy forbade the use of Konkani on 27 June 1684 and he also decreed that within three years, the local people would generally speak the [[Portuguese language|Portuguese tongue]]. They would be required to use it in all of their contacts and they would also be required to use it in all contracts which were made in Portuguese territories. The penalty for violations of this law would be imprisonment. The decree was confirmed by the king on 17 March 1687.<ref name="Machado"/> According to the Inquisitor António Amaral Coutinho's letter to the Portuguese monarch [[John V of Portugal|João V]] in 1731, these draconian measures did not meet with success.{{Ref|b|b|none}}<ref name="Rivara">Priolkar, Anant Kakba; Dellon, Gabriel; Buchanan, Claudius; (1961), ''The Goa Inquisition: being a quatercentenary commemoration study of the inquisition in India'', Bombay University Press, p. 177</ref> With the fall of the Province of the North (which included [[Vasai|Bassein]], [[Chaul]] and [[Salsette]]) to the Marathas in 1739, the Portuguese renewed their assault on Konkani.<ref name="Machado"/> On 21 November 1745, Archbishop Lourenço de Santa Maria decreed that applicants to the priesthood had to have knowledge of and the ability to speak in Portuguese; this applied not only to the pretendentes, but also for their close relations, as confirmed by rigorous examinations by reverend persons.<ref name="Machado"/> Furthermore, the ''[[Roman Catholic Brahmin|Bamonns]]'' and ''[[Roman Catholic Kshatriya|Chardos]]'' were required to learn Portuguese within six months, failing which they would be denied the right to marriage.<ref name="Machado"/> In 1812, the Archbishop decreed that children were to be prohibited from speaking Konkani in schools and in 1847, this ban was extended to seminaries. In 1869, Konkani was completely banned in schools.<ref name="Machado"/>

As a result, Goans did not develop a literature in Konkani, nor could the language unite the population, because several scripts (including Roman, Devanagari and Kannada) were used to write it.<ref name="Newman"/> Konkani became the ''lingua de criados'' (language of the servants),<ref name="Routledge">Routledge, Paul (22 July 2000), "Consuming Goa, Tourist Site as Dispencible space", ''Economic and Political Weekly'', 35, p. 264</ref> while the Hindu and Catholic elites turned to Marathi and Portuguese, respectively. Since India annexed Goa in 1961, Konkani has become the cement that binds all Goans across caste, religion and class; it is affectionately termed ''Konkani Mai'' (Mother Konkani).<ref name="Newman"/> The language received full recognition in 1987, when the Indian government recognised Konkani as the official language of Goa.<ref>[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Goa/Goa-battles-to-preserve-its-identity/articleshow/5935904.cms "Goa battles to preserve its identity"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181030074004/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Goa/Goa-battles-to-preserve-its-identity/articleshow/5935904.cms |date=30 October 2018 }}, ''Times of India'', 16 May 2010</ref>

===Persecution of St Thomas Christians===
[[File:Costumes de Differents Pays, 'Homme Condamne au Feu par l'Inquisition de Goa' LACMA M.83.190.209.jpg|thumb|An 18th century French sketch showing a man condemned to be burnt alive by the Goa Inquisition. The stake is behind him to his left, the punishment is sketched on his shirt. It was inspired by Charles Dellon's persecution.<ref name="DellonAmiel1997">{{cite book|author1=Gabriel Dellon|author2=Charles Amiel|author3=Anne Lima|title=L'Inquisition de Goa: la relation de Charles Dellon (1687)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=twawcm37sUkC|year=1997|publisher=Editions Chandeigne|isbn=978-2-906462-28-1|pages=7–9}}</ref>]]
In 1599 under [[Aleixo de Menezes]], the [[Synod of Diamper]] forcefully converted the [[Assyrian Church of the East|East]] [[Syriac Christianity|Syriac]] [[Saint Thomas Christians]] (also known as Syrian Christians or Nasranis) of [[Kerala]] to the [[Catholic Church]]. He stated that they needed to be converted to Catholicism because they were practicing [[Nestorianism]], a [[christology|Christological]] position which was declared heretical by the [[Council of Ephesus]].<ref name="Benton, Lauren 2002 p. 122">Benton, Lauren. ''Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400–1900'' (Cambridge, 2002), p. 122.</ref> The synod imposed severe restrictions on their practice of their faith and it also imposed severe restrictions on their practice of using Syriac/Aramaic. They were politically disfranchised and their Metropolitanate status was discontinued by the blocking of bishops from the East.<ref name="Benton, Lauren 2002 p. 122"/> The persecution continued to operate on a large scale until it was ended by the [[Coonan Cross]] oath rebellion and the Nasrani rebellion in 1653, the eventual capture of [[Fort Kochi]] by the [[Dutch Malabar|Dutch]] in 1663, and the resulting expulsion of the Portuguese from Malabar. By the time the persecution ended, St Thomas Christians were divided into opposing camps and their historical records were obliterated. Even the common prayer book was not spared by the Portuguese. This resulted in the valuable Historical records of the St Thomas Christians being lost and the beginning of division amongst a once prosperous community.

===Persecution of non-Portuguese catholic Christians===

The Goa Inquisition also persecuted non-Portuguese Christian missionaries and physicians, such as those missionaries and physicians who were from France.<ref name="Benton2002p123"/> In the 16th century, the Portuguese clergy became jealous of a French priest who was operating in Madras (now [[Chennai]]); they lured him to Goa, then they had him arrested and sent to the inquisition. The French priest was saved when the Hindu King of a [[Karnataka]] kingdom interceded on his behalf by laying siege to St. Thome until the priest was released.<ref name="Benton2002p123">{{cite book|author=Lauren Benton|title=Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rZtjR9JnwYwC&pg=PA123|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-00926-3|pages=121–123}}</ref> [[Charles Dellon]], the 18th-century French physician, was another Christian who was arrested and tortured by the Goa Inquisition because he questioned Portuguese missionary practices in India.<ref name="Benton2002p123"/><ref>{{cite book|author1=Lynn Avery Hunt|author2=Margaret C. Jacob|author3=W. W. Mijnhardt|title=The Book that Changed Europe: Picart & Bernard's Religious Ceremonies of the World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LBLz7GN56mgC |year=2010|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-04928-4|pages=207–209}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Gabriel Dellon|author2=Charles Amiel|author3=Anne Lima|title=L'Inquisition de Goa: la relation de Charles Dellon (1687)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=twawcm37sUkC|year=1997|publisher=Editions Chandeigne|isbn=978-2-906462-28-1|pages=21–56}}</ref> For five years, Dellon was imprisoned by the Goa Inquisition and he was not released until France demanded it. Dellon described, states Klaus Klostermaier, the horrors of life and death at the Catholic Palace of the Inquisition that managed the prison and deployed a rich assortment of torture instruments per recommendations of the Church tribunals.<ref>{{cite journal|title = Facing Hindu Critique of Christianity| author= Klaus Klostermaier| year=2009 | journal = Journal of Ecumenical Studies| volume = 44| number= 3|pages=461–466}}</ref>

There were assassination attempts against Archdeacon George {{who|date=April 2023}}, so as to subjugate the entire Church under Rome. The common prayer book was not spared. Books were burnt and any priest who was professing independence was imprisoned. Some altars were pulled down to make way for altars which were conforming to Catholic criteria.<ref name="Benton, Lauren 2002 p. 122"/>

==In Literature==
* ''[[The Goa Inquisition]]'', is a book published by Mumbai University Press and authored by Anant Priolkar. It is a narrative of the Goan Inquisition organised by the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] rulers of Goa.{{cn|date=February 2025}}
* American poet [[Lydia Sigourney]] included the poem [https://archive.org/details/moralpiecesinpro00sigoiala/page/42/mode/2up "The Destruction of the Inquisition in Goa"] in her ''Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse'' of 1815.
* Bengali writer Avik Sarkar wrote a novel, ''Ebong Inquisition'' in 2017, which stands on the backdrop of the massacre of Hindus in Goa.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

==See also==
{{colbegin}}
* ''[[Ad extirpanda]]''
* ''[[Auto-da-fé]]''
* [[Cuncolim Massacre]]
* [[Galileo affair]]
* [[Mortara case]]
* [[Marrano]]
* [[History of Goa]]
* [[History of the Jews in India]]
* [[Christianity in India]]
* [[Christianity in Goa]]
* [[Christianization of Goa]]
{{colend}}

==Notes==
{{refbegin}}
: '''a''' {{note label|a|a|none}} The papal bull ''Licet ab initio'' proclaimed an [[Apostolic constitution]] on 21 July 1542.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/bullarumdiplomat06cath#page/344/mode/2up Bullarum diplomatum et privilegiorum santorum romanorum pontificum], Augustae Taurinorum : Seb. Franco et Henrico Dalmazzo editoribus</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Christopher Ocker|title=Politics and Reformations: Histories and Reformations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ne3yO0iFOhYC&pg=PA91|year=2007|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-04-16172-6|pages=91–93}}</ref>
: '''b''' {{note label|b|b|none}} In his 1731 letter to King João V, the Inquisitor António Amaral Coutinho states:<ref name="Rivara"/>
{{cquote|The first and the principal cause of such a lamentable ruin (perdition of souls) is the disregard of the law of His Majesty, Dom Sebastião of glorious memory, and the Goan Councils, prohibiting the natives to converse in their own vernacular and making obligatory the use of the Portuguese language: this disregard in observing the law, gave rise to so many and so great evils, to the extent of effecting irreparable harm to souls, as well as to the royal revenues. Since i have been though unworthy, the Inquisitor of this State, ruin has set in the villages of [[Nadora|Nadorá]] (sic), [[Revora|Revorá]], [[Pirna, Goa|Pirná]], [[Assonora|Assonorá]] and [[Aldona|Aldoná]] in the [[Bardez|Province of Bardez]]; in the villages of [[Cuncolim]], [[Assolna|Assolná]], [[Dicarpale|Dicarpalli]], [[Consua|Consuá]] and [[Aquem]] in [[Salcette]]; and in the island of [[Velha Goa|Goa]], in [[Bambolim]], [[Curca|Curcá]], and [[Siridão]], and presently in the village of [[Bastora|Bastorá]] in Bardez. In these places, some members of village communities, as also women and children have been arrested and others accused of malpractices; for since they cannot speak any other language but their own vernacular, they are secretly visited by ''[[Bhatt|botos]]'', servants and high priests of ''[[pagoda]]s'' who teach them the tenets of their sects and further persuade them to offer alms to the pagodas and to supply other necessary requisites for the ornament of the same temples, reminding them of the good fortune their ancestors had enjoyed from such observances and the ruin they were subjected to, for having failed to observe these customs; under such persuasion they are moved to offer gifts and sacrifices and perform other diabolical ceremonies, forgetting the law of [[Jesus Christ]] which they had professed in the sacrament of [[baptism|Holy Baptism]]. This would not have happened had they known only the Portuguese language; since they being ignorant of the native tongue the ''botos'', ''grous'' (gurus) and their attendants would not have been able to have any communication with them, for the simple reason that the latter could only converse in the vernacular of the place. Thus an end would have been put to the great loss among native Christians whose faith has not been well grounded, and who easily yield to the teaching of the Hindu priests.}}
{{refend}}
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{Cite book|last=Neill|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Neill|title=A History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to AD 1707|year=2004|orig-year=1984|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521548854|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RH4VPgB__GQC}}
* Richard Zimler. ''Guardian of the Dawn'' (Delta Publishing, 2005).
* Benton, Lauren. ''Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400–1900'' (Cambridge, 2002).
* D'Costa Anthony, S.J. ''The Christianisation of the Goa Islands, 1510-1567'' (Bombay, 1965).
* Hunter, William W. ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' (Trubner & Co, 1886).
* Priolkar, A. K. ''The Goa Inquisition'' (Bombay, 1961).
* Sakshena, R. N. ''Goa: Into the Mainstream'' (Abhinav Publications, 2003).
* Saraiva, Antonio Jose. ''The Marrano Factory. The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians, 1536–1765'' (Brill, 2001).
* Shirodhkar, P. P. ''Socio-Cultural life in Goa during the 16th century''.
* {{cite book |last=Machado |first=Alan |year=1999 |title=Sarasvati's Children: A History of the Mangalorean Christians |location=Bangalore |publisher=I.J.A. Publications |isbn=9788187609032}}
* {{cite book |last=Rao |first=R.P |title=Portuguese Rule in Goa: 1510–1961 |url=https://archive.org/details/portugueserulein0000unse |url-access=registration |publisher=Asia Publishing House |year=1963 }}

==Further reading==
* App, Urs. ''The Birth of Orientalism''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010 (hardcover, {{ISBN|978-0-8122-4261-4}}); contains a 60-page chapter (pp.&nbsp;15–76) on Voltaire as a pioneer of Indomania and his use of fake Indian texts in anti-Christian propaganda.
* Zimler, Richard. ''Guardian of the Dawn'' Constable & Robinson, ({{ISBN|1-84529-091-7}}) An award-winning historical novel set in Goa that explores the devastating effect of the Inquisition on a family of secret Jews.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://archive.org/stream/relationdelinqui00dell#page/n1/mode/2up Relation de l'inquisition de Goa], Gabriel Delon (1688, in French)
* [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A37503.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext The history of the Inquisition, as it is exercised at Goa written in French, by the ingenious Monsieur Dellon, who laboured five years under those severities; with an account of his deliverance; translated into English], Henry Wharton (1689) (Large file, University of Michigan Archives)
* [https://archive.org/stream/accountofinquisi00dell#page/16/mode/2up An account of the Inquisition at Goa, in India] by Gabriel Dellon (Re-translated in 1819)
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/313013 Flight of the Deities: Hindu Resistance in Portuguese Goa] ''Modern Asian Studies'', Vol. 30, No. 2. (May, 1996), pp.&nbsp;387–421
* [http://www.vgweb.org/unethicalconversion/port_rep.htm Repression of Buddhism in Sri Lanka by the Portuguese (1505 – 1658)] by the Australian Centre for Sri Lankan Unity

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