Seeing Goa's Inquisition, quite differently FN
The 'Inquisition' is a word which rattles us all. In the 21st century, it is used by some to remind others about the supposed intolerance of their faith. Believers and the devout often see it as a severe black spot. Those who are not religious might cite it as one reason for losing their faith. Even people from another religion are oft judging Catholicism by what it supposedly did on this front. For some time now, there have been hints coming up to challenge the global understanding of the Spanish Inquisition. But its counterpart in Goa has been unquestioningly seen as something terrible in the history of Goa. A new book by Alan Machado (Prabhu), a Mangalorean based in Bangalore, could just change that all. Alan has been working on this issue for nearly five years now. For those who know his work, including his ambitious history of the Mangaloreans called 'Slaves of Sultan', his latest might still come as some surprise. For one, there's detail with which he has done his work. Secondly, he has cut through years, no decades and centuries, of propaganda, to judge the Inquisition for what it really was. To make this possible, he self-learnt enough Portuguese to understand documents of those times. Above all, he writes not from a defensive, faith-based perspective but rather with the view of someone digging up facts. * * * Some really surprising facts emerge from the work of this engineer with a passion for history. He attempts, he says, to moves away from "selective repetitions of earlier histories compiled largely from secondary sources and peppered by personal biases". In the start itself, he challenges the view that all the Goa Inquisition records have been "destroyed", and points to very specific facts and figures which can today even accessed even online, thanks to Portuguese or Brazilian initiatives on this front. The writes: "The process of identifying globally available archival sources began in the 1970s. Many of them are available online today. Written in Portuguese, their fading lines tell much of the true story of Goa’s Inquisition." He points out that in 250+ years of the Goa Inquisition, a total of almost 19,000 persons' cases were investigated. That means, a little more than 75 in a year. These are investigations, mind you, some of whom got off with mild punishments. Non-Christians consistuted 25% of those investigated, out of whom 88% were cases "conducted between 1685 and 1736, the period of intensifying Maratha conflicts." Machado co-relates the developments between the Inquisition in Goa, and developments in its vicinity, or even in the Portuguese world of Europe. Such an approach could help one understand the whats and the whys of the Inquisition. In all, over the two-and-half centuries, a total of 177 persons were physically executed in some 136 auto-da-fes. One has to compare this figure with the number sent to the gallows today for capital punishment even in our times! Machado also explains how the Black Legend was created over the Goa Inquisition. English and Dutch Protestant writers played their role. The French Dellon's Relation de l’inquisition de Goa, published in 1687, has been widely and repeatedly cited. This was followed by Claudius Buchanan's work, whose bigoted views about all religions and faiths (other than his own) in India scantly gets commented upon. Maybe the politics of a Dellon could have been explained further. Besides, Anant Kakba Priolkar's four-time published book 'The Goan Inquisition: The Terrible Tribunal for the East' is intereastingly analysed. One starts wondering how a single book shaped so intently our understanding of centuries of Goa's past. Another debate, expectedly, goes to Francis Xavier's supposed role in the founding of the Inquisition in Goa. Machado (Prabhu) argues: "Francis Xavier was in the vanguard of the Christianisation of Goa. He becomes, therefore, a logical target for sections of society intent on delegitimising Christianity in Goa. These sections, while blackening further the Black Legend, attempt to place the responsibility for the arrival of the Inquisition in Goa on Xavier. The entire force of this argument is placed on two lines of a letter dated May 16, 1546 written to the king from the Moluccas urging him to establish the Inquisition as there were many who observed the Judaism and Islam in Portugal's overseas fortresses." But this book isn't about the Inquisition alone. Its implications go much further. Machado's study of the 'Voddlem Ghor or Vhoddilachem Ghor', the headquarters of the Inquisition; the kinds of punishments offered and how these compare with others of the times; and the reasons that saw the Inquisition reach certain areas at some points of history, makes for an insightful read. The author's summing up? That the Inquisition did not "inflict wounds indiscriminately. Ever." It acted out of religious and sometime poitical or other causes. It could have not operated for 252 years without active support of "the State, Church, and elite social groups". And each had their own reasons. Despite what the Black Legend portrays, reconciliation was the prime objective of Goa's Inquisition. It attempted to mould diverse and widespread subject populations into one nation. In some ways, the Inquisition might have also been used to fight certain business rivalries. When the Marathas threatened the Portuguese State, the Inquisition was active in vulnerable areas of the Estado -- villages like Assolna, Cuncolim, Jua, Tivim, Moira, Aldona and the Provincia do Norte. Both Christian and 'gentio' (non-Christian) privileged classes "were the Inquisition's active and tacit allies in maintaining social discipline within the Estado". Machado's 'Goa’s Inquisition: facts - fiction - factoids' suggests that "torture and flames" of an auto-da-fe have been "successfully implanted" in our minds by the Black Legend, yet our beliefs do not tally with the actual statistics in the archives. The primary focus of an investigation was to get a person to confess and an abjuration from someone judged guilty. Executions was generally for the limited number of those seen as impenitent, obstinate, dogmatic relapses and "serial sodomites". Inquisition punishments, Machado stresses, need to be compared with those handed out by contemporary civil courts. This makes us ask questions over how we view (and believe) the realities of our past. Or, the stereotypes and myths we so easily believe. The communalisation of some aspects of our History. And how such patently false beliefs can go unchallenged for centuries. This has happened both because of our lack of knowledge on the same, and unwillingness to swim against the tide. Reason enough to try to be better informed. ###