Portugese Inquisition in India

[arkas]

What have the "Portugese" failed to achieve in India that the british did? This?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_India#Colonial_India

Any list of massacres commited by the "Portugese"?

Sorry for spelling Portuguese wrong in the title haha

Made this thread to start a discussion based on this comment.

I wasn't super familiar with any atrocities committed by the Portuguese but I did a little more research today. It seems the "Goan Inquisition" was the biggest event talked about.


https://youtu.be/6nEseljBZ-c

Also, before reading this, please know that I have nothing against Portuguese people. It's all history to me.

The inquisition in Portuguese India was a campaign targeting all non-Catholic Indians and new converts suspected of practising their old traditions. The persecution affected Hindus, Cochin Jews (ethnic Indian Jews), Muslims and Syriac Christians (ethnic Indian Christians who converted long before the Portugese). One of the key figures leading this campaign was Father Francis Xavier.

There was suppression of languages, they tried to ban people from speaking their native languages and vowed that within three years all Konkani speakers should speak Portuguese, Konkani is a language spoken in Southern India and specifically in Goa, which was the big Portuguese colony at the time.

Allegedly they destroyed about 300 Hindu temples in Bardez, a region within Goa and Christian missionaries tried to mandate that all Hindu temples be closed down.

There were similar issues in other Indian Portuguese colonies, like in Kerala where my mother is from. Allegedly there were some forced conversions to Roman Catholicism, churches altered to be more Roman Catholic, burning of Syriac Christian literature and imprisonment of priests.

My grandpa told me that his family generations ago were already Christians but had converted to Roman Catholicism later on and had to take on Portuguese surnames, not sure if forcefully.

Anyways, most living Indians who come from the regions of former Portuguese colonies do not care about these issues anymore and those who do, well they are mostly elderly stuck in the past. I don't think they even pin the blame on Portuguese, rather they see it as a Church issue.

Here are some Indians in America protesting the issue.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xgcDwakfvg4/Vu8y95yFdAI/AAAAAAAAI00/qQ9zdl2UqZwLmqq58uyPN8a-y42PpgihQ/s1600/goa%2Binquisition%2B%2B%2BIMG_0598-1024x768.jpg

[Cernunnos]

200 Deaths is alot compared to what the British did in the XIX and XX century in India.

[arkas]

200 Deaths is alot compared to what the British did in the XIX and XX century in India.

My point isn't to compare which was worse, the Portugese territory in area and population was much smaller. My goal was to point out that neither empire was particularly ethical, by today's standards.

[Cernunnos]

My point isn't to compare which was worse, the Portugese territory in area and population was much smaller. My goal was to point out that neither empire was particularly ethical, by today's standards.

Portugal dominated much towns and factories along the Indian coast and much if not all Ceylon. After the British domination in India and perhaps (I'm not sure) the French one (and a for a very short period of time), Portuguese India was the most vast European colony in India.

Until the second half of the XVII century many Portuguese colonies in India were besieged, conquered and wanted by the English, Dutch and later the French. Goa had a population of around 60,000 inhabitants in the 1560's, which was a high figure for colonial cities in that century.

[arkas]

Portugal dominated much towns and factories along the Indian coast and much if not all Ceylon. After the British domination in India and perhaps (I'm not sure) the French one (and a for a very short period of time), Portuguese India was the most vast European colony in India.

Until the second half of the XVII century many Portuguese colonies in India were besieged, conquered and wanted by the English, Dutch and later the French. Goa had a population of around 60,000 inhabitants in the 1560's, which was a high figure for colonial cities in that century.

Interesting, actually you probably know more about the history than I do. I think there was also skirmishes with the Arab traders who came to India, the Portuguese were actually sought after as the Arab Muslims actually treated the locals even worse lol

Do they teach you in school about the Portuguese empire, assuming you grew up in Portugal?