Introduction to Four Part work on European Slaughter of India
India was the envy of the world during ancient times. A highly rated civilisation with two advanced languages, Sanskrit and Tamil becoming roots to many languages of the world including English. Not limited to huge achievements in literature led by the Vedas Sanskrit and the classics in Tamil but also far reaching strides in wide spectrum of architecture, sculpture, music, dance, Painting, health, medicine including surgery, mathematics, metallurgy, handicrafts, etc. The wealth and riches of India were known far and wide and Europeans including Columbus and Vasco da Gama set sail to find and benefit from that glorious civilisation.
On reaching Indian shores, the Europeans were enthralled by an enticing India. They gre jealous of the peaceful Pacifist spirit of the people who traded across the world as a maritime power. As the white skinned started to make huge benefits by trade, their greed erupted volcano size. They wanted the whole wealth not just parts of it. With the only advantage of firearms and explosives which Indians didn’t possess and sheer cunningness , they took the role of mercenary dacoits and attempted to corner the gullible Hindus in all their area of activity. Trade was forced into a one way benefiting Europeans, Hindu cultural achievements were either looted or smashed into oblivion, a race of enlightened people were turned slaves and Hindus became victims of continuous criminality. Worst they worked to deride and degrade a civilisation that was ‘the mother of humanity’ as Will Durant called India.
Were Hindus limited to holocausts by Muslim and British Christian invaders? The Europeans from France, Portugal, Netherlands and Denmark too left their bloody marks on India. European were mainly Christians and despite what Bible claims, their kingdoms and nations practiced brutality analogous to what the Muslims and British Christians did in a larger scale. But in intensity of hate and single mindedness of purpose in converting Hindus, all invaders were a match to each other. If they could not inflict more injuries it wasn’t due to Christian compassion but because they could not sustain themselves due to local and British resistance. Let’s get a chronology:
The British ruled India from 1612 through 1947.
The French from 1668 to 1954.
Portuguese impacted during 1505- 1961 though Casa de India entered in 1434.
The Danish held pockets from 1620 to 1869.
The Dutch held from 1605 to 1825.
I propose to discuss the impact of Portuguese, Dutch, Danes & French on India, in this order. These four nations have escaped notice as Lutyens Distorians hardly discussed them beyond their cuisine. The hard times Hindus faced in their hands were as usual hidden , the exact fatalities erased and rantings on a superior Hindu civilisation as backward, superstious and cowardly continues to get mentioned even now by contemporary by those pot boilers historians and media.
The Portuguese
“Goa is sadly famous for its inquisition, equally contrary to humanity and commerce. The Portughese monks made us believe that the people worshipped the Devil but it was they who worshipped him”- VOLTAIRE
Portughese were the first to arrive in India. On 20th May, 1498, Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut in Malabar Coast. Calicut’s Brahmin Ruler Zamorin gave a letter of concession for trading rights to Gama. But the Portuguese were unable to pay for goods in gold nor pay the custom duties after taking the goods as per the agreement. So some Portuguese were arrested as surety for payment. In retaliation Gama treacherously took away five natives and sixteen fishermen. Camoes in The Lusiads says that Gama’s action was indefensible. Vasco da Gama earned sixty times the cost of his expedition with cargo from India. This was launched the great merciless Loot of India!
Gama was followed by one Pedro Alvares Cabral. This guy established a factory in Calicut for spices. Irked by the immoral ways of the Portguese in the factory, locals enter factory & killed fifty Portuguese. The Portuguese in retaliation attacked the ten Arab ships berthed nearby and killed 600 of the sailors. Cabral bombarded Calicut from his ships and launched a genocide of locals. He left in 1502 and the next year Gama returned with fifteen ships and 800 men. He wanted the ruler to expel all Muslims who were mainly Arabs from Calicut. On refusal by the hindu ruler, the city was again bombed. Proof that Hindus were targeted then as they are today for staying tolerant.
Seeing the lucrative trade benefits which Gama and Cabral brought to Portugal, Emperor Manuel I too joined the fray by sending six armadas to India. In 1505, he ordered the rise of an exclusive navy called the Seventh Portuguese India Armada for dominance over Indian Ocean and over India. The plan included building of forts in Indian Cities of Anjediva and Cannanore. The Armada had 21 ships, 1500 armed men and another 1000 support staff. The commander of the fleet was Francisco de Almeida. Obviously the navy of Portuguese had superior canon technology and took huge loss of lives of locals. Francisco was to became the first Portuguese Viceroy in India later.
Almeida arrived in India on Sept 13, 1505. He immediately begins construction of fort in Anjediva and a Catholic Church, Church of the Lady of our Springs. Then starts fighting with the Muslim King of Bijapur and the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar. Later he finished construction of two more fortresses in Cannanore and Kilwa and assumes the title of Viceroy of the Indies as approved by Portugal King in advance.
Almeida’s Quilon conquest slipped away when the locals enraged by his repeated attempts to attack ships of Muslim traders. So Portuguese were initially confined to Cochin and Cannanore. Then they occupied the Mangalore coast as well as some parts of Gujarat. Instead of trading, Portuguese opted for piracy. Portuguese mastered piracy trading, looting locals of their spices without paying for it.
In 1509, a new fleet under Marshal Fernao arrived with specific instruction to destroy the Zamorins of Calicut. Looting can be a lot easier without local rulers. The Zamorins Palace was destroyed and the City of Calicut was set on fire. People massacred and as usual no details of local casualties while those of Portuguese were available in archives. The Marshal was killed by Zamorin’s forces while the Governor Alberesque was injured. Late Alberesque managed to turn one Thimmaya as a traitor and managed to defeat the Sultan of Bijapur. Thus Goa became the capital of Portuguese possessions in Asia.
Catholic Portuguese were the most intolerant of Christians. The fact that they choose first to build a church along with their fortress did not evoke suspicion as Hindus have always been naive and gullible. Goa was considered the Rome of the orient. It is here the notorious Portuguese inquisition took place. The high point of Portuguese extremism.
What was Portuguese inquisition?
Inquisition according to dictionary means a practice of intense and prolonged questioning. But for Portuguese inquisition turned it the best of ironies under spiritual garb. Most severe and cruel inquisition, interrogation happened in Goa. The Goan inquisitors were the most brutal and violent of Catholic Church and way ahead of dictators like Mao and Stalin. Inquisition was at least the worst of police brutality we hear.
The Inquisition was made a weapon and established by Roman Catholic Church to stop heresy against Church and Christianity in South Asia. Something akin to censorship and ban on critical material in today’s China. And to spread Christianity by forced conversions. People stood no chance of surviving inquisition by holding on to their cultural traditions. During 16th century through 19th century, Inquisition was used to prosecute Hindus, Muslims, Jews, New Christians by Catholic clergy and its subsidiary, the Portuguese Govt of Goa. New Christians are those converted from Jewish and Islam. Those who had converted to Christianity but continued to practice the religion of their birth too were targeted. Let’s get to the background and history of inquisitors.
The Company of Jesus also known as Society of Jesus with members called Jesuits originated in Spain and entered many nations to practice evangelism. They entered Portugal during a period of moral and political depression. This Company of Jesus anointed themselves as Apostles of Jesus. King Joah III of Portugal asked General Ignatius de Loyola ( a military name for office in Church?) in Rome to send missionaries to India. Promptly Francis Xavier, one of the founders of Society of Jesus was sent to India in 1541. In 1545, General Loyola requested for Inquisition to be installed from Portuguese King. The King under the influence of militant Dominicans thought Inquisitors as greater than Royalty and gave rights to Jesuit inquisitors to alter local laws and even Portughese Viceroys were afraid of inquisitors. But only in 1560.
This notorious inquisition lasted for 252 years till the British unseated them temporarily in in 1812. This Portughese inquisition was total horror. An old Palace of two stories was converted as Palace of Inquisition to facilitate inquisition. Along with a Chapel, it contained 200 secret cells for confinement and torture and Goans called it the Big house or Orlem Goro. Apart from this horror chamber, thousands of Hindus and some of other religions were publicly flogged (in the style of contemporary Islamic fundamentalists), tortured and executed by burning at the stake. Not to mention those who died by forced starvations and racial discrimination against natives even during the sadistic trials. Also included was banishment to Mozambique.
All those who were accused and tortured were accused of one of the following crimes: blashphemies,impiety, sodomy, necromancy and witchcraft. Dellon who was prosecuted for speaking against the Portughese Catholic Church later wrote on the three standard usual methods of torture. By rope, by water and by fire. The torture by rope consisted of tying hands behind back , hanging down and raised by a pulley up and down for hours till his joints broke. By water it meant that the victim will sit on an iron bar and forced to drink water non stop creating committing and asphyxia. By fire meant that the person will be hung over fire, have his soles warmed, the jailers rubbing combustible materials to soles till the legs burnt.
The inquisitors office ironically was known as Holy Office. The job of staff was to find accusations and Portughese and converted Christians yearned for these jobs, Reminds one of plethora of Bible verses: John 8:7; Mathew 7:1-5; Romans 2:1; Luke 6:37, etc. Nobody hurt the cause of Jesus Christ like the Church did. Christians sadly have become enemies to what Christ stood.
Why was this Inquisition launched? It was to convert every non Christian into Christian by most brutal of tortures unheard in human history. Instead of getting into the gory details, I will just say that burning non Christians and torturing nude women as Jesuits dined were high point of this torture.
It also contained laws of discrimination which deprived non Christians of any dignity or freedom to life. Fasten your seat belts for a gory vulgar brutal ride by Bible wielding Christians claiming to be apostles of Jesus!
The Catholic inquisitor passed the following laws in Goa:
Hindus were forbidden from holding high offices and only Christians were made eligible.
In Court proceedings, Hindus were unacceptable as witnesses and only Christians can be witnesses.
Hindu priests were forbidden from entering Portughese areas to officiate Hindu weddings.
Hindu clerks in all Village Councils replaced by Christians.
Hindu children whose father had died have to be handed over to Jesuits for conversions.
The parental property of such Hindu children were seized.
Hindus cannot practice religion openly and festivals were banned.
Hindu women who converted to Christianity were eligible for parents property.
Hindus forbidden from attending village assemblies,if Catholics were majority.
Christians banned from employing Hindus.
Hindus ordered to assemble at Church regularly & listen to sermons.
Hindu books banned and they were burned down.
Anyone who owned a picture of Hindu God was deemed criminal.
Hindus were banned from constructing new temples and repairing old ones.
Idol owning Hindus were arrested, properties seized & half of seizure went to Church.
Those with hindu scriptures, arrested.
In 1684, Portughese language was made compulsory and native Konkani suppressed.
A Temple demolition squad was formed. A 1569 Royal Letter recorded that all temples have been demolished or burnt down.
Exact details of deaths during Inquisition for over 250 years were lost when Portughese burned down the records. But Alfred Demersay, French commissioner in Portugal after reading the Lisbon archives in 1862 wrote that the Inquisition had 40,000 law suits. The Law suits of Goa were worst for their incredible tyranny.
Alexandre Herculano wrote in his, ‘Fragment about the Inquisition’, thus: “ The terrors inflicted on pregnant women made them abort. Neither the beauty or decorousness of youth, nor the old age worthy of compassion in a woman, exempted the weaker sex from the brutal ferocity of the supposed defenders of the religion”. He continues which may be upsetting to civilised souls. “There were day when seven or eight were subjected to torture. These scenes of torture were reserved for inquisitors after dinner. It was a post prandial entertainment. Many a times during those acts the inquisitors compared notes of beauty in human form. While the unlucky damsel twisted in the intolerable pains of torture, or fainted in the intensity of the agony, one inquisitor applauded the angelic touches of her face, the other the voluptuous contours of her breasts , another shape of her hands. In this conjecture men of blood transformed into real artistes”.
Portuguese brought down places of worship of Hindus and Buddhists in hundreds. This notoriety makes singularly different from other European invaders of India. Wherever they went Portughese targeted the places of worship with single mind of converting them to Christianity. The loots never came into limelight. Except the fact that the famous Kapaleswarar temple on the sea shore of Chennai was looted by Portughese around 1516 before destroying it completely. Later as was their practice they built on the exact spot the present San Thomas Church in 1522. The neighbouring Luz Church was built around 1516. All this points to a clever cover up not just of genocides in South India but also to the loots that Portughese executed.
Lessons
The greedy Portughese refused to leave India even after independence and after being forced out, refused to recognise the sovereignty of India till 1974. Today 30% of the Goan population is Christian though some practice hindu culture.
Some of us would have studied in Colleges named after the Loyola and Xavier who were responsible for the Inquisition that saw criminality unleashed on Hindus. Are you still proud of your institution for what these self proclaimed apostles did to your country?
To believe all is normal in erstwhile Portughese occupied Indian territories would be totally gullible. Hindus have paid heavy cost for staying gullible and trusting in the fairness of the white skin. Recently a Jesuit Victor Ferrao mischievously claimed that there were no Hindus in Goa when Portughese Christians arrived. He quotes commie historian Romila Thapar for support. But disregards the archives in Lisbon that speak differently.
The threat to Indian pluralism continues till today. Some People belonging to foreign religions still nurse contempt for Hindus and it will take Himalayan efforts to regroup , retrace and retain the Hindu culture in the onslaught of clever enemies.
Will be continued..
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