Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / The Portuguese Inquisition in India: Fear and Fire in Goa
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, we've talked about Portugal's trading forts and its battles across Asia, but there's a shadow that hangs over all of it — the Goa Inquisition. It's this tribunal that ran for over two centuries, from 1560 to 1812, and it shaped how the Portuguese lived, married, prayed, even what they ate. Luna: Inquisition in Goa — I didn't realize it lasted that long. Lucas: And it wasn't just a minor outpost. The Goa Inquisition, or Inquisição de Goa, was one of the three main tribunals of the Portuguese Inquisition, along with Lisbon and Coimbra. But its jurisdiction covered everything from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan. So any Portuguese subject in Asia could be pulled in. Lucas: If today is actually useful to you, the way these stay ad-free is listener support. If you can, buy me a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo — that's what keeps the archives open. Luna: Yeah, that's a small way to keep this going. Lucas: So, to understand why it started, we have to go back to the 1530s. Portugal had just gotten a papal bull to create an Inquisition in Lisbon, but Asia was a different beast. The king, João III, was worried about New Christians — Jews who had been forcibly converted — fleeing to Asia to escape persecution. Luna: So they followed them all the way to India. Lucas: Exactly. In 1560, the first inquisitor general arrived in Goa, and by 1563 we have the first auto-da-fé, the public ceremony where sentences were read. But here's the thing — the Goa Inquisition wasn't primarily about Hindus. It was about policing the Portuguese themselves. Lucas: The casados, the married Portuguese settlers, they were the ones under suspicion. Could be heresy, bigamy, blasphemy, or even 'judaizing' — secretly practicing Jewish customs. The records are full of cases where someone's neighbor testified they saw them light candles on Friday night or avoid pork. Luna: That's terrifying — neighbor against neighbor. Lucas: And it was effective at creating a culture of fear. But the Inquisition also went after people who were, let's say, too close to local culture. A Portuguese man who participated in Hindu festivals, or a woman who used local healing practices, could be accused of superstition or even apostasy. Lucas: One striking case is that of a New Christian named Francisco Rodrigues — he was a merchant in Cochin, and in 1573 he was arrested for allegedly keeping Jewish dietary laws. He spent four years in the Inquisition's prison before being sentenced to wear a sanbenito, a penitential garment, for the rest of his life. Luna: Four years in prison just for that? Lucas: And he was one of the lucky ones. Some were burned at the stake. The historian C.R. Boxer estimated that between 1560 and 1774, over 57 people were executed by the Goa Inquisition. That sounds small compared to Europe, but each execution was a public spectacle designed to remind everyone of the consequences. Lucas: Now, the Inquisition also had a strange side effect. It drove some New Christians deeper into crypto-Judaism, but it also drove many others to integrate fully into Portuguese society. There's a community in Goa today, the Bene Israel, though their origins are debated — some say they were Jews who came to India long before the Portuguese. Luna: So the Inquisition couldn't really stamp it all out. Lucas: No, and it also created a kind of cultural hybridity. The Inquisition tried to ban Hindu practices, but it couldn't stop the blending that was happening. In Goa, you have Catholic churches built on top of Hindu temples, and festivals like the feast of São João that have echoes of monsoon celebrations. Lucas: But we also have to talk about the documents. The Inquisition's records are a goldmine for historians — they give us intimate details of daily life, what people ate, how they prayed, what they feared. They're preserved in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo in Lisbon, and also in the Archivo Portuguez Oriental, compiled by Cunha Rivara in the nineteenth century. Luna: Cunha Rivara — that name came up in an earlier episode. Lucas: Good catch. He was the one who published many of those documents, which is how we know so much about the Inquisition's inner workings. But the Inquisition also had a dark side in terms of censorship. It controlled what books could be imported into Goa, and it even tried to ban the printing press in Goa for a while. Lucas: Imagine living in a place where ideas are controlled by a religious police. That was Goa for centuries. And it wasn't just about religion — it was about control. The Inquisition was a tool for the crown to keep the empire in line, to make sure no one stepped out of the orthodox path. Luna: It sounds like it affected everything. Lucas: It did. But the Inquisition also faced resistance. There were local protests, and some governors tried to limit its power. In the eighteenth century, the Marquis of Pombal, the Portuguese prime minister, grew skeptical of the Inquisition's excesses. He managed to get it weakened, and finally, in 1820, the Portuguese constitution abolished it. Goa's Inquisition had already been suspended in 1812. Lucas: So by the time it ended, it had run for 250 years. And its legacy is complicated. On one hand, it was a brutal institution that destroyed lives. On the other, it left behind an incredible archive that lets us hear the voices of ordinary people — sometimes in their own words, in confessions or accusations. Luna: Are there any records that stand out to you? Lucas: There's a case from 1602 of a woman named Maria de Sousa, a mestiça from a village near Goa. She was accused of 'superstition' because she used herbs to heal a sick child. She admitted to it, but she argued that everyone did that — it was common knowledge. Her sentence was relatively light, but the record gives us a glimpse into how medicine and faith were intertwined. Lucas: And then there's the story of a Hindu convert named João de Cristo, who was arrested for 'apostasy' — he had reverted to his old faith. He tried to argue that he had never truly understood Christianity, but the Inquisition didn't care. He was sentenced to be burned in 1655. Luna: That's horrifying. Lucas: It is. And it shows the harshness of the institution. But we have to be careful not to demonize everyone involved. Some inquisitors were genuinely devout and saw themselves as saving souls. Others were corrupt and used their power for personal gain. The records show a range of behaviors. Lucas: But the Inquisition also had a profound impact on Goa's social fabric. It created a culture of denunciation, where people were encouraged to report on their neighbors. That kind of surveillance doesn't just disappear when the institution is abolished. It lingers in the collective memory. Luna: So how did Goa move past that? Lucas: Slowly. Even after the Inquisition ended, Goa remained a deeply Catholic society. But over time, as India became independent, the city reinvented itself as a global tourist destination. The old Portuguese houses are now boutique hotels, and the churches are unesco listed. But if you walk down the narrow lanes, you can still feel the weight of that history. Lucas: And for us, as historians, the Inquisition is a warning about what happens when the state uses religion to enforce uniformity. It's a chapter of Portuguese history that's often overlooked, but it shaped the empire as much as any battle or trade route. Luna: It's amazing how much of that history is still visible today. Lucas: That's the thing about history — it's never really gone. It's just waiting for us to look closer.