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Religion and Empire in Portuguese India: Conversion, Resistance, and the Making of Goa
How did the colonization of Goa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries take place? How was it related to projects for the conversion of Goan colonial subjects to Catholicism? In Religion and Empire in Portuguese India , Ângela Barreto Xavier examines these questions through a reading of the relevant secular and missionary archives and texts. She shows how the twin drives of conversion and colonization in Portuguese India resulted in a variety of outcomes, ranging from negotiation to passive resistance to moments of extreme violence. Focusing on the rural hinterlands rather than the city of Goa itself, Barreto Xavier shows how Goan actors were able to seize hold of complex cultural resources in order to further their own projects and narrate their own myths and histories. In the process, she argues, Portuguese Goa emerged as a space with a specific identity that was a result of these contestations and interactions. The book de-essentializes the categories of colonizer and colonized, making visible instead their inner-group diversity of interests, their different modes of identification, and the specificity of local dynamics in their interactions and exchanges-in other words, the several threads that wove the fabric of colonial life.
431 pages, Hardcover
Published March 1, 2022
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About the author
Ângela Barreto Xavier
22 books4 followersÂNGELA BARRETO XAVIER nasceu em Goa, a 27 de Janeiro de 1968. É licenciada em História, variante História da Arte pela Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, mestre em História e Política e Social Moderna pela mesma faculdade e doutorada em História e Civilização pelo Instituto Universitário Europeu, de Florença. Leccionou na Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, no Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa, e foi Maître de Conférences Invitée na École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. É ainda Investigadora Auxiliar do Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa. Tem desenvolvido trabalhos no âmbito da história das ideias e da cultura em Portugal, nos séculos XVI e XVII.
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May 15, 2022
When thinking of Goa, most of us are reminded of its beaches and laid back lifestyle. The more intense amongst us are aware of the hardship that Goans faced during Portuguese inquisition from the 16th to the 18th centuries. In this context, the inquisition is thought of as mostly as an aberration brought about by excessive Catholic zeal in conversion, and the fundamentalist nature of the Portuguese rulers.
Prof. Ângela Barreto Xavier offers a different picture. She shows how conversion was an integral part of the Portuguese strategy to subdue and control the region, Estado da Índia, without overstretching its human or material resources. The central idea was to co-opt the Goans into the Portuguese power structure through Christianisation and Portuguisation, by offering incentives for conversion, and penalties for remaining ‘gentile’. She also details how these policies became more intense during second half of the sixteenth century, as the Portuguese became more sure of their power in India.
This approach is to be contrasted with that of the British in India, where missionary effort was non-existent in the beginning, and played a marginal role from mid-19th century. Curiously, however, many of the arguments, strategies and tactics that the Jesuits and Franciscans employed at that time continue to echo today, even though their expression is a bit muted and moderated, same as it was in the beginning of the 16th century Goa, when Portuguese were unsure of their strength. As Prof. Xavier shows us this can change again if the equations change.
Her treatment also offers a view of what happens when religion and government become mutually dependent, with government using religion to prop itself up, and religion using government to propagate itself. In Portuguese Goa, the result was disruptive social change and persistent misery at an individual level.
Though Prof. Xavier is a trained academician, her book is very readable, especially from second chapter onwards (for the first chapter you need some familiarity with Portuguese history). It is also meticulously footnoted and referenced. One advantage she has is linguistic - her ability to delve into Portuguese archives of the period makes her analysis much more authentic. There’s also an immersive, almost surreal feel of traveling back in time to those centuries past, living and suffering the trials and tribulations of Goans dealing with rapid change. Additionally, her seamless integration of inquisition into her primary thesis, without sensationalising its more gory side, makes her analysis more balanced, useful and convincing.
All in all, an insightful book, excellent value for money and well worth your time if you are interested in colonialism, religious conversion or simply in Goan history.
Prof. Ângela Barreto Xavier offers a different picture. She shows how conversion was an integral part of the Portuguese strategy to subdue and control the region, Estado da Índia, without overstretching its human or material resources. The central idea was to co-opt the Goans into the Portuguese power structure through Christianisation and Portuguisation, by offering incentives for conversion, and penalties for remaining ‘gentile’. She also details how these policies became more intense during second half of the sixteenth century, as the Portuguese became more sure of their power in India.
This approach is to be contrasted with that of the British in India, where missionary effort was non-existent in the beginning, and played a marginal role from mid-19th century. Curiously, however, many of the arguments, strategies and tactics that the Jesuits and Franciscans employed at that time continue to echo today, even though their expression is a bit muted and moderated, same as it was in the beginning of the 16th century Goa, when Portuguese were unsure of their strength. As Prof. Xavier shows us this can change again if the equations change.
Her treatment also offers a view of what happens when religion and government become mutually dependent, with government using religion to prop itself up, and religion using government to propagate itself. In Portuguese Goa, the result was disruptive social change and persistent misery at an individual level.
Though Prof. Xavier is a trained academician, her book is very readable, especially from second chapter onwards (for the first chapter you need some familiarity with Portuguese history). It is also meticulously footnoted and referenced. One advantage she has is linguistic - her ability to delve into Portuguese archives of the period makes her analysis much more authentic. There’s also an immersive, almost surreal feel of traveling back in time to those centuries past, living and suffering the trials and tribulations of Goans dealing with rapid change. Additionally, her seamless integration of inquisition into her primary thesis, without sensationalising its more gory side, makes her analysis more balanced, useful and convincing.
All in all, an insightful book, excellent value for money and well worth your time if you are interested in colonialism, religious conversion or simply in Goan history.
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