Th Voiceless in Goan Historiography 115

surface attractions, leaving thereby in the dark some stark realities

which need to be considered also as a part of the same colonial le-
gacy. One could draw up a long list of such grim problems facing
the Goan population in the wake of its liberation, but let me point
The Voiceless in Goan out only our democratic but communalism-infected politics, and
Historiography our strong and liturgically alert Christian minority in a state of
economic and political l e t h a r g ~ . ~
There is another attitude also that can be detected in many of the
A Case for the Source-Value of I

existing historical works on Goa. I t tends to regard colonial rule

Church Records in Goa I

as gesta Dei per lusitanos, that is, God working through the Portu-
guese. Diogo de Couto, for instance, even after a harsh commentary
Teotonio R. de Souza
on the Portuguese administrative abuses and military failures, ends
his Dialogo do Soldado Prcttico by repeating in the fashion of the previous
chroniclers that the presence of the Portuguese in the East was by
IT IS IMPORTANT to bring about a radical shift in the trend of Goan divine dispensation.5 We are not surprised also with the attitude of
historiography to make it relevant in the context of its new liberated the well-known early and late missionary historians from Europe.
status and of the *new prospects and challenges which the change They chose to write in terms of 'spiritual conquests', which justified
has laid before us. Such a shift of trend is conceived here in terms of the material conquests of Portuguese arms. But what can surprise a
a reinterpretation of the Goan past by replacing the myth of 'Golden Goan historian following our new trend is the fact that he does not
Goa' with the reality of the socio-economic pressures as well as op- need to work hard to find illustrations of the maxim 'more popish
portunities to which the Goan population was introduced by Por- than the pope'. To quote one man of the soil for producing a reac-
tuguese rule.1 This proposal of a new purpose-oriented historio- tionary document in Portuguese, we have SebastiZo do Rego, one
graphy may not appeal to those who are contented with the sight of the first four native Goan clerics to be admitted in the Theatine
of some patches of exotic cultural vestiges left behind by colonial Congregation. He preached a sermon in 1744 describing the Por-
'
rule. I cannot resist the temptation of quoting for the benefit of their tuguese as sent by God to India to be 'the new Peters and Pauls
taste from the chapter on 'Golden Goa' in Maurice Collis's The Land chosen to exalt the holy name of Chri.d.6 This may sound old
of the Great Image; 'For Latins the city was a paradise, a lotus-eating history, but a more recent Goan author who studied the recruitment
island of the blest, where you could sit on your veranda listening to of native clergy in India has described the opening up of certain
music as the breeze blew in from the sea, with humble folk within call Religious Congregations to natives of Goa as a result of the fact that
to minister tq your every wish' (emphasis added). No wonder it was 'almost three centuries of Christianity and Christian influence had
called Golden.' The author could not have been more sarcastic in made them better men',' meaning I suppose that they had learnt
his condemnation of a history of a colonized people from the stand- to sing the desired tune.
point of a colonial power. I wish to distinguish yet a third category in the existing biblio-
There is a plethora of published historical works on Goa,S but a graphy on the history of Goa. I t covers the published documenta-
critical look at them leaves us with hardly anything that has any tion. We have present among us here the venerable figures of Rev.
depth of analysis and is not tainted directly or indirectly with the
myth of 'Golden Goa' and its implied theory of welfare that served
I Dr J. Wicki, S. J. and Rev. Dr A. da Silva Rego, who have given us
their best in their monumental series of published documentation
to quieten the guilt of the erstwhile rulers and their few local bene- entitled Documents Indica in 14 vols. and Documenta~Eopara a Histdria
ficiaries. Much of this bibliography can be classified as 'tourist dm Miss6es do Padroado Portuguls na India in 12 vols. Their work may
brochure history', seeking to focus the stage-lights upon some appear to be of usefulness only to the historians of Christianity
 ese History :Sources and Pr Voiceless
1 .
India, but tnere is mucn in ~c .. ror
P ... me
wncing .*
kind of history I a m but perhaps I shall only make one remark, and that is, there was one
ivocating here. I wish to recall in this connection the influence group among the Goan natives that had caught eye of the Portu-
,at J. H . da Cunha Rivara, who arrived as Chief Secretary of the guese (shall I say 'more than the eye'?) and that seems to have
oa Government in 1855 and let himself stay here for nearly twenty been the only group that hlas so far - attractedL the atte:ntion of- Pro-
:ars, had on the study of Goan cultural institutions.8 This scholar- fessor Boxer as well. The !solution Ito the ricIdle will be founc1 by
Iministrator showed great concern for the preservation of Goan
.-nguage and Goan village communities. There followed a spurt in .
those who are familiar with Professo~ r Boxer's studies oin 'Portug uese
.
fidalgos'." As to other historical works . , tney
of this perioa, . 1 . ro
try . do
historical research under his patronage and quite a few bright young justice to the native people, but often there is too much political
Goans began delving into the Goan past. No one who wishes to study passion in them, reducing greatly the desirable historical objectivity
the socio-economic history of Goa will be grateful enough for based on sufficiently wide and accurate documentary evidence.
the documentation contained in F. N. Xavier's CollecgZo das Leis 7. There are surely some praiseworthy exceptions, and among these
Peculiares dm Comunidades, Bosquejo Histdrico das Comunidades, and I would place B. G. D'Souza's Goan Society in Transition. However,
CollecgZo de Bandos, not to mention his several other publications.9 it being a doctoral dissertation in Sociology, the author's approach
{en though the author lived in an atmosphere of comparative takes him more into generalizations valid for medieval Indian so-
Institutional freedom, the official protectionism did not permit him ciety as a whole, rather than into concrete details of the life-condi-
do more than compile objective information. There is no attempt tions of Goan society-1s
at interpreting these data and the author has a very simplistic ex- The Portuguese official chronicles and the State papers are of
I
planation for this in a note appended to Part Two of the first edition little help, and we find A.C. Teixeira de AragEo voicing this defi-
of his Bosquejo: 'I have not taken upon myself the task of presenting
my reflections upon the content of the documents published herein, i ciency in Indo-Portuguese historiography: 'Past historians who
wrote on Portuguese India cared to describe only the military feats
not only because it would be alien to my intended goal, but also 3 f the Portuguese and the efforts spent in spreading Christianity.
due to my lack of sufficient strength to do it'.lo Mighty little has been done to describe the usages, customs, and
We cannot bypass the commendable work done by the former nature of the natives, the civilizing influence of our rule, the insti-
Di[rector of the Goa Archives, the late Professor Pissurlencar. I wish tutions, privileges, and economic ad:ministrat!ion, and all that cha-
to choose, :however, to comment only on his 1Igenks da D$lomacia
1 1 , -
Portuguesa na India, which may be regaraea Irom among all his other
publications as most relevant for studying the native response to
Portuguese rule.ll Whatever may have been the intentions of the
! racterized the social relations betwe:en the riulers and the ruledY.l4
The documents which he culled from varlous archival repositories,
including the Goa Archives, and published in the third volume of
his DescripgEo Geral e Histdrica das Moedas are surely a great help to
author in the post-Republican era, this work of his could prove very study the market economy that directly affected the economy of the
conclusively to his Portuguese masters tl?at, contr ary to thc- :prevailing
capital city of Go;a, and 01nly indirectly the outlying jurisdiction.
belief, the Hindu communit.y of Goa had served the Portuguese However, these re(:ords do not help us to fonn more t:han a vague
colonial and political interest:; with unl:emitting constancy and zeal. .. .. .~
idea of how the monetary
-- -
policies of the Portuguese ~

affected the
This truth may give little comfort to those who are making political daily life of the rural inhabitants. All that one can conjecture is
capital today out of their little knowledge of the past. some sort of impact upon the sale of the surplus products of the
T o conclude this sketchy evaluation of the past trends I may still countryside in the city market, as well as upon the tax-revenue col-
t
have to refer to the works produced in the past few decades. We lected from the countryside by the ce:ntral adrninistratilon. We hLave
ha ;us anot.her veteran of the Portuguese imperial history, luckily well preserved city municiparlity recolrds as we 11 as recc~ r d s
an Ld be highly presumptuous on my part to apply short-
~ L V Lof~ writings. I feel overawed bv the vast erudi-
hauu 1 1 V~d b L ..a-..I
A
.. of the village communities to provjide more detailed informa tion
--- rr~arl'sreality in his r.
that can take us closer to the comrr~o~l
tiaIn and the terary style that we see in C .R. Boxer'S writings, s etting.I5 But we also have valuable Church records that can 1
118 Indo-Portuguese History :Sources and Problem The Voiceless in Goan Historiography 1 19

us in this task. It was the new religion that brought the colonial number of the faithful and the financial viability of the area to
.-presenceof the Portuguese in closest possible contact with the native maintain the cult. It may be said in this connection right away that
population. Let me therefore expose the modalities of this interac- the Portuguese crown was bound by its duties of Crown Patronage
tion and then proceed to analyse the value of various Church re- to maintain the Church institutions and the cult in the East, but it
cords which have preserved for us accounts of that interaction or got the'natives not only to pay for these, but even to finance the
data that can be put together to achieve our purpose of resurrecting wars for the survival of the Portuguese presence in the region.l8 In
the history of the people of Goa. the proceedings of the State Council that voted for the extraction of
such donatives (euphemism fbr compulsory payments) we find men-
Church Organization and Activity in Goa tioned time and again that endangering Portuguese rule was tanta-
mount to placing the Christian faith in jeopardy.19 Returning to
I t was only after Goa was made the headquarters of the Portu- our theme of parish-organization there was the caste-division of
guese activities in the East that the Church organization also gained the society which remained crystallized in the religious confrater-
in complexity and importance. I t was made suffragan diocese in nities or Confrarias which played a prominent role in popularizing
1533 and raised to the rank of a metropolitan archdiocese in 1557. the new cult and in helping it to gain roots in the native $oil.20
Further titles followed in the course of centuries. Hence, from the It was through these bodies that petty cases of justice were settled
beginning and at successive stages the Church of Goa was headed in the villages, discouraging thereby the tendency of the natives
by Vicars General, Apostolic Commissaries, Bishops, Archbishops, to sue each other into misery for most trivial reasons. It was again
and Patriarchs. This last title was granted in 1886. They were not through these bodies that acts of charity were practised towards the
necessarily appointed for life, but most of them died in office. A destitute of the village, and particularly worth praising were the
'

great majority of them belonged to the Religious Orders, generally steps taken in some villages to provide seed loans to peasants in need
Franciscans, Augustinians and Dominicans. This was so, because during the sowing season, saving them thereby from the clutches of
the Religious Orders dominated the missionary field till their sup- the village moneylenders.Z1
pression in 1834-5'. I t may be asked if opportunity was given to sons of the soil to
As we have just said, different Religious Orders had established join in the responsibility of attending to the pastoral needs of their
their missionary headquarters in the capital city of Goa, but of countrymen. More than a required number of natives were trained
these we need to single out the Jesuits and the Franciscans for the as secular priests in the training-houses run by the religious, parti-
intensity of their labours in the capital and rural areas of Goa. cularly by the Jesuits. However, as long as the religious remained
The Dominicans helped somewhat in the island-taluka surrounding in effective control of the. Church in Goa, the native clerics had to
the city, but the Jesuits had an exclusive hand in the establishment remain contented with subordinate roles. We find cultural preju-
of the Church in Salcete, and so did the Franciscans in Bardez. dices and political insinuations reflected in the reports submitted
The Church bf Goa, which had begun with one parish in the capital by the religious to the civil and ecclesiastical authorities in Lisbon
city, had extended by mid-17th century to form as many parishes and Rome to evade instructions requiring a better deal for the native
as the village communities in the three talukas that made the 'Old clerics. The attachment of the religious to their revenue-bringing
Conquests' of Goa?e parishes also played its part in their refusal to hand over the admin-
The expansion, organization and working of the Church in istration of these parishes to the native clerics.22 Hence, there was
parishes was closely linked with the prevailing socio-economic much more than just a slip between the legislation of the time and
factors. It may be interesting to note that it was the high rate of the actual practice. However, the dissatisfaction of the native clergy
mortality caused by an epidemic in the city of Goa in 1543 that led contributed substantially to building up resistance to Portuguese
to the breaking-up of the original single parish into four." The rule. We have records of grievances sent to Lisbon by the village
multiplication of the parishes village-wise also depended upon the communities of Goa, and we know that there were native clerics
 ;es and 1'rob l e m !e Voiceless in GOL 'ography

Nno nelped the drafting of these grievances.*j l t is also well known groups which had no say in the administrative strucmre of the
:hat on more than one occasion the native clerics led movements of villages.
3ublic discontent against Portuguese rule.24 It is sufficient to note 3) The Board of Conscience or Meza da Consciencia was not exactly
lere that as a result of the conflict between the sincere needs of the a distinct institution because it was an activity of the Inquisition
Clhurch and colonial interests there arose an intellectual elite cons- itself. I t started functioning from the early days of the Inquisition
:ious of its rights but with little scope for their fulfilment. in Goa, but it had ceased to exist when Francisco de Souza wrote
TOconclude this section I wish to discuss briefly three other in- his Oriente Conquistado. The author tells us sarcastically that being
ititutions which might be considered secular in their origin, but T a board of conscience it M.ras bound to be short-lived in India where
nanned largely by ecclesiastics or performed very much of relig consciences are upset more easily than st0machs.~9As we know
3r spiritual functions. In their order of establishment these u ,-,. from the documentanon . .. relating to the Inquisition published by
[)Father of the Christians; 2) Inquisition; 3) Board of Conscience. A. BaiHo, there were conflicts between the officials of the Inquisition
I) Father of the Christians or Pai dos Christa"os, as he was called, was and the civil authorities, including viceroys, who resented the
:enerally a Franciscan in Bardez and a Jesuit for the remaining interference of the Inquisition.30 However, the Inquisition being an
jurisdiction of Goa. His task was to promote conversions to Chris- institution of somewhat hybrid nature, neither fully secular dor
tianity and to look after the spiritual and material welfare of the fully ecclesiastical, it had apparently won the confidence of the
new converts. Rev. Dr Wicki has made available to us in published natives. Besides, Lisbon consistently took serious note of the reports
form the documentation that was available in the Goa Archives that went from the 1nquisition.sTe read in a memorandum sent
regarding the activity of the Father of the Christians in Goa.l5 by the general assembly of the village communities of Salcete to the
The documentation relating to this institution covers many details crown in 1643: 'It is impossible for the people of this land to find
of socio-economic nature such as payment of tithes, administration justice, because their enemies are too powerful.. . . We request that
3f justice, customs of inheritance, employment of poor and orphan the officials of the Holy Inquisition be entrusted with the task of
converts, liberation of slaves, and so on. conducting a secret inquiry into all that has been exposed in this
2) The Inquisition played a formidable role in Goa and has been memorandum, because no one here can dig into such dirt without
branded as the worst of all that functioned anywhere in the w0rld.~6 fearing reprisal^'.^^ In the appendix to the same memorandum
4part from certain published reports of eye-witnesses and victims, they repeat: 'We request your majesty that if any inquiry is insti-
particularly of the French doctor Dellon, all that is left of the docu- tuted it should be entrusted to the Board of Conscience formed by
mentation of that institution are a few stray files in the National the officials of the Holy Inquisition, because that is the only body
4rchives of Lisbon and an inventory book in the same repository that can be trusted with a mission of doing fair justicey. Hence, it
ziving a complete list of the condemned and acquitted from the is not surprising that the continuance of such a body was irksome
time of its inception till 1774.27 The total number had reached nial inte
16,172. It included persons of different nationalities, but nearly
three-fourths were Indians almost equally represented by Christians &ource-Value of Church ~ e c o r d sin Goa
and non-Christians. Many of these Goan na~tiveswer.e hauled up
for crossing the border and cultiva~tinglanc3s in the mainland.** Afteir reviewir~gbriefly the orgarlization and activity of the Church
The prevailing system of property relations in the villa;ge communi- in Goa. we are :now in a position to appreciate the source-value of
:ies of Goa and the ever-increasing burden of Portuguese taxation various records that have survived of this activity. It is not possible
left no other alternative to many Goan peasants but to leave their for me to present here any exhaustive survey of these records, and
homes and go to cultivate lands in neighbouring Muslim lands. all that I shall try to do is to delve into a somewhat detailed analysis
The Inquisition watched over the purity of faith but did not suggest of some select records that are available in the Goa Archives, in the
anything constructive to remedy the: economiIc distress of the sc Patriarchal Archives and in the parishes.
122 Indo-Portuguese History :Sources and Problem The Voiceless in Goan Historiography 123

There are many scattered references to Church activity in the lost, it will be solely because of the Society of Jesus. ... They are
State papers, but however useful they may be for our purpose, I r absolute masters of a great part of this island, most of which they
shall limit my attention to those records only which once belonged have purchased, and at this rate there will be no house or palm-
to the Religious monasteries and were transferred to Government grove left which will not be theirs within ten years from hence.
archives following the suppression of the Religious Orders in 1834. The Portuguese settlers find themselves impoverished, because
The records of the Jesuits had been taken over by the Government they have no lands to invest in, and whatever capital they had they
even earlier, namely at the time of their suppression in 1759. All have lost it in the sea. The income which the Fathers derive from
these records bound into nearly 400 volumes are still awaiting a their properties in Salcete alone should be sufficient to support all
scholar who may decide to use them to study the impact of the acti- the religious houses that we have here'.s6
vity of Religious Orders upon Goan economy. I was able to use these The success of the religious in farming excited much jealousy
records to draw a graph indicating price-rates of essential commodities > of the lay Portuguese settlers. The Jesuits in particular had more
in 17th century Goa for the purpose of my doctorate dissertation. than doubled the output of their lands through their more rational
I could do it with the help of the day-to-day accounts showing item- approach to cultivation. We know, for instance, that the three
wise income and. expenditure of the religious houses. Unfortuna- villages of Assolna, Velim and Ambelim were valued in 1578 at
tely there are no such account books for the period prior to the 2010 xerajins. They were then given as a grant to the Jesuits. By
17th century, and even these are more or less complete only for 1635 their yield was assessed worth 5500 xeraJins.37 The consolidated
the Augustin'an monastery of Our Lady of Grace. These same led- plots and large palm-groves of the religious also gave rise to a type
ger books can also provide information regarding employment and of bonded labour known as mundkars, who were bound to the land
wages of artisan and menial labour in service of the religious. One as a result of small loans which they could hardly repay.38 There
gets even such interesting details as the cost for extracting a are indications that the religious were benevolent to their mund-
or the reward paid to a slave-retriever to get a slave back.34 The
same account books and the books containing the title deeds of lan-
I kars,5Qbut the lot of these must have taken an unhappy turn when
the suppression of the Religious Orders pushed them into the hands
ded properties can help us to study the impact of the concentrated of new secular landlords.
capital of the Religious Orders. Their capital came partly from In addition to what I have said about the impact of the accumu-
endowments and legacies, but it was also to a large extent repro- lated moneys of the religious, the papers of the suppressed convents
duced through investment in trade and through industrious also yield information regarding loans, rates of interest, and the nature
methods of farming. Trading in real sense was banned for the of goods pawned. An inventory made of all the moneys and properties
religious, but they always explained their activity as exchang- of the various houses of the Society of Jesus in the Portuguese East
ing the surplus of their various mission posts. However, there is in 1759 shows that five houses in Goa alone had given out loans
documentary,evidence to show that whatever exchanging was going worth over 350,000 xerajns. Their major customers were the general
on did not, always differ much from tra~ling.~5 But the very fact assemblies of the village communities and also some individual
that the religious could not very openly and intensely indulge village communities, which mortgaged their lands against these
themselves in trading, their'accumulated capital began disturbing loans to satisfjr the exactions of the State. The general assembly
the rural economy of Goa long before the decline of the Portuguese of Bardez had borrowed 100,000 xerafins from the professed house
Goa-based seaborne trade forced the lay Portuguese settlers to seek of Bom Jesus at an interest of 574, while the general assembly of
.?
safer investment in village lands. However, the latter were no match the Salcete villages had taken a loan of 62,200 xerajns from the
against the spiritual control and the concentrated capital of the same house for 6% interest. It is interesting to note that the Jesuits,
religious, and this frustration of the lay settlers can be seen reflect- who have been maligned for being religious fanatics and champions
ed in the constant complaints to the crown. The municipal coun- of the anti-Hindu drive in Goa, had given 23,800 xerajns as loans
cillors were writing to Lisbon in 1603: 'If this State of India is to several Hindus residing in Cumbarjua.40
124 Indo-Portuguese History :Sources ,and Problems The Voiceless in Goan Historiography 125

T o conclude my presentation of the Church records in Goa Church Records in Patriarchal Archives
archives I wish to introduce yet another manuscript entitled
Cartas de Alforria aos E ~ c r a v o s .Slavery
~~ had been a common feature I t is unfortunate that the bulk of early records from the Patriar-
in Goa much before it became a profitable trade for the Portuguese chal Archives is lost to scholars. In response to an order of the home
in the Americas. Pyrard has left for us a vivid and lewd description government, the Archbishop of Goa Francisco da Assunp%o e
of the slave-market of Goa in the beginning of the 17th century.42 Brito handed them over to be shipped to Portugal in 1775. I t is
He also tells us that Goan natives were not enslaved because of not known where they finally landed.46 But this does not seem to
a privilege they had secured from the crown.43 However, even have been the only occasion when records left the central repository
without such a privilege it would not be easy to enslave Goan natives of the Church records in Goa: Archbishop JosB Maria da Silva
in their own territory where they could easily escape, and we do Torres, who governed the archdiocese during 1844-49, had taken
not know whether any were included in the West-bound cargoes. 1 away the records covering the period of his administration for the
But the Public Revenue Department had a resolution passed in purpose of writing his autobiography, and we do not know if they
1646 to send as many corumbins from Goa as possible to cultivate ever came back.47 The bulk of the earliest records that are now
lands in Ceylon." We do not know in what capacity they were available in the Patriarchal Archives belong to the late 18th cenL
to be sent or whether they were sent at all, but it can be inferred tury. The consultation becomes tedious due to lack of proper classi-
from the manuscript I wish to introduce here that a good number fication and of a systematic inventory of the holdings.
of slaves recorded therein belong to the corumby and chardo caste Very useful from among the other records of this repository is
groups of Goa. a series of codices entitled Rois d m Igrejas (Church rolls) dating from
The manuscript containing 112 folios is a register describing the 1773. They carry yearly certificates issued by the priests in charge
deeds of obligation drawn by various Fathers of the Christians of various parishes indicating the total numbers of the faithful and
during the years 1682-1759 and signed by the slave-owners binding providing various interesting details regarding their age, health,
themselves to set their slaves free within a maximum time-limit sex, reception of sacraments, employment outside the village, and
of ten years. This register contains nearly 350 such deeds. A so on, which are invaluable for a demographic historian.
great majority of the slaves are from across Goa's borders as can There are also about a dozen files classified as Varia Documenta
be inferred from their designations gatual and balagaty. Nearly I which contain miscellaneous documents, including some of interest
two-thirds of these are females of an average age of twenty. Several I to the theme of the present study. These are applications submit-
of these deeds also refer to orphan children handed over by the ted by individuals in need, asking economic assistance by way of
Fathers of the Christians to the care of certain families under con- alms or dowries for their daughters.@ Although these and some
dition of teaching them good manners and the Christian doctrine, other such records will have to be tapped for writing the kind of
treating them yell in their infirmities, training the boys in some history of Goa I am advocating here, I shall introduce in more
suitable skills, and giving the girls in marriage at the appropriate detail just one series of manuscripts entitled Visita Pastoral.
age. These manuscripts are registers of statements signed by sworn
In the midst of cruelties to which the slaves in Goa were often witnesses and taken down by the notary assisting the Archbishop
subjected by their owners, the concern shown by the Church or his delegate during the visitation of the parishes. It is customary
brought them some solace in their sufferings and some hope. I t in the Catholic Church for the Bishop to go round every few
was only in mid-19th century under British pressure and the wave , years, or as need may require, visiting every parish of his diocese
of liberalism in Portugal that slavery was finally abolished, but by to inspect the state of faith and morality of the faithful and to
then their number had dwindled very considerably, and in 1853 encourage them to do better. In Goa the non-Christians, who lived
all the three talukas of the Old Conquests of Goa did not have more in predominantly Christian areas, were also subjected to these
than 100 slaves.4" checks in so far as their activities could influence the Christians.
126 Indo-Portuguese History :Sources and Problems The Voiceless in Goan HistoriograPhy 127

The Bishop ordinarily appealed to the secular authorities to execute day and night. He was also accused of using his job of assistant
his sentences over non-Christians, but as to Christians he checked the C
to the police inspector of the area to pay for his drinks by extorting
record of their objectionable behaviour and determined the penal- small cash from the poor peasants.s2
ties to be executed through the parish priest, or through his own This is one vice of which the clerics are accused with more
assistants if the parish priest himself was in need of correction. The frequency in the proceedings of the pastoral visits. .Apparently,
abuses revealed by the sworn witnesses refer to non-observance of when other pleasures of the flesh were denied to them, the clerics
religious practices or to lack of decorum in the practice of religion, seem to have taken the recommendation of wine by St. Paul a little
and to such socio-economic-moral problems as drunkenness, usury, too seriously. The parish-priest of Velsao (Salcete), for instance, is
labour exploitation and prostitution. accused in 1748 of drinking so excessively as to be incapable of
Our records covering the years 1747-1927 are bound in 19 vol- doing his duty of celebrating Mass for his parishioners even on
umes of an average number of 300 folios. I t may be noted that each Sundays and days of obligation.53
of these volumes is made up of two originally separate books which
still retain their original independent numbering of folios. I have
culled out bits of information from the first six codices to give an
idea of the source-value of these records for reconstructing the There are plentiful references to usury in these records and this
Goan past centred around village life. frequency perhaps rates next to prostitution.
In 1747 certain Portuguese military officials are accused of lend-
(a) Abuses in the practice of religion ing money to poor peasants of Jua island during the sowing season
for exorbitant rates of interest. Money was lent in June to be paid
The parish priest of Chandor (Salcete) in 1755 is denounced back in November along with two measures of paddy per pardao.
by his parishioners for refusing to attend to the burial of the daugh- There were two Hindu ladies, namely Chimnea Parbu from Santa
ter of a widow who did not have four xerajm to pay the burial fee. Luzia and Tuka Bamana from Cumbarjua, who were also lending
The funeral was delayed until 6 p.m. when a charitable man of money to those peasants and demanding one kudav of paddy per
the village offered to pay the amount on behalf of the said wid0w.~9 pardao of loan. Considering just the lesser demand of two measures,
The same priest is also accused of having refused to do the christen- the moneylenders were collecting 148 xerajins, 1 tanga and 40 reis
ing of the child of a poor kunby until he pawned his hoe to borrow more than their due of 41-3-20 per every 1000 xerajim of loan at the
half a xerafin to pay the priest.50 I
legitimate interest of 10% and at the market paddy price of four
The parishioners of Siolim expressed their unhappiness over the and half xerajns per fardel of 5.95 kudav.54
behaviour of their aqsistant parish-priest in 1760. He was accused Cases of usury were also recorded against several men from
of forcibly collecting gifts from the parents of the girls who were Mormuganv (Salcete) in 1755. They were accused of lending
to be a p p r ~ v i dfor marriage. One of the complainants had to say six kudau of rice in May to collect seven at the harvest time,
part with broilers worth one xerajn, and another had to give away which involved a profit of nearly 48%. Some were also lending
a pigling costing four xerajns. The same priest is accused of drawing cash in the months of January-February to be repaid in rice
up a list of chickens and piglings the parishioners had, on the occa- during the months of April-May at the rate of four to four and
.
sion of visiting their houses for the annual Easter blessing.5' half pardaos a fardel.55

(6) Drunkenness

A certain Atanasio Menezes, a married man residing in the

I
I
(d) Exploitation of labour

The parish-priest of Betalbatim (Salcete) was accused in 1748

Ganapoga ward of Rachol (Salcete) was denounced for drinking of having beaten up a ganvkar named ,Andre Afbnso, who had
128 Indo-Portuguese History :Sources and Problems The Voiceless in Goan Historiography 129

refused to bring his plough to work on the parish-priest's fields, da Cristandade giving details of age, sex and family status of the
because the Fathers paid less than others for the same work.s6 parishioners.
The parish-priest of Colva was accused that same year of
mercilessly beating a poor man whom he had sent to Goa with
a basket of mangoes and had returned without the basket and
could not account for six mangoes which some soldiers had taken
NOTES
away.57

(e) Prostitution 1. C. R. Boxer's authoritative and popular works, with an eurocentric approach
to the history of the Portuguese empire, may be considered responsible for
I n this matter Goa was no exception to what normally happens the propagation of this myth in the English-speaking world. Cf. n. 12
in places where military camps or garrisons are located. It may infra. However, it also goes to the credit of Boxer to have destroyed
some other myths, for which he earned the wrath of the Portuguese nationa-
be noted that most of the women involved in prostitution were list historians at one time. I am referring to the reactions to his Race Relations
l

of low castes. Many of those found in Salcete had come from in the Portuguese Colonial Empire 1415-1825 (Oxford, 1963). Cf. Portuguese
Bardez to work as cooks or house-servants. Though there were i reaction in Studi~,n. 12 (July 1963) 549-54. Boxer was a persona non grata
individual women offering their services freely, there were also I , in Portugal until the political change of 1974.

ladies running organized brothels employing Christian and non- i 2. Collis, M., The Land of t f ~Great Image, (London, 1946) p. 32.
3. Goncalves, J.J., Sintesc Bibliogrdjica de Goa, 2 vols. (Lisboa, 1966-7).
Christian maids.58 One comes also across the allied problem of 4. De Souza, T. R., 'Hindu Entrepreneurship in Goan History,' Goa To&y,
abortion.59 (Jan. 1978) pp. 15, 18.
5. Couto, D. de, 0 SoMado Pra'tico, ed M. Rodrigues Lapa, 2nd ed. (Lisboa,
1954) p. xx.
(d) Church Records in the Parishs
6. Devi, V., and Seabra M., A Litcratura Indo-Pmtugucsa, I (Lisboa, 1971) pp.
I
118-20.
I could not visit more than six parishes of Salcete to consult 7. De Melo, C. M., The Ruruitment and Fmmation of the Native Clergy in India,
parish archives, but from this limited experience it was suffi- (Lisboa, 1955), p. 175.
ciently clear that the keepers of those parish records were more 8. For a most complete list of Cunha Rivara's works cf. N. V. Abreu, Nofa dc
serious in guarding the keys that kept the records safe from algumJiW2osdistintos da India Pwtuguesa, (Nova Goa, 1874).
9. Zbid.
human visitors than in protecting them against insects and rats.
10. Xavier, F. N., Bosquejo Historico dm Cornidads, (Nova Goa, 1852) 11, p. 182.
With the exception of the records of the town-parish of Margao, 11. Pissurlencar, P.S.S., Agentcs da D ~ Portuguesa
~ nuMIndia, (Bastora, 1952).
the records in the five other village-parishes were in a sad state of 12. Boxer, C. R., 'Fidalgos Portugueses e Bailadeiras Indianas', Revista de HisMria,
preservation.,All that they kept in good conditions were the registers (SHOPaolo) no. 56 (1961) pp. 83-105.
of births, marriages and deaths, which in most of the parishes date 13. D'Souza, B. G., Goan Sociely in Transition,(Bombay, 1975).
14. Teixeira de AragHo, A. C., Descri;3~&Geral e HisMriGa dm M&, 111,
back to 1880s. The value of this sort of records cannot be minimi-
(Lisboa, 1880) pp. 78-81.
zed,eo but there are older records going back to mid-18th century 15. De Souza, T. R., 'Portuguese Records for Indian History at Goa and Lisbon',
in some parishes, like Benaulim, Navelim and MargZo, and which The Indian Archives, XXV, n. 1 (Jan-June 1976) pp. 2436.
deal with the economic administration of the churches and the 16. Coutinho, F., Le Regime Paroissal des Dwceses de Rite LaEin & I'Inde, (Louvain,
cult. These records of the Fdbrica and Confrarias need to be salvaged 1958) p. 40.
17. Zbid., p. 36.
with some urgency. The parish archives also have the manuscripts
18. Xavier, F. N., Bosquejo Historico dm Comunidades, 11, pp. 65, 67, 71-2, 91,
of the proceedings of the administrative boards of the parishes 107, 125.
(Junta Administrative) containing very useful information on 19. Assentos ah Conselho do Estado, ed. P.S.S. Pisu~lencar (Bastor&, 1955) 111,
the socio-economic history of the parishes. There are also the Rois p. 342; (Bastork, 1956) IV, pp. 78 93ff., 412.
130 Indo-Portuguese History : Sources and Problem The Voiceless in Goan Historiography 131

20. Rocha, L. da, As Confrarias de Goa, (Lisbon, 1973) p. 2. PA: Visita Pastoral, 111, fl. 15v.
21. Documents Indica, ed. J. Wicki (Rome, 1964): VIII, pp. 83-4; (Rome, 1972) Zbid., fl. 55.
XIII, p. 614. Ibid., 4v-8v.
22. De Melo, C. M., op. cit., pp. 244-51. PA: Visita Parloral, V-VI, fls. 11, 15v.
23. AHU : India, Caixa 15, doc. 110. The two priests chosen as procurators PA: Visita Pastoral, 1-11,fl, 117v.
by the general assembly were Antonio de Pinho and Estevgo da Gama. Zbid., fls. 110v-l 11.
24. Bishop Matheus de Castro in the 17th century, and several priests involved PA: Visita Pastoral, V-VI, fl. 96; IX-X, fl. 95.
in the Conjurapio dos Pintos in the 18th century. PA : Visita Pastoral, V-VI, fls. 63v-64.
25. Wicki, J., 0 Livro de Pai dos CristEos, (Lisboa, 1969). Srivastava, H.C., 'Marriages among the Christians of Goa -A Study Based
26. Baizo, A., InquisigEo de Goa, I (Lisboa, 1949) p. 15. on Parish Registers'. The Indian Economic and Social History Reuiew, XIV,
27. Zbid., pp.263-94. n. 2, pp. 247-54.
28. Ibid., pp. 279-83; AHU, India, Caka 41, doc. 32.
29. Sousa, F. de, Oriente Conquistado a Jesu Christo, I1 Bombaim, 1886) p. 33. It Abbreviations:
was first published in Lisbon in 1710. AHU=Arquivo Historico Ultramarino (Lisbon)
30. Baigo, A., op. cit., pp. 61, 72, 86-7, 102, 107, 123-8. HAG= Historical Archives of Goa (Panaji)
31. Zbid., pp. 76-7. PA= Patriarchal Archives (Panaji)
32. Cf. supra n. 23.
33. HAG, Ms M77, fl. 16.
34. HAG, Ms 4395, fl. 34v.
35. HAG, Ordenr Regias, 11. fls. 48v-49 ; ARSJ, Fondo Gesuitico 74-B/9, 1443 ;
AHU, India, Mqo 6, doc. 5 (March 11, 1755).
36. Cunha Rivara, Archiuo Portuguez-Oriental, I, P. 2, p. 128.
37. HAG, Mong8es 19 C, fl. 734v.
38. HAG, Ms 3038, passim, various contracts of munda.
39. B r o b ? ~(Lisbon),Photocopied documents from the Royal Archives of Belgium,
Box 77, Bundle n. 1, fl. 23: contains orders of the Provincial of the Jesuits,
Antonio de Almeida, in 1656 to the Brother in charge of the palm-grove,
in Cortalim. He is to give alms to the poor needy mundkars.
40. HAG, Ms 7602.
II
41. HAG, Ms 860.
42. Viu,~emde Francisco P p r d de Lar,al, 11, ed. A. de Magalhses Basto Porto,
1944, p. 51.
43. Zbid., p. 33.
44. HAG, Ms 1164, Assentos do Cons. da Fazenda, 1643-7, fls. 164-5.
45. HAG, Mss 2976, 2977, 3018.
46. Teixeira de Araggo, op. cit., p. 80 ; Nazareth, C. de, Mitras Luritanas no
Oriente, 11, 2nd. ed. (Nova Goa, 1924), p. iv.
47. PA : Ojicios cis Autmidades ficlesiasicas e Civis, 1858-62, n. 1 (1862). The
folios are not numbered. It is a letter of the administrator of the archdiocese
to the Archbishop-elect Amorirn Pessoa requesting him to contact the brother
of the former Archbishop Silva Torres and to bring back the records.
Arch. Silva Torres had died in 1854 and the writer of the letter believes
that his brother may be able to return the records.
48. The amount granted as alms is 5 xerafins. The dowry-grants vary between
25 and 30 xerafins.
49. PA : Visita Pastoral, V-VI, fl. 150v.
50. Ibid
51. PA: Visita Pastoral, VII-VIII, fl. 86v.