WHY CUNCOLIM MARTYRS?
An historical re-assessment
By: Teotónio R. de Souza
Painting in the Church of Colva.
One of the Jesuits killed was parish priest of Colva.
Courtesy:Teotónio R. de Souza
There is much being said and written nowadays and efforts
are underway for re-writing the history of the Church from the perspective of
the Third World. It is argued that much that we have by way of Church history
is written by the missionaries and from the missionary perspective. Such a
perspective was never fully delinked from the colonial perspective, and
western cultural superiority remains an essential ingredient of it. (1) Their background and implied cultural-political
values from the West determined what was good for a "good Christian"
in the colonized regions where they came to work. Their accounts reflect their
values. Cultural conflicts that the native society had to experience as a
result of the political-religious combination of the colonial times did not
seem to them as anything else than the "Devil at work". It would not
be a bad exercise in research to count the frequency of this expression in the
Jesuit missionary reports. Other missionaries had such expression as well.
"The Devil at Work in the Jesuit Edifying Letters" could make a
bestseller!
Our historical re-assessment today demands that we do not
continue accepting the missionary accounts at their face value. We need to seek
deeper explanations for the reactions of the native people to their encounters
with the Gospel and Gospel-bearers. Such a re-assessment throws up serious
issues of socio-economic-cultural nature and we need to understand these better
for appreciating the Good News and the Bad News that conversion to Christianity
meant to our people. Granted that the missionaries acted in "good
faith", they may not deserve today our unqualified and unquestioned
admiration, and much less, veneration. The criteria to beatify or canonize
persons have been worked out and are generally applied by the West-dominated
Church without sufficient sensitivity to the cultural feelings of the rest of
the World. I believe that we need to decolonize the liturgical calendar, just
as much as the missionary histories that helped the processes of "beatification".
It is very fine to talk of the
"catholic and universal" Church, but that has in practice made
European peculiarities universal. We need to still wait to see when the
faithful in Europe would fervently pray to a black saint of Africa or to a brown
saint of Asia! In the meantime we have been celebrating novenas and feasts of
saints who have little cultural significance to us. The liturgical calendar has
thus been a subtle instrument of continued cultural alienation of our peoples.
Interestingly, these feelings were voiced by the Polish Apostolic Delegate to
India, Ladislas-Michel Zaleski, in his lntroduction to his book The Saints of
India in 1915. To quote him: "Why should The secular priests (of India)
recite the office of Saints of foreign countries, who have for them no especial
interest, and neglect and ignore the particular Saints of India, their Patrons
and Protectors?"(2) Zaleski follows
his argument in the Chapter dealing with Bl. Rudolf Acquaviva and his
companions. He refers to the four native Goans who were also killed along with
the Jesuits, and comments: "It should be examined if these four Indian
Martyrs who certainly died for the Faith, could not be included in the
beatification. The two last named (young boys Dominic and Alphonso) singularly
about whose life and death we have more details, would be wonderful patrons for
Indian youths and boys." (3)
It is in this context that I thought of analysing the
background and implications of The "martyrdom" of the Jesuits and
their native collaborators in Cuncolim in 1583. My analysis suggests that both
The Portuguese rulers and the native dominant class of Cuncolim were using
religion for their own vested interests. Religious beliefs were not the main
issue, but the economic and political implications of conversion were seen as a
threat. The religious feelings of the ordinary people were excited to obfuscate
these main implications and to kill the missionaries. There is no reason To
believe that the native exploiting class of Cuncolim were doing Devil's and the
Portuguese colonial exploiters supporting the missionaries were doing God's
work.
INTRA-SOCIAL CONFLICTS
Only a dispassionate analysis could help us to understand
better the inner contradictions of our society. Now that we are sufficiently
distant from the passions aroused by the freedom-struggle and are experiencing
new forms of external domination, we may be better disposed to look into the
caste and class contradictions of the Goan society. Whether we wish to admit
these or not, they will always be an important ground that will make any
external domination more or less successful. A good historical background and a
conscious and deft handling of intra-societal conflicts can alone pave the way
for a sound development of post-liberation Goa. Such a sound development will
have to take necessarily into consideration the disabilities experienced by
different groups at different times of our history due to internal and
external factors. In this connection I wish to recall the inaugural address to
the recently held fifth lnternational Seminar on lndo-Portuguese History at
Cochin. Addressing the participants, Prof. M. G. S. Narayanan of Calicut
University drew their attention to the long-term impact of the Portuguese on
Malabar society as he saw it: "A challenge was thrown to the Hindu
society, the like of which had never occurred before. The possibility of
converting a socially depressed class was effectively demonstrated, and thereby
the basic injustice built into the Hindu caste structure was exposed. This
challenge has acted as a catalytic agent in lndian society for promoting reform
during the last five centuries. It has made The Hindu orthodoxy painfully aware
of the revolutionary potential of low castes, outcastes and tribals. (4)
If the Portuguese "plunderers-preachers
combination" (to borrow the expression from M.G.S. Narayanan) (5) found
collaboration from the politically oppressed chieftains and socially oppressed
low castes in Kerala, the situation was
not entirely different elsewhere in
India and at different times of its history. It was so in Goa at the time of
its conquest by Afonso de Albuquerque. The Hindu population seems to have been
unhappy with the Muslim overlords, and the representatives of the dominant
Hindu class thought that they could use the Portuguese to regain its earlier
dominance. However, besides other factors of Portuguese policy there were the
underlying intra-societal conflicts that contributed towards sabotaging the
aspirations of the dominant Hindu section. We are informed that Timmaya, who
suggested the conquest of Goa to Albuquerque was hoping to be a kind of
jagirdar, following the conquest of Goa. Bur we also know that he was motivated
by his being dispossessed by his own brother. (6) It is this line of exploitation
of brother by brother that I wish to follow up in the course of this paper, and
it is this angle that requires more of our attention in future research. There
are also references in the early Jesuit documentation to persons in Goa wanting
to be converted in order to escape the disabilities they experienced in their
traditional social structure.(7) In a
memorandum submitted by Miguel Vaz, a prominent churchman in Goa to King John
III of Portugal in 1545 we read: "Let us do this people favour, honour and
justice, and let us not give them into the hands of Krishna and Gopu, Brahmins,
about whom they were continually complaining. And knowing these two for the
great tyrants they are, I for my part hold that people had good reason to
complain." (8) This again suggests the same line of analysis, rather than
succumbing to The usual aggressive-defensive communal approach.
DISINTEGRATION OF VILLAGE COMMUNITIES
I consider this process of disintegration of traditional
village communities as important for the understanding of the intra-societal
conflicts and their implications. Many tend to believe that village communities
of Goa were models of organization for harmonious village life and development.
It is important to grasp the diversification of the village
economy, or rather its evolution from the patriarchal agricultural economy in
which the handicrafts were only a sideline activity that complemented the
agricultural needs of The peasant households. As a result of growing
monetisation that was made necessary by sovereigns based at distance and
collecting revenue in cash (and this seems to have been the case since quite
early times in the Konkan which never had its own politically autonomous units)
there was increasingly greater "feudalisation" and growing inequality
in property relations in the countryside. (9)
This process contributed to reducing the hulk of the village
inhabitants to tenants and introducing greater degree of commodity relations.
It was a process that forced many peasant households to pay greater attention
(if not exclusive attention) to non-agricultural occupations, and also to look
beyond the village for buyers. However, this did not give rise as yet to
professional artisans producing only for the market. There was a transitional
phase when the artisans were still bound to supply for the needs of the
dominant village elite and receive full or part remuneration in kind. This is
the picture of development of village economy that emerges from the evidence
that I was able to produce for Goa's state of economy in the l6th-l7th
centuries. (10) It may be interesting to
note the need of the Azosy village for instance to make a two-year contract
with the village cobbler Braz Fernandes. His remuneration is partly given in
the form of namasy land-grant, but he is also to be paid ten xerafins in cash
in quarterly instalments. What is even more interesting is that the ganvkars
who get pairs of double-strapped sandals pay him one and half barganya, and
those who order single-strapped pair pay one bargany. (11) This fact seems to
indicate a stage of disintegration of the traditional village communities of
Goa and their diminishing self-sufficiency. Of course, the degree of this
disintegration was not the same all over Goa. Azosy and the villages nearer to
the capital city of Goa were more subject to this process due to their easier
access to the city market. This must have been true already during the
pre-Portuguese times when Goa was already known to the Arabs as an important
industrial and commercial centre. It was all the more so under the Portuguese
who made Goa commercially important on a wider scale. (12)
If this impact of the city of Goa upon the village economy
was not greater, it could be explained as due to three factors: Firstly, the
Portuguese did not believe totally in free labour, and they required certain
amount of compulsory work from the natives (veth begari). The Portuguese
punishments were also of this kind,
thereby providing forced labour in the gunpowder manufactory and for the galleys.
Secondly, largescale domestic slavery in Goa helped to restrict the
opportunities for the natives from the countryside to derive full benefits from the city needs. Thirdly,
large-scale Christianisation and the control exercised by the Religious Orders
in the village economies was an important factor. We know of skilled labour
that had to be lent free of any remuneration to build the new places of worship
in the villages. (13)
However, what seems to have favoured greater penetration of
the countryside was the all-pervading system of revenue farming and monopolies.
This promoted concentration of capital in the hands of some native merchants
and also village officials like sinay, kulkarni and potekar (tax collector).
These had control over labour they recruited from the villages in connection
with their functioning and their involvement in the city market or village land
transactions and several forms of extortions connected with revenue payment.
The peculiar anti-Hindu legislation that prevailed in Goa and did not permit
the majority of The Hindu "capitalists" to invest in lands saved the
villages from facing greater inequality of property relations. (14) However, already in the l7th century the
village communities of Goa display a marked stage of disintegration of the
traditional village set-up of the artisans as village servants. This is evident
in the fines that were imposed upon the defaulting artisans. The fact that
these were monetary fines is quite revealing. (15) Several foreign travellers
who visited Goa since late 16th century and after have left lengthy records of
their visits. The city market they describe could provide every conceivable
ware and the native Hindu and Christian artisans were very active in it. (16)
THE CASE OF CUNCOLIM
I have discussed the process of the disintegration of
village economy as having been more marked in the areas subject to market
influences of the city. However, Cuncolim was experiencing a similar process at
work though it was far from the city of Goa, and not to close to the provincial
town of Margão. We need to examine the other factors at work in the interior.
If Cuncolim led the revolt against the Portuguese in association with its neighbouring
villages, this fact needs perhaps to be understood against the background of
its own economic development and interests that were affected by the new tax
impositions and administrative-religious controls of the Portuguese. The
Portuguese chronicler Diogo do Couto describes Cuculi (sic) as "The leader
of rebellions" and its people as "The worst of all villages of
Salcete". (17) The prosperity of this village seems to have been derived
from its fertile land that had abundant and fresh waters from rivers descending
from the New Conquests and crossing it before they became brackish in the
neighbouring villages nearing the coast. (18) Surplus agricultural production
had enabled this village to develop crafts of a very skilled order. Cuncolim is
still known for its skilled metal works. But already in the letters of Afonso
de Albuquerque one reads that guns of good quality were manufactured in
Cuncolim, and he finds them comparable to those made in Germany. (19) A century
later the viceroy D. Jeronimo d'Azevedo was banning the manufacture of guns in
Cuncolim under penalty of four years in the galleys and even gallows! (20) This
kind of developed crafts can give us some idea of the economic interests that
had developed in Cuncolim when the Jesuits arrived. The village also had other
important economic resources. One of these was its permanent bazar at the end
of more than one caravan routes connecting it with the mainland through the
Ghats of the Ashthagrahar province. One of these cut through the Donkorpem Ghat
and another through the Kundal Ghat, leading to Netarli and Naiquini
respectively. Besides these two Ghat passages there was another coming from
Dighi Ghat to Veroda via Talvarda. It was frequented by caravans bringing cloth
and other provisions. (21)
Cuncolim bazar needs to be considered as an important factor
in its socio-econornic development. In keeping with the traditional fairs
connected with temple and religious festivities, also the bazar economy of
Cuncolirn depended upon its temple and religious celebrations. One should
analyse against this background the reaction of the dominant class of Cuncolim
to the destruction of its temples and to the attempts of the Jesuits who sought to establish
Christianity in Cuncolim and its satellite villages of Assolna, Velim and
Ambelim in 1583. I do not wish to repeat here the details that are sufficiently
well known about the wanton destruction of these villages by the Portuguese
soldiery preceding and following the murder of some Jesuit Fathers and some others
associated with their conversion drive in these villages. (22) They see the
"Devil at work". What I wish to stress, in keeping with the line of
argument I have proposed, is a thorough analysis of the socio-economic
compulsions behind the political and religious events that have been discussed
ad nauseam in writings concerning Cuncolim. It is important to see their
hostility to Christianity in terms of threat to their established economic and
social privileges connected with the temples and bazar. It is not so easy,
however, to assign priority to material considerations in the actual practice
of religion and the religious feelings connected with it. It is a case
comparable to the Portuguese classic claim of seeking souls and spices in
India! The people directly connected with the religious worship or responsïble
for its promotion generally speak more in terms of purely spiritual
motivations. However, their activities are sustained by the material
wherewithal provided by those engaged in economic activities. So also the
reactions of the natives of Cuncolim after the destruction of their temple were
possibly a mixture of open expressions of spiritual revulsion and less
expressed anger over the damage to socio-economic prospects of the dominant
groups of the village population. The demolition of the temples implied
deprivation of religious and cultural traditions that sustained an established
social structure and its underlying economic base.
We know it from contemporary Jesuit records that the Hindus
of Salcete tried to rebuild the temples and were ready to spend much money to
do so. (23) This was confirmed in the case of Cuncolim by a stone inscription
found in 1971 at the site of the bazar. This inscription of 12 lines in Marathi
and deciphered as belonging to the year 1579 suggests that a temple of Mahadev
was rebuilt by one Vithaldas Vithoji of Kshatriya descent. The inscription says
that any Musulman destroying it will incur the sin of the violation of a holy
place, and being a Maratha will incur the sin of killing a Brahmin. By
reconstructing it a Musulman will have the merit of going on a pilgrimage to
Mecca, and a Maratha doing the same will have the merit of a pilgrimage to
Kashi. The inclusion of shapavakya and benediction for the Musulmans is
interpreted as an expression of good treatment that the Hindus usually received
from Muslims of Bijapur. (24) Obviously there was no question of curse or
benediction for the Christians. Following the murder of the Jesuits in 1583
nothing was left of the reconstructed temple and the village elders (including
two directly involved in the massacre of the Jesuits and their companions) who
fell victims to the ruse of the Rachol captain Gomes Eannes de Figueiredo were
murdered despite a safe-conduct assured to them. (25) It is
important to note in the account of Diogo do Couto the reference to
Aganaique and Ramagaro, who were among the village elders killed by the
Portuguese captain and his soldiers treacherously, as "the most feared by
all in the village". This could be a pointer to the role played by them in
the traditional exploitative structure of the village. (26)
POST-CONVERSION INTRA-SOCIETAL CONFLICTS
The "martyrdom" and conversion of Cuncolim did not
end the exploitation by the vested interests. New ones replaced the older ones
and the conversion does not seem to have made a great difference. The later
history of Cuncolim-Veroda as Condado of The Marquis of Fronteira since its
donation in perpetuity to João da Silva and his descendents in 1585 could be
the theme for a long study and it will require access to the records of the
House of Fronteira and to many case files in the court (julgado) of Quepem of
the comarca of Salcete. There are also records among the Mhamai House Papers at
The Xavier Centre of Historical Research pertaining to the administration of
the revenues by Narayan Camotim Mhamay as Rendeiro of the Condado from 1809 to
1818 or so. Apparently, the administration of the Condado was more benevolent
than that of the Jesuits in the neighbouring Assolna-Velim-Ambelim. But only a
more detailed study could establish the truth of the appearences, because even
for the short period of the administration of revenues by Narayan Mhamai Kamat
one comes across umpteen cases of confiscation of lands and other personal
possessions of several village inhabitants who are sued in the court of law as
bad debtors to the revenue farmer. (27) I have come across instances of popular
representations against the administration of the Condado, and there are cases
of Rendeiros complaining against the abuse of authority and funds by the
procurators of the House of Fronteira in Goa. Such complaints seem to be
motivated by the rivalry among the candidates for the revenue-farming of the
Condado. (28)
The population statistics maintained in the parish records
give the Christian population of Cuncolim for every year between 1775 and 1942
as ranging between 4432 and 7236. Only from 1934 onwards figures are available
also for the non-Catholic inhabitants of the village. The proportion of Hindus
seems to be steady at little less than half of the Christian population. The
number of Muslims is never more than 500. (29)
Even though the former ganvkars of 12 vangad lost their old
administrative rights after 1583, they continued to maintain their superior
identity through the Church confraternities marked by caste exclusivism which
resulted in unhappy incidents as recently as in 1983, ironically marking the
fourth centenary of the "martyrdom" with a short-lived "Independent Church of
Cuncolim"! (30)
CONCLUDING REMARKS
What has been possible to present in this paper is only a
framework for understanding better what exactly the devil was doing in one
single instance of the missionary history of Goa. The re-writing of the history
of the Church in India, and in the Third World in general, can become relevant
only if the local situation at the time is studied and analysed more carefully
and with greater empathy. Every reference to "devil at work" in the
missionary reports could thus become a suggestion for re-assessment and a
starting point to write a new chapter in the history of the people and their
religious-cultural development.
REFERENCES
Lukas Vischer (ed.), Towards a History of lhe Church in the
Third World, Bem, 1985.
Ladislas-Michel Zaleski, The Saints of India, Mangalore,
1915, pp. 7-9.
Ibid., p. 341.
M. G. S. Narayanan, "India’s Encounter with the West:
The Portuguese Colonial Missionary Experience in Long-Term Perspective"
(Mimeographed Text, 19 pp.)
Ibid.
Carmo Azevedo, "Timmaya: A Quisling?", Essays in
Goan History, ed. Teotonio R. de Souza, New Delhi, Conccpt Publishing Co., pp.
23-28.
Anthony D’Costa, The Christianisation of the Goa Islands,
Bombay, India Printing Works, 1965, pp. 40, 47, 99, 117.
Documenta Indica, I, ed. J. Wicki, Rome, 1948, pp. 68,70.
A. I. Chicherov, India: Economic Development in the
l6th-18th centuries – Outline History of Crafts and Trade, Moscow, 1974, p.
135.
Teotonio R. de Souza, Medieval Goa, New Delhi, Conccpt
Publishing Co., 1979.
Ibid., p. 85.
Chicherov, op. cit., p. 135.
Teotonio R. de Souza, op. cit., pp. 93, 117, 124-126.
Teotonio R. de Souza, "Mhamai House Records: Indigenous
Sources for Indo-Portuguese Historiography", The Indian Archives, XXXI,
n.1 (1982), pp. 25-45.
Teotonio R. de Souza, Medieval Goa, p.86
Ibid., pp. 117-119, 121.
Diogo do Couto, Decada X, P. I, L. III, Cap. XVI (Lisboa,
1788), pp. 383-85.
XCHR Manuscripts — J. N. da Fonseca Papers: Contains replies
sent by various villages and other State bodies to a quesitonnaire circulated
by Dr. J. N. da Fonseca in 1875 with the help of J. H. da Cunha Rivara. These
replies were partly used by Dr.Fonseca in preparation of his classic An
Historical and Archaelogícal Sketch of theCity of Goa, Bombay, 1878.
Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, ed. Bulhão Pato, Lisboa,
1884, Vol.I, p. 203.
Archivo Portuguez-Oriental, ed. Cunha Rivara, Nova Goa,
1875, Fase. 6, doc. 259.
Ajuda Lihrary (Lisbon), Ms. 54-X-20. It provides very
interesting information about the Ghat passes leading into the Konkan
territories of Bhosles and Sunda. Gives location and lengths of the various
routes, and also brief information about their military or trade importance.
Documenta Indica, XII, ed. J. Wicki, Rome, 1972, pp.
916-933: Valignano’s contemporary account of the martyrdom, dated Goa 8
December 1853.
Ibid., p. 920.
V. T. Gune, "Meaning of ‘Maratha Houni", Maratha
History Seminar Papers, ed. A. G. Pawar, Kolhapur, 1971, pp. 1-6.
Diogo do Couto, op.cit., pp. 509-514.
Loc. cit.
XCHR: Mhamay House Papers.
Ibid.. Also a set of manuscripts I purchased from an
alfarrabista in Lisbon and belonging to 1848. A report on Cuncolim dated July
1921 discusses the implications of a strike by the people of Cuncolim to
cultivate the lands of the Condado in 1911. There was much resentment against
the administration of Condado by João Joaquim Roque Correia Afonso, who is
accused by some residents of Cuncolim of cxploiting his job for personal gains.
The report also points a finger to one João Rebelo who used his association
with the Portuguese consulate in Bombay to enrich himself considerably and has
now showing iriterest in exciting natives of Cuncolim against the Condado.
Archive of the Archbishop-Patriarch (Panjirn): Ms. Rois de
Goa and Rois de Salcete.
Leopoldo Rocha, As Confrarias de Goa: Conspecto
Histórico-Jurídico, Lisboa, 1973, pp. 301-302; Thomas Aquinas, Cuncolim is a
Historic Village, Cuncolim, 1983.
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