Saint Francis Xavier and the Goa Inquisition

This is a response to hindutva propagandists who have been spreading lies about St. Francis Xavier claiming he could not convert Konkani brahmins through his preaching so he resorted to forcibly torturing them to get them to convert to Christianity using the Goa Inquisition. The main source cited by these propagandists is a letter from Francis Xavier to king John III of Portugal, but before I get into the letter, I want to lay some context for the unacquainted reader:

1. Christianity is a 2000 year old missionary religion. Jesus taught his disciples to "go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation" [Mark 16:15] and "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" [Matthew 28:19]. From the very beginning the Gospel or Good news has been proclaimed inviting repentance and conversion with baptism.
2. For the first 15 centuries, Christians were mostly united and there was no need to clarify the Church which Jesus Christ founded, but that changed with the reformation by Martin Luther. The word Catholic means Universal and become a way to denote those who remained with the Apostolic Church after the protestant reformation in 1500s. But the first recorded usage of the word Catholic dates back to the first century A.D in a letter by Bishop of Antioch to the Smyrnaens (people of Smyrna). Both Antioch and Smyrna are located in modern day Turkey.
3. St. Francis Xavier was Spanish, and worked as a missionary in Goa, a Portuguese province. Among Spain and Portugal, the concept of Inquisition originated during the Muslim occupation of Iberian peninsula after the conquest of Tariq ibn Ziyad, who defeated the Visigothic king Roderic in the battle of Guadalete in 711 AD and they remained in Spain for centuries, finally driven out in 1492. There is a tremendous amount of history here which I would argue is more enjoyable than movies and shows on Netflix and other streaming platforms or in theatres. For more information on the historic events during this period, including the birth of Portugal, research the Spanish Reconquista on history channels and source materials of the same. More on the Inquisition in point 7.
4. Spain + Portugal = Iberia. Portugal did not exist for a thousand years of Christian history. The peninsula was called Iberia in ancient times. During the Christian era it comprised of different kingdoms (Castille, Aragon and Navarre) later united into Spain. In 1143, Portugal  (blue region in map) was formed out of the Western part of then Spain. Both Spain and Portugal developed maritime technology - ships and navigation with a desire to reach the hitherto unknown parts of the world and spread Christianity there.
   
5. Catholic today = traditional Christian. In the english speaking Western world - USA, UK, most churches belong to Bible based offshoot movement of Christianity which has given birth to thousands of denominations. Historically Luther was the fountainhead of the reformation which began the splitting of Christianity into thousands of denominations. The countries we focus on here - Spain and Portugal remained with the historical Church from the time of Jesus Christ, called the Catholic Church. The reason this is important is because from an Indian context, the most influential country is the UK and the British monarchy through the East India Company ruled the Indian subcontinent from the battle of Plassey 1757 to 1947 - roughly 190 years. The city of Bangalore where I live for example was a key British centre and so were cities like Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. The British also built the large network of rail routes across the country to effectively transport goods/people mainly for economic gain. The British royal family today are successors of king Henry VIII who severed ties with the Catholic church so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope (head of the Catholic Church) denied his request for annulment of his first wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon. Henry VIII founded the Anglican church in 1534.
6. In Indian context, Portugal is important because they occupied Goa. More about how and why later. Spain and Portugal both pioneered discovery of distant lands and they had an agreement dividing the world into kingdoms which the Spanish and Portuguese would explore, conquer and colonise. The Spanish crown sent Hernan Cortez and Christopher Columbus thereby claiming Latin America and the Portuguese later brought parts of South America under their influence. On the other hand the Portuguese under the explorers Bartolmeu Dias and Pedra Alvares Cabral ventured around the the coast of Africa and rounded the Cape of Good Hope. It was the famous explorer Vasco da Gama followed by Alfonso de Albuquerque and Francisco de Almeida who first established Portuguese presence in Goa and Cochin. Besides India the Portuguese and Spanish brought parts of Indonesia, Philippines and Japan under their influence. Other major European naval powers in an Indian context are the British, French and Dutch.
7. Started in 1478 in mainland Spain, the Spanish Inquisition was imposed as an enquiry on Christians who had converted from Islam and Judaism reported to be going back to their former religious practices. As a result of this inquisition people fled to Portugal so Portugal started their own Inquisition in 1536. The key point to note with both these Inquisitions is that they were applied on Christians to ensure they were faithful to the faith that they officially professed.
8. St. Francis Xavier, besides working as a Christian missionary in Goa, also worked as a missionary in Indonesian islands of Maluku and Ternate, Japan and off-shore China. St. Francis Xavier was not an ordinary priest, but had the very important position of Apostolic Nuncio. Nuncio is an official representative of the Universal Catholic Church of Rome in a territory or country. St. Francis Xavier was at the position of an Ambassador in todays language in all these lands mentioned above. In his role as Nuncio, he wrote a number of letters to the Pope and monarchs of countries like Spain and Portugal in whole colonies he worked.

Now, let's look at the paragraph in the actual letter from St. Francis Xavier regarding the request for the Inquisition.

Date: 16th May, 1546

To: King John III of Portugal

The second necessity for the Christians is that your majesty establish the holy Inquisition because there are many who live according to the Jewish law and according to the Mohammedan law without any fear of God or shame of the world. And since there are many who are spread around the fortresses, there is a need of the holy Inquisition and of many preachers.

This is the only letter of St. Francis Xavier where the Inquisition was requested.

1. Firstly note that the focus of the letter is not any other religious group but the Christians "second necessity for the Christians". Ostensibly these were converts to Christianity based on point 2 below.
2. Secondly, the examples cited are of those Christians who are practising Jewish/Muslim law and way of life. Notice that nothing is mentioned about Brahmins or Hindus. Not directly and not even an indirect reference made using words like heathen/pagan.
3. The most astounding aspect of this letter is the place from where it was written. As mentioned already, St. Francis Xavier was a Spanish missionary working besides Goa in islands of Indonesia, Japan and off-shore China. The letter was written from the fort of Amboina (picture below) in the island Maluku of Indonesia. The word fortresses mentioned in this letter give us a clue of where it was written from. Therefore the letter was not written from any part of India but from an Indonesian island.
   
4. The word Indonesia means islands of India. This is how these Portuguese colonies were addressed during that period. But the only Portuguese colony in present day India is Goa and there is a huge distance between Goa and Amboina. One needs to travel from the Arabian Sea, thousands of kilometres across the Indian Ocean to reach this Maluku island of the Indonesian archipelago.
5. As mentioned in the first point in the Context section, Christianity is a missionary religion and has been so since the very beginning. In the very beginning of the book of Acts in chapter 2, the apostle Peter preaches and 3000 are added to the number of Christians. St. Paul made 4 missionary journeys the last which ended with his beheading in Rome. The missionary nature of Christianity is not a changing phenomenon based on historical and political situation. Rather it comes from one of the most important command of Jesus Christ, based on its location at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew and Mark. It is one of the last recorded command of Jesus in the Gospels.
6. For the first 300 years Christianity underwent severe persecution - worship was forbidden so Christians worshipped in tombs called catacombs and early Christians were crucified, burned, beheaded, thrown to lions and subjected to every conceivable torture and execution. There was no temporal benefit but every possible suffering and danger for those early Christians and the same is true even today. My ancestors faced severe persecution under Tipu Sultan the "tiger of Mysore", having their ears and nose cut off and marched hundreds of kilometres given a choice to apostatise and if they refused thrown down from a steep precipice to their deaths. More recently, several missionaries were killed in India instigated by right wing hindutva elements - Graham Staines and his 2 sons aged 10 and 6, Sister Rani Maria, several Christians in Kandhamal, Odisha; and just over a year ago Manipur Christians, who still are suffering totally ignored by the right wing government in the state and center.

Understanding these points it becomes clear the depth of lies and propaganda from the hindutva elements. There is nothing new about hatred of Christianity and propaganda against the Holy Catholic(Universal) Faith. The mockery of Jesus Christ and the Apostles at the ongoing Paris Olymipics in a disgusting Last Supper drag performance is just the latest in the long list. What is needed is a dispassionate objective investigation of the facts and true history in the face of those who work feverishly to rewrite a false version for the consumption of unassuming public.