THU: July 3, 2025: Shalva Weil. The Jews of Goa under the Portuguese

25 views
Skip to first unread message

fredericknoronha

unread,
Jul 2, 2025, 2:37:43 PMJul 2
to Goa-Research-Net

Shalva Weil
The Jews of Goa under the Portuguese

Thursday 3.07.2025
How to watch
This lecture starts on 3 July at 5:00pm (UK).
Summary

Please note this session will only be available to watch live.

There may have been early settlement of Jews in Goa, but there certainly was a Jewish colony there under the Portuguese. However, the Portuguese set up an Inquisition in Goa and tried many Jews and conversos or New Christians. They kept alive Garcia de Orta (1501-68), the physician of the king and a famous botanist, but burned his sister on the stake. By the 18th century the community of Jews had disappeared but their memory lingered on in some families to this day.

https://www.lockdownuniversity.org/lectures/2560-the-jews-of-goa-under-the-portuguese


William Robert Da Silva

unread,
Jul 5, 2025, 7:57:27 AMJul 5
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Your explanation is too meagre in historical explanation. The Jews and early Christians were in West-Coast India very early for trade, continuing before and after the fall of Rome. Cosmas Indicopleustes etc. are examples of this and we need to explore more in these areas. What is done is Goa, Portugal is too meagre to bring out history.
William Robert Da Silva

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-research-n...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/01568723-9a2f-4dcb-b6c1-9e811bfa52f0n%40googlegroups.com.

Peter de Souza

unread,
Jul 5, 2025, 9:29:01 AMJul 5
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Is the lecture recorded to listen to

Tino de Sa

unread,
Jul 5, 2025, 9:29:07 AMJul 5
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
What a terrible pity that the lecture is not available on youtube! Or is it? 
Tino de Sa



--
Dr. Anthony de Sa, IAS (Retd), PhD, FRICS, MPA (Harvard)
Former Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh,
Former Chairman, MP Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA)
Mobile (WhatsApp): +91-9810981818
         tino...@gmail.com

frederic...@gmail.com

unread,
Jul 5, 2025, 9:52:19 AMJul 5
to Goa-Research-Net
Portuguese bias and discrimination (during their early rule of Goa especially) against the Muslims who were ruling Goa just prior has been widely accepted and acknowledged, as are their anti-Jewish policies for some period of the Empire (even though some prominent sections of the Jewish population also played a crucial role in propping up the colonial State at other points of its history). But are we heading for several sweeping generalisations and conflating distinct categories in ways that can mislead?
  • Jewish colony: There is no substantial historical evidence of a formal, self-governing Jewish colony in Portuguese Goa akin to those seen in places like Cochin (today's Kochi), Cranganore (Kannur), or the Middle East.
  • Conflating “Jews” with “New Christians” obscures the reality: The Inquisition in Goa did not target Jews as a distinct ethnic or religious minority openly practicing Judaism, but rather Portuguese New Christians (converted Jews and their descendants) suspected of secretly maintaining Jewish practices. While their Jewish heritage did matter symbolically to the Inquisition, they were prosecuted within the framework of Christian heresy, not religious pluralism.
  • Garcia de Orta’s fate reflects complexity, not anomaly: Even assuming all we believe about the Inquisition is true (cf. Alan Machado), Orta died in 1568 before the formal installation of the Goan Inquisition (1560s onward in practice, with full tribunals active by the 1570s). This tragic episode does not prove the presence of a coherent Jewish community, some of whom faced action depending on their utility to the Portuguese State, but rather illustrates how individuals of Jewish descent lived under intense suspicion, even decades after conversion at certain points of Portuguese history. Someone made the point that, across history,, Jewish populations were probably treated better in the Middle East, than in Europe.
  • Disappearance of the "community" was not solely due to persecution: The category had already been erased institutionally by conversion (sometimes undertaken under duress and pressure) and assimilation centuries earlier. Those of Jewish descent either assimilated fully into Christian society; migrated (possibly to Dutch or Ottoman territories); or were absorbed into the broader category of Luso-Goans.
  • The "Lingering Memory" claim needs caution: This  is plausible claim but it is difficult to verify without risking to fall into speculative theorising or retrospective identity construction. FN

John de Figueiredo

unread,
Jul 5, 2025, 7:09:57 PMJul 5
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com, goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
This description of the activities of the Inquisition in Goa is misleading. Alan Machado (Prabhu) demonstrated on the basis of original documents that the primary targets of the Inquisition of Goa were not Jews, Hindus, and other Non-Christians unless they interfered with the workings of the Inquisition. The primary targets were Christians. As I noted in my articles on the practice of Ayurvedic Medicine in Goa, when Gabriel Dellon was in jail and pretended to be sick, the Inquisitors brought a Hindu physician to treat him. Machado (Prabhu) also demonstrated that the Inquisition in Goa was relatively mild compared to the ones in Portugal. The clear proof of this is the independent testimony of foreign travelers in the 16th and 17th centuries that there were several synagogues in Goa and Jews and Hindus were practicing their religion freely in Goa. There was even a Rua dos Judeus (Road of the Jews) in Old Goa (Velha Goa) which suggests that Jews were settled in Goa. Yet, as Machado (Prabhu) noted, the same fictions about the Inquisition of Goa get repeated over and over.
John M. de Figueiredo 
Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 5, 2025, at 9:29 AM, Tino de Sa <tino...@gmail.com> wrote:



sandra lobo

unread,
Jul 6, 2025, 3:31:09 AMJul 6
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Hello,

I'm not a specialist in the area. Adding to Alan Machado, I can suggest the works of Miguel Rodrigues Lourenço - https://fcsh-unl.academia.edu/MiguelLouren%C3%A7o; https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/2850/285022064003.pdf -  namely a paper where he discusses historiographic discourses regarding the inquisition in Goa (Reputação, rigor e autoridade da Inquisição em Goa: da incompreensão histórica à mitificação historiográfica) - Giuseppe Marcocci -  https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lHhCe7kAAAAJ&hl=en - and Bruno Feitler - https://unifesp.academia.edu/BrunoFeitler. All of them have work that may help illuminating the discussion.

Best wishes,

Sandra





Sandra Ataíde Lobo  

         

Home (gieipc-ip.org)                              https://praticasdahistoria.pt/

tmn. ++351 930690459



De: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> em nome de John de Figueiredo <john...@sbcglobal.net>
Enviado: 6 de julho de 2025 00:09
Para: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>
Assunto: Re: [GRN] THU: July 3, 2025: Shalva Weil. The Jews of Goa under the Portuguese
 

alan machado

unread,
Jul 6, 2025, 5:12:20 AMJul 6
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
1561-1623 statistics for OFFENCES for which individuals were prosecuted

1561-1570 1571-1580 1581-1590 1591-1600 1601-1610 1611-1620
Islam 104 82 94 151 36 154
Judaism 55 188 27 14 12 8
Bigamy 24 4 9 17 48 44
Issues of behaviour and heresy 27 50 46 104 82 123
Lutherism 17 8 4 6 5 10
Gentilidade 13 32 56 193 661 574
Crimes against the faith or Inq 51 66 38 67 86 67
not specified 2 4 4 1
sodomy 6 18 36 50
total 293 434 284 571 966 1030

NOTE: prosecutions were for the practice of Judaism, not because someone was a Jew. 
Total Jews prosecuted during this period                                     15.
Cristao Novo (Christians of Jewish or Morish extract)                337
Cristao velho (Portuguese of non Jewish/ Moorish extract)        608

The  Rua dos Judeus was located between Saint Augustine Monastery and Santa Monica. It was probably where Jewish merchants ran their businesses (open to correction).
Alan


















alan machado

unread,
Jul 6, 2025, 5:15:29 AMJul 6
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
For details on how inquisitors conducted their investigation on such offences, read Lourenco's translation of the process of Catherina da Orta.  

Tino de Sa

unread,
Jul 6, 2025, 8:35:34 AMJul 6
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Spot on, FN! Brilliantly analysed.
Tino

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-research-n...@googlegroups.com.

Tino de Sa

unread,
Jul 6, 2025, 8:35:47 AMJul 6
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
But John, that is exactly what FN said. The 'Jews' who were targeted by the Inquisition were not because they were ethnic Jews, or Jews who professed and practised the Jewish faith (these were discriminated against, but not subject to the Inquisition), but Jews who had converted to Christianity, but were suspected of - as Christians - practising rituals of their former religion in secret.
Tino de Sa

Joao Paulo Cota

unread,
Jul 6, 2025, 8:36:25 AMJul 6
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
On my extensive research on my recent book on the life of St Francis Xavier that was set in the 1500's, almost 100% bigamy cases were all related to white Portuguese Christians, who were hardly practising their religion. Some had multiple slaves disguised as concubines or helpers. The worst case in Goa was of somebody with over a dozen concubines and an extreme case of somebody in East Africa that had 25 concubines... that was quite normal at the time, specially before the inquisition started in 1560's in Goa.
Most of these inquisition cases were all directed to Christians who did not live up to practising their birth religion or new Christians who had hidden idols of worship hidden in their closets, but availing of the 'benefits' of their newly adopted religion. There were Brahmins in high position of government who had always openly voiced their opposition to conversion, and they were not targeted at the inquisition.
Exemption from quasi-forced work at the Ribeira dockyards where the naus / carracks and other lighter ships were made, as well as at the Arsenal where guns were manufactured, were applicable when these natives adopted Christianity. But failure to follow the religion, led many of these to be tried for 'acts against the faith'.

From: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of alan machado <alan.m...@gmail.com>
Sent: 06 July 2025 09:15
To: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [GRN] THU: July 3, 2025: Shalva Weil. The Jews of Goa under the Portuguese
 

Tino de Sa

unread,
Jul 6, 2025, 8:36:37 AMJul 6
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Interesting information, Alan. Yes, it is in your remarkable book.
Tino

alan machado

unread,
Jul 6, 2025, 8:56:05 AMJul 6
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com

Thank you Tino 

Frederick is correct. Portugals policies towards Muslims and Jews was dictated more by realpolitik than religious considerations. Largely to defend and secure their Asia-Europe trade. 
Of the twenty cristaos novo taken to Lisbon before the first inquisitors landed in Goa, one was burnt. From the information I have some of the others were released after serving a short prison sentence and managed to leave for ottoman territory. To me it appears the prime motivation was to remove them from Goa. The inquisition was very successful in weaponising heresy to neutralise the perceived threat. Very soon many of the most influential cristaos novo moved to safer regions


John de Figueiredo

unread,
Jul 6, 2025, 1:55:17 PMJul 6
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com, goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
I was not referring to FN’s comment, I was referring to the announcement of the lecture “The Jews of Goa under the Portuguese” by Professor Shalya Weil. It says that “many Jews” were tried but Alan’s research shows that only 15 were tried. The focus of the Inquisitors was on Christians, not on Jews or on Hindus.
Death by fire was not unusual those days. Before the establishment of the Inquisition in Goa, several homosexuals were killed by fire, and both Goan Christians and Hindus approved their killings. There was also the practice of “sati” (“suttee”). Thus being said, to disinter the remains of a person and burn them and to burn women who were old and poor are horrific displays of religious intolerance and most certainly contrary to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth under whose name those practices were conducted.. Pyrard de Laval was probably right when he stated that the practices of the Inquisition were excessive even for the standards of the time. What Alan’s research shows is that those practices in Goa were milder than in Portugal.
John M. de Figueiredo 
Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 6, 2025, at 8:35 AM, Tino de Sa <tino...@gmail.com> wrote:


But John, that is exactly what FN said. The 'Jews' who were targeted by the Inquisition were not because they were ethnic Jews, or Jews who professed and practised the Jewish faith (these were discriminated against, but not subject to the Inquisition), but Jews who had converted to Christianity, but were suspected of - as Christians - practising rituals of their former religion in secret.
Tino de Sa

On Sun, Jul 6, 2025 at 4:39 AM John de Figueiredo <john...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Tino de Sa

unread,
Jul 6, 2025, 3:22:38 PMJul 6
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
This clarifies things, John. And seems to be a fair and accurate historical assessment.
Tino

Sonia Gomes

unread,
Jul 7, 2025, 5:46:32 AMJul 7
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
I am reading Pe. Gabriel Saldanha and a great many times, he mentions about fields as well as coconut groves removed from the possession of Hindus and donated to convents and churches for their upkeep. Also Dr. Leopoldo da Rocha mentions in a monograph of various strictures passed against various festivities and the personal lives of the Hindus. Even clothes. Now considering the disruption of lives, the loss of property, bought by so many Catholics at throw away prices, would this be a part of the Inquisition? And the kidnapping of orfãos from the Hindu families to be handed over to the Pai dos Cristãos for conversion to Catholics even if there were Hindu families willing to bring them up as Hindus. Which part of Inquisition is this? Or does the Inquisition only deal with torture and Autos de fé? Dr. Pacheco de Figueiredo would like your opinion. Thank you and much appreciated.
Sonia do Rosario Gomes 

John de Figueiredo

unread,
Jul 7, 2025, 6:01:56 AMJul 7
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com, goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Dear Sonia,
I defer this to Alan Machado (Prabhu) who is an expert on this subject. 
Best regards,
John
Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 7, 2025, at 5:46 AM, Sonia Gomes <rgs...@gmail.com> wrote:



Sonia Gomes

unread,
Jul 7, 2025, 2:37:55 PMJul 7
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Thank you very much Dr. Pacheco de Figueiredo. 

Regards 

Sonia do Rosario Gomes 

William Robert Da Silva

unread,
Jul 8, 2025, 6:10:47 AMJul 8
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Orphans could have been made by the Portuguese in war, struggles etc. However, there was no concept of orphan except within caste groups as parentless children. Sick between castes was a discrination along the purity line from higher to lower and lepers were shunned by all families on roads. There is more to this from my studies from Goa archves and field between 1988-1995.
W R Da Silva

Joao Paulo Cota

unread,
Jul 8, 2025, 9:11:12 AMJul 8
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
The concept of 'orphan' did exist then in early 1500's. Young orphan women from Portugal were sent to Goa to marry single Portuguese men who were stationed in Goa.
They were cared initially by the Casa da Misericordia mainly and their upkeeping directly paid by the king himself. They were given a dowry upon marriage, also borne by the king.
Unfortunately, many of these single Portuguese guys residing in Goa, many of them uneducated and ex-criminals looking for a better life, preferred to live with concubines... than the be 'grounded' by a wife at home.
The 'casados' were better educated and had benefitted by the orphan arrangement from Portugal, to try increase the white Portuguese lineage in Goa, as general women were not allowed to travel on ships to Goa till a certain date.
Most of the soldiers who fought in wars were single and left no orphans behind, apart from the few 'mestico' children they might had fathered with a concubine living in his house. But they always had their mother on their side, so technically not left as orphans when the father died in battle. Many white Portuguese soldiers who died in Indian lands had wife and kids living in Portugal, but they were not allowed to bring them in to Goa either.

From: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of William Robert Da Silva <wrds...@gmail.com>
Sent: 08 July 2025 05:32
To: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [GRN] THU: July 3, 2025: Shalva Weil. The Jews of Goa under the Portuguese
 

fredericknoronha

unread,
Jul 8, 2025, 10:58:14 AMJul 8
to Goa-Research-Net
Not all repression in Portuguese Goa was the Inquisition (and not all of the Portuguese rule was repression alone).  Actually, the Goa Inquisition was a formal institution of the Catholic Church, focussed primarily on religious orthodoxy, targetting mainly "New Christians" (converted Jews and Muslims suspected of continuing their own faith) and converts who were accused of relapsing in their beliefs.  Hindus living under Portuguese rule were not subject to the Inquisition.  It tried (i) Converts for "relapsing" to their old practices (ii) "Crypto" Jews and Muslims (iii) Europeans or missionaries suspected of "heretical beliefs".

Confiscation of native lands was a colonial strategy, not an Inquisition doctrine.  This was common among colonial regimes worldwide, including Mughal and British Indian.  We see new forms of it at play in our times too.  Likewise, regulation of dress and festivals was more about control, not just religion.  This continued after the Inquisition was abolished, and was not unique to it.

The so-called Orfãos do Estado ("State Orphans") was a broader colonial policy, part of the Iberian colonial idea of "civilising" non-Christians.  The aim was to assimilate them into Portuguese-Christian society, while ignoring the wishes of surviving kin.  Of course, this is deeply problematic, but it is distinct from the Inquisition's judicial role of trying cases of what it saw as heresy and apostasy.

Pe.  Gabriel Saldanha and Dr Leopoldo da Rocha have left us valuable writing; but they need to be read in context.  Saldanha was a Catholic priest and historian of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; his accounts need to be seen against his own biases and the framework of that era.  Dr Rocha wrote at a time where anti-clericalism and secular nationalism were on the rise in Goa, and his critiques could reflect that.

In a word: we should be careful not to collapse all colonial oppression under the "Inquisition" umbrella. It has been convenient short-hand for a lot many things for some time now. FN

Tino de Sa

unread,
Jul 8, 2025, 11:57:43 AMJul 8
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
FN - a first class summary of the critical points to bear in mind while making a historical assessment of the Inquisition.
Ignorance about what the Inquisition meant, and the legal framework under which it operated is colossal, even among Catholics. 
The current trend to see the Inquisition as an instrument of 'conversion' is laughable. In fact, the reverse is probably true: since the Inquisition extended only to those who had been baptised, and not to non-Christians (except in very special cases, where a non-Christian was found to be actively engaged in opposing it), the Inquisition probably dissuaded many from accepting baptism, lest they come under its mandate! So while it brought about severe travails for Christians, both 'old' and 'new', it certainly had nothing to do with furthering conversions of non-Christians to Christianity!
Tino de Sa


You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-research-n...@googlegroups.com.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-research-n...@googlegroups.com.

Sonia Gomes

unread,
Jul 8, 2025, 1:31:11 PMJul 8
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Sorry: Nothing more to say. Both Pe. Gabriel Saldanha as well as Dr. Leopoldo da Rocha  wrote in Portuguese. As far as I know, there are no translations in English. 
So who has done this insightful analyses of both their books? Thank you very much. I appreciate your thoughts but I have no desire to get into any arguments with you Frederico. Thank you very much.
Sonia do Rosario Gomes 

On Tue, 8 Jul, 2025, 10:18 pm Sonia Gomes, <rgs...@gmail.com> wrote:
Nothing to say

fredericknoronha

unread,
Jul 8, 2025, 1:42:23 PMJul 8
to Goa-Research-Net
Dr Leopoldo da Rocha's work on the confrarias is here:

Pe. Gabriel Saldanha's Historia de Goa may be quite forgotten in Goa itself, but is available online here:

Note: It can sometimes be tough to access the Internet Achieve from Goa or other parts of India.
FN

alan machado

unread,
Jul 8, 2025, 11:24:18 PMJul 8
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
I would have liked to contribute more on this subject but am too tied up just now to devote the time it requires. 

Attached is a paper by Bruno Feitler. It was written with a degree of collaboration with me. 
We also worked together on compiling a database of 8250 individuals prosecuted by Goa's Inquisition. It is freely available and can be analysed for various enlightening data by anyone familiar with excel.

For instance, you will find material on orphans, a subject discussed earlier. 

Alan  

  

The investigations of the Inquisition and the role of the “familiars” – Digital History and Culture Heritage.pdf

alan machado

unread,
Jul 8, 2025, 11:28:35 PMJul 8
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
I'd like to add that some words get lost in translation
"kindness" is given as the word for gentilidade, the term used for activities covering gentile practices
"penas" is penance not feathers as google translate suggests

William Robert Da Silva

unread,
Jul 9, 2025, 6:05:17 AMJul 9
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
A visit to S. Arabia long ago, to a place now in ruins, Nazaran, access to which is sensitive and I got it through very personal contact in the ministry, gave me the contact to Nazareth, Nazaran and West Coast Nasrani or Nazarani of Tipu Sultan. I have gone along the entire west coast in Konkani, Malayalam, Tulu etc. in order to identify the Nazaran, Nazarani and 'Nasrani.' Arrival of the Portuguese in search of Christians and Spices is a litteroral story for coastal West. There is more here. Unfortunately, quite a few of my hand-written MSS have been lost, stolen or misplaced in my library which shifted to many with 'interest' in this material. I am recovering wedding celebrations pieces at present (I have begun with Dr. Jayanti Nayak for parallel references) and next I will work on Conversos, Castico, Mestico and Casado etc. Soldado, casar, casado etc. Recovery through key words which have become technical in social sciences like caste etc.
All the best in your work.
W R DaSilva

Sonia Gomes

unread,
Jul 9, 2025, 6:06:25 AMJul 9
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Thank you Frederico, I have a copy of the Confrarias offered by Dr. Leopoldo da Rocha to me, just before his death. Also a copy of Pe. Saldanha. Thank you. Appreciated.
Sonia do Rosario Gomes 

Sonia Gomes

unread,
Jul 11, 2025, 12:25:21 PMJul 11
to goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages