CRIME AGAINST INDIA NEEDS TOTAL STRINGENTS AGAINST CONVERSION TO PROTECT VEDIC TRADITIONS

CRIMES AGAINST INDIA and THE NEED TO PROTECT ITS ANCIENT VEDIC The Account below is as gruesome beyond human imagination. We hear time and again people going for their holidays and relaxation to Goa …..see what lies behind its history. A particularly grave abuse was practiced in Goa in the form of ‘mass baptism’ and what went before it. The practice was begun by the Jesuits and was initiated by the Franciscans also. The Jesuits staged an annual mass baptism on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25), and in order to secure as many neophytes as possible, a few days before the ceremony the Jesuits would go through the streets of the Hindu quarter in pairs, accompanied by their Negro slaves, whom they would urge to seize the Hindus. When the blacks caught up a fugitive, they would smear his lips with a piece of beef, making him an ‘untouchable’ among his people. Conversion to Christianity was then his only option.” Others found conversion politically useful, like the fishermen of Tamil Nadu who sold their souls to Christian priests in exchange for the protection of the Portuguese army against their Muslim neighbors. However, the deal was not completely voluntary. Those fishermen who refused to convert were attacked on the Malabar coast by the Portuguese navy. Entire fishing boats were set ablaze, as their women and children helplessly watched from the shores. Those fishermen, who jumped into the water to save their lives, were either bayoneted or shot dead.

            To fuel hatred of the newly converted Christians against the Hindus, the Portuguese would spread many false stories. One referred to Thomas the apostle, who was said to have landed in India in 52 CE at Cranganore on the Malabar Coast and established the first church later known as the Syrian Church . In 68 CE, St. Thomas was allegedly martyred near modern day Chennai ( Madras ) and a large cathedral there now is said to house a basement crypt containing the relics of St. Thomas . However, there is controversy with evidence that St. Thomas never went there. Also, in the cathedral of St. Thomas at Chennai (San Thome Cathedral Basilica) there is also a painting that shows Thomas praying while he is being stabbed to death with a lance by a Ramanuja Vaishnava Brahmana wearing Vishnu tilak (forehead mark). It is interesting to remember that the Shree Vaishnavas and their tilak did not come into history until the 11^th century, almost 1000 years later. Therefore, this shows the deceitfulness in their stories and conversion tactics. There was little if any conversions based on the purity of their teachings, but they instead had to rely on spreading lies and treachery, and even savagery to make converts to their religion, as we will soon see.   
At least from 1540 onwards the Portuguese destroyed all the Hindu temples in the area, over 300 of them, and stopped all Hindu worship and even the popular traditions that were not directly connected with the religion.  
It was in 1560 that the King of Portugal sent the first inquisitors to India after the request of the preacher and Hindu hater Francis Xavier. This was the start of the compassionate and merciful Goan Inquisition that tortured and killed many thousands of Indians who merely followed the traditions of their culture. This was the real change in the presence of the Portuguese when, being intolerant in religion, they introduced the Inquisition with all its horrors. “Inquisition” was the Court established by the Catholic government for search of and for punishing heretics. This justification for cruelty, mercilessness, and corruption was called the “Holy Office”. It had been established in Spain in 1481 and in Portugal in 1541. Thus, it was set up in Goa in 1560 through 1774, and 1778 to 1812. This was regarded as barbaric and totally cruel … The laws enforced by the Inquisition in 1560 were many and demanded such things as the prohibition of the use of Indian musical instruments and Indian songs during marriage ceremonies, the use of betel and pan, and the distribution of food to poor people in honor of some deceased person. Other prohibitions concerned the harvest festivals, cooking rice without salt, fasting on the holydays, on Wednesdays, full moon and new moon, or bathing before entering the kitchen for preparing the meals. They also ordered all the coconut trees and tulasi plants to be uprooted from all gardens. All those who disobeyed the orders of the Inquisition were subject to horrible punishments. More than 2,000 people were burned alive, and many more tortured.
Over time they established many more laws to stifle the Hindu population of the area in many ways. For example, in June of 1557, the King D. Joao ordered that no Government Official should utilize the services of the Brahmanas or other infidels and contrary to this, the Official will lose his job and the Brahmana will become captive and lose all property. All jobs must be given to Christians and not to Hindus. This was to make the Hindus completely helpless and, more or less, slaves.
On April 2, 1560, the Viceroy ordered that the Brahmanas should be thrown out of the island of Goa and the lands and fortresses of the King of Portugal. On November 27, 1563, a law was passed to the effect that all Hindu physicians, carpenters, blacksmiths, and shop keepers were asked to sell their property and leave the Portuguese territory. On April 3, 1582, a Royal Decree was re-issued that no Hindu, regardless of his status or condition, should hold any public office. All Christian officials were forbidden from utilizing the services of any Brahmanas or Hindus. Later, on March 13, 1613, and again on January 31, 1620, laws were enacted to impose a ban on the performance of all Hindu rites and ceremonies, including marriages.
Additional demands included that all Hindus were obliged to assemble periodically in churches to be lectured by the priests about the inferiority of their religion. The poor could not be fed nor ceremonial meals distributed for the peace of the souls of the dead. No rituals could be performed on the 12^th day after a person’s death, or on moonless or full moon days. There could be no fasting on the Ekadashi days. Hindu men could not wear dhotis, even in their own homes. And women could not wear cholis. However, Hindus embracing Christianity would be exempt from land taxes for up to 15 years. But no one should bear any Hindu names. A most blatant abuse of power by the clergy was the order that all orphans could be baptized as Christians, which lead to the kidnapping of numerous orphans, and the establishment of many Christian orphanages. 
            The Hindus of Goa were shocked to see that the God of Christianity was more cruel than the God of Islam, or the dictates of Mohammad. Thus, deserting Goa for the lands of the Muslims seemed a brighter future, though they had received nothing but trouble from the Muslims.  
            After all this, an order was issued in June of 1684 that eliminated the Konkani language, and for dealing toughly with anyone who still spoke the local language. It was compulsory to speak Portuguese only. All symbols of non-Christian sects were destroyed and all books in the local languages were burnt. The Archbishop living on the banks of the Ethora said in a lecture that, “The post of Inquiry Commission in Goa is regarded as holy.” Thus, the Indian ladies who opposed or resisted the sexual advances of the assistants of the commission were put behind bars and then forcibly used by them to satisfy their carnal desires. Then they were burnt alive as opponents or heretics of the established tenets of the Catholic Church. So harsh and notorious was the inquisition in Goa that word of its brutality and horrors reached Lisbon , but nothing was done to stop its increasing barbarity.
                                                                     
            The Goan inquisition is regarded as the most violent ever executed by the Portuguese Catholic Church. It was basically a holocaust inflicted on the Indian people. The inquisition consisted of a tribunal, headed by a judge sent from Portugal , along with two assistants or henchmen. The judge was answerable to no one but Lisbon , and handed down judgments in whatever way he saw fit. The inquisition was conducted in a palace called the “Big House.” This had been the residence of the Portuguese Governors of Goa until 1554. This had been refitted to accommodate 200 cells for prisoners, and instruments of torture to inflict all kinds of pain on the “heathens and pagans,” Hindus, and force “the true and merciful religion” of Christianity on those who resisted it. All interrogations were conducted behind closed doors, but the screams of agony of the men, women, and children could be heard from the streets, even in the middle of the night, as they would be brutally flogged, beaten, burned, or even slowly dismembered in front of their relatives.  
            Prisoners were brought in after witnesses had reported on them of crimes they had purportedly committed, often times with the witness implicating innocent people while under the threat of torture, or to save their own lives. These so-called crimes were often some kind of blasphemy against Christianity, or impiety, idolatry, necromancy and witchcraft, or anything against Christianity. For these “crimes” they would often be burnt alive at the stake, but only after much torture. If they confessed to their crimes, they were shown Christian mercy by being killed first by strangulation, and then burnt after death. These torture sessions were also efficiently watched by Christian priests.   
            What verifies this history is the recorded orders issued by a succession of Portuguese Viceroys and Governors, as well as the prosecutors of that time, which give details of the horrors committed in the name of Jesus Christ.  
            Some of the tortures included having your arms tied behind your back and being strung up by your wrists. You would hang there for hours, only to be suddenly dropped down near the floor, which would quickly pull your arms back to dislocate them out of the joints. There was also the water torture in which you are forced to lay across an iron bar and ingest water without stopping, causing the iron bar to break one’s vertebrae and cause vomiting and asphyxia. Sometimes in that condition the stomach would be beaten with sticks so badly when filled with water, the stomach itself would burst. Torture by fire was being hung over a fire to be roasted alive with your feet coated with animal fat which would ignite and burn the feet. All these were done until the victim confessed. Then they would be taken to their cell to suffer until it was time for their execution. …..