From Portugal to Panaji: The History of the Portuguese Raj
Rohan Rajesh
Much of the contemporary discourse on European imperialism in India focuses on the British. Indeed, the British did form the largest empire in India compared to the other European powers. But the British were not the first to enter India and were not the last to leave. Both those distinctions go to the Portuguese. While the British Raj started in 1757 and ended in 1947 (190 years), the Portuguese Raj lasted from 1505 to 1961, a whopping 456 years. Although the Portuguese ruled over a much smaller territory than the British, the history of Portuguese India is no less fraught with the crimes of imperialism.
Portuguese India was founded six years after Vasco da Gama’s discovery of a sea route to India around Africa in 1505. The first major Portuguese (and European) settlement in India was the port city of Cochin (today Kochi) on the southwest Indian coast. Portuguese India largely consisted of ports scattered along India’s western and eastern coasts, which were mainly used for trade. At one point, these ports included Bombay (today Mumbai) until it was given to the British as a royal marriage dowry in 1661.
The Portuguese’s first and largest territory in Asia was the province of Goa on India’s west coast. Today, Goa is famed for its beaches, siesta culture, baroque churches, and nightlife. But in the heyday of European imperialism, Goa was the nexus for Portugal’s activities in India and indeed the Indian Ocean. Initially, for administrative purposes, all of Portugal’s African and Indo-Pacific territories were administered by the Portuguese Indian government, including Mozambique, Macao, and Timor-Leste, until the 19th century.
Despite the beauty of the various regions of Portuguese India, not all was well. The Portuguese fought with neighboring Indian kingdoms (most notably the Marathas) and pirates. Epidemics and competition from Europeans – especially the Dutch, the French, and the English – led to the decline in Portugal’s dominance in the region. Perhaps the most violent and controversial period in Portuguese India was the Goa Inquisition.
This inquisition was essentially a transplant of the ones occurring in the Iberian Peninsula around this time in terms of the barbarity of the exercise. While on the Iberian Peninsula, the inquisitions targeted Jews and Muslims, in India, they targeted anyone who was not Portuguese Catholic, including Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and Muslims. It is alleged that the Portuguese destroyed a tooth relic of the Buddha.
The inquisition also targeted local Christian communities. The presence of Syro-Malabar Christians in India is almost as old as Christianity itself, but they were not Catholic and were persecuted by the inquisitors. The same treatment was meted out to newly converted Catholics who continued to follow local customs like speaking their native Konkani language, playing local instead of Western instruments, or growing Tulsi plants outside their houses. They were accused of being “crypto-Hindus,” “crypto-Muslims,” or “crypto-Jews.” Even if locals converted fully to Catholicism and Portuguese customs, that was not enough to escape good old-fashioned racism. Natives were frequently referred to as “negros” and “cachorros” (“dogs”). Portuguese priests would refer to Indian priests as “black priests” and deny them promotion.
Perhaps none other than Voltaire summarized the barbarity and hypocrisy best: “Goa is sadly famous for its inquisition, equally contrary to humanity and commerce. The Portuguese monks made us believe that the people worshiped the devil, and it is they who have served him.”
By 1947, when India gained independence from Britain, only the French and Portuguese had possessions in India. France quickly gave up its possessions to India. Portugal, however, refused, much to the chagrin of the Indian government and Indian nationalists in Portuguese India. The first blow to the Portuguese came in 1954, when Indian nationalists overthrew the local Portuguese administration and replaced it with a pro-India administration that would be officially incorporated into India in 1961. Portugal brought the issue to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, which ruled that the Portuguese had the right to the colonies, but that India had the right to block inter-colony access.
Portugal continued to refuse to give up the rest of its possessions, which included Goa and Daman & Diu. Western powers (allied with the Portuguese) urged restraint from India, but, by then, India’s patience had worn thin. India invaded Portuguese India and easily repelled the Portuguese counterattack. India had ended Portugal’s more than 450-year presence in India in two days. Portugal appealed to the UN Security Council, but India was protected by a Soviet veto.
Although most Western powers recognized that Portugal should have given up its colonies, they were disappointed by the fact that India had used military force after advocating non-violence for so long. Indeed, President Kennedy told the Indian ambassador to the US, “People are saying, the preacher has been caught coming out of the brothel.”
Many leaders in the Third World countered that India had been “extraordinarily patient” and had used violence only as a last resort. To be fair, India had already fought a war with Pakistan in 1947 and would fight one with China a year later in 1962. Besides, the issue of the annexation of Portuguese India quickly became a dead letter even in Portugal. In 1974, Portugal’s right-wing authoritarian government fell in the Carnation Revolution, and diplomatic relations between Portugal and India were restored under Portugal’s new democratic government, which signed a treaty with India, recognizing Indian sovereignty over former Portuguese territories.
Despite its long presence in India, only Goa has retained significant Portuguese influence. English remains the most influential European language in India, although quite a few words have been borrowed from Portuguese in many Indian languages. For example, the word for “keys” throughout India is cāvī or cābī, from the Portuguese chave. Likewise, the word for “cupboard” is variations of almārī from the Portuguese armário. The ubiquity of these words across often unrelated Indian languages is evidence of the once-pervasive influence of Portugal along India’s coastlines even at the height of Indian empires like the Vijayanagara, the Mughals, and the Marathas. While Portugal’s influence in India is not embedded in its national conscience like the British Raj, the Portuguese Raj is interesting as it was the origin of European imperialism in India and the last vestige of it to fall.