Indian Christianity

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN
However, many Goan Catholics were tenaciously attached to some of their Indian cultural practices and
customs. Those who refused to give up their ancient practices were declared apostates and heretics
and condemned to death. Such circumstances forced many to leave Goa and settle in the neighboring
kingdoms, of which a minority went to the Deccan and the vast majority went to Canara. Historian
Severine Silva reasons that the fact that these Catholics who fled the Inquisition did not abandon their
Christian faith. These migrations laid the foundations for two distinct Konkani Catholic communities in
Canara—the Karwari Catholics of North Canara and the Mangalorean Catholics of South Canara,
respectively.
It is interesting and instructive, in this light, to view the rituals and practices of Mangalorean Catholics.
These Catholics of South fled from Goa (mainly from its northern districts) in successive waves. A large
number fled to escape the scrutiny of the inquistion. Among them the ritual substances banned by the
inquistion such as betel leaves, areca nuts, rice and flowers, continue to be employed in domestic
celebrations and the pattern of ritual practices appears much more resemble forms described in the
Inquisitorial edict. — A.P.L. D'Souza, Popular Christianity: A Case Study among the Catholics of
Mangalore
Portuguese viceroy forbade the use of Konkani the local language of Goa on 27 June 1684 and further
decreed that within three years, the local people in general would speak the Portuguese tongue and use
it in all their contacts and contracts made in Portuguese territories. The penalties for violation would be
imprisonment. The decree was confirmed by the king on 17 March 1687.
The Christians who left Goa were skilled cultivators who abandoned their irrigated fields in Goa to
achieve freedom. At the time of migration, Canara was ruled by the Keladi king, Shivappa Nayaka
(1540–60). He evinced great interest in the development of agriculture in his empire and welcomed these
farmers to his kingdom, giving them fertile lands to cultivate. They were also recruited into the armies of
the Bednore dynasty. This was confirmed by Francis Buchanan, a Scottish physician, when he visited
Canara in 1801. In his book, A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and
Malabar (1807), he stated that "The princes of the house of Ikkeri had given great encouragement to the
Christians, and had induced 80,000 of them to settle in Tuluva."
Under the provisional treaties between the Portuguese and the Bednore rulers, and the Paradox
(Protectorate privileges) the Christians were allowed to build churches and help the growth of Christianity
in South Canara.
PORTUGESE PRINTING PRESS IN INDIA.
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