Christianization of Goa
Many Kudali, Mangalorean and Karwari Catholics in present-day Karnataka and Maharashtra share common origins with Goans, due to migration in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Salsette islanders and Basseinites of the Bombay East Indian community were also Portuguese citizens, until the Mahratta Invasion of Bassein in 1739.
[4] It has been said that prior to the en-masse Christianisation, there were a few communities of Eastern Christians (Nestorians) present in the age-old ports of Konkan that were caught up in the Spice trade and the Silk route.
The conversion of the Indo-Parthian (Pahlavi) King Gondophares (abbreviated Gaspar) into the Thomasine Church, and the finding of a Persian Cross in Goa are subjects of ongoing debate and research.
[13] His conversion was followed by that of his brother Panduranga and his uncle Balkrishna Shenoy, who is the direct patrilineal ancestor of Goan historian José Gerson da Cunha.
[18] The converts typically adopted the surnames of the Portuguese priest, governor, soldier or layman who stood as godfather for their baptism ceremony.
In 1595 Vittu Prabhu became Irmão de Diogo Soares and the son of Raulu Kamat became Manuel Pinto in Aldona, Bardez.
[20] As a result, members of the same vangodd (clan) who initially all shared a common Hindu surname ended up adopting divergent Lusitanian ones.
[20] Various orders issued by the Goa Inquisition included: However, the converted Hindus retained Konkani as their mother tongue and their caste status even after becoming Christian.
The Portuguese church authorities decided to recruit Gauddo and Sudir converts into the priesthood, to offset the increasing hostilities of the Bamonn and Chardo clerics.
[34] The retention of the caste system and Hindu customs by the converts was contemptuously looked down upon by the Portuguese, who desired complete assimilation of the native Christians into their own culture.
[35] However, the Archbishop of Goa Ignacio de Santa Theresa is known to have respected the native Goan clerics more than the Portuguese ones, whom he considered to be insolent and overbearing.
[35] In the late 1920s in what was Portuguese Goa and Damaon, some prominent Hindu Goan Brahmins requested the Vinayak Maharaj Masurkar, a guru of an ashram in Masur, Satara district of British Bombay (present-day Maharashtra); to actively campaign for the 're-conversion' of Catholic Gauda and Kunbis to Vaishnavite Hinduism.
[36] Masurkar accepted, and together with his disciples, subsequently toured Gauda villages singing devotional bhakti songs and performing pujas.
[36] These means led a considerable number of Catholic Gaudas to declare willingness to come into the Hindu fold, and a Shuddhi ceremony was carefully prepared.
