Imprisonment, and in extremely rare cases, harsher penalties, were not seen or intended as cruel measures by the Portuguese but were viewed as a way to maintain the sanctity of the faith and to ensure that those who had been introduced to Christianity fully embraced its principles, for their own spiritual well-being.

[5][6][7][8][9] The Inquisitors also seized and burned books written in Sanskrit, Dutch, English, or Konkani, as they were suspected of containing teachings that deviated from Catholic doctrine or promoted Protestant, Polytheistic and/or Pagan ideas.

The Inquisitors aimed to preserve religious purity and ensure that the Catholic teachings remained the guiding principles for the people by removing potentially harmful material.

[6][5] However, the few records that remain indicate that approximately 57 individuals across the 249 year long inquisition were sentenced to execution for significant religious transgressions, while an additional 64 were symbolically condemned after they had passed away in custody.

Like the Goa Inquisition, these tribunals arrested suspects, interrogated and convicted them, and issued punishments for secretly practising religious beliefs different from Christianity.

[31] The Christian Portuguese were assisted by the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire's regional agent Timmayya in their attempt to capture Goa from the Muslim ruler Adil Shah.

In his book, The Marrano Factory, Professor Antonio Saraiva of the University of Lisbon details the strength of the New Christians on the economic front by quoting a 1613 document written by attorney, Martin de Zellorigo.

[44] The surviving records of missionaries from 16th to 17th century, states Délio de Mendonça, extensively stereotypes and criticizes the gentiles, a term that broadly referred to Hindus.

Jesuit missionaries considered this a threat to the purity of Catholic Christian belief and pressed for Inquisition in order to punish the Crypto-Hindus, Crypto-Muslims and Crypto-Jews, thereby ending the heresy.

It was the festivals, syncretic religious practices and other traditional customs that were identified as heresy, relapses and shortcomings of the natives needing a preventative and punitive Inquisition.

[46] Saint Francis Xavier led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly the Portuguese Empire in the East, and was influential in evangelisation work, most notably in early modern India.

In 1546, Francis Xavier proposed the establishment of the Goan Inquisition in a letter addressed to the Portuguese King, John III where he wrote "By another route I have written to your highness of the great need there is in India for preachers...

The second necessity which obtains in India, if those who live there are to be good Christians, is that your highness should institute the holy Inquisition; for there are many who live according to the law of Moses or the law of Muhammad without any fear of God or shame before men" [13][14][47][48] He furthermore advocated for greater action by the Portuguese governor for the propagation of Christianity in Goa going as far as threatening the official with severe punishment in case of failure "Let the king warn the governor that] "should he fail to take active steps for the great increase of our faith, you are determined to punish him, and inform him with a solemn oath that, on his return to Portugal, all his property will be forfeited for the benefit of the Santa Misericordia, and beyond this tell him that you will keep him in irons for a number of years...

There is no better way of ensuring that all in India become Christians than that your highness should inflict severe punishment on a governor" [49] [50] The inquisition was declared two decades after he left Goa, and the main laws were implemented in 1567, about 25 years after his departure.

[51] The letter cited was one written to King John III of Portugal, dated 20 January 1545 (3 years after leaving Goa) from Malacca in the Malay archipelago, in response to the scandalous lifestyle of the Portuguese sailors who had made the port city home, where he criticizes John III himself (something very rare at that time) about his officials who only care about collecting taxes and not about maintaining discipline amongst his subjects, and hence asks that a separate official with powers be sent to aid the old bishop to protect the new converts from ill-treatment from the undisciplined Portuguese commandants.

[58] Seventy-one autos de fé ("act of faith") were recorded, the grand spectacle of public penance often followed by convicted individuals being variously punished up to and including burning at the stake.

[65] According to Indo-Portuguese historian Teotonio R. de Souza, the original requests targeted the "Moors" (Muslims), New Christian, Jews and those Hindus involved in propagating 'Gentility' and heresy, and it made Goa a centre of persecution operated by the Portuguese.

[66] The colonial administration under demands of the Jesuits and Church Provincial Council of Goa in 1567 enacted anti-Hindu laws to end what the Catholics considered to be heretical conduct and to encourage conversions to Christianity.

In cooperation with the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries, the Portuguese administration in Goa and military were deployed to destroy the cultural and institutional roots of Hindus and other Indian religions.

[81] According to Ulrich Lehner, "Goa had been a tolerant place in the sixteenth century, but the Goan Inquisition had turned it into a hostile location for Hindus and members of other Asian religions.

[84] The French physician Charles Dellon experienced first-hand the cruelty of the Inquisition's agents, and complained about the goals, arbitrariness, torture and racial discrimination against the people of Indian origin, particularly Hindus.

[88] To the Portuguese inquisition officials and their European supporters, the term projected their stereotypes for the lands and people they had violently conquered as well as their prejudices against Indian religions.

"[54] However, after the start of the Goa Inquisition, Viceroy Dom Antão de Noronha, in December 1565, issued an order that banned Jews from entering the Portuguese territories in India with violators liable to the penalties of arrest, seizure of their property and confinement in a prison.

[97] Friars who did not want to lose their careers and promotions alleged that unlike proper Europeans, those who grew up as native Catholics hated "white skinned" people because they were suffering from the "diabolic vice of pride".

[98] On 21 November 1745, Archbishop Lourenço de Santa Maria decreed that applicants to the priesthood had to have knowledge of and the ability to speak in Portuguese; this applied not only to the pretendentes, but also for their close relations, as confirmed by rigorous examinations by reverend persons.

[98] As a result, Goans did not develop a literature in Konkani, nor could the language unite the population, because several scripts (including Roman, Devanagari and Kannada) were used to write it.

Dellon described, states Klaus Klostermaier, the horrors of life and death at the Catholic Palace of the Inquisition that managed the prison and deployed a rich assortment of torture instruments per recommendations of the Church tribunals.

[104] The first and the principal cause of such a lamentable ruin (perdition of souls) is the disregard of the law of His Majesty, Dom Sebastião of glorious memory, and the Goan Councils, prohibiting the natives to converse in their own vernacular and making obligatory the use of the Portuguese language: this disregard in observing the law, gave rise to so many and so great evils, to the extent of effecting irreparable harm to souls, as well as to the royal revenues.

In these places, some members of village communities, as also women and children have been arrested and others accused of malpractices; for since they cannot speak any other language but their own vernacular, they are secretly visited by botos, servants and high priests of pagodas who teach them the tenets of their sects and further persuade them to offer alms to the pagodas and to supply other necessary requisites for the ornament of the same temples, reminding them of the good fortune their ancestors had enjoyed from such observances and the ruin they were subjected to, for having failed to observe these customs; under such persuasion they are moved to offer gifts and sacrifices and perform other diabolical ceremonies, forgetting the law of Jesus Christ which they had professed in the sacrament of Holy Baptism.

This would not have happened had they known only the Portuguese language; since they being ignorant of the native tongue the botos, grous (gurus) and their attendants would not have been able to have any communication with them, for the simple reason that the latter could only converse in the vernacular of the place.