Xavier Centre of Historical Research

Charles Borges SJ who had served as Administrator and Associate Director, took over the direction of XCHR until the year 2000, when he left for Maryland College in Baltimore as its faculty staff.

Present for the inauguration in 1979 were Professor P.M. Joshi, the retired director of the Maharashtra Archives, and Dr. José Blanco, then administrator of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon.

Cajetan Coelho, a historian himself connected with this institution until recently, argues that the XCHR "has helped this process at the cultural level by its involvement in the organization of the series of International Seminars on Indo-Portuguese History ISIPH, initiated by Rev.

The XCHR says its aims and objectives include promoting research in history and related disciplines by providing inter-disciplinary methodology, sharing its perspectives where the "voiceless and subalterns find a privileged place".

The Xavier Centre has been a recognized institution of Goa University for Ph.D. research since 1986, with its director Prof. Teotonio R. de Souza as a Ph.D. guide for History.

Support for this institution came from Josef Ubelmesser of Nuremberg and Teotónio de Souza's friends at the Sussen Parish in what then was the Federal Republic of Germany.

It adds:[1] "On other shelves of this library, one can learn a whole vast amount of interesting tid-bits about Goa.... XCHR's book collection has been steadily growing.

This includes the manuscripts from the Mhamai House of Panjim (Panaji), which pertains to private coastal and hinterland trade during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Xavier Centre of Historical Research currently (2006) holds a series of programmes called the History Hour that feature historians and others, talk about fairly contemporary issues of relevance to Goan society.

The goal of the museum, according to the XCHR, is the "appreciation, preservation, enhancement and dissemination of Goan heritage which has been harmonious and peaceful, through awareness and education".

[2] Eleven books have been published under the XCHR Studies Series, in keeping with its goal of informing scholars, institution and the public about new developments in the fields of Indo-Portuguese and Goan history.

[2] XCHR also hosts the History Hour series of talks, on social issues relating to Goan heritage and contemporary life.