The Unnerving Struggle to Remain A Hindu - IX

Kunkolly, a small town in southern Goa, changed to Cuncollim by the Portuguese, has 2 monuments close to a church, one is dedicated to 15 Hindu martyrs who sacrificed their lives to protect the freedom and pride of the village. The other has 5 names of foreign missionaries who are supposed to have been martyred during their efforts to convert people.

The village had 12 chiefs, known as Wangadis, who were Kshatriya. The entire land belonged to a village, it had no individual property. No one could sell the land. All Wangadis even looked after the differences if they arrived. No one could cheat anyone as all knew each other.

The central part of the village was the seat of the village Goddess Shantadurga. Each Wangadi had a separate temple too. All could visit and worship at the temples. The town was a centre which exported saffron,( Kumkum Kesar ) along with this farming was also a source of managing livelihood. It was a prosperous village under the administration of Saasashti taluka. ( A conglomeration of 66 villages ) Portuguese landed in Tiswadi (which had 30 hamlets ) which was to the north of Saasasshti in 16th century. They burnt the temples and destroyed the idols, this caused horror. They started to rule the area.

People at Saasashti had heard of the horror created in Tiswadi by the Portuguese. Plus they observed that the Padres too accompanied the administration, and soldiers were ready to follow and implement any and everything suggested by the Padres. This kind of relationship between the administration and religious institutions was unusual for them.
Jesuits too had the objective of conversion, it would be rather correct to describe it as compelling motivation. Francis Xavier led this, his style was described by Mr Hector as ( violent Evangelism ). Xavier wrote to the society of Jesus, " I know not how to describe in words the joy that I feel before the spectacle of pulling down and destroying the idols by the very people who formerly worshipped them. " A Catholic who probably was ' intolerant, ungenerous and contemptuous ' could write it. They unleashed the reign of violent Evangelism ( conversion in this context ).

Hindu houses of worship were invaded as the Portuguese had their rule established in Saasashti. The temples run by wangadis were destroyed, and they were baptized collectively. They tried to attack on a similar line in Kunkolly, but could not succeed. The scenario was different there, they organised meetings and decided to fight this. Kunkolly proved to be a hard nut to crack. All men, women and children swore to resist. They knew about the efforts of conversion, its method and repeated attacks in Odlim, which made them resolve to protect the village. So when the delegation of Cochin took a detour to kunkolly instead of Vela Goa with a letter to the viceroy of Goa, the delegation was stopped. The letter was snatched away and gave all a good beating. This enraged the ruler, he decided to punish the villagers.

He sent his two military officers who killed the villagers and burnt down the temples in both the villages, the rev. Pero led the soldiers. The temple of Shantadurga and other family temples were set on fire. Villagers rebuilt the temples at unimaginable speed,t his again made the military officers furious, he wanted to cause a permanent loss. Again they reached the villages and destroyed the anthills ( varool ) which are still treated as the place of the spirit of Renuka Devi. A cow that was grazing at the pond near Shantadurga temple was slaughtered and blood was sprinkled in the holy pond. The group of soldiers had the help of a couple of new converts.
Now villagers turned tough and refused to pay the land revenue.

Fr, Rodolfo, a Jesuit, was responsible for resolving the issue. A Church was to be built in Kunkolly, he came to fix the place. Fr Aquaviva had the responsibility to arrive at a solution. The team had a person like Diogo Rodrigues who was known to be an expert in destroying idols. The message was sent that they were on a goodwill mission. The villagers had reservations about the Padres, but as the area was under the rule of Portuguese they could not deny the visit. Some new converts were sent to kunkolly to make the arrangements. Villagers had their doubts, so did not help with arrangements. They wanted to know the real objective of the visit.

When the team reached, they could recognise a couple of Padres who were part of the destruction of the idols. They could see the intention of building a Church. When this was conveyed to all the villagers, the emotions ran high. The villagers were provoked when Goncalo took out the gun. All the heads were severed, and those who set the temple on fire too were identified and eliminated. All fell to the fury of villagers. Hardly any could escape. Of course, this was reported, the total number of missionaries who had to face the rage was 14. All the bodies were thrown into a well.

There was no direct revenge, but villagers were tricked and invited to the peace talks. They could not sense the deceit, so they assembled at Fort Assolne, after the meeting the doors were closed and all were butchered one by one. 15 Hindu leaders were assassinated. This was the 16th-century event, in the 19th century, a memorial was erected in their name, out of them,5 were declared to have led a Holy Life. Though Jesuits were ousted from the country, with the charge of subversion of the rule, all these 5 were Jesuits. In 1999 after 400 years of the event a monument was built in the name of slain Hindu leaders. It took 100 more years to recognise them.

When Bharat is criticized for being intolerant and our society for not being inclusive, these facts are conveniently ignored or not even referred to. Every aspect of Hindus, their culture, their treasure of knowledge was ridiculed using indecent expressions, it was an explicit attempt to detach us from our values. Once one sheds the identity and pride, it is easy to control. We need to awaken now.