Hindu-Catholic Encounters in Goa: Religion, Colonialism, and Modernity

by Alexander Henn

The state of Goa on India's southwest coast was once the capital of the Portuguese-Catholic empire in Asia. When Vasco Da Gama arrived in India in 1498, he mistook Hindus for Christians, but Jesuit missionaries soon declared war on the alleged idolatry of the Hindus. Today, Hindus and Catholics assert their own religious identities, but Hindu village gods and Catholic patron saints attract worship from members of both religious communities. Through fresh readings of early Portuguese sources and long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this study traces the history of Hindu-Catholic syncretism in Goa and reveals the complex role of religion at the intersection of colonialism and modernity.

Genres: India

228 pages, Paperback

First published May 27, 2014

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Understanding Goa

Can you imagine describing a Van Gogh painting as being "yellow, blue, green, and white"? How about Beethoven's Ninth as being "made up of eight notes in various octaves with a few sharps and flats tossed in"? No, right? So, then how can we describe Goa, an Indian region, a very small state OK, as being composed of Catholics, Hindus, and Muslims with a few castes or tribes tossed in? You definitely need a sharper, deeper mode of description. People have been trying to do this for some decades. Alexander Henn's new book tries to describe Goan reality in a new way and I would say it is brilliantly successful. If it veers more to "religious studies" modes of description then probably that is what it takes. He covers several topics including the fascinating question of why the Portuguese seemed to have mistaken Hindu religious sites and practice for Christian when they first arrived in 1498. While this might seem tangential to a discussion of modern Goa, it underlines the long, complicated nature of the Christian-Hindu encounter over 500 years. Then there is a wide-ranging and thoughtful analysis of the relationship of the two religious traditions in Goa as seen by Henn himself over many years of research. He looks at the Hindu-style Christian "puranas" written long ago and he goes deeply into the inseparable ties of land, people, and gods in Goan villages. These ties may have changed religion in many cases, but they remained as close as ever. Religious festivals in which people of both religions participate have long been noted in Goa. Henn discusses some in detail, especially the Jagar of Siolim village of which he has made films also. And finally, he turns to the whole question of "syncretism". Whether this word (which others have used as well) should be applied to Goa is a question. Is it actually helpful in description? After all, what culture is not a product of syncretistic patterns? It is only a question of whether they were observed by our contemporaries or not. Certainly a Goan culture exists, even if all Goans belong to one or other of the great religious tradition and no one to both. Others have written about Goan culture, but I think, with this book, the exploration has been taken to a much higher level. If this volume is not exactly "bedside reading" for most people, it is not less valuable a contribution. I think in future, people seriously interested in Goa and its fascinating history and culture must read HINDU-CATHOLIC ENCOUNTERS IN GOA.

[Nadya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is loaded with insights and detailed information. In addition to being informative, it is rather thought-provoking; Henn does a great job at incorporating a significant amount of literature from a wide variety of academic fields. Its only major downside is that it could stand to have more descriptive elements based on the author's substantial time spent in the field; as a reader I was aching for more of this.

I would recommend this book to people who are interested in any/all of: the history of India, the ongoing affects of colonial missionaries, the question of religious syncretism, Indian Christianity, religious ethnography.