The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History

by Sanjeev Sanyal

The Inquisition soon turned on the communities of Syrian Christians who had lived peacefully on India’s west coast for over a thousand years before the arrival of the Portuguese. Their ancient rituals were condemned as heretical and they were forced to accept Latin rites; many of their books and records composed in Syriac were burned.18 Not surprisingly, the Inquisition also began to scrutinize the New Christians. Many would be tortured and killed including Garcia da Orta’s sister Catrina who was burned at the stake as ‘as an impertinent Jewess’ in 1569, a year after Garcia’s death. Her husband confessed under torture that the famous physician had kept ‘the Sabbath on Saturday’. It is a reflection of the vindictiveness of the Inquisition that Orta’s remains were dug out of his grave and burned, and the ashes thrown into the Mandovi River.