{"id":113514,"date":"2021-04-14T16:48:44","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T23:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113514"},"modified":"2021-04-14T16:48:44","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T23:48:44","slug":"portuguese-era-dark-chapter-in-sri-lankas-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/14\/portuguese-era-dark-chapter-in-sri-lankas-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Portuguese era \u2013 Dark Chapter in Sri Lanka\u2019s History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

I wish to respond to the article\npublished on \u2018 Lankaweb\u2019 (April 06, 2021) under the caption <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Was Portuguese\nproselytization ruthless as portrayed?\u2019 byP.K. Balachandran, as I find the contents inaccurate, misleading\nand contrary to well established historical facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwriter Balachandran relies on Sir James Emerson\nTennent, Colonial Secretary from 1841 to 1850, and his book Christianity\nin Ceylon (<\/em>John Murray, London, 1850), to make the assertion that\nthe Portuguese proselytization efforts were benign and harmless, and if there\nhad been any lapse or transgression somewhere that was due to a lapse of a\nlocal official. Portuguese Captain \u2013 Generals extended favours, partiality and if\nthere was any state assistance to the converts to Christianity, that was\nbecause it was their common religion.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balachandran quoting Tennent says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThere is no proof that compulsion was resorted to by them for the extension of\ntheir own faith or violence employed for the extinction of national\nsuperstitions.\u201d (By national superstitions\u201d he meant the other faiths). The\nprobability is that the priests and missionaries of the Portuguese were content\nto pursue in Ceylon the same line of policy and adopt the same expedients for\nconversion which had already been found successful by their fellow laborers on\nthe opposite continent of India.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tennent\nis further quoted as saying Both in India and Ceylon, the cultural tools used\nby the Catholic missionaries had proved to be more effective than coercion and\nviolence. Another reason for the preference for cultural tools was that the\nPortuguese missionaries in India and Ceylon could not count on the support of\nthe Portuguese State apparatus which was necessary to use coercive methods. The\namount of assistance from civil power, on which the Roman Catholic clergy could\nrely, did not ordinarily extend beyond the personal influence of the\nCaptains-General at Colombo,\u201d Tennant says and adds that if at all there was\nState assistance these were favors and partiality exhibited by successive\nGovernors to all who were willing to conform to their religion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balachandran\ncontradicts his observations based on Tennent in this article with\nBalachandran\u2019s own observations on Portugal\u2019s reign of Terror in a previous\narticle where he had based himself on Prof.P.V.J.Jayasekera\u2019s\nbook: Confrontations\nwith Colonialism Vol:1 1796-1920 (Vijitha Yapa, 2017). <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

See\n<\/strong> How Lankan Buddhists won\nthe battle against proselytization\u201d https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/23\/how-lankan-buddhists-won-the-battle-against-proselytization\/<\/a> ( Lankaweb – November 23rd, 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since\nTennent published his book \u2018Christianity in Ceylon\u2019 in 1850, there has been\nextensive studies done both in Sri Lanka and overseas, and particularly in\nIndia on the criminal methods that Portugal employed to conquer and convert\nnative populations to Christianity.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balachandran should have double checked the points made by\nTennent by comparing them with the research of scholars like <\/em>Queyroz, Fernao de, (The Temporal and Spiritual\nConquest of Ceylon), C.R. Boxer, <\/em>Tennakoon Vimalananda, Tikiri Abeysinghe, (Portuguese\nRule in Ceylon 1594 \u2013 1612), Paul\nE. Peiris, G.P. Malalasekera, among others.  <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portugal introduced the Catholic Inquisition, which began in\nSpain and spread all over Europe, to the Portuguese colonies, including Ceylon,\nin its Empire in Asia. The most notorious of all them is the \u2018Goa Inquisition\u2019.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Europe, the Goa Inquisition became notorious for its\ncruelty and use of torture. Voltaire wrote: Goa is sadly famous for its\ninquisition, which is contrary to humanity as much as to commerce. The\nPortuguese monks deluded us into believing that the Indian populace was\nworshipping the Devil, while it is they who served him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European entry into Asia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European entry into Asia, commencing with the Portuguese in\nthe 16th century, was driven by two principal factors, namely the aim of\ncolonising Asian countries for purpose of trade and exploitation of natural\nresources, and converting the inhabitants of these lands to Christianity The\nPortuguese had as one of its primary aims the propagation of the Christian\nfaith in the newly ‘discovered’ lands of Asia, including Sri Lanka (called ‘\nCeilao’ by the Portuguese) and the realisation of this aim was accompanied by\nsteps taken to suppress wherever possible all other religions extant in these\nlands namely Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crown\nPatronage of missionary activity in the East <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Portuguese authority to spread Christianity in the East was\nderived from the Papal Bulls issued by the Popes namely Calixtus III, Nicholas\nV, Alexander V1 and the Pope’s Treaty of Tordesillas (in 1492), which divided\nthe newly ‘ discovered’ lands between Spain and Portugal, and imposed on the\nrulers of these countries the duty of propagating the Christian faith. The\nWestern part of the world was allocated to Spain and the Eastern part to\nPortugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the Portuguese the Christianisation of newly ‘ discovered ‘\nlands was a State objective. The Portuguese Crown maintained the entire\necclesiastical establishment in the East. The Doctrine of Padroado (jus\npatrionatus established by the Papal Bulls of 1514) provided the authority for\nmissionary work to be in the hands of the Portuguese Crown in areas where\nPortugal claimed political rights. The noted historian C. R. Boxer says ”\nThe conviction that Portugal was the missionary nation above all the others in\nthe Western World – Alferes da Fe, ‘ standard bearer of the faith’ as the poet\n– playwright Gil Vicente boasted – was widespread and deeply rooted among all\nclasses”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further Royal dispatches addressed to Vice-roys, Governors and\nBishops began with these words (or words to that effect) in the opening\nsentence ” Forasmuch as the first and principal obligation of the Kings of\nPortugal is to forward the work of conversion by all means in their power\n” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Padroado has been loosely defined as a combination of the\nrights, privileges and duties granted by the Papacy to the Crown of Portugal as\npatron of the Roman Catholic missions and ecclesiastical establishments in the\nregions of Africa, Asia and Brazil. The Padroado Real or Royal patronage of the\nChurch overseas was one of the most cherished prerogatives of the Portuguese\nCrown. It was to become the cause of bitter disputes between Portuguese\nmissionaries and other Roman Catholic powers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diogo do Couto, the Portuguese Soldier cum Chronicler says in his\nsixth book ‘ Decada’ (1612) that ” The Kings of Portugal always aimed in\nthis conquest of the East at so uniting the two powers, spiritual and temporal,\nthat the one should never be exercised without the other ” Father Paulo de\nTrindade, the Franciscan Chronicler, writing in his ‘ Spiritual Conquest of the\nEast’ at Goa in 1638, says ‘ The two swords of the civil and the ecclesiastical\npower were always so close together in the conquest of the East that we seldom\nfind one being used without the other: for the weapons only conquered through\nthe right that the preaching of the Gospel gave them, and the preaching was\nonly of some use when it was accompanied and protected by the\nweapons”.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is in the exercise of the Padroado Real that we see the close\ncollaboration between the Church and the State in the promotion of Christian\nmissionary activity in conquered lands. An important component of this\nrelationship was the doctrinal position of the Papacy, which was vigourously\nupheld by the Church that ‘ temporal possessions were occupied unlawfully by\nthe infidels’ in conquered lands and that these ‘ should be allotted among the\nfaithful’. There was an inter-locking policy of temporal and spiritual\nobjectives where benefits flowed to both the Vatican and Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verdict of Historians on Portuguese rule in Ceylon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learned Historians and commentators now generally regard the\narrival of the Portuguese in the year 1505 as the beginning of the Dark Age in\nthe history of Sri Lanka. The Portuguese through a policy of cunning statecraft\nand ruthless terror were able to govern the coastal areas of the island for\nmost of the next 150 years, until the Dutch replaced them in 1658.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

. The Rajavaliya describes the entry of the Portuguese to Sri\nLanka thus:- “There is in our harbour of Colombo a race of people, fair of\nskin and comely withal. They don jackets and hats of iron, rest not a minute in\none place but walk here and there. They eat hunks of stone and drink\nblood.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several noted historians and commentators have expressed their\nindignation over the methods employed by the Portuguese during their period of\ndominance in the following words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir James Emerson Tennent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir James Emerson Tennent refers to the Portuguese conduct in Sri\nLanka in these terms-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is no page in the story\nof European colonisation more gloomy and repulsive than that which recounts the\nproceedings of the Portuguese in Ceylon. Astonished at the magnitude of their\nenterprises, and the glory of their discoveries and conquests in India, the\nrapidity and success of which secured for Portugal an unprecedented renown, we\nare ill-prepared to hear of the rapacity, bigotry and cruelty which\ncharacterised every stage of their progress in the East. They appeared in the\nIndian seas in the three-fold character of merchants, missionaries and pirates.\nTheir ostensible motto was amity, commerce and religion. Their expeditions\nconsisted of soldiers as well as adventurers, and included friars and chaplain\nmajors. Their instructions were to begin by preaching, but, that failing, to proceed\nto the decision of the sword.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul E. Peiris<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The historian Paul E. Peiris observes: ” They found in Ceylon\na contented race, and a fairly prosperous country, and it is melancholy to\nreflect that they succeeded in producing nothing but chaos. Out of a long list\nof high – born Hidalgos whom Portugal sent to Ceylon, it is difficult to point\nto one name as that of an enlightened statesman and high – principled\nadministrator. No stately fabric remains as compensating for that religious\nfanaticism to which ample witness is borne by the devastated ruins of those\nlovely structures which the piety of generations had strewn broadcast over the\ncountry Their bequest to the Dutch was a colony of half -castes, a failing\nagriculture, a depopulated country, and a miserable and ill – conditioned\npeople They had in Ceylon an opportunity almost unique in the experience of\nEuropean nations in the East, but their moral fibre had proved unequal to the\noccasion”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G.P. Malalasekera<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

G.P. Malalasekera in his Ph.D. dissertation which was later\npublished as a book under the title ‘ The Pali Literature of Ceylon’ makes the\nfollowing comment in lucid language on the high-handed methods employed by the\nPortuguese in pursuit of their colonial objectives which included conversion of\nthe people of the country into Christianity and the concomitant repression of\nBuddhism:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Every stage of their progress\nwas marked by a rapacity, bigotry, cruelty and inhumanity unparalleled in the\nannals of any other European colonial power. Their ferocity and their utter\nindifference of all suffering increased with the success of their army; their\ninhuman barbarities were accompanied by callousness which knew no distinction\nbetween man, woman and child; no feeling of compassion was strong enough to\nstay their savage hands in their fell work. To terrify their subjects and bring\nhome to them the might of the Portuguese Power, they committed atrocities which\nhad they not been found recorded in the decads of their friendly historians,\nseems too revolting to be true. Babes were spitted on the soldier’s pikes and\nheld up that their parents might hear the young cocks crow. Sometimes they were\nmashed to pulp between millstones, while their mothers were compelled to\nwitness the pitiful sight before they themselves were tortured to death. Men\nwere thrown over bridges for the amusement of the troops to feed the crocodiles\nin the river, which eventually grew so tame that at whistle they would raise\ntheir heads above the water in anticipation of the welcome feast.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methods employed for\nconversion and suppression of non-Christian religions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Portuguese used a number of methods in their pursuit to\nconvert people to Christianity and suppress non – Christian religions\nprevailing in territories under their control. They can be distinguished as\nfollows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(i)\nCarrot and Stick Policy<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Portuguese used a carrot and stick policy in converting people\nliving in the immediate vicinity of Portuguese strongholds particularly along\nthe West Coast of India and in the lowlands of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ii)\nEnactment of harsh and oppressive laws<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Portuguese lawmakers enacted a large number of harsh and\noppressive laws with the aim of putting a stop to the public practice of non –\nChristian religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam in territories\ncontrolled by the Portuguese. These laws were followed by a number of other\ndecrees designed to favour converts to Christianity with Portuguese patronage.\nThe Ecclesiastical Councils at Goa laid down rules for missionary work and\nthese rules had a significant bearing on the conduct of Christian missionary\nwork in Sri Lanka, particularly after 1567. The pioneer Ecclesiastical Council\nof 1567 in adopting a series of decisions were guided by three main\nconsiderations, namely:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a) All religions other than orthodox Roman Catholicism were\nintrinsically wrong and harmful in themselves. b) The Crown of Portugal had a\nfundamental duty to spread the Christian faith and the power of the State must\nbe utilized to support the work of the Catholic Church c) Conversion of\nnon-Christians into Christianity must not be made by force, for nobody comes to\nChrist by faith unless he is drawn by the love of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third consideration stated above on non -use of force was\nnegated by several other decisions of the Council which had the sanction of law\nby virtue of promulgation of a Vice -regal decree at Goa in December 1567. This\ndecree enacted among other things the following decisions of the Ecclesiastical\nCouncil: <\/p>\n\n\n\n