Joaquim Heliodoro da Cunha Rivara

Joaquim Heliodoro da Cunha Rivara (23 June 1809 – 20 February 1879) was a Portuguese physician, professor, intellectual and politician. He excelled as a scholar of the history of the Portuguese presence in India and as a champion of the Konkani language.

Historical Essay on Konkani Language

 * “The Inquisition cannot be absolved from a large share in the persecution of the vernacular ; and what is more, a larger part in the ruin of the Portuguese Empire in Asia.


 * “But we confine ourselves to what concerns the language. The whole system of the Inquisition aimed not only at the extirpa- tion of superstitious and idolatrous beliefs, but also of innocent usages and customs retaining even a trace of the Asiatic society, which existed previous to the conquest by the Portuguese. Consequently the language was involved in this general proscription.


 * One Inquisitor with eighteen years of service in the Inqui- sition of Goa, proposed to His Majesty, in the year 1781, the following : ‘ The first and the principal cause of such a lamentable ruin (loss of souls) is the disregard of the law of His Majesty, D. Sebastido of glorious memory, and the Goan Councils, prohibit- ing the natives to converse in their own vernacular and making obligatory the use of the Portuguese language ; this disregard in observing the law, gave rise to so many and so great evils, to the extent of effecting irreparable harm to souls, as well as to the royal revenues. Since I have been though unworthy, the Inqui- sitor of this State, ruin has set in the villages of Nadora (sic), Revora, Pirna, Assonoré and Aldona in the Province of Bardez ; in the villages of Cuncolim, Assolné, Dicarpalli, Consua, and Aquem in Salsete ; and in the Island of Goa, in Bambolim, Curca, and Siriddo, and presently in the village of Bastora, in Bardez. In these places some members of village communities, as aiso women and children have been arrested and others accused of malpractices ; for since they cannot speak any other language but their own vernacular, they are secretly visited by Botos, servants and High Priests of Pagodas who teach them the tenets of their sect and further persuade them to offer alms to the Pagodas and to supply other necessary requisites for the ornament of the same temples, reminding them of the good fortune their ancestors had enjoyed from such observances and the ruin they were subjected to, for having failed to observe these customs ; under such persu- asion they are moved to offer gifts and sacrifices and perform other diabolical ceremonies, forgetting the law of Jesus Christ which they had professed in the sacrament of Holy Baptism. This would not have happened had they known only the Portuguese language ; since they being ignorant of the native tongue the Botos, Grous and their attendants would not have been able to have any communication with them, for the simple reason that the latter could only converse in the vernacular of the place. Thus an end would have been put to the great loss among native Christians whose faith has not been well grounded, and who easily yield to the teaching of the Hindu priests.’


 * “We do not know what to admire in such a proposal of the Inquisitor, his malice or foolishness. Undoubtedly it is the height of malice to affirm that Goan Councils had prohibited the natives to talk in their mother tongue, and had obliged them to speak the Portuguese language alone. It is foolishness to make people believe that through the vernacular alone could the Botos and other Hindu priests explain the tenets of their belief and sect with a view to convincing the native Christians.


 * “It will be clear from the reading of VIII and IX that council, far from forbidding the use of the vernacular, had rather recom- mended its use for the teaching of Christian doctrine.’’