Hindu-Catholic Encounters in Goa

Download or read book Hindu-Catholic Encounters in Goa written by Alexander Henn and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-27 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.