Goa and the Revolt of 1787

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In his book A Conjuração de 1787 em Goa e varias cousas desse tempo (1875), Joaquim Heliodoro da Cunha Rivara had intended as he put it to correct the confused legends about the revolt in Goa known as that of the Pintos and had been impelled to find out the exact details of how the events had taken place. He describes the disclosure of the conspiracy and its working, the arrests of the priests involved and offers his own reflections on the plot. The work is well documented and ends with notes on the Pinto family and a description of their family chart. He trusts the reader will find his report devoid of any bias.

But some believe Cunha Rivara reveals much about himself in his work. As Chief Secretary of the Government at Goa (1855-1877), he had been disturbed by the events such as the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 in British India and by various rebellions of the Sawant Desais and Ranes and had feared that the Maratha insurgencies would spill into Goa. He was suspicious of anything that smacked of nationalism among the Goans. His book, then, in not just a contribution to the history of Goan nationalism, but to the colonial mind of the author and of the time when he wrote it. The native discontent in Goa that he sensed was not of his own imagining. But, unfortunately, he did not go beyond the condemnation of the conspiracy to the study of the roots of the problem and its many manifestations. Local Goan interests were at odds with the Portuguese colonial interests of the time. Three priests of the Pinto clan resented being bypassed for high ecclesiastical posts at home and in the South. And Goans felt deprived of being given posts in the local army.

The English translation of J.H. da Cunha Rivara's A Conjuração de 1787 em Goa is intended to make the events of 1787 better known to a wider readership and to researchers world-wide.

Fr. Charles J. Borges has been with the Xavier Centre of Historical Research (Goa) since 1981 and is presently its Director. He holds a doctorate in history from the University of Bombay. He has written The Economics of the Goa Jesuits 1542-1759 (New Delhi: Concept) and is co-editor of Jesuits in India: In Historical Perspective (Macau, 1992) and Proceedings of the Seventh International Seminar on Indo- Portuguese History (Lisbon: Mare Liberum, No. 9, July 1995). He contributes regularly to national and international journals and seminars.

Joaquim Heliodoro da Cunha Rivara, author of A Conjuração de 1787 em Goa e varias cousas desse tempo was born at Arraiolos (Portugal) on 23 June, 1809. He studied Latin, Greek, English, French and German as a youth, took a degree in medicine at Coimbra and in 1836 was at Evora to practise. But the following year he entered the administrative service of the district and was appointed Chief Secretary. A year later he was appointed librarian at the Public Library at Evora and soon came to be known for his remarkable familiarity with documents and for his efficiency. His interest in journalism led him in 1841 to collaborate with the Revista Universal.

In 1855 he was sent to the overseas province of Goa and on 1st November of that year appointed Chief Secretary of the State. His wide interests led him to write much in defence of the Portuguese Padroado, and to publish among other things Boletim do Governo, O Oriente Portugues, Ensaio Historico da Lingua Concani, and Dicionario Portugues Concani. As travel writer himself, he translated the work of François Pyrard de Laval, and edited Cronista de Tissuari. He remained in Goa till 1877 to write a history of India and returned to Portugal where he passed away on 20 February, 1879.

The Xavier Centre of Historical Research is pleased to bring to a wider readership the work of J.H. da Cunha Rivara A Conjuraçã de 1787 em Goa e varias cousas desse tempo: Memoria Historica first published at the Imprensa Nacional, Panjim, in 1875. It has been translated from the original in Portuguese into English by Mr. Renato da Cunha Soares at the request of the late Capt. E.L. Pinto (IN), and has been edited by me for publication. I am grateful to Dr. Teotonio R. de Souza who has written an introduction situating the importance of the book in Goan history, to Lt-Col. António Pinto (Retd) who was instrumental in getting financial support for the present publication from the extended Pinto families listed in the family chart mentioned in this book and for updating the Pinto family chart itself, to Mrs. Lalita Victor for making available the computer texts, to Fr. Caetano da Cruz Fernandes who translated some of the passages from the Latin, and to Ms. Ernesta Bhobe for all her able computer assistance. I am also grateful to Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, for undertaking this its sixteenth publication of the XCHR since 1979.

When the so-called "Conspiracy" of Pintos completed two centuries I I was still in Goa, and my contribution to the celebration of the second centenary of this event was intendedly a muted one. As an eminent Indo- Portuguese historian Prof. S. Subrahmanyam put it explicitly in his recent and much acclaimed book, I too had no intention of fighting the colonial wars all over again. I only edited and published (and with an unavoidable delay of two years) a collection of essays presented by Goan researchers at the Indian History Congress (Goa University, November 1987). But to these was added one more on my initiative, and that was related to the "Conspiracy" of Pintos by Mariano Dias. It was meant to complete and balance another thought-provoking paper already forming part of the collection and dealing with the "protesting priests of Goa". The book appeared as Essays in Goan History (1989). The centenary passed pretty unnoticed, though some stray write-ups did not fail to appear both in Goa and in Portugal. In Goa Dr. Carmo Azevedo celebrated the bi-centenary by starting his article in the Goan daily Herald (Panjim, Aug. 10, 1987, p. 2) in a nationalist tone: "It is a matter of legitimate pride for Goans that they organised the second anti-colonial revolt in modern history. (...) It took place only fourteen years after the Boston Tea Party (1773) which led to the generalized revolt among the American colonies and their War of Independence (1775-83) and two years before the Minas Gerais Conspiracy (1789) which likewise, eventually led to the independence of Brazil (1822)". The author further suggested that relevant documentation in Goa and Portugal was kept under wraps lest the unpalatable truths should come to light. Much of the information that is available to us has come through the book that is now being introduced in its first English translation. However, in 1985 a Portuguese researcher found in the Municipal Archives of Porto a very important document relating to the "Conspiracy" and entitled Copia da Sentença de Conspiração e alta traição contra o Estado. Based on it he wrote "Há dois seculos: Revolta frustrada para a independência de Goa" (História, no. 75. pp. 32-46). My attention was drawn to it by my old professor and friend, Leopoldo da Rocha, author of the classic work on the Confrarias de Goa (Lisbon. 1973).

**Contents and Sample Pages**