Coexistences and Religion

Border town between islamic and hindu powers, when conquered by Afonso de Albuquerque, Goa was a city where religions coexisted. The Portuguese victory led to the outflow of muslims and the inflow of christians.

In a time of political activism and intolerance, Goa was witness to the effort of thousands of clergymen committed to spreading the Gospel, and to the early growth of a large Goan clergy community. By the mid-16th century, the Christian city was no longer a space of inter-religious dialogue as in the decades immediately following the conquest, but it remained as an area of silent interaction between Christianity and Hinduism. Sacred art is the best witness to this encounter, as many of the artisans that gave birth to Christian images were conditioned by ancestral practices that were applied to the new religion.

Alongside the religion of the town´s lords, the hindu religion persisted and was always the majority in the New Conquests. At the end of the period of missionary activism, the peaceful coexistence between the two communities intensified, joined progressively by a new group of muslims. Throughout its long duration, Goa was thus a space of religious coexistences which are still poorly known and should therefore be discovered and revisited.