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History, Law and Orientalism under Portuguese Colonialism in Eighteenth-Century India1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2010
Extract
The common narrative of the Portuguese state in India from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century is, following contemporaries like Manuel Godinho, that of the four ages of man. The development of the Estado da Índia runs from its birth during the discoveries, via its youth, the ‘golden age’ (ranging from roughly 1500 to 1520) through its maturity or, to stick with the age metaphors, its ‘silver age’ from c. 1520 to 1570 to senility, or ‘age of decline’. The decline is a long one though: now generally considered to start in 1570 and covering the following two centuries. And one may well wonder whether ‘decadênria’ is truly the appropriate way to approach such a long period.
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References
Notes
2 Relação do novo Caminho que fez vindo da Índia para Portugal no anno de 1663 (Lisbon 1974) 17Google Scholar.
3 Barendse, R.J., Arabian Seas: The Indian Ocean World of the Seventeenth Century (Armonk, N.Y. 2002) 304Google Scholar.
4 And not only in the Portuguese case but in that of the VOC too – for as the VOC increasingly acquired jurisdictions over large numbers of Asian it also had to compile comprehensive legal codes to settle claims on land revenue and customary jurisdiction. And this was not only the case in Sri Lanka and Java but in Kerala in the eighteenth century as well.
5 F. Martires Lopes, ‘Mendicidade e “maus costumes” em Macau e Goa na segunda metade do século XVII’, separata of de Matos, A.T. and Thomaz, L.F. Reis, Relações entre a Índia Portuguêsa, a Ásia do sueste e o Extremo Oriente (Lisbon/Macau 1993)Google Scholar.
6 See, for example, Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Lisbon (henceforth AHU), [papeis vultos da] Índia, Caixa (henceforth abbreviated Cx.) (new numbering) 212, ‘Pareçeres dos theologos sobre os dizimos prediaes (1743)’.
7 Die Entzauberung Asiens: Europa und die asiatischen Reiche im 18 Jahrhundert (Munich 1998).
8 Although I doubt this for Russia but that is a different story.
9 Bibliotheca da academia das ciências (henceforth BAC), Lisbon, Manuscript Azul 511, 6 January 1734. fol. 8vo.
10 See for example Arquivo Nacional (Institute dos Arquivos nacionais) Torre do Tombo (henceforth ANTT), Lisbon, Arquivo da Casa de Fronteira e Alorna, Maço 110, ‘Provisão para se veneer o ordinado do Vice Rei’, 3 March 1744.
11 AHU, Índia, Cx. 204, ‘Copia da Carta que escreveu o Marques de Alorna’, 27 December 1745; in same, Cx. 147, ‘Consulta do Conselho Ultramarino’, 19 October 1725.
12 AHU, Códice 441, ‘Resumo de todos os habitantes das ilhas de Goa, Salsete, Bardes, Dio e Damão’, 31 December 1749.
13 See: Scott, J.C., State Simplifications: Some Applications to Southeast Asia (Amsterdam 1995)Google Scholar.
14 de Silva Rego, A. ed., As gavetas do Torre de Tombo IV (Lisbon 1960–1977) 214–215 ‘porque sam tantos os hofycaes he esprivães que à i mais hofycaes que em duas Lisboas’Google Scholar.
15 On the concessionary voyage system see e.g. Subrahmanyam, S., The Political Economy of Commerce. Southern Índia 1500–1650 (Cambridge 1990) 162–164CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
16 ANTT, Arquivo da Casa de Fronteira e Alorna, Maço 110, ‘Provisā;o para se-repartir cada anno 10.000 cruzados em mercês’, 20 March 1744; AHU, Índia, Cx. 165, Consulta do Conselho Ultramarino, 7 April 1727.
17 In the period when the trade between Goa and Mozambique (thus far more or less a private fief of the Goa nobility and its main income) was taken over by the Junta do comerçio. Otherwise the Junta was an utter failure but it was very successful in destroying Goa's fidalgos mercadores of the seventeenth century (cf. Barendse, Arabian Seas, 345–352).
18 Bibliotheca Nacional de Lisboa (henceforth BNL), Fundo Geral (henceforth FG), Códice (Manuscript – hereafter Cód.), 9449, ‘Papel de Francisco Tasi Columbiano ao Conde de Oeiras’, 26 February 1763, fol. 11.
19 AHU, Cód. 451, Carta Regia 4 April 1755, fol. 23.
20 ANTT, Documentos remetidos da Índia, Cod. 52, Carta Regia, 10 March 1650 and answer thereon, 6 December 1651, fol. 101 and 102.
21 Guardião mor do Torre do Tombo — the office in the eighteenth century being paid 400 xeraphins (which was roughly comparable to the income of the secretary of the customs and the feitor of Goa) and the Torre do Tombo employing one scribe (AHU, Índia, Cx. 186, ‘Folha geral de todas as receitas e depezas de Goa, Bardes, Salcete e das armadas’ (1731)).
22 Winius, G.D., The Black Legend of Portuguese India (New Delhi 1985) 17Google Scholar.
23 AHU, Índia, Cx. 201, Devassa against João de Paiva Madrigal, 30 March 1733.
24 BNL, FG, Cód. 465, ‘Noticias da Índia desde o fim do governo do V. Rey Francisco Vaz de Menezes’.
25 Bibliotheca Pública da Ajuda, Lisbon, Cód. 52–VII–43, ‘Livro que consta de todas as maravilhas que o exmo. Conde de Saboroza fêz na Índia’, note by Pedro Vaz de Menezes written on the cover of this volume.
26 Such as de Morais Pereira, F.R., Anal Índico-Lusitano dos Successos mais Memoráveis e das Acções particulares do Primeiro Ano do Senhor Francisco de Assis de Távora, Conde de S. Joāo, Vice-Rei e Capitão geral da Índia (Lisbon 1758)Google Scholar.
27 AHU, Índia, Cx. 295, Joāo de Mesquita Mattos Fereira to Crown, 27 January 1754 ‘a multiciplidade de leis contrarías deste Estado he huma confuzāo quazi invensivel athé para as pessoas de muita mais antiqua experiencia’.
28 ANTT, Junta da Real Fazenda do Estado da Índia, Cód. 31, ‘Carta de Sua Magestade a respeito de se-fazer hua relação de todos os papeis que se remetem ao Conselho Ultramarino', 13 September 1765.
29 I should add there is also a fairly large amount of material left of the private archive of Pedro Vaz de Menezes spread over the municipal library of Villa Viçosa, the Bibliotheca Nacional and the British Library, but so far I have only found his official correspondence and no private correspondence.
30 de Saldanha, A.V., As cartas de Manuel de Saldanha l o Conde da Ega e 47 o Vice-Rei da Índia a Sebastião José de Carvalho e Mello e sens Irmãos. Subsídies para a história Politico, Económica e Social da Índia Portuguesa de Setecentos (Lisbon 1984)Google Scholar.
31 AHU, Índia, Cx. 227, Conde de Sandomil to Crown, 27 January 1738.
32 BAC, Mss. Vermelho, 273, ‘Ceremoniães de que uzão os Senhores Vice-Reys da Índia’ (n.d. c. 1780).
33 AHU, Índia, Cx. 302, ‘A queixa que o illustrissimo sr. Conde V. Rey padeçe por dor do estomago se define na forma sequente’ (1761).
34 AHU, Cód. 213, Consulta do conselho Ultramarino, 11 August 1719.
35 Ajuda, Cód. 51–VII–28, ‘Relação sumaria dos principals succesos de Goa com a guerra de Maratha’ (1742) fol. 4.
36 de Saldanha, A.V., A Índia Portuguesa e a política do Oriente de Setencentos. Manuel de Saldanha, I o Conde de Ega (Lisbon 1989) 28Google Scholar.
37 Notably the Mhamai-Khamat family in the eighteenth century, see e.g. the claims of the Khamat-family on the Conde de Ega in AHU, Índia. Cx. 292, ‘Conta de Curtam Camotim Mamay com o Ex. Sr. Conde de Ega para ver ao seu filho herdeiro Sr. Ayres de Saldanha de Albuquerque.
38 See e.g. Historical Archive of Goa, Panjim, Livro Azul, 8784, ‘Alvará’, 23 April 1624, fol. 2 and for the eighteenth century AHU, Cód. 213, ‘Consulta do conselho Ultramarino', 11 January 1717, fol. 82–83.
39 AHU, Índia, Cx. 31, 12, Alvarez Cotta to Crown, 5 January 1680.
40 AHU, Índia, Cx. 230, Petição 27 February 1737; see also: AHU, Índia, Cx. 217, Petitição de Balla Crisna e Crisna Santo, moradores em Bassein, 29 February 1736.
41 AHU, Índia, Cx. 266, ‘Provizão do Sr. Vicerey’, 5 June 1763, ‘largendo os lares patrios vivião como feroz nos matos mais aridos’.
42 AHU, Índia, Cx. 266, Tradução de huma carta de Vidrabadra Vaddar sobrinho e primeiro ministro do Rey de Sunda’, 15 September 1766.
43 AHU, Índia, Cx. 180, ‘Refleçōes sobre a utilidade que rezultara ao Estado da Índia proceder na forma que se ensenhasse’ (ca. 1760): ‘hoje não reprezenta aquelle governo outra coiza que hum monstro composto da cabeça de hum gigante que oprima e destruou o enfraquecido corpo de hum pimeo.’
44 See in general de Souza, T.R., Goa medieval, a cidade e o interior no seculo XVII (Lisbon 1993) 59Google Scholar and in particular Ajuda, Cód. 51–VII–25, António Gonsalves de Câmera Coutinho to Crown, 31 December 1699, fol. 166vo–167.
45 See, for example, AHU, Índia, Cx. 35, 89, ‘Propostas em que os prelados e os religiosos deste Estado dizem os seus pareceres sobre a collecta que se-paga sobre os mantimentos’, 1691.
46 AHU, Índia, Cx. 143, Petition of the ‘Cãmara Geral de Bardes’, March 1773.
47 AHU, Índia, Cx. 236, ‘Resoluçōes da Junta Geral dos tres estados', 29 August 1737.
48 AHU, Índia, Cx. 96, Petition of the Gavcars of Ambelim, Asolna and Velim, 30 December 1762.
49 For which see in particular the statistics in AHU, Cód. 1240, ‘Agricultura em Goa anno de 1790’.
50 BNL, FG, Cód. 8529, ‘Lista das repostas que Vasco Fernandes Cesar de Menezes faz na monção do anno de 1713’ fol. 47, Carta Regia, 20 December 1710 and answer of Viceroy 30 December 1712.
51 Frykenberg, R., Gundur District 1788–1848: A History of Local Influence and Central Authority in South India (Oxford 1965)Google Scholar.
52 AHU, Índia, Cx. 266, ‘O senhor Henriques jose de Mendonça tirasse parecer’, 4 October 1766; on this issue of ancient ownership of the land in the Konkan see also the ironic (but certainly not meant as such) remark of the Count of Távora (AHU, Índia, Cx. 204, Count of Távora to Crown, 7 February 1753). ‘No distrito de Concão a maior parte esta hoje no dominio dos seus antigos possuidores e quem mais força teve mais parte agregou a si.’
53 Hegel, G.W.F., Phänomenologie des Geistes (Bamberg 1807)Google Scholar B. & 4 ‘Selbständigkeit und Unselbständigkeit des Bewustseins. Herrschaft und Knechtschaft’.
54 AHU, Índia, Cx. 165, Devassa against João de Saldanha de Gama, 6 April 1726.
55 See e.g. Kolff, D.H.A., ‘Een Brits-Indische omwandeling’ (Inaugural Lecture, Leiden 1991)Google Scholar.
56 AHU, Cód. 441, ‘Parecer do Padre Sebastiāo de Rego’, 31 October 1759, fol. 187.
57 AHU, Índia, Cx. 159, Frey Eugenio Triqueiros to Archbishop of Goa, 23 December 1723.
58 See e:g. die judgement of Alorna in Ajuda, Cód. 51–VII–48, ‘Carta do Mârques de Alorna ao ill.ssimo. Senhor Rey Dom Joāo V 21 December 1745’ fol. 55vo.
59 For right into the late eighteenth century the De Mello e Castro-family was still engaged in endless lawsuits to whitewash the family from the stain cast upon it in the seventeenth century see BNL, Pombalina, Cód. 461.
60 ANTT, Conselho Geral do Santo Ófficio, 101, ‘Copia das consultas sobre os excessos do Vice Rey António de Mello e Castro’, 19 December 1664, fol. 169–170.
61 AHU, Índia, Cx. 266, Notice-sheet in handwriting of Manuel de Corte Real n.d. c. 1768.
62 L.F. Thomaz, ‘Estrutura política e administrativa do Estado da Índia no século XVI’ in: ibid., De Ceuta a Timor (Lisbon 1994) 242, ‘Grande empresa pública da pirateria’.
63 AHU, Índia, Cx. 263, ‘Copia das cartas que o Senado de Goa escreve a sua Real Magestade’, 22 December 1742.
64 Like its principal income a one percent share in the custom-revenues of Goa.
65 I am strictly speaking about Goa here: the situation in Bassein where -after c. 1680- the senado da câmara was indeed the supreme power throughout the land was very different (not even to mention Macao of course).
66 AHU, Moçambique, Cx. 19, Doc. No. 10, ‘Carta Regia com instruções para a melhoria da administração do governo de Moçambique’, March 1761.
67 E.g. in the case of the complaints against the Jesuits by the gaocars of Assolna, AHU, Índia, Cx. 249, Carta Regia, 29 March 1743.
68 See e.g. BNL, Pombalina, Cód. 742, ‘Papeis do Ex.mo. Sr. Vice-Rey Conde de Alorna’, fol. 115–117, ‘Resumo das relações das missões do Padroado Real’.
69 Xavier, F.N. ed., Instrucção do Ex.mo. Vice-Rei Marques de Alorna ao seu succesor Exmo Vice Rei Marquez de Tavora 1750 (Nova Goa 1850)Google Scholar. I used the copy in BNL, Pombalina, Cód. 469, however: fol. 29–31.
70 BNL, FG, Cód. 4179, ‘Titolo de ordem que o Vice Rey do Estado da Índia há de tir nas coizas de justiçia’ (1740). In the beginning of the seventeenth century the office of Viceroy had still fairly extensive judicial capacities but the Viceroy was by royal alvará of 1654 prohibited to exercise any judicial function in the relação. (ANTT, Manuscritos da Livrária Mss. 699, fol. 119vo). And in the eighteenth century the only legal discretionary power left to the Viceroy was that he could grant parole from prison- and death-sentences.
71 Lopes, M.J. dos Mértires, Goa Setecentista: Tradição e Modernidade (Lisbon 1966) 122–123Google Scholar.
72 This ‘spoils’ system was subject to a great deal of criticism. There were, for instance, complaints that judges, as they were mainly paid through their shares in the fines imposed (propinas), tended to impose heavy fines and punishments to earn more themselves (AHU, Índia, Cx. 150, Manuel Fereira de Lima to Crown, 15 January 1724.)
73 On such emoluments from office, see the listing thereof in the extracts from the regiment of Goa's chancellery in AHU, Índia, Cx. 137.
74 AHU, Moçambique, Cx. 14, Document 21, Petition, 7 June 1758.
75 For which see in particular the chancellery-accounts in ANTT, Junta da Real Fazenda do Estado da Índia, Cód. 24.
76 AHU, Índia, Cx. 301, ‘Consulta do conselho Ultramarino», 8 April 1755.
77 AHU, Índia, Cx. 143, Petition of Bardes Senate to Crown, March 1773.
78 Nandy, Ashis, The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism (Delhi 1983)Google Scholar.
79 AHU, Índia, Cx. 239, Petition of Bardes senate to Crown, 28 November 1738.
80 Following Carmen Radulet's attribution of this text to Noronha at least Radulet, C.M., ‘Perspectivas diplométicas e militares do Estado da Índia durante a segunda medade do século XVIII através das obras de D. António José de Noronha’, Revista da Cullura 13/14 (1991) 310–317Google Scholar.
81 BNL, FG, Cód. 553, ‘Systema Marcial Asiatico’, fol. 189–195.
82 The standard account of caste in Goa is de Bragança Pereira, A.B., Etnografia da Índia Portuguesa (Bastora 1938Google Scholar and 1940) which, however, suffers from assuming caste is a permanent and fixed identity.
83 As in much recent work on Portuguese ‘imperial’ history, which, in my view, far too easily abstracts from the Indian (or for that matter African) background to postulate an overall Portuguese ‘institutional identity’, that fundamentally derives from older institutions in the metropolis.
84 E.g. AHU, Índia, Cx. 257, Senado da câmara of Goa to Crown, 8 February 1740.
85 AHU, Índia, Cx, 305, s.d. (1770), ‘Reprezentação dos eccleziasticos natureães de Goa», ‘Sendo filhos de pais piões que nunca tiverão nobreza alguma’.
86 AHU, Índia, Cx. 153, Petition of Daman senate, c. 1726.
87 AHU, Índia, Cx. 190, Marques de Tavora to King 11 February 1745.
88 As is, for example, clear when examining such cases between Hindus brought before the court of Bassein in the 1670s for which see BAC, Manuscritos Azuis, 499 and 500.
89 AHU, Índia, Cx. 211, ‘Petição do povo gentio de Goa’, 11 February 1740.
90 See de Saldanha, A.V., Iustum imperium. Dos tratados come fundamento do império dos Portugueses no Oriente. Estudo de história de direito international e direito Português (Lisbon 1997)Google Scholar.
91 A point not sufficiently appreciated in the large literature on Mweni Mutappa I feel, but see Lobato, A., Colonização senhoral no Zambesi e outros ensaios (Lisbon 1962)Google Scholar.
92 AHU, Índia, Cx. 289, Provedor mor dos contos to Crown, 13 December 1768.
93 See in general also de Oliveira Bolleo, J., ‘A incorporação das “Novas Conquistas” no Estado da Índia’, Studia 8 (1961) 353–390Google Scholar.
94 AHU, Índia Cx. 84, ‘Dizem Cocrimona Naique e Soada Siva Naique, moradores deste cidade de Goa’ (undated c. 1770).
95 Barendse, R.J., Epos van hel Brits imperium (Amsterdam 2001) 289Google Scholar.
96 Quando os Índios eram vassalos. Colonização e relações de poder no norte do Brasil na segunda medade do século XVIII (Lisbon 2000).
97 The classic study here, of course, being R. Guha, A Rule of Property for Bengal (Paris 1963) but the discussion on the impact of European ideas about Asia on Asia before the nineteenth century has, I daresay, not proceeded very much since. Thus, for example, one might wonder on the impact the overall very favourable impression of the Chinese in Europe had on the VOC allotting the Chinese far-reaching legal autonomy in Batavia.
98 AHU, Índia Cx. 245, ‘Copia do parecer do ouvidor geral do civel, Joseph Pedro de Livramento, sobre a successão das gentios’ (1737).
99 AHU, Moçambique, Cx. 19, Doc. 20.
100 The best account is still de Cunha, J.H. Rivara's classic, A conjuraçāo de 1787 em Goa, e varias cousas deste tempo. Memoria historica (Nova Goa, 1875)Google Scholar. See also Lopes, Goa setecentista, 293–309.
101 For which see Cohn, B.S., Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge (Princeton 1996) 4–6Google Scholar.