Religious Conversion and A Politics of Universalism in Early Modern Goa

• In Event: State Power and Political Identities

Abstract

This paper explores the political implications of ardent adoption of colonially imposed religion by examining the case of converts to Christianity in Goa under Portuguese colonial rule. Extant accounts of religious conversion under colonialism have tended to emphasize the persistence of difference even in historical instances of assimilation. As I argue, these approaches are limited in their appreciation of the transformations involved in embracing a new religious identity and risk dismissing converts’ self-representations as equal moral subjects in an expanding Christian imperium. Rather than repudiating the evangelical basis of colonial rule, converts sought to affirm it. Thus, I propose an alternative to analytical approaches focused on difference by illustrating the emancipatory political possibilities inaugurated by converts in submitting to a universalistic religious frame. Drawing from the writings of indigenous Goan priests, I show how converts channeled Christian doctrine to challenge practices of discrimination in the colonies. I argue that Goan Catholics wrought their own political visions of equality, moral community, and self-governance, and in doing so, posed a foundational problem for Portuguese colonial rule.

Author

• Aditi Rajeev Shirodkar, University of Chicago