Teotónio de Souza

Teotónio Rosário de Souza (18 February 1947 – 20 February 2019) was a Goan historian and the founder-director of the Goa-based Xavier Centre of Historical Research (XCHR), at Alto Porvorim. Based in Portugal since 1995, de Souza was Head and Chair, Department of History in the Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias from 1999-2014. He has been a fellow of the Portuguese Academy of History since 1983, and of the Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa since 2000.

Quotes

• At least from 1540 onwards, and in the island of Goa before that year, all the Hindu idols had been annihilated or had disappeared, all the temples had been destroyed and their sites and building materials were in most cases utilised to erect new Christian churches and chapels. Various vice regal and Church council decrees banished the Hindu priests from the Portuguese territories; the public practice of Hindu rites including marriage rites, was banned; the state took upon itself the task of bringing up the Hindu orphan children; the Hindus were denied certain employments, while the Christians were preferred; it was ensured that the Hindus would not harass those who became Christians, and on the contrary, the Hindus were obliged to assemble periodically in churches to listen to preaching or to the refutation of their religion.
  • Dr. T. R. de Souza in M. D. David (ed.), Western Colonialism in Asia and Christianity, Bombay, 1988, p. 17. Quoted in S.R. Goel: History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)