The Pinto Revolt

-Brynn Vaz (R-17-42)

In 1787 Candolim was the scene of the first serious local attempt to overthrow the Portuguese. The
founders of the conspiracy were mostly churchmen, angry at the ingrained racial discrimination
that meant they were not allowed to occupy the highest clerical positions. Two of them, Father
Caetano Francisco Couto and Jose Antonio Gonsalves, travelled to Portugal to plead their case in
the court at Lisbon. Unsuccessful in their attempts, they returned to Goa and began plotting at the
home of the Pinto family in Candolim. Gradually the number of conspirators grew, as army officers
and others disaffected with their Portuguese overlords joined the cause.

The plans were so close to completion that a date had been fixed for the proposed coup, when the
plot was discovered by the Portuguese authorities. A total of 47 conspirators, including 17 priests
and seven army officers, were arrested. The lucky ones were sentenced to the galleys or deported
to Portugal for a 20-year prison stint, while 15 of the lowlier and less fortunate were hanged, drawn
and quartered in Panaji and their heads mounted on stakes as a deterrent to other would-be
revolutionaries.
The Cause:The root of the dissent was that missionaries from Portugal (the Dominicans,
Franciscans and Jesuits) were dominating the churches and Government services in Goa towards
the end of the 18th century.The conspiracy was inspired by the propaganda of the political agitators
that shortly after brought about the French Revolution.
José António and Caetano visited Rome and Portugal to plead for their being appointed as Bishops,
but were refused. As a result of this refusal, they hatched the conspiracy along with Abbé Faria.
They also managed to obtain the sympathy of similarly disaffected Christians in the Army and
local clergy.The conspirators also negotiated with Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore, so that, when
they had thrown Goa into disorder, he would invade and give the finishing touch.The conspiracy
was given up by one of the conspirators to the authorities thereby preventing invasion from
Mysorian muslim sultanate.
The local Christians were being ignored for any prestigious or responsible positions. But it seems
it was these Goan priests being bypassed in favour of the South Indian St. Thomas clerics
(particularly Bishop Joseph Kariattil) for the appointment to the vacant sees of Cranganore and
Mylapore that was last straw on the camel's back.
P. Kamat mentions that the protests of the various priests she studied for their non-submission to
the Portuguese authority in Goa were by and large manifestations of their immediate personal
grievances arising out of racial discrimination and administrative abuses.
The dissent was also fomented by the bad treatment of Goans by the Portuguese, especially after
the loss of Portuguese territories of Daman and Bassein to the Marathas in 1739. This treatment
had led to the refusal of Goans to join Portuguese military expeditions in East Africa, leading to
the Portuguese Viceroy in Goa to issue an ordinance in 1760 banning the use of the expressions
negro or cachorro (dog) to refer to the natives [citation needed].
Aftermath
The conspiracy being made known to the authorities, they took vigorous steps to pre-empt it. Some
of the conspirators fled in disguise to British territory. However, the authorities arrested and
punished 47 persons, including 17 priests and seven army officers.
The area around the present day GPO (General Post Office) in Panjim is called São Tomé. The
present GPO building used to be the old tobacco house, and the building to its right was the
Government Mint. The area in front of these buildings was the old Panjim pillory and used to be
the site of public executions, and was where fifteen conspirators of the failed revolt were executed.
Gonçalves fled to British territory and lived the remainder of his life as an English teacher in
Calcutta. Abbé Faria teamed up with the French Revolutionaries and participated along with the
"juring" clerics in the Revolutionaries' brutal persecution of the Catholic Church in France and
elsewhere.
For decades after, the Conspiracy was used as a stick to defame and denigrate Goan missionaries
and priests in British India by their opponents, the Vicars Apostolic of the Propaganda party, Goans
being of the Padroado party. The incident was used to represent the Goans to the British
government and to the Christians in British India as untrustworthy, rebellious and willing to
compromise with their own enemies (Tipu Sultan). This became Goa's Black Legend.

Reference
thelonelyplanet.com
genealogy.com