Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 90

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Today's Topics:

   1. Read: "India?s Hindu Right Seems Unstoppable. This City Shows
      How." (Vivek Pinto)
   2. Read: "The Bible and the Brahmin: The 18th-century defence of
      Hindu bigamy in Portuguese Goa" (Vivek Pinto)


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Message: 1
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2026 11:54:07 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Read: "India?s Hindu Right Seems Unstoppable. This
	City Shows How."
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9wZvRTmp1soiR5+h8EeGDd1HR7acCA0vwJgLMQ0wrnJaA-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

By: Mujib Mashal and Suhasini Raj - Photographs by Saumya Khandelwal
Over several visits to Sambhal, the city seen as the new frontier of the
Hindu right?s rising power, Mujib Mashal and Suhasini Raj spoke to
residents and officials and studied court documents.
Published in: *The New York Times*
Date: February 20, 2026
Muslims make up a majority in Sambhal, but after deadly clashes over a
mosque, they say they (sic) the arms of the state are now stifling them.

The defining scene, before the city?s transformation, was that of a lawyer,
dressed in his barrister?s black robe and casual slippers, walking out of
the narrow alley of a mosque shielded by security guards and supporters who
chanted hail to the Hindu deity Ram.

All around, it was deadly chaos.

An angry crowd of Muslims had gathered in late 2024 to defend the mosque,
one of the oldest still standing in India, which they feared was under
threat from a court ruling prompted by the lawyer. The police, led by a
former Olympic wrestler with a penchant for shirtless muscle-flexing on
Instagram, charged at them with clubs as the tensions grew, and many in the
crowd hurled stones. The officers shot tear gas and opened fire. Residents
said at least five people were killed.

For Muslims in India?s north, the mosque, Shahi Jama Masjid, and the city
that grew around it are a prominent bastion of their identity.

But for the Hindu right, the 16th-century mosque is an eyesore ? a symbol
of an abhorred past of foreign invasions that brought Islam to India?s
north and altered the region?s ancient demography. Hindu nationalists
sought to dismantle the mosque through the courts by claiming it was built
on a sacred Hindu site, using archaeological claims to help further the
rise of Hindu nationalism
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/world/asia/modi-india-ram-temple.html>.

After the clashes, officials shut down the internet, closed Sambhal to
outsiders and crushed dissent. The authorities, relying largely on phone
location data, rounded up dozens who were found to have been in the area of
the clashes. The police registered criminal complaints against 2,750
?unnamed? people in relation to the violence ? indicating that they could
add anyone?s name as a suspect later, which some Muslims saw as a threat.
The families of those killed and injured said they were pressured not to
file complaints against the police. A lawyer representing the mosque who
blamed the police for the deaths was accused of inciting violence and sent
to jail.

?The system, this hatred they are sowing, took my son,? said Nafisa, who
goes by only one name. Her son Ayaan, 17, was killed in the violence.

Violence along religious lines is not new in India. But what played out in
Sambhal ? documented in interviews and court documents ? crystallized a new
reality where the arms of the state that once tried to play the role of
referee now increasingly serve as the muscle of the forces recasting
India?s secular republic as a Hindu-first nation.

?India?s drift toward Hindu majoritarianism has received the support of
large swaths of the population as Indian society moves from transactional
communalism to institutionalized bigotry
<https://indianexpress.com/article/india/bjp-complaints-against-miyas-practice-politics-of-polarisation-assam-cm-himanta-10498937/>
,? two leading experts of India, Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian, wrote
in a new book, ?One Sixth of Humanity.?
<https://harpercollins.co.in/books/a-sixth-of-humanity/>

Three-quarters of Sambhal city?s estimated population of about 300,000 is
Muslim. But they say they have been forced to largely confine expressions
of faith to private spaces, and they have been frightened into silence as
the city took on a more overt Hindu identity.

?Our people?s peace was replaced with harassment,? Zia ur Rahman Barq, an
opposition lawmaker representing Sambhal, said. ?Their work, the education
of their children, is affected.?

On the ground, the most visible face of this new reality of Hindu dominance
was the police chief, Anuj Chaudhary, who said his officers were simply
enforcing the law. (The police have denied any role in the killings and any
harassment.) He aspired to Bollywood stardom after an injury ended his
wrestling career, but settled for another type of celebrity ? a tough-guy
cop with social media reels set to thumping music.

But setting the tone from the top is Yogi Adityanath, the leader of the
surrounding state, Uttar Pradesh, India?s most populous with 240 million
people. Ruling in a monk?s saffron-robe, he defines the law, the boundaries
of the new reality where full display of Hindu religiosity is the norm.
Meanwhile vigilantes ? often unchecked by
the police  ? frequently suppress other public religious expression.

Mr. Adityanath, whose office did not respond to requests for comment, has
used Sambhal to further his strongman reputation, a plank on which he will
fight for re-election next year, according to a senior state official who
asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak. Mr.
Adityanath?s image, which includes championing big-ticket development, has
made him popular around the country and a possible successor to Narendra
Modi as the country?s prime minister.

Mosque Battle
By his own account, Vishnu Shankar Jain, was simply carrying out the court
order he had obtained to examine the history of the site of Shahi Jama
Masjid.

But he was also following in the footsteps of his father as a legal warrior
of the Hindu cause. His father had been a key member of the legal team in a
dispute over another 16th-century mosque, Babri, in Ayodhya, also in Uttar
Pradesh, that was razed in 1992 and set off deadly violence. That movement
began unraveling the fragile understanding that had held India together
since its founding as a republic: that it is a tolerant, forward-looking
modern nation not focused on settling past scores.

Mr. Jain, 39, calls himself a ?destination? lawyer available to anyone who
wants to pursue a dispute on behalf of Hindus.

?This is about reclaiming our cultural heritage,? he said in an interview.

Within hours of Mr. Jain getting the court?s approval on Nov. 19, 2024, a
survey officer was appointed. The many government entities involved reached
the scene to begin work long past official working hours, looking for clues
that the site may have once been a temple. Their unusual speed, in a
typically snail-paced bureaucracy, aroused suspicions among Muslims that
the authorities were seizing and demolishing the mosque.

?What was the need for such haste?? said Mr. Barq, the lawmaker. ?Surveys
don?t happen at night, but during office hours.?

The first survey passed peacefully. But after the team, accompanied by a
large security force, arrived again early on Nov. 24 for a second survey,
an angry crowd of Muslims assembled outside the mosque. When water from a
tank in the mosque started gushing down a slope, the crowd grew restless,
said the mosque?s lawyer, Zafar Ali. Rumors spread that the team had
started excavating the site.

The crowd rushed forward, some of them throwing stones. The police charged
back, firing bullets that killed and injured some of them, their families
said in interviews and court documents.

Among those killed was Mohammad Roman Khan, 45, who sold garments from a
bicycle. He had two bullet wounds ? one in the chest, one in the back of
the head ? his son, Mohamad Adnan Khan, said.

The family did not file a complaint.

?If the killer is the same police, what can we do?? the son said.

Four families of the dead registered police complaints but were harassed by
the police to change their statements, their lawyers said. Days before some
were scheduled to give evidence in July to an inquiry committee, they were
picked up from their homes by the police, one lawyer said.

When a local baker complained to the police that he had been hit by bullets
and had seen ?with his own eyes that it was police who fired at him,? he
was booked over the violence, said Qamar Hussain, his lawyer.

?If you look for witnesses, they end up as accused in jail,? Mr. Hussain
said.

The police described the violence as a conspiracy by a local group ?to
establish their might? by orchestrating large-scale riots. Other officials
portrayed the violence as a gang war between two Muslim factions.

Mr. Barq, the local parliamentarian, was named by the police as an
instigator of the violence. His home was raided by hundreds of security
forces, TV cameras in tow, over what he said were trumped up accusations of
?electricity theft.? (Mr. Barq?s name loosely translates as electricity.)

?Those killed are our people,? Mr. Barq said, ?and we are accused of the
killings.?

A Police Hero
As Hindu influence over the city grew, Mr. Chaudhary, the area police
chief, saw his celebrity soar. He was the guest of honor at functions, and
he often posted visuals on Instagram of him carrying out religious rituals
in his police uniform. (In contrast, when a Muslim police officer in the
state made a reference to Prophet Muhammad while addressing a school, he
was transferred after right-wing groups protested against what they called
indoctrination.) When Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, coincided with
Islamic Friday Prayers in the tense months after the violence, Mr.
Chaudhary told Muslims to stay home if they did not like it.

An imposing police station has been built next to the mosque, fitted with
dozens of surveillance cameras. The main wall is painted with battlefield
scenes from Mahabharata, an ancient epic central to Hinduism. At the
station?s opening in spring ? with a full religious ceremony on the
birthday of the Hindu deity Ram ? attendees posed with Mr. Chaudhary for
selfies.

Mr. Chaudhary has since been elevated in rank and put in charge of another
town. When a judicial magistrate last month ordered a police inquiry
<https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/uttar-pradesh/sambhal-court-orders-fir-against-former-co-anuj-chaudhary-others-in-2024-violence-case/article70506900.ece>
 against Mr. Chaudhary and other officers into complaints that they were
behind the shootings, the police in Sambhal refused the order. Days later,
the magistrate was transferred from his post.

In an interview, Mr. Chaudhary said he had been simply doing the work of
?maintaining law and order.? As he talked, he referred to the Muslims in
Sambhal as ?the other side.?

?They have not seen this kind of policing,? he said. ?It used to be
appeasement ? the mollycoddling kind of policing, where the officers
touched someone?s chin and pleaded them not to do something.?

The city?s new reality has since been entrenched.

When the Hindu festival of Kanwar Yatra took place in July, police officers
kept watch near the mosque as young men paraded through Muslim
neighborhoods, blaring music from speakers on the backs of trucks.

Kantikrant Tiwary, a local Hindu leader, was overseeing a food stand
organized by a local temple. In the past, he said, such processions would
quietly pass through Muslim-majority neighborhoods and with heavy police
protection.

?Now we can pass like this,? he said, pointing to a D.J. playing loud rave
music outside.
Mujib Mashal is the South Asia bureau chief for The Times, helping to lead
coverage of India and the diverse region around it, including Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.
Suhasini Raj is a reporter based in New Delhi who has covered India for The
Times since 2014.


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2026 12:47:51 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Read: "The Bible and the Brahmin: The 18th-century
	defence of Hindu bigamy in Portuguese Goa"
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9xmonxMXodY9BYo1YacU87pMB2N75G=kEqnU8bqHte3JQ-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

By: Kaustubh Naik
Published in: *Scroll*
Date: February 21, 2026
Source:
https://scroll.in/article/1090422/the-bible-and-the-brahmin-the-18th-century-defence-of-hindu-bigamy-in-portuguese-goa
Historical documents tell a story of mutual collaboration between the
colonial state and the Hindu elite to preserve patriarchal customs.

In the contemporary landscape of Indian historiography, a fierce
ideological battle is being waged over the subcontinent?s past. A powerful
right-wing ecosystem is increasingly leveraging its institutional
infrastructure to discredit established scholarship, often labeling
credible histories as ?left-liberal? or ?Marxist? abstractions. In its
place, a new, unitary narrative is being constructed which imagines a
singular, Hindu subject driven through the ages by a ?Dharmic calling? in
perpetual opposition to Muslim and Christian ?invaders?.

This teleological project seeks to write out the staggering complexity of
social interactions that defined the subcontinent for centuries, thriving
instead on a binary of Hindu victimhood and a foreign oppressor. Yet, when
one looks beneath these polarised narratives, history reveals itself not as
a clash of religions, but as a messy product of class, commerce, and
pragmatic caste solidarities.

The modern deployment of polygamy as a political dog whistle against
Muslims in India is a strategic distortion that weaponises demographic
anxiety to further a unitary ideological agenda. Frequently used by the
Hindu Right as a central pillar of conspiracy theories like ?Love jihad?,
the popular narrative suggests that while Hindus have always been
inherently monogamous, it is the religious ?other? who threatens the social
fabric.

However, deep in the colonial archives of the Estado da ?ndia, there exists
a history that complicates this convenient binary. While the Portuguese
Empire is often remembered as a monolith of religious zealotry defined by
the Inquisition and forced conversions, the reality of colonial
administration tells a story of mutual collaboration between the colonial
state and the Hindu elite to preserve patriarchal customs.

A document from Goan archives, dated August 1782, titled *Informa??o sobre
a bigamia dos Gentios* (?Information on the bigamy of Gentiles?), offers a
rare window into this historical nuance. Published in the *Collec??o de
Bandos* compiled by Filipe Nery Xavier in 1840, the document, written by a
Portuguese official Jos? Joaquim de Sequeira Magalh?es e Lan?oes, serves as
a legal defence for a practice that was anathema to Catholic doctrine: a
Hindu man?s right to marry a second wife while his first was still alive.

The case involved a man whose marriage to a woman named Santai had
collapsed; desperate for an heir and a caretaker for his old age, he
petitioned the State for a licence to marry again. Magalh?es e Lancoes
performed extraordinary theological gymnastics to justify the request,
turning to the Bible itself. He reminded the Viceroy that the great
Patriarchs ? Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David ? all possessed multiple
wives without incurring God?s wrath. If the God of the Old Testament
permitted Abraham to have both Sarah and Hagar, the official argued, the
Portuguese Crown could surely permit a merchant in Ponda to do the same.

This was not an isolated incident but part of a broader genealogy of legal
privilege enjoyed by the Hindu elite. The document cites precedents set by
Saraswat Brahmin men such as Lacximon? Sinai (1765) and later examples such
as the Panjim-based brothers Venctex? and Madeva Sinay Agny, who continued
the practice of bigamy well into the 1820s.

Perhaps the most striking revelation is the involvement of the Inquisition.
The request of wealthy businessman Sadassiv? Sinai in 1763 was reviewed and
approved by Manoel Marques de Azevedo, the Inquisitor of the First Chair.
Azevedo saw ?no repugnance? in granting the request to a man of Sadassiv??s
high social standing, an euphemism for caste capital. This collaboration
highlights a strategic reality where the Portuguese had realised that
enforcing strict Christian monogamy on the Hindu Saraswat merchant class
risked a ?revolution? that would economically ruin the State.

Consequently, the Saraswat merchants also leveraged their position to
accrue significant legal and social concessions that allowed them to
preserve their patriarchal hierarchies while navigating the colonial
apparatus. By securing these exceptions, they transformed what was once a
traditional practice into a formalised legal privilege, effectively
creating a sanctuary for caste-specific customs within the framework of
European law. Such historical negotiations challenge the ?unitary Hindu
subject? currently championed by right-wing narratives, revealing instead a
subcontinent where elite interests often superseded religious binaries to
ensure the survival of local power structures.

To rationalise this legal double standard, the colonial administration
relied on racialised and Orientalist constructions of gender. Magalh?es e
Lancoes argued that while a ?lady of haughty spirit? from Europe would
never tolerate sharing a husband, Asian women were conditioned by
?education and nature? to a state of "invisible slavery" and absolute
obedience where jealousy was unknown.

This allowed the state to maintain order by asserting that local women were
naturally suited to polygamous arrangements. The eventual codification of
these customs into the *C?digo de Usos e Costumes* in 1880 ensured that
these specific patriarchal privileges survived long after the Inquisition
faded and were eventually integrated into the overarching Portuguese Civil
Code.

Today, this history casts a long shadow over the debate on the Uniform
Civil Code in India. While the Hindu Right frequently cites Goa as the
shining example of a secular, uniform legal system, the irony remains
stark. The ?uniform? code in Goa still technically allows a Hindu man to
contract a second marriage if his first wife fails to deliver a child by
age 25, or a male heir by age 30 ? an exception not granted to other
communities.

The Civil Code of Goa was never a simple instrument of secular equality; it
was a document of caste consensus. It was deliberated upon and ratified by
upper-caste men, both Catholic and Hindu, to protect their status, proving
that history is far more complicated than the modern myth of a singular,
victimised Hindu subject would suggest.

*Kaustubh Naik is a doctoral candidate at University of Pennsylvania.*


End of Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 90
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