Haatkatro Khamb - Historical landmark in Ella - North Goa, India

Although a monument is preserved to remind us of the bitter history. Hindus also should know spreading hate now after 500 years isn't the best way to express in the comments. This should only be a reminder to all of us, that we should stay united against all adversities. What is happening in the name of religion today is equally condemnable because it's done by our own people against fellow citizens. Hope we are more civilised now.

This is the Jallianwala bagh of Goa . A reminder to all , what atrocities our forefathers had to bear from a country that todays generation supoort at fifa world cup . Never forget.

A very important and pivotal historical landmark of Goa, waiting to disintegrate at the behest of unplanned infrastructural development.

This shows how Portugese performed atrocities on Hindu Goans. All Goa was Hindu, contrary to the current belief. This pillar must be retained always.

Living Proof of the barbaric torture meted out to the lakhs of native Goan Hindus by the evangelical catholic priests during the infamous Inquisition by the Portuguese during their rule of Goa. Hindus who protested conversions were tied to this Pole (Khambo in Konkani) and their hands (Haath in Konkani) dismembered (Katro in Konkani). Hence the name? Hath Katro Khambo ( Hand Cutting Pole - Literal translation).

The Portuguese Inquisition began in 1536. Francis Xavier, a Basque, not Portuguese, was a student in Paris at the time. Then he went with Ignatius Loyola to northern Italy. He stayed working in Venice, where he was ordained priest, then went on to Rome. In March 1540 he left Rome to go on a missionary journey to the Indies, at the request of King Joao III of Portugal. He arrived in Portugal in June 1540 and stayed there for ten months. He had no involvement in the Portuguese Inquisition, which targeted Catholics who were suspected of reverting to Judaism, or entertaining Lutheran ideas. He sailed from Lisbon in June 1541 and arrived in Goa in May 1542. He left Goa in 1547, never to return, travelling to Malaysia and Japan, and dying off the coast of China in 1552. On 11 December 1553, Xavier's body was shipped to Goa. The Goan Inquisition began in 1560. Unlike the European Inquisitions, it did allegedly try to force conversions from Hinduism to Catholicism. Francis Xavier had been in heaven for eight years by this point, so I doubt he played much part in it. Notheless the persecution of Hindus is historically accurate. There is a good book - Guardian of Dawn by Richard Zimler - which documents the horrors of Goan Inquisition, one of the most horrific events in history. It heaped terror on the simple goan people who had never known the concept of terror in the name of religion and God. Richard Zimler called it a 'machinery of death' - the most merciless and cruel ever developed. Dismembering the children limb by limb in front of their parents whose eyes were taped open till they agreed to convert was particularly an effective method. On the faintest suspicion of heresy, thousand died during the 252 years of the Inquisition. If a small idol was kept at home or a non-Christian prayer whispered, anyone could be arrested and tortured in special Inquisition prisons. It is estimated that by the end of 17th century the ethnic cleansing of Hindus and Muslims was complete as there was less than 20,000 that were non - Christian out of the total Goan population of 2, 50,000. The practice of burning suspected heretics Auto-de-Fe was common. The Inquisition was initiated by "Saint" Francis Xavier and the local goan churches maintained detailed accounts and numbers of the inquisition trials and punishments and communicated back to the Vatican over a period of two and half centuries from 1560 to 1812. In an action reminiscent of how the Nazis erased all evidence of the holocaust including the gas chambers, all records of the inquisition were destroyed in 1812. The Vatican has neither acknowledged nor apologized for the Goan Inquisition till date. Fontainhas is notable for being home to only a few relics remaining as testament to the Goan Inquisition; In the chapel of Saint Sebastian : a striking crucifix, which originally stood in the Palace of the Inquisition in Old Goa, Christ's unusual open eyes are said to have been conceived especially to strike fear into the hearts of 'heretical' suspects brought before the Inquisitors, and awaiting their usually grisly fate.

Whenever I pass this Khamo I pray for the great men and women who laid down their lives for us to live free from oppression and also pray their souls rest in peace

This pillar was used by Portuguese during colonial times to cut the hands of those local Hindus who refused to convert to Christianity. Hindus were made to stand close to pillar. They were tied to pillar and their hands were chopped off. Hat katro signifies cutting of hands