Portuguese Influences in the East

Abstract

Portugal's influence in the Orient has not been fully appreciated or explored. When the Lusitanian influence is mentioned, the heroic deeds of the navigators, captains and governors and the empire's wide-ranging trade are much more common. The Portuguese empire is also criticised for its policy of cruelty, intolerance and religious zeal, and it is generally thought that its influence was superficial and ephemeral. However, the truth is that Portugal's civilising action in its former colonies and its peoples was much more profound and lasting in many ways, so much so that traces of it can still be found. No colonial nation was less racially selfish and more inclined to identify with the natives than the Portuguese. To help maintain peace in the colonies, the Portuguese merged with the natives in such a way that even today there are still groups, more or less numerous, in various Asian regions, who are proud to be descendants of the first European civilisers of the denomination Portuguese and of their Lusitanian names and surnames. The value of the civilizing action of Portugal is especially evident in the influence that the Portuguese language exerted, and still exerts, in much of Asia. It is natural that the language of the conqueror should be the official language, and the natives find it necessary to learn and speak it. But generally this lasts as long as the country is under foreign domination. For example, Holland dominated various parts of India, but left almost no trace of its language, except one or two words. It is also natural that the descendants of the conquerors continue to use their father's language long after national domination has ceased, as happens with Portuguese in Bengal, Malacca and Singapore. The Portuguese language had a great expansion in Asia in the past centuries. During the Age of Discovery, Portuguese was considered the Christian language par excellence and a sign of European culture. Portuguese was spoken, pure or adapted to the language of the country in question, all over India, in Malaysia, in Siam, in China, in some parts of what Persia was then, in some parts of Turkey and in Mecca, among other places. And it was spoken not only by the Portuguese and their descendants, but also by Hindus, Mohammedans, Jews, Malays, and Europeans of other nationalities, among themselves and with the natives. It was also spoken by the Dutch missionaries in their dominions and is still spoken today by the English Protestant ministers in the island of Ceylon. It was, and has been for a long time, the lingua franca of the East. Today, Portuguese is spoken especially in East Timor, Goa and Daman in India, and Macao. Even if, one day, the Portuguese language and its speakers will disappear completely from Asia, the influence will remain through certain dialects and expressions in the various languages, as well as in some everyday habits and objects. In this paper, I will highlight the influences that I believe have been most pronounced and perpetuated in the culture of the respective countries, as well as those that I consider most famous.