Bibliographical essay

Summary

This bibliographical essay makes no attempt to survey all the literature in the field of Indo-Portuguese history. It is simply a discussion of some of the books and articles I have read over the years and found to be useful. I have deliberately concentrated on work in English, on the assumption that most readers will not be able to use Portuguese-language material. It is true that Portuguese scholarship for much of the twentieth century suffered from the dead hand of censorship under Dr Salazar, as indeed it had earlier, thanks to clerical control. Nevertheless, it is obvious that any serious student of the subject needs to be able to read Portuguese. This is even more the case for anyone thinking of engaging in original research. A very large number of documents and chronicles, especially those relating to the sixteenth century, have been published, but not translated; nor, given their length, are they ever likely to be. Thus the serious student, let alone a potential researcher, has no choice but to learn Portuguese.

There is another reason why this essay makes no attempt to be inclusive. This is because we at last have a comprehensive bibliography available specifically on the Portuguese in India. We all owe a vast debt to Henry Scholberg for his Bibliography of Goa and the Portuguese in India (New Delhi, 1982). His book contains nearly 3000 entries in a variety of languages, mostly of course English and Portuguese. Like any other bibliography, it was not complete when it was published, and is rapidly becoming out of date