Teotónio de Souza

Teotónio R. de Souza
Teotónio de Souza in 2009
Born	Teotónio Rosário de Souza (1947-02-18) 18 February 1947 (age 70) Moirá, Goa, Portuguese India
Residence	Lisbon, Portugal
Nationality	Portuguese
Alma mater	Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, University of Poona

Teotónio R. de Souza (born 18 February 1947) is a Goan historian and the founder-director of the Goa-based Xavier Centre of Historical Research, at Alto Porvorim. Based in Portugal since 1995, Souza was Head and Chair,Department of History in the Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias from 1999-2014. He has been a fellow of the Portuguese Academy of History since 1983, and of the Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa since 2000.

Of Goan Catholic origin, Souza was born in the village of Moirá in the Bardez taluka of Goa. He belongs to the fifth vangodd (clan) of the village and is the 12th generation descendant of Shantappa Kamat, a Goud Saraswat Brahmin who became Diogo de Souza after his conversion to Christianity in 1618.

Souza was educated mostly in Goa during Portuguese colonial rule. He belonged to the Goa Jesuits for twenty-six years, and was a professed member of that religious order when he opted to leave with dispensation from the Holy See in 1995. He recovered Portuguese nationality in 1995 and was granted Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) by the Government of India in 2007.

Souza has written his PhD thesis, published as Medieval Goa (Delhi, Concept Publ. Co., 1979;First Portuguese edition: Lisboa, Ed. Estampa, 1994; 2nd updated English edition: Panaji, Goa1556 + Broadway Book Centre, 2009) challenges the view that Portuguese rule in South Asia resulted in a period of golden rule in Goa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Sees "Golden Goa" as an expression popularised by art historians with reference to baroque church architecture of the early centuries of the Portuguese rule. He is the author and editor of many books and research papers. His partial memoirs are penned in a book titled Goa To Me[2] (New Delhi, Concept,1994). A firm believer in the power of web since early 70s and defender of digitalization of historical sources, he founded in partnership with the Goan free-lance journalist Frederick Noronha the Goa-Research-Net in 1997 , initially in Goanet server, and since 2005 on Yahoogroups. Presently it has also a Facebook version.