In stark contrast to the earlier intense study of the Konkani language and its cultivation undertaken by the Portuguese priests as a communication medium in their quest for converts during the earlier century, the Portuguese Inquisition brought about xenophobic measures intended at isolating New Christians from the non-Christian population of Portuguese Goa. This suppression of Konkani was in face of the repeated Maratha onslaughts of the late 17th and earlier 18th centuries, which for the first time posed a serious threat to Goa, and by extension, the Portuguese presence in India itself. The Maratha threat, compounded by their religious zeal, led the Portuguese colonisers to initiate a positive programme for the suppression of Konkani in Goa. As a result, the ancient language of Konkani was suppressed and rendered unprivileged by the enforcement of Portuguese.