History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304 to 1996) is a book by Sita Ram Goel which he published in 1986 under his Voice of India imprint. Described as Goel's "path-breaking work", the book opens with a discussion of the belief common to many Christians in South India that St. Thomas the apostle travelled to India. The book mentions the Syrian Christians of the Malabar coast and the Italian traveller Ludovico di Varthema, author of the Itineratio. An important Hindu-Christian encounter was the arrival of the Portuguese with Vasco da Gama in 1498 CE and with Francis Xavier in 1542 CE, an encounter which Goel points out led to the Inquisition reaching India.