 XCHR's founding came at a time when relations between India and Portugal, which had soured because of the manner in which colonial rule ended in Goa in 1961, were just becoming to thaw, following the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal.Cajetan Coelho, a historian himself connected with this institution until recently, argues that the XCHR "has helped this process at the cultural level by its involvement in the organization of the series of International Seminars on Indo-Portuguese History ISIPH, initiated by Rev.John Correia-Afonso former director of the Heras Institute in Bombay in December 1978."