Invasion That Fizzled Sticky monsoon rains pelted the little band of marchers as they sloshed up the mud-laden roads toward the border of Goa. The long-heralded invasion was on. In the lush, Rhode Island-sized Portuguese colony on the west coast of India, 4,000 African troops and 1,000 Goan police waited, guns loaded and aimed. In far-off Lisbon, frantic crowds prayed in churches and demonstrated in the streets against the coming onslaught on Portugal's ancient colony. As the group of invaders from India—19 Goans carrying nothing but umbrellas and little cloth bags, and led by a 26-year-old man trained for the priesthood—made their determined way along the road, Indian policemen saluted the Indian tricolored flag which they carried, for the day was India's Independence Day. Finally the marchers reached a sagging chain across their path. Behind the chain stood seven Goan policemen and a small dog. Undaunted, the little band stepped over the chain and tramped into Goa. The Goan cops locked up their guardhouse, slung their rifles on their shoulders and trudged along after the liberators. The dog followed. Soaked to the skin, the strange procession walked on through the deserted countryside (the Portuguese had evacuated people from villages near the border, to prevent demonstrations). The weary cops were lagging behind when suddenly the marchers dived off the road into the thick jungle. Baffled, the cops argued among themselves, and decided not to give chase. A few miles north, two other groups of peaceful invaders, one with 20 marchers, another with ten, all Goans, walked calmly into the little colony. Back at his headquarters in the Indian town of Karwar, 46-year-old Peter Alvares. president of the National Congress of Goa and mastermind of the unarmed invasion to "liberate" the colony, insisted that all this was according to plan: he had instructed his liberators to scatter among the people of Goa and preach freedom until captured. Several hundred miles away, at the border of Portugal's colony of Daman, 1,000 Indian nationalists gathered. But Indian Frontier Security Police barred their way: Prime Minister Nehru had decreed that only Goans could participate in the movement for freedom. Perhaps Nehru had heard that Communists had infiltrated this crowd of Indian nationalists, hoping to set themselves up as rulers of Daman. By the end of the day, Portugal's flag still flew over Goa. Earlier in the week Nehru had announced:"The Indian Army could take Goa in a trice if it wanted to. but we do not want to." Apparently, having heard from the rest of the world, Nehru decided that now was the wrong moment for swallowing up Goa. TIME / 23 August 1954 (repeat 1954) archived issued. Can someone shed some light on Peter Alvares, president of the National Congress of Goa ? - Forwarded by gaspar.almeida, www.goa-world.com
