REMEMBERING A FORGOTTEN INTELLECTUAL FROM YESTERDAY'S GOA Goa Through the Eyes of Fanchu Loyola by Dr Carmo D'Souza A REVIEW by Joseph Deva [EMAIL PROTECTED]
When Fanchu Loyola left for Portugal for good, in the late fifties, he left no trace of himself back in Goa. Since then, or after his death, few academicians have taken up the task of collecting his writings and placing them in a proper socio-historical perspective. The latest to take up such enterprise is Dr Carmo D’Souza, who through is book 'Goa Through the Eyes of Fanchu Loyla' resurrects an intellectual from obscurity. Most writers leave their omnipresent voice in whatever enterprise they undertake. But, in this book, Dr Carmo painstakingly picks up bits and pieces of information, weaves them in proper sequence, giving rise to a figure or a character -- whatever you may call him -- who stands up and speaks for himself. Nowhere the author overshadows the character, who has a total autonomy for propounding his own political and economic philosophies. An interesting and important feature throughout the book is the effective use of irony (by the central character), which at times reaches a romantic proportion. Irony is creating what appears to be a firm picture of something, only to reveal that what was promised in the original is, in fact, quite different. A good example is something like the following: a stage show presents a beautiful woman who sings a tender, seductive song celebrating feminine beauty and then, at the end, abruptly the performer rips off her hair to reveal that she is, in fact, a man, and that the audience is a bunch of idiots to have fallen for the illusion. In this work, irony begins at the very first chapter itself -- dedicating a hard-hitting article to the Governor General of Goa for promulgating an 'oppressive' and 'tyrannical' press law. It is like saying, "I still love you', after bashing up some one. The book also teaches a few skills at interpreting law, even an oppressive one at that, to our advantage. The skill that one learns is like the trick of tightening the noose by apparently loosening the rope. As long as the Portuguese ruled Goa, they commemorated the 1510 re-conquest of Goa. Quite unexpectedly the Governor General invited Loyola to deliver the keynote address at the function. There was a danger that he would be misunderstood, or even 'understood'. Either way he could land behind bars. He had to connect what he had been called to speak on and what he wanted to tell the authorities. To achieve this end, he exploits the words, "India will speak for herself and for me", written by the dying conqueror Afonso de Albuquerque to his king who had wronged him. By exploiting these words he delivers a scathing blow on the Portuguese rulers, yet without inviting their wrath. For many of us glorifying the memory of conquerors is unacceptable and, for some even, condemnable. In fact, in Goa some "diehard" nationalists threatened to wreak havoc during the Fontainhas art festival, which they perceived as glorifying the memory of conquerors. And some did manage to destroy some plaques bearing the names of colonizers. But, here is a dove propounding a vision just like Martin Luther King Jr's "dream" wherein "the descendents of the conquered people shaking hands with the descendents of the conquerors, singing the same song of love together." Autonomy is a midway between slavery and independence or rather the penultimate step before independence. No colonies would have rejected autonomy then, leave alone independence. But, here we have a freak rejecting autonomy -- provoking outrage and condemnation not only then but probably now too -- because India did not have the "basic training in civic and political skills. (And) the four years of self-government have been bitter and painful... experience... The self-government, instead of improving the economic situation in the colony, has worsened it. (Moreover), under the umbrella of the Legislative Council the ministers abuse the system to line their own pockets." To borrow a phrase from T S Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, whether "King rules or baron rules" it does not matter. What actually does matter is how he rules. Do the people benefit from the ruler and are their needs are fulfilled? And, if you thought defection and misbehaviour by elected representatives is a modern trend wait a minute... walk back in time to 1923 and witness the first defection unfolding before you. Of course, someone in today's Goa could well dismiss it as nothing because you have seen much large-scale defections, coups and counter coups. You would also dismiss the assault on a member of the legislative council as insignificant, for haven't we witnessed bloody wars in UP and Bihar legislative assemblies -- not to mention the Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Girish Chodenkar and Hotel Mandarin episodes in the Goa of recent times! Equal pay for equal work is a Constitutional goal under Art 14, 16 and 39 (c). This concept is advocated as early as in 1910, wherein it was demanded that the white and brown soldiers be paid equal salary because "in certain categories white soldiers of lower rank earned more than brown soldiers of higher rank." Context and background play a crucial role in understating an event -- here it is the writings of a long forgotten yet a towering personality. And, this book though allows total autonomy to the bits and pieces of collected texts, yet they are tightly bound together by the cord of socio, political and historical contexts -- which make the texts meaningful. To conclude, a text is a "reservoir of meaning", that is, the "capacity of a text to 'say' more than its author consciously intended." The reason is whenever one approaches a text, reads it and experiences a disclosure of meaning, there is also a closure or the potential polysemy (the ambiguity of an individual word or phrase that can be used to express two or more different meanings). To opt for a particular interpretation effectively closes off all other interpretations to the reader. Any text is open to many readings, none of which repeats another. Therefore, when you read the book you may understand the text in a totally different way than I have understood -- there can be two different yet valid opinions about same event. ------------------------------------------------------------ Joseph Deva is a journalist in Goa. GOANET-READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. 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