The Portuguese intolerance in Goa until 1961 and in Mozambique until
1974 had nothing to do with religion. It was hunger and greed in
Portugal that led many people to colonize and commit crimes in the
colonies. The slave trade is an example of this. They were not
enslaved in the name of religion. These arguments aim to whitewash
Portuguese colonial history.
Missionary schools opened the eyes of colonized peoples in Africa.
Alberto
Sat, 30 Nov, 2024, 5:52 pm 'Nuno Cardoso da Silva' via
Goa-Research-Net, <[email protected]> wrote:
Unfortunate as it may be, the fact is that religion has more often
been a tool for violence and intolerance, than a tool for peace,
love of one another and tolerance. Much of what we Portuguese did
wrong in our colonial past was due to our fierce attachment to a
particular religion. Just like much of what is being done wrong
today in India has to do with a fanatical approach to religion by
far too many people from all religious backgrounds.
The Portuguese of the 21st century are not psychologically very
different from the 16th century Portuguese. The difference is that
we were then fiercely religious and care today very little about
religion. As a result we find no difficulty in fully embracing in
our community Hindus from India and Nepal, Muslims from Pakistan,
Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique, Shiites from the Ismaelite community,
Orthodox Christians from Romania, the Ukraine and Russia. Most of
us demand only two things to accept people as co-citizens: that
they truly want to be part of our community and that they speak
Portuguese. We are in no way superior to the people of India, and I
have no doubt India would be as peaceful and tolerant a nation as
we now are, once you stop being intolerant about people's religious
beliefs. One may believe in God, but maybe one should stop thinking
that God has any preference for any religion. It's what we do which
matters, not what we believe in. Simple, but clearly so difficult
to achieve, in Europe as well as in Asia...
Nuno Cardoso da Silva
SENT: Saturday, November 30, 2024 at 6:23 AM
FROM: "V M" <[email protected]>
TO: "V M" <[email protected]>
SUBJECT: [GRN] Manu Pillai: "There are No Heroes or Villains in
History" (O Heraldo, 30/11/2024)
https://www.heraldgoa.in/cafe/manu-pillai-there-are-no-heroes-or-villains-in-history/416418
Religion and politics are an especially volatile mix in South
Asia, cleaved apart so painfully on the basis of religion in 1947,
and roiled on the same lines again in the 21st century, as
majoritarianism surges on all sides of the post-Partition borders.
Here in India, the main divide remains Hindu-Muslim, with painful
consequences – from casual intimidation to ethnic cleansing –
playing out in different locations However, in recent years, Sikhs
and Sikhism have also been targeted as “anti-national”, and Goa has
experienced many silly and childish provocations about Catholics
and Catholicism, including recurring absurdities about who can and
can’t be considered Goencho Saib.
These slurs haven’t yet added up to much, and it would be unwise
to overreact. However, the increasing conflation of myth and
history by the state is an unhealthy trend. As the distinguished
political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal reminds us: “In effect, it
is an attempt to construe Indian citizenship as faith-based, in
consonance with the idea of a Hindu majoritarian nation, of which
Hindus are natural citizens while Muslims, in this view, properly
belong to Pakistan or Bangladesh. Perfecting this congruence is the
object of the new project of citizenship.”
Catholics in Goa – and Christians in India – have not been primary
targets in this scenario, and in fact Joseph Francis Pereira – a
Pakistani of Goan origin – was one of the first beneficiaries of
the new Citizenship Amendment Act, which allows Hindus, Sikhs,
Jains, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists (but not Muslims) from the
neighboring countries to become Indian citizens if they entered
before 2014.
Yet, there are warning signs, as the senior academic Peter Ronald
de Souza shared in a recent column in /Indian Express/: “A few days
ago, during an argument (in a WhatsApp group), I was told to "go
back to Portugal". Not one to take such abuse without a fight, I
responded and asked my adversary to “go back to Afghanistan”. He
was outraged. "I’m not from Afghanistan," he roared. "Well, I’m not
from Portugal," I said. Two things come together in this brief
exchange that are worth thinking about. My name and his outrage.
For him I was obviously the outsider and, equally obviously, he was
the insider. Both for him were self-evidently true. In this
exchange, my argumentativeness faced his righteous anger. He said
he was confronting me because I was evil. That we went to school
together more than half a century ago did not matter.”
Palpably upset, de Souza writes “I must honestly admit I was
surprised at the vitriol. What began as a discussion on an Indian
festival, soon descended into a toxic spat watched by others who,
in their silence, appeared to endorse his views that it was
inadmissible for me to talk about things Indian, especially Indian
culture. What did I know? And who was I anyway? An Indian on
probation! Now I know what Draupadi must have felt in the assembly
when she asked the custodians of dharma her question. They did not
answer. They remained silent.”
“Who belongs? Who does not belong? What kind of state is being
re-engineered by Hindu nationalism, and where did the historical
impetus come from?” Precisely when it is needed most to help
address these questions, Manu Pillai’s lucid, brilliant new /Gods,
Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity/ is
an invaluable primer on India’s encounter with Western colonialism,
and “the context in which Hindu nationalism – Hindutva, so dominant
now in India – found its /raison d'être/. [It is] a survey of 400
years at most – a span that supplies the historical setting and
much of the emotional stimulus empowering present-day Hinduism.”
All serious students of Goan history are strongly urged to read
Gods, Guns and Missionaries for the way it begins alone, a deft and
masterly treatment of colonialism and conversion in the Estado da
Índia. This brave young author – he was born in 1990 – pulls no
punches, but also refrains from cheap shots. This clear-eyed,
sure-footed approach is both refreshing and absolutely required,
because the subject is such a potent mix of history, religion and
politics. Here is just one passage, for flavour: “the Portuguese
came into everyday contact with Hindus, armed with scarce knowledge
but copious pre-judgement. The encounter took barely a generation
to turn violent. One factor was that the colonizer’s rigid
religiosity had grown stiffer still in reaction to the
anti-Catholic Reformation occurring in Europe. That is, with the
emerging Protestant movement accusing the Catholic church of
perverting the faith, Catholic powers had a special necessity to
demonstrate unequivocal Christian credentials. And here, their
newly acquired Indian enclaves offered a parade ground, packed as
they were with devil-worshipping pagans.”
To be sure, all this is familiar ground to historians, but serious
scholarship about these episodes is almost never knitted together,
understood or presented with as much panache and storytelling flair
as /Gods, Guns and Missionaries/. Via email, Pillai told me that
“history in our country--and perhaps elsewhere too--is not merely a
rational, academic inquiry into the past. It is an emotional,
political affair. My very first book invited a Rs 5 crore
defamation notice, so I know the risks and perils involved in
presenting complexities from the past. In this context,
historicising religious identities can provoke all kinds of
responses. "The truth" pales here in comparison with how people
interpret history to create "their truth" in the present or as
groups; to find meaning by reading history a certain way. This is
true of all communities and identities everywhere in the world. But
today we are also seeing an active cultivation of animosity by
exacerbating elements of divergence in these narratives. So, when
writing a book on modern religious identity formation, yes there is
a fear that some of its contents can be hijacked. Similarly, one
can also be "cancelled" by different sides for not reinforcing
their respective ideological positions. One chapter in the book
might annoy the Left and please the Right. Another might achieve
the reverse. But this is the risk of doing what I do today. One
can't do history if worried about reactions. Even when one is aware
of the risks involved in these reactions.”
As the topic is especially relevant in this Exposition year, I
asked Pillai what to make of the paradox of “Saint” Francis Xavier
– an unstinting zealot who believed in the superiority of his faith
– becoming converted after death into an all-inclusive Indian holy
man, who is addressed by pilgrims from every religion to answer
their prayers. He responded thoughtfully: "We must always view
historical figures in their time and context. Xavier and his
proselytising work stemmed from a vision of the world that emerged
from his cultural background, the history of his part of the world,
his education etc. The responses of his brown interlocutors were
also similarly influenced. There is also in this equation the
political power of the Portuguese and their own imperial goals,
which skewed the field in favour of one side over another. We
should be able to speak of this transparently while also
recognising that historical dynamics also evolve and change. The
same Portuguese state's attitudes shifted over time; the memory of
Xavier and his work also changed. These too are real historical
processes. History is full of contradictions. In the battle between
"sides" today we can lose sight of this. There are no heroes and
villains in history. Often the same characters in different
contexts can look heroic or villainous, depending on the prism, the
location of the viewer, and so on.”
Pillai acknowledges that it is difficult to have honest and open
discussions about historical-religious-political issues in India at
the moment, but they must occur nonetheless: “I think conversations
help. Remember that outside of certain political constituencies,
most human beings can take a sensible view of things. It is this
mature, reasonable tendency that must be cultivated. By reacting to
others, and their setting of the terms, we play into their game.
Instead, we must engage in dialogue, speak of Xavier the complex,
sometimes "negative" figure while also recognising the equally
historical phenomenon of Xavier as he came to be recognised and
reinterpreted in these same communities, not just by Catholics but
also Hindus. I always say that most things in history are not a
case of "either/or". The word we must embrace is "and". But this is
admittedly easier said than done. I don't know if I have a solution
other than dialogue, and engagement in good faith.”
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