Let us not be elitist when judging Vasco da Gama. If he came from a lower social class (meaning, I trust, that he came from a poor family with a low educational level), then my admiration for him is even greater. Clearly, he had to overcome a significant social disadvantage to master and excel in the science and art of navigation and to convince his King that a “commoner” like him was up to the extraordinary mission of commanding a fleet from Portugal to India and back. And he did this, not once or twice, but 5 times. He connected the dots and demonstrated how this could be achieved. Was he helped by others? Sure. He was helped by the discovery of Bartolomeu Dias that Africa had an end and by the Arab pilot who guided him from East Africa to India. But so were Watson and Crick in their discovery of the structure of DNA. They were helped by the previous discoveries of Erwin Chargaff and Rosalind Franklin. This is how human knowledge advances, step by step, one discovery leading to the next one. His important achievement set the stage for an unprecedented globalization of knowledge. Was he perfect? Far from it. Understanding something is not the same as excusing it. What he did to the Muslim pilgrims is abominable by today’s standards, but it was (as Frederick said) fair game in his time. In 1469, Virupaksha I, Emperor of Vijayanagara, ordered the massacre of thousands of Muslims in Bhatkal. The few who survived fled to (guess where) Goa, where they found a home and thrived. Let us not be harsher in our judgment of Vasco da Gama just because he was a European or he was from a “lower class.” It really does not matter what Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, or Parsis think of Vasco da Gama. History is a science based on data, not on public opinion. My point is that as Viceroy of India, his message to fellow Europeans was: “If you are corrupt and steal from the public treasury, I will punish you.” And that is exactly what he did, and this is why we, Goans, should respect and admire Vasco da Gama as a person with integrity. It was a risky decision. With the benefit of hindsight, we can say that several of his successors as Governors or Viceroys (including our own Barnardo Peres da Silva) were deposed by military coups when they attempted to do what he did. A Secretary of State (European), who was, like Gama, a person with integrity, was assassinated in plain daylight in front of the Government Palace in Panjim by some fellow Europeans who saw him as an obstacle to their schemes and scams. Imagine a scenario in which Vasco da Gama looked the other way and may have even pocketed some money himself. Today, we would correctly say that he was a thief and a party to a cover-up. But that is not what he did.
Why did the Portuguese occupy and settle in Goa? Good question. The last time I heard this question was from my friend Luiz de Camoes. He had Vasco da Gama being asked: “Quem te trouxe a estoutro mundo, tão longe da tua Pátria Lusitana?” (“Who brought you to this other world, so far away from your Lusitanian Motherland? "). This question raises all sorts of other questions. What made the Kadambas infiltrate Goa after they were defeated by the Chalukyas and conquer Goa, defeating its legitimate Goan Kings? What made the Yadavas conquer Goa, terrorize the Goans, and impose their language (Marathi) on the Goans? What made the Bahmanis and the Delhi Muslims invade Goa and terrorize the Goans? What made Vijayanagara conquer Goa? What forced Goa into the Sultanate of Bijapur? The only answer that comes to my mind is what my teacher of History at the Liceu, Rev. Dr. Antonio Garcia, S.J., used to say: “Just like in the big ocean the big fish eat the small fish, so the stronger peoples invade and conquer the weaker ones.” Happens even to this day, right under our noses. It seems to me that the fundamental misconception in this conversation is to view the Portuguese in Vasco da Gama’s time as foreigners. In fact, they were not “more foreigners” or “less foreigners” in Gama’s time than the Kadambas, the Yadavas, and all those other guys. The Portuguese only became foreigners in India on August 15, 1947, the day when the “tryst with Destiny” occurred (to use the famous expression of Jawaharlal Nehru). This is why an agent of Vijayanagara approached Afonso de Albuquerque with the assent of some Goans and asked him to free Goa from Bijapur.Sorry for this long note. John M. de Figueiredo -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/1112659100.3469483.1767508948056%40mail.yahoo.com.
