Today (July 4, 2026) the people of the United States commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of their Nation. Today is also a day of reflection to all Goans because it is the 96th anniversary of the Goan Declaration of Self-Determination. By issuing this Declaration, the democratically elected representatives of the people of Goa to the Government Council made sure that we, Goans, would never again be told that we never asked for that right and that for future reference we should always ask. The Declaration was a protest against the Acto Colonial that had condemned the Goans to perpetual servitude. The Declaration was approved by the Council by unanimity. The Council was chaired by Governor Joao Carlos Craveiro Lopes (father of Francisco Higinio Craveiro Lopes, future President of the Portuguese Republic). Governor Craveiro Lopes continued to condemn the Acto Colonial and defend the right of the Goans to self-determination after he returned to Portugal, thereby risking his career. Two anniversaries of legitimate protest leading to two drastically different fates. The United States became the most powerful democracy on earth. The Goans never exercised their right to self-determination and were destined to never exercise that right. Below is an article I wrote to commemorate these memorable anniversaries: This article is protected by Copyright. No part of itshould be reproduced without the author’s written permission. This article waspublished in “Revista da Casa de Goa” and it is reproduced here with theEditor’s permission. The opinions expressed by the author in this article areexclusively his own.
A DAY OF JOY FORGOANS John M.de Figueiredo, MD, ScD On July 4, 1776, acourageous group of English citizens established in North America declaredtheir desire to separate from England to form a new nation, the United Statesof America. More than a century and a half later, on July 4, 1930, in a remotecorner of the western coast of India, while the Americans were celebratingtheir Independence Day, four Goans presented in Goa a declaration to theGovernment Council of Portuguese India. The declaration responded to therequest of Dr. Oliveira Salazar, then Minister of the Colonies, for an opinionfrom Portuguese India through its Government Council on his project of theColonial Act. That Act stated in Article 2: “It is of the organic essence ofthe Portuguese Nation to perform the historical function of owning andcolonizing overseas domains and to civilize the indigenous populations that arecomprised in them, also exercising the moral influence assigned to it by the‘Padroado do Oriente’ " And in Article 3: “The overseas domains ofPortugal are called colonies and constitute the Portuguese Colonial Empire.”The four Goans made up the elected part of the Government Council: Luiz deMenezes Bragança, author of the Declaration, António Xavier Gomes Pereira,Naraina Bandorcar, and Cipriano da Cunha Gomes, co-signatories. The declarationwas adopted by the Government Council by unanimous vote. This statement,transcribed from the Minutes of the Government Council, ran as follows: “1st Portuguese India does not renounce the right ofpeoples to reach the fullness of their individuality, until they become unitscapable of directing their destinies, since it is an original right, of itsorganic essence; 2nd Recommends that, maintaining the organization of thePortuguese State established in the Political Constitution of the Republic: a) There is no discrimination between the Metropolis andthe Overseas Provinces of individual rights and guarantees expressed in Art. 3and its Constitution numbers and the representation of India in the Congress ofthe Republic is maintained b) The regime of administrative decentralization andfinancial autonomy of the Overseas Provinces is reestablished in the termsdefined in Articles 67 B and 67 F of the Constitution as a starting point forrepresentative institutions of broader action. c) The principle of majority elected in the highestdeliberative body in the country is reestablished in India, the intervention ofthat majority being recognized, through its representatives, in the specialfunction of the “examination and visa”, of ordering the expenses and accountsof management" Unlike thefounders of the United States, Menezes Bragança, Gomes Pereira, NarainaBandorcar, and Cipriano da Cunha Gomes did not ask for political independencefor Goa. Nor was their desire to transfer sovereignty to the Indian Union,which, at the time, did not yet exist as a nation. Known as the “Greatest ofAll”, Menezes Bragança thought that the people of Goa had an individuality andpsychology fundamentally different from the peoples of the rest of India, theresult of Portugal's assimilationist policy, and it was always of the opinionthat Portuguese India was part and portion of the spiritual unity of thePortuguese Nation. Despite his vehement opposition to the Colonial Act, hesimply asked for the people of his homeland democratic representation andmaximum administrative and financial autonomy under Portuguese sovereignty. To say thatMenezes Bragança was the “Tilak of Goa” shows ignorance of what he wanted forhis homeland. Lokmanya Tilak wanted, for his India, complete and immediateindependence (‘Swaraj”) from the British colonial rule. Menezes Bragançawas always loyal to Portugal and during the First Republic he was praised byDr. Jaime de Morais, Governor of Portuguese India, for his loyalty to Portugaland his honesty. Unfortunately, the little he asked for, he did not obtain, andthe Colonial Act was promulgated and incorporated into the 1933 Constitution.Menezes Bragança's reaction was to state that “the 1933 Constitution betrayedthe spirit of the 1911 Constitution”. His newspaper “Luz - Pracasha”was closed by order of the Government, forever silencing his voice. In this mannerwas born the historical fatality of the people of Portuguese India. As theViceroy of Portuguese India Count of S. Vicente said so well, “Portuguese Indiais only seen from far away and only heard too late”. The voice of PortugueseIndia echoed in the desert and died. Goa's fate was decided by others, not bythe Goans themselves. The human right of self-determination, an “originalright, of its organic essence” was neverexercised by the Goans through a plebiscite, and will never be exercised, butthe protest of the Goans against the Colonial Act and the expression of theirnatural desire to “reach the fullness of their individuality” were recordedforever in the annals of history. The Declarationof Self-Determination is the most important document in the modern history ofPortuguese India. July 4th is not a day of joy and pride for the Americansonly; it is also for the Goans. -- 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/979926520.966876.1783225706084%40mail.yahoo.com.
