Re: [GRN] MEMORABLE ANNIVERSARIES

JOHN DE FIGUEIREDO Fri, 10 Jul 2026 17:44:05 -0700

 Actually, Joao Manuel Pacheco de Figueiredo (though my first name in my 
baptismal certificate was Antonio).JM de F
    On Friday, July 10, 2026 at 01:07:49 PM EDT, Sonia Gomes 
<[email protected]> wrote:  
 
 Boa tarde. É o Dr. Antonio Manuel Pacheco de Figueiredo 
Sonia Gomes 
On Fri, 10 Jul, 2026, 5:32 pm António Colaço, <[email protected]> wrote:

Concerning M. Sonia Gomes' comment, is Dr. John M. de Figueiredo, Dr. Pacheco
Figueiredo?
Sonia Gomes <[email protected]> escreveu (domingo, 5/07/2026 à(s) 08:25):

Thank you very much Dr. Pacheco de Figueiredo. Truly appreciated.
Have a great 4th of July.
Sonia
On Sun, 5 Jul, 2026, 10:01 am JOHN DE FIGUEIREDO, <[email protected]>
wrote:

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.

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