| Dear Frederick, Thank you for your comments. Right now I am busy, but I will continue this conversation in due course. Best regards, John M. de Figueiredo Sent from my iPhone Continuing the discussion with reference to what Alberto wrote: “In Goa during Portuguese colonial rule, there never were democratically elected representatives of the people of Goa.” It is true that Goa did not have a modern democratic legislature representing all Goans with universal suffrage. However, there were institutions with limited representative functions, especially in the later colonial period: (i) the Conselho Legislativo da Índia Portuguesa (Legislative Council of Portuguese India), (ii) municipal councils, (iii) elected or partly elected bodies. Agree that their powers were restricted, and representation was limited by colonial rules. “Only Christians were well regarded by the unelected government in Lisbon, and most Hindus were treated with disdain.”Religious inequalities were part of the colonial past; and this varied across different points of time. (It is not something unique to Europeans alone, though.) However, by the 19th and 20th centuries the colonial state had Hindu officials, landowners, lawyers, intellectuals, and politicians. Dr Sharmila Pais had focussed on this aspect quite recently. Many prominent anti-colonial figures were themselves Christians, while many Hindus also participated in different political currents. To portray it simply as “Christians favoured, Hindus despised” would be misleading; it involved class, caste, education, occupation, political loyalty as well as religion. “The 96th anniversary of the Goan Declaration of Self-Determination… only a minority group of Christians defended that declaration.”It is true that many early Goan nationalist leaders were Christians, including Tristão de Bragança Cunha. It is incorrect to reduce the movement to “only a minority Christian group.” Goan anti-colonial politics included Christians, Hindus, Muslims and people of different ideological positions. Some Goans favoured autonomy within Portugal; others favoured merger with India; others wanted independence.“The majority, through integration with Mother India, was led by Ram Manohar Lohia, Julião Menezes, T.B. Cunha, Luís Menezes Bragança, Evágrio George, P.D. Gaitonde, and even Jack Sequeira.”Ram Manohar Lohia was extremely important in mobilising the 1946 civil disobedience movement in Goa. Tristão de Bragança Cunha was a major Goan nationalist figure. Julião Menezes played an important role in inviting Lohia to Goa. But the statement that they represented the majority of Goans is difficult to prove. Besides, Jack Sequeira could be seen as especially problematic in this list: he later became the leader of the anti-merger movement and defended Goa's separate identity in the 1967 Opinion Poll. Including him as a straightforward advocate of integration with India is historically inaccurate, even if these nuances have been largely overlooked in our times.“António Anastásio Bruto da Costa, a landowner and admirer of Salazar, did not want a break with Lisbon…”António Anastásio Bruto da Costa represented a current/trend among Goans who preferred continued association with Portugal and greater autonomy, rather than immediate integration with India. However, describing him simply as defending foreign interests reflects one political interpretation. His supporters saw their position as preserving Goan identity, institutions and cultural links.“Goa today is governed by Goans elected democratically. The rulers are natives of Goa and speak Konkani…” Goa is indeed an Indian state with elected local governments. Many political leaders are Goan and Konkani-speaking. But “the rulers are natives of Goa” is not always true; Goa has also had political leaders and ministers from outside Goa. Part of the post-1961 discourse reflects this. The issue of 'deputationists' in the 1960s still echoes in some debates here. Some old-timers make the claim that the top bureaucracy in Goa in 1960-1961 was more "Goan" than it is now. The lack of an IAS cadre for Goa, and its police force being part of the Central bureaucracy has also been pointed to. We can read the situation in any which way we wish. Post-1947 India also has its own tensions involving language, identity, migration and Central influence over its various regions.“A day of joy for Goans occurred on 19/12/1961.”For many Goans, especially those who supported integration with India, 19 December 1961 was a day of liberation and celebration. For others, especially those who preferred continuity with Portugal or feared military intervention, it was experienced as what could be called a traumatic rupture. The annexation/integration remains historically interpreted in different ways. Also, these interpretations have not remained frozen in time. As the governance of Goa improves or worsens, one can see current perspectives too changing here. In short, your narrative that frames Portuguese rule as colonial oppression and Indian integration as inevitable liberation. Some points you make are valid; especially about colonial inequality and the lack of full democracy. But it also exaggerates religious divisions in Portuguese Goa, overstates the representativeness of integrationist leaders, incorrectly includes Jack de Sequeira as an integrationist and offers some interpretations that could be called contested, as if these were settled facts. There were multiple Goan political traditions: pro-Portuguese autonomy, independence, and integration with India. It would also not be wrong to say that both Catholics and Hindus were represented in all three "currents". FN _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ On Fri, 10 Jul 2026 at 17:32, 'Alberto' via Goa-Research-Net < [email protected]> wrote:
John amigo
The 13 colonies revolted against England because they refused to be considered second-class citizens. Whites born in America were forming a resistance against the white colonizers who imposed high taxes. The true Americans, the so-called Indians, were meanwhile being exterminated.
In Goa during the Portuguese colonial regime, there never were "democratically elected representatives of the people of Goa." Only Christians were well regarded by the unelected government in Lisbon, and most Hindus in Goa were treated with disdain. As for "it is the 96th anniversary of the Goan Declaration of Self-Determination," only a minority group of Christians defended that declaration.
The majority, through integration with Mother India, was led by Ram Manohar Lohia, Julião Meneses, T.B. Cunha, Luís Menezes Bragança, Evágrio George, P.D. Gaitone, and even Jack Sequeira.
António Anastásio Bruto da Costa, a landowner and admirer of Salazar, did not want a break with Lisbon and defended dependence with limited autonomy from foreigners, second-class citizens.
Goa, today, as one of the states of India, is governed by Goans elected democratically. The rulers are natives of Goa and speak Konkani, and Lisbon does not send a governor-general who only spoke Portuguese and defended foreign interests.
A day of joy for Goans occurred on 19/12/1961.
Mensagem de JOHN DE FIGUEIREDO <>
Data: Sun, 5 Jul 2026 04:28:26 +0000 (UTC)
De: JOHN DE FIGUEIREDO <>
Assunto: [GRN] MEMORABLE ANNIVERSARIES
Para: Goa-Research-Net <>
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 it should be reproduced without the author’s written permission. This article was published in “Revista da Casa de Goa” and it is reproduced here with the Editor’s permission. The opinions expressed by the author in this article are exclusively his own.
A DAY OF JOY FOR GOANS
John M. de Figueiredo, MD, ScD
On July 4, 1776, a courageous group of English citizens established in North America declared their desire to separate from England to form a new nation, the United States of America. More than a century and a half later, on July 4, 1930, in a remote corner of the western coast of India, while the Americans were celebrating their Independence Day, four Goans presented in Goa a declaration to the Government Council of Portuguese India. The declaration responded to the request of Dr. Oliveira Salazar, then Minister of the Colonies, for an opinion from Portuguese India through its Government Council on his project of the Colonial Act. That Act stated in Article 2: “It is of the organic essence of the Portuguese Nation to perform the historical function of owning and colonizing overseas domains and to civilize the indigenous populations that are comprised in them, also exercising the moral influence assigned to it by the ‘Padroado do Oriente’ " And in Article 3: “The overseas domains of Portugal are called colonies and constitute the Portuguese Colonial Empire.” The four Goans made up the elected part of the Government Council: Luiz de Menezes Bragança, author of the Declaration, António Xavier Gomes Pereira, Naraina Bandorcar, and Cipriano da Cunha Gomes, co-signatories. The declaration was 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 of peoples to reach the fullness of their individuality, until they become units capable of directing their destinies, since it is an original right, of its organic essence;
2nd Recommends that, maintaining the organization of the Portuguese State established in the Political Constitution of the Republic:
a) There is no discrimination between the Metropolis and the Overseas Provinces of individual rights and guarantees expressed in Art. 3 and its Constitution numbers and the representation of India in the Congress of the Republic is maintained
b) The regime of administrative decentralization and financial autonomy of the Overseas Provinces is reestablished in the terms defined in Articles 67 B and 67 F of the Constitution as a starting point for representative institutions of broader action.
c) The principle of majority elected in the highest deliberative body in the country is reestablished in India, the intervention of that majority being recognized, through its representatives, in the special function of the “examination and visa”, of ordering the expenses and accounts of management"
Unlike the founders of the United States, Menezes Bragança, Gomes Pereira, Naraina Bandorcar, and Cipriano da Cunha Gomes did not ask for political independence for 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 of All”, Menezes Bragança thought that the people of Goa had an individuality and psychology fundamentally different from the peoples of the rest of India, the result of Portugal's assimilationist policy, and it was always of the opinion that Portuguese India was part and portion of the spiritual unity of the Portuguese Nation. Despite his vehement opposition to the Colonial Act, he simply asked for the people of his homeland democratic representation and maximum administrative and financial autonomy under Portuguese sovereignty.
To say that Menezes Bragança was the “Tilak of Goa” shows ignorance of what he wanted for his homeland. Lokmanya Tilak wanted, for his India, complete and immediate independence (‘Swaraj”) from the British colonial rule. Menezes Bragança was always loyal to Portugal and during the First Republic he was praised by Dr. Jaime de Morais, Governor of Portuguese India, for his loyalty to Portugal and his honesty. Unfortunately, the little he asked for, he did not obtain, and the Colonial Act was promulgated and incorporated into the 1933 Constitution. Menezes Bragança's reaction was to state that “the 1933 Constitution betrayed the spirit of the 1911 Constitution”. His newspaper “Luz - Pracasha” was closed by order of the Government, forever silencing his voice.
In this manner was born the historical fatality of the people of Portuguese India. As the Viceroy of Portuguese India Count of S. Vicente said so well, “Portuguese India is only seen from far away and only heard too late”. The voice of Portuguese India echoed in the desert and died. Goa's fate was decided by others, not by the Goans themselves. The human right of self-determination, an “original right, of its organic essence” was never exercised by the Goans through a plebiscite, and will never be exercised, but the protest of the Goans against the Colonial Act and the _expression_ of their natural desire to “reach the fullness of their individuality” were recorded forever in the annals of history.
The Declaration of Self-Determination is the most important document in the modern history of Portuguese India. July 4th is not a day of joy and pride for the Americans only; it is also for the Goans.
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