http://www.hindu.com/2005/01/06/stories/2005010604721000.htm
Dangerous currents
By Maria Aurora Couto
History and memory need to be recovered by both the Hindu and Catholic communities of Goa but not with crude productions that distort and telescope unrelated events to create divisive hatreds.
THE YEAR ended in Goa with a testament of faith by 2.2 million pilgrims during six weeks of the Exposition of St. Francis Xavier. This was preceded by the International Film Festival, which brought unprecedented national and international attention as also excitement and controversy within the State. Visitors were struck by the peace and harmony, the ready smile, the helpful hand, and an innate courtesy. A few paused to reflect on these qualities. Could it be the beauty of its environment or the centuries-old exposure to the major religions of the world that has cemented the unique humanism of this society?
Yet all is not as well as it appears to be, and Goans are well aware of the dangerous undercurrents that have begun to flow beneath this calm surface. A VCD, "Goa Freedom Struggle," produced by the Directorate of Education of the Government of Goa, is the most recent manifestation of the not-so-subtle attempt to disturb and distort the Goans' perception of self and society. Four decades after its liberation from Portuguese rule, there has been no proper study published on the freedom struggle. Very few young Goans are aware of this period or indeed of the complex past of the land they love so deeply, a history they need to understand if harmony is to prevail.
The theme of the documentary should have been welcome but its malicious perspective, which twists and distorts history to create communal hatred, has led to a condemnation of the VCD by Church authorities, by the Congress party, and by freedom fighters, activists, and writers including the poet, Manohar Rai Sardessai, and the writer, Uday Bhembre. There would have been a wider public expression of anger had the VCD been viewed widely.
The coarse bigotry of its perspective, which demonises Christianity, seeks to establish a link between the excesses of the early period of Portuguese rule in the 16th and 17th centuries and the freedom struggle of the modern period, and its lopsided account of the latter to invent a heroic role for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh which everyone knows had very little to do with the liberation of Goa or indeed with the Indian national movement, is truly an arrogant misuse of power to disseminate misinformation to young minds. The documentary was produced two years ago, and screened on the national channel of Doordarshan. No one seems to have paid much attention to it then. What has incensed most Goans is the fact that the VCD was sent to more than 400 schools with a directive that it be screened on December 19, Liberation Day, and that a report confirming screening be sent to the Directorate.
Goans are unwilling to face the troubled past - it is indeed another country where dreadful things happened that seared the psyche. Perhaps it is the institution of the ganvkari, communidade - the commune system of which the historian, Damodar Kosambi, has written so evocatively - that healed and restored cohesiveness, aided by the Christian spirit of many missionaries, including the much maligned Francis Xavier. Yet the Catholics of Goa need to understand that troubled country of the past, when atrocities were committed in the name of Christianity in a ruthless quest for power and souls, and not pretend it did not happen. It is only then that the reaching out to each other of their ancestors - which is the basis of the goodwill that prevails - will not get ruptured by recent attempts to indoctrinate young Hindu minds.
While it is true that knowledge of history has strengthened rather than undermined faith, there are voices that discourage the digging up of a violent past. Ignorance may be bliss, but it renders the faithful defenceless against the antagonisms that debase their religion. Although the faith of the Goan is a fact of identity and the rock of his life, questions about the past need to be asked so that we understand the past and live creatively in the present particularly at a time when religion is used to subvert political life in a ruthless quest for power. History and memory need to be recovered by both the Hindu and Catholic communities of Goa but not with crude productions such as the VCD that distort and telescope unrelated events to create divisive hatreds.
The script, which is in Hindi, elides recklessly in its account of Goan history, with a presumption that is breathtaking. It begins with a dream sequence of a rape scene and then a narrative that describes Goa as a holy place with "the innocence of a child" vandalised by the Portuguese. Recorded facts that prove the collaboration of local leaders, who in fact sought the help of Afonso de Albuquerque to end the rule of Yusuf Adil Shah, are left out. Instead there is a succession of exaggerated scenes of violence, destruction of temples, and a cross lurking in the background or dangling threateningly above hapless victims. Christianity, both in human and symbolic form, is portrayed to evoke fear and revulsion.
The fact that the first violence was against the Muslim population, that the women raped or converted were Muslim women, that there was an initial pact between the Hindu collaborators and the Portuguese that safeguarded the majority Hindu population - all these are carefully deleted, as is the fact that the drive for conversion began not on arrival of the Portuguese in 1510 as depicted but in 1540, that the Inquisition was established in 1560, and more seriously, that the main victims of the Inquisition were the early converts to Christianity who refused to give up their traditional customs and rituals.
The Maratha rulers, Shivaji and Sambhaji, are given a heroic role within Goan history. Yet historian P.S. Pissurlencar's Portuguese-Mahratta Relations (translated by T.V. Parvate, 1983) details their battles with the Portuguese and proves that they attacked Goa for their own ends and not to save the local population, that Shivaji distrusted the Portuguese but sought their help against the Moghuls. The theme of the freedom struggle is not revealed in all its complexity. If the intention was to encapsulate the centuries between 1510 and 1946 when Ram Manohar Lohia demanded civil rights for Goa trapped in Salazar's firm grasp, then the omissions are brazen. To bring in the Marathas and diminish or erase the long years of quiet or bloody battles fought by the Goan clergy against racist policies, the later polemics of an emerging elite, is political manipulation at its worst. Besides, freedom fighters have pointed out major errors in presenting the last phase of the struggle.
The Government will not be able to force the issue given the agitation from all quarters. The point is not that it may find itself compelled to withdraw but that it had the temerity to fund this shoddy piece of work (Rs. 40 lakh), produced by Ramesh Deo, a film actor from the Marathi film industry with no experience of direction.
I recall that when Atal Bihari Vajpayee made his astonishing endorsement of Narendra Modi in a speech in Goa before the 2002 Assembly election, absolving him of his complicity in the Gujarat massacre, it was widely felt that Goa was a test case to see how far the Sangh Parivar could go to force its agenda. These inroads in Goa continue to be made - with a young, intelligent, and energetic Chief Minister, skilfully manipulating his popularity with sops, improvements, and an active personal presence that is being severely tried with this last outrageous assault on the dignity of Goa.
(Maria Aurora Couto is the author of Goa: A Daughter's Story, Penguin Books India, New Delhi, 2004.)
