I greatly appreciate the initiativa of Eduardo Faleiro to find a place for T.B. Cunha in the gallery of the national freedom fighters in the Indian Parliament as reported recently on the goanet. It should have been done long time back! In the wake of the on-going debate provoked by the VCD produced by the Goa's Education Department, I presume that such provocations need to be exploited to balance the historical reconstructions, without ignoring any points of view or experiences of the past realities. There is much yet that has not been written and oral history needs yet to be tapped. While in charge of the XCHR I was able to bring together in 1986 various leaders of varying brands of freedom struggle who were still alive then, including among them V. Lawande and Cajetan Lobo. I also published the memoirs of James Fernandes, * In Quest of Freedom*, in 1990. I wish Eduardo Faleiro, Udhay Bhembre, Aurora Couto, etc. would sponsor a re-edition of the writings of Tristão Bragança Cunha, where the role of Christians and Hindus in the struggle for Goa's Freedom is depicted without bias, and so also the participation of the Portuguese in Portugal, in the midst of all the political odds under the Salazar regime. More Goans (including Goanetters) could try to obtain and read the volume of collected writings of T B Cunha published by T.B. Cunha Memorial Commitee, Bombay, 1961 (with a message from Jawaharlal Nehru, dated August 13, 1960, and I would leave it to curious readers to find out who wrote the Preface!). Incidentally, P.P. Shirodkar was recently quoted on Goanet for some of his "communal" (?) views, but one should also read and quote his *Trial of T.B. Cunha*, published through the Goa Gazetter Dept., in 1991, where he hails T..B. Cunha as a Goan patriot par excellence, and as "Father of Goan Nationalism". All of us suffer from incoherences due to varied and contradictory experiences in our lives! History writing should also acknowledge them and report the contradictions. That is what has been called as "history with warts and all".
Teotonio R. de Souza Teotonio R. de Souza