My response to : http://www.wordcraftcircle.org/natreal/v1n2/narrat2.htm
I am a Goan, 72 years of age, who has lived in Poona and Bombay, and who used to visit Goa once or twice a year, and who had travelled five times to Goa during the Indian blockade of Goa, 1955 thro' 1961. I am writing this from the historical and not from the political perspective. The information given by Ron Rowell in paragraph 6 is patently incorrect. There were never any political riots in Goa in the fifties, or for that matter, at any time during Portuguese rule. Yes, there were some violent activities on the borders and in April 1956 a policeman was shot dead at Betim. Earlier, in 1946, an Indian Socialist leader attracted some attention when he attempted to address a political meeting in Margao which evaporated away and did not end in any riot. On 15 August 1954 some Goan satyagrahis, or 'peaceful' invaders tried to enter Goa but, as foreign reporters had stated, it was a fiasco. In July 1955 the Indian government terminated rail links with Goa. On 15 August 1955 Indians entered Goa in large numbers hoping to bring about the downfall of the Portuguese government but when, after due warnings, their incursions continued and assumed threatening postures (as when they tried to rush into the Fort of Tiracol), the Portuguese police and military opened fire which had resulted in over 100 deaths. The Indian government then imposed an economic blockade, broke off consular relations, and sealed all frontier crossing points, and even postal traffic failed to move from September 1955 for two months. Thereafter, the Majali-Polem crossing point on the south of Goa was opened initially for postal traffic and in early 1956 for passenger traffic regulated by an onerous permit system controlled from the government secretariat in Bombay. On 3 April 1958 the Indian government lifted the permit system but Portuguese or Indian identity documents were mandatory. I travelled five times that way, in 1956, twice in 1958, then again in 1960 and in 1961. In 1956 all my money (Rs.46, annas 2, pice 3) was detained by Indian Customs against a receipt valid for four months. The Portuguese fund at Polem was exhausted when I crossed on 31 May 1956 and so the free allowance of Rs.5 was not available; a gentleman who had come to Polem to receive his nephew loaned me Rs.5. At not one of these crossings was I in any way inconvenienced by the Portuguese authorities; on the contrary, they were courteous and quick on every occasion, and if one carried an international health certificate the mandatory health inoculation was not carried out. One could not spend the night at the Indian post at Majali, but one could at Polem if the bus for Margao had already left; indeed it used to be very enjoyable with the availability of Goan cuisine and wines and with traditional Goan sing-song. Procedural detentions occured only on the Indian side. When I write 'Portuguese' I use it only in a generic sense;in 1956 the frontier immigration officer who stamped my passport was a European but on the remaining occasions the immigration work was handled mostly by Goan immigration personnel. The average Bombay Goan entering Goa in those days felt he was entering his own country for, though there was no democracy in the modern sense, the government was 99 percent Goan, the police were 95 percent Goan, the judiciary was 100 percent Goan; only the defence services were 100 percent Portuguese European but in 1960 they were tiny enough. The Governor General moved around unescorted. The communidades were in full bloom and protected as heritage institutions by the Portuguese government. John Menezes, Bombay, India
