Gabriel
Many thanks for your response. I agree with much that you have to say too.
Recently, I had emailed a Mr Hiresh to say that Goa's current woes (and
particularly corruption) were entirely consequent to being part and parcel
of India.
Unfortunately despite sending that email several times, it never appeared.
Regards
Cornel
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gabriel de Figueiredo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 4:38 AM
Subject: Re: [Goanet] Posts on Goa
--- cornel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Re Martinho's point about the UK letting the Goans
down for not going to the
assistance of Portugal in 1961, as an ally, is
really not tenable.
...
Those who find it difficult to accept that Goa is
part and parcel of India
and wish it did have some kind of autonomous status,
must bear in mind that,
it was the obdurate Salazar who killed such a
possibility, however remote.
An alternative enlightened Portuguese prime minister
could possibly have
negotiated a deal with Nehru for an interim degree
of autonomy for Goa.
Thus, for those disappointed that this did not
happen, I think the blame
lies squarely on Portugal and no one else.
Cornel,
Your reply was well-balanced and thank goodness
there's someone on the 'net with such views.
Goa would have attained its independence, sooner or
later, as was envisioned by the intellectuals within
both the local population as well as the Portuguese
officials. It was inevitable. Time was the issue,
given that a stubborn Salazar was in power - sooner or
later he would have passed on either by a coup or by
natural causes.
However, when the Indian armed forces marched on to
Goa, it was the bully's way of getting "his own way".
Nehru and Menon applied brute force where an
intelligent solution and infinite patience were
demanded by Nehru's mentor, the non-violent Gandhi.
As a result of the action of Nehru/Menon combine, Goa
lost a lot of features that were unique to Goa, those
which would have stood to good advantage for Goan
independence given time, as Goa's businesses and
technological improvements were on the nascent.
Note that also a result of the Indian action, India
lost her goodwill with China, culminating in a war
that saw India lose a large chunk of Indian territory
which has not yet been reclaimed back for these last
43 years.
As Ethel da Costa succintly put it recently, violence
is a coward's way of intimidation, which does not
require intelligence. Violence is an abherration. And
when society relies on violence to resolve its issues,
it marks the beginning of the end of civilization. So
44 years on, Goa has deteriorated from being a neat
and civilized society to the shambles it is today.
Cheers,
Gabriel de Figueiredo.
Melbourne - Australia.
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