------------------------------------------------------- Goanet recommends, and is proud to be associated with, 'Domnic's Goa' - A nostalgic romp through a bygone era. This book is the perfect gift for any Goan, or anyone wanting to understand Goa. Distributed locally by Broadway, near Caculo Island, Panjim & internationally by OtherIndiaBookStore.Com. For trade enquiries contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------- Hello Paulo,
I am a rather silent member of Goanet lately, but am known by a few here of being a close friend and peer of Sunith. I am not defending him here, he is more than capable of doing that himself. Instead I would like to inform you that I have keenly read all your cogent arguments against the Indian "invasion/occupation" of Goa in 1961, and that I find that you are the most and ONLY sane voice on your side of the table, on Goanet at least. So please don't lose my respect with posts like below. You have indeed convincingly shown before that India and Nehru were not entirely the angels as we would like to believe in the debacle of 1961. The takeover of Nagaland and other North Eastern states post Independence, who did not have a history of any affiliation with India prior to the British entry, also tarnishes Nehru's benevolent image. However, Goa DOES have an affiliation with India, or at least with the concept of India. (Please don't bring up the naive there-was-no-"India"-before-British argument) My skin colour says so. Sunith's skin colour says so too. We have Dravidian roots, like it or not. There's no denying one of the most brutal inquisitions in world history at the proposition of SFX. Granted, the Portuguese switched tactics to a more benevolent era of rule that our fathers lived in and some of us here too did. But we were still brainwashed slaves nonetheless. True, we were governed by Goans, judged by Goans, and there was peace and open doors and windows, but we were still slaves, and the Goans in authority were of the elite few, which included Sunith's family. William Dalrymple's account of Goa includes a highly biased view of the Dona Rosa's of Goa. Were you part of that group? But what about the rest? This is where my family comes in. My parents tell me nice stories of the Portuguese era but at the end of the day, they were not able to educate themselves beyond a certain stage. That was reserved for the elite few who could make it to Bombay or Lisbon. Today, in FREE India, whether we are economic slaves or not, a lot of economic opportunities opened up FOR ALL that enabled us to educate ourselves and become the third highest literate state post "Liberation". Yet, most Catholic Goans feel that we do not belong to India culturally, and have thus developed a snobbish attitude against the rest of India. Thats where the word "brainwashed" comes in. You figure out the rest. I do not claim to be an expert on Goan History, but I do claim that my peers and myself have it going way way better than our parents did at the time they were our age, and its not only because of the current economic boom. Best regards, Aristo X. Coutinho. Bangalore. On 6/14/07, Paulo Colaco Dias <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Sunith, I read Selma's email about you with a pinch of salt but now I really > believe that she is absolutely right. > > "You espouse such balderdash, charming only because it is balderdash." > > Selma, how true! > > BTW, who died and made you the single expert in Goan history? > > I feel most amused when I read posts from people like yourself that claim > that those who oppose their views are ignorant of Goan history. > > Come on, grow up. > > I know your name is Velho (which is Portuguese for "old") and I always > believe that people become wiser through the years but you are certainly > taking too much advantage of your name, aren't you? I do not think you have > achieved enough maturity yet to provide an healthy and acceptable argument > to Selma's provocative post. > > So, here is hoping that you may find some maturity whilst reading whatever > you are reading at Kings. Otherwise it will be a waste of time and money. > Good luck! > > Paulo Colaco Dias.
