John Menezes of Ucassaim, Bardez and Colaba, Bombay has written his first book titled “The Portuguese Presence In India - Latter Day Thorns Amidst The Tranquilities”. This is living history unlike material left to us by departed historians who cannot be questioned or challenged.
John has a brilliant mind and a long memory (All these Menezes!) and some of his Goanet postings of a decade ago gives one an idea of this. In a recent email he writes to me thus: “I am an engineer by profession, now 87 years of age, a staunch lover of Goa and I was an activist for the Portuguese Flag in Bombay during the period 1957-1961. I have made an attempt in putting down my memoirs along with historical jottings in a book:"The Portuguese Presence in India; Latter Day Thorns amidst Tranquilities" and the book is now sold worldwide by Amazon. The purpose of the book was to leave behind in memory lane the truth as I and all of us Goans had known it”. The book is available on Amazon.in for R 1,610 in hardcover, shipping free and it has 400+ pages. If ordered from outside India, it costs more than three times that price and that too in softcover, fees and shipping extra. Here is the Amazon introduction: “The author of this book hails from a Goan emigrant family and was born in British India and has had a rare exposure to British rule in India, to the Portuguese presence in Goa and to independent India, besides having lived in the United States for three years for post-graduate studies in engineering. After Independence, India raised objections to two forms of the Portuguese presence: (1) Portuguese government’s patronage over certain Catholic dioceses which had been evangelized by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, a dispute which was quickly resolved by July 18, 1969 and (2) the Portuguese political presence in Goa, Daman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which India claimed on grounds of geography and Portugal claimed on grounds of history and juridical superiority,the absence of any significant desire of the people to merge with India. The author has been privy to a full set of diplomatic exchanges with India, a few other countries and within the Portuguese Government, in four volumes published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lisbon, an official de-classification, on Goa and its dependencies, 1947 to 1967, some of which have been extensively used in their complete text for better understanding in the book.” As John has mentioned, he was the ‘Portuguese flag bearer’ in Bombay, thus belonging to a small group who held views contrary to most Goans in the city at that time who were looking forward to the Indian take over. That itself should give the book significance. Reading about the Church’s role in Goa’s Portuguese governance adds another interesting dimension to it, of which not much was generally known. Despite the steep price for foreign buyers and all, every penny invested in the book, will I am sure provide me with good value. Roland. Toronto.
