Dear Roland,Thank you for the correction and sorry for the
misunderstanding.Regards,John
On Thursday, 30 July, 2020, 08:55:48 am IST, john menezes
<[email protected]> wrote:
Mr. Roland Francis has been kind enough to promote my book,"The Portuguese
Presence in India; Latter Day Thorns amidst Tranquilities."His dispatch is
excellent. In case you may be pleased to publish it on your network, please
omit his penultimate paragraph which reads:
"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."
With regards,John Menezes On Thursday, 30 July, 2020, 08:46:29 am IST,
Roland Francis <[email protected]> wrote:
John I immediately corrected and it appeared on Goanet as you can see
On Wed, Jul 29, 2020 at 8:10 PM john menezes <[email protected]> wrote:
Thank you Roland. Regards, John
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
On Thu, 30 Jul 2020 at 5:35 AM, Roland Francis<[email protected]>
wrote:
Thanks John, I shall send a correction.
On Wed, Jul 29, 2020 at 8:03 PM john menezes <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Roland, Thank you for the write-ups but one vital correction please: Out
of 80,000 to 100,000 Goans in Bombay at that time, only around 5,000 Goans
wanted Goa to join India. This is contained in the report of the First
Secretary of the Brazilian Embassy, Dr. Jorge de Oliveira Maia, when he visited
Bombay in February, 1956. Furthermore, he has also stated that in his
interviews of the Goans, if it came to the push, the majority were prepared to
return to Goa than abandon Portuguese citizenship. I can send you the report.
This report puts India in such bad light that even 66 years later I thought it
prudent not to include it in my book. The Indian Army entered Goa precisely
because Nehru's two satyagrahas in 1954 and 1955 and all other pressures had
failed to get the Goans to revolt against Portugal. This is an important
correction. Regards, John
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
On Thu, 30 Jul 2020 at 5:11 AM, Roland Francis<[email protected]>
wrote: 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.
--
Roland Francis
416-453-3371
--
Roland Francis
416-453-3371
