Hei Folks, "11. While we fight on history...Goa is being looted...". Indeed.
I can be taken to task for what I say here. That is fine and is understandable because what I have to say is more about speaking aloud to myself then having to justify my musings. So feel free to disagree or give me a chance of seeing things differently. The concerns of the gentleman in the above article prompted me to wonder why Goa is a lost cause. I should state at the very outset that I am a disenfranchised goan. I have nothing I can call my own in Goa although I have always felt my roots are in Goa. In the past I had a feeling of " belonging". We had a home, land etc. once alas no more. More recently I realise that I have to see myself as a tourist with a difference. I see myself as a foreigner with nostalgia of a Goan. But I have to ask myself hard questions. Another thing is that I have to accept my own hypocrisies in answering some of the questions that come to mind. I can live with my hypocrisies, I am sure you can too. Perhaps the trait is particularly strong in goans. To begin with, since when has Goa not been looted is more to the point? I should imagine it has always been looted all along. We would not be in this mess if it had not been so. We have aided and abetted to its looting either by turning a blind eye, diving under cover, keeping our heads down or getting the hell out of Goa. Goa was not colonised by the Portuguese. We to a greater or lesser degree allowed the Portuguese to remain. What did the Portuguese loot from Goa? I have no idea whatsoever. What I do know is that we lost our Freedom and the conditions to prosper and develop in Goa. What did the Portuguese do for Goa. Sweet Nothing I feel sure. Most mobile Goans left Goa for India, Africa whereever. There was nothing in Goa to stay for. Now it can be said that the ones who emigrate are the best and the least able. So what did the Goans is Goa do for their Independence? What did the goans abroad contribute to support freedom movements in Goa? Not much I guess. Virtually nothing for over 400 yrs or more under Portuguese domination. Not that they were any Portuguese in Goa. Portugal was a very long way from Goa then. Those freedom fighters that did surface never received the help and support of the Goans at home or abroad. My next door neighbour was a political prisoner in Fort Aguard now a resort complex. I may be forgiven for thinking he lived in one of the nicest places in Goa as his consolation prize even if it was a high security prison then. He must have enjoyed the stunning views and the fresh sea breeze each day every day for years and years. Great. Not even my parents saw him as a hero and he was my next door neighbour. All they did was to visit him once whenever they arrived in Goa. The Portuguese connection for some reason was important to us Goans at home and abroad although we got nothing out of it. Many did not even speak Portuguese. I am not aware of any large movement of Goans going to Portugal to settle even when Portugal declared Goa to be an integral part of Portugal. Even the ones that spoke some smattering of 'kitchen' Portuguese headed mainly for British colonies. The goan mindset would you believe was even more suitable for the British then that of their own working classes. But that is another story. Goa was so poor and devoid of people that even on the pittance that our fathers earned in the British colonies that was plenty for Goa. Such was the state of Goa. In a word ABANDONED and helped by the left overs from the pittance of absentee Goans from abroad. Goa provided goans a holiday home to return from aboard. It was cheap, unspoilt with an apathetic population even more apathetic then the ones abroad who saw themselves as having moved on a bit. If our Goa for the Goans were about then, they certainly did not make an appearance in Goa or abroad. If the Goans were united and concerned about Goa for the Goans then toppling the Portuguese could not have been much easier with minimal sacrifice. For one thing colonisation was outlawed by the UN. ( Portugal of course countered the UN by saying Goa was an integral part of Portugal and not a colony and that the people wanted the Portuguese in Goa. 400yrs of trouble free Goa.) Secondly, India would have lent support in a fight that Goans could NOT lose. Thirdly, all around Africa the wind of change was in the air and Portugal had its hands full with dissent from its African colonies. At some point iron ore was discovered in Goa. The Portuguese just as lackadaisical as the Goans hived it off to the Japanese to exploit as long as the Japs passed on a share of the value to enrich the coffers of Portugal. The Portuguese a poor country of Europe in their wisdom spent the monies fighting losing wars in Africa. Of course we know what happened there. When India decided that the Portuguese were a blot on the Indian subcontinent, they prepared to attack Portugal. There was plenty of time for Portugal to see the threat amassing on the borders of Goa. What did the Portuguese do? Nothing. Well, not exactly, they invoked a dusty old treaty with the UK. Very simply it was like Nato. If one Nato country gets attacked then it is seen as an attack on all the countries of Nato eg result Nato in Afganistan and nowhere near the Atlantic. Of course the pragmatic British having just given independence to India were never likely to go to war with India to help the Portuguese over a treaty that had past it used by date. The British quietly ignored the defunct treaty allowing India to invade Goa. When India attacked. It was a cake walk. The Portuguese just left without a fight and would you believe they even had time to take the few Freedom fighters along with them. They were shipped to Africa? There is no accounting for Portuguese wisdom. Let me say here, I have nothing against the Portuguese. As events turned out for Goans they may have done Goans a favour without really meaning to. Their colonisation of Goa helped depopulate Goa who then went to find their fortunes elsewhere. The Portuguese are like any other people perhaps a little lackadaisical. Unfortunately, with Salazar the Portuguese dictator there was no reasoning. He single handedly sealed the fate of the Portuguese at home and Goa by his lack of wisdom and pragmatism and brutality. One has to marvel how one man like that could go unopposed and affect the fates of so many people in Portugal, Goa and all the Portuguese colonies. Well, for the Goa for the Goans it was a disaster. Goa is geographically and historically a part of the Indian subcontinent. We are Indians. Bleating about what Salazar should have done is water under the bridge. Salazar lost all of the Portuguese territories in fighting losing battles. He emptied the coffers of Portugal. He was a disaster for Portugal and unfortunately for Goa too. Had he even some British pragmatism he would have seen that by giving Goa Independence it would have weakened the Indian case for ceasing Goa from Portugal. Goa would have been a FREE country today and more autonomous then it is today. Had Goa been given Independence by Portugal, they would still have had to make it in the world like Singapore does today. I am sure that they would have had the support and cooperation of India. It did not require foresight from Salazar. All major powers like the UK, France, Holland, Spain were leaving their colonies without so much as a viable handover interim government in place in some cases. The Goans would have welcomed the move. Goa was being run by goans all along and quite capable of running the Portuguese administration machinery. Sadly the Goan leadership and intellectuals failed to cease the opportunity of doing a deal with Salazar or wresting Goa from the dictator. That would have done it for Goa. To the winner the spoils of war. No point whinging about it being looted. It did not take long for the middle class Hippies to find Goa. Goa was a vacuum. If the fathers of Western colonisers exploited countries at will then the hippy invasion was surreptitious. Goa made an ideal pickings. The land unspoilt and undeveloped. The people peaceful and tolerant. The society multicultural and apathetic. The Christian connection familiar and welcoming and suffering from the withdrawal symptoms of the departed Portuguese. Goa became a Hippy Paradise and moved on since to become a low cost tourist paradise. Well there you have it a land run by proxy goans by power brokers outside of Goa . It comes a bit rich coming from Goans abroad that it is a paradise lost to progress. I am ambivalent. I may not "belong" anymore but I cannot at the same time deny progress for the people of goa whoever the "goan" really is. Had Goa been given Independence and Goans however incompetent and apathetic administered goa then that Goa would be a very different Goa to the one we have today. None of this RSS, BJP, imported labour and masjids you name it aggravations. We have to face it that that Goa is a lost cause. Whether it is best for Goa, I have no idea. What is happening in Goa may be the best thing that has happened to Goa. So be it. Cheers
