An unofficial history of 1961 Frederick Noronha fredericknoron...@gmail.com
Six decades or almost two generations after of the dramatic end of Portuguese rule in Goa, differing perspectives are beginning to emerge from the ones which so far dominated the narrative. Given the sudden, unpleasant and contested end of that chapter in Goa's history, the polarised versions of the past are not surprising. Of late, the BJP has been critical of Nehru's policy on Goa. A well noticed (but so far, less reviewed) book now comes from the pen of Valmiki Faleiro, journalist and author, who incidentally cut his teeth in the media in The Navhind Times of the 1970s. One can read this book at different levels. Five top military personnel have offered "advance praise for the book" (p.ii). Published by Vintage-Penguin Random House, the book's subtitle reads: "The Complete Story of Nationalism and Integration". In ten chapters, it offers a brief and racy ride through Goa's history (Ch 1), and then devotes the next three to the buildup to the Indian action in 1961, or Liberation. Three further chapters (Ch 5-7) deal with the military operations, while the last three give a breakup of how things changed, and the "fallacies" in understanding Goa then. An annexure lists and introduces (via thumbnail sketches in words) Goans who served in the Indian Army and Catholic Goan freedom fighters. Both respond, obviously, to times when religion often gets confused with patriotism. Faleiro comes up with interesting details. An overview of Goan history, the politics behind December 1961, or what opponents of Lisbon's rule in Goa were doing in the crucial years and even months before the Indian Army marched in. The strength of his book comes from its details. This ironically could also be a weakness; the reader outside Goa could be hit by simply too many details. Likewise, Faleiro's writing style is at times journalistic and at other times well footnoted, almost academic. While the former makes for an interesting read, the lack of footnoting or due attributions in some sections makes one wonder about accuracy, verifiability or where the citations came from. But, the author's knowledge of Portuguese has surely helped. With the passing of time, some of the young military-men of the 1960s have since risen to senior posts, crossed their 80s, and have been filling in details (through their writing in Portugal) which we had not heard of earlier. Recent memoirs in Goa (such as Suresh Kanekar, Prabhakar Sinari and Adv Fernando Jorge Colaco) have also helped the narrative. A detailed section on Indian Defence Minister Krishna Menon's interest in wanting to contest the Bombay elections in early 1962, and how this influenced the history of Goa, is particularly well tackled. This has been mentioned in the past, but there's a lot of interesting detail here. For a reader in Goa, the attempt to write about 1961 from military, political, social perspectives can be interesting. Some of this material lies scattered across many memoirs, books, magazines, unclassified archives, websites and other sources. Yet, coming across it in one place can help to understand the bigger picture. Details about Goan military-men and freedom-fighters, whom we otherwise hear of just as abstract names, fills in our understanding. Likewise, it might be intriguing to a reader of today to learn about 1961's military operations passing through Borim (code name: 'Dall Moth'), Dabolim ('Rat Din'), Vasco da Gama ('Prem Pujari'), Old Goa ('Madhu Bala'), Mardol ('Coca Cola'), Mangeshi ('Sabji Mandi'), Banastarim ('Baby Girl'), Panjim ('French Toast'). The role of Goa's first military Governor Candeth (connected to Krishna Menon, his father's pupil) and Handoo are discussed in fair detail. We get an understanding into other complex issues of the time -- the role of Henry the Navigator (now being reassessed); the impact of the Dutch blockade to "emasculate Goa"; the multiple freedom fighter groups in Goa (almost a dozen-and-half). One can at times disagree with some of Faleiro's interpretations. He suggests (p.15) that Goans could rise well in the Indian Army, but in colonial Goa they could at best climb to being Tenente Coronel (Lt Col). But those who rose in the former did so mainly after the sudden departure of the British, post 1947, so the comparison might not be fair. He argues that "Portuguese lethargy and a lack of foresight to create a self-sufficient society ...largely caused the Goan Catholic to disperse all over the world... like the Biblical lost tribes". Were self-sufficient societies the goal in colonial times? Has that been attained in Goa even now? Considering some attainments by Goans elsewhere, is this entirely a negative thing? Agente Monteiro, the notorious bully of the Salazar regime in Goa, and the bridges destroyed by the retreating Portuguese in Dec 1961, readers in Goa would surely know of. But the numbers of persons killed both prior to 1961 and during the operations was something which doesn't show up in textbooks and official-inspired accounts. * * * Yet, how complete is complete? Despite a lot of work put into the book, obviously some questions still remain unanswered. For instance: when, or in what context, did Nehru make his oft-quoted comment (or what has been attributed to him): "Ajeeb hai Goa ke log". Also: why did New Delhi so grossly over-estimated the military power and personnel Portugal was thought to have had in Goa? Faulty information, is Faleiro's explanation. Thirdly: Salazar is widely believed to have wanted to implement a 'scorched earth' policy for Goa. While this book supports this version of history, it leaves one guessing. It hinges the argument on a not-so-explicit quote by Salazar ("our soldiers and sailors can be either victorious or dead", p.222) and another by a freedom fighter (PP Shirodkar) quoting Salazar saying: "Don't leave stone on stone, destroy everything." There is also mention of a "secret radio message". Some secrets stay secret? Given the fallibility of human memory (or even bias in interpreting things) cannot be discounted. A good example of this is Faleiro's description of who accompanied Goa's then archbishop (Alvernaz) to meet Goa's Governor General Vassalo e Silva to convince him against devastating conflict and "persuade [him]... not to destroy Goa". Four authors that Faleiro cites have three different versions on this -- Mario Cabral e Sa, the Portuguese Col Carlos Alexandre Morais, author Adv Fernando Jorge Colaco, and French professor Sandrine Begue. Fourthly, what was the link between the pre-1961 demand for a plebiscite and the 'Opinion Poll' (which was surely not a mere test of opinions, and almost a quasi plebiscite, but with limited choice) in 1967? A close reading of books written by Indian military officers and their Portuguese counterparts, freedom fighters, official versions and military histories, has helped Faleiro to bring differing (sometimes conflicting) but insightful versions to the fore. Writings come from observer-participants, who themselves were, at times, combatants in the battle or contestants in politics and ideology. So some element of self-censorship, exaggeration or bias could also be expected in the original works. Maybe, as time passes, maybe more stories will emerge. But, by then, there will also be further memory loss. Ten years after 1961, another history-shaping event took place in what was then East Pakistan. Some of the recent writing and books on that region reminded us that there was much, much more than what we thought we knew. Faleiro too informs us about some aspects we didn't realise, or failed to see connections between. It still keeps one wanting more. In that sense, a history of so polarised an era can never be "complete", and there is always more to understand. Goa still has a long way to go on this. To end on a note untypical for a review: The point came home dramatically when the author of the book himself passed away, due to a sudden and massive heart attack, a few weeks after the book was published in mid-2023. Even as we wait for deeper understandings of those complex times, we are losing our storytellers and narrators. Sad. ### This is a slightly adapted version of the article which first appeared in The Navhind Times (Panorama) of Oct 29, 2023.