Author takes a look at Goa's political jigsaw By Pamela D'mello
Four-and-a-half decades after Portuguese rule ended in Goa, efforts to fit together pieces of a complex jigsaw are still underway, even as it becomes a little more feasible to raise "politically-incorrect" issues.
Time has allowed lines to blur between earlier entrenched positions slotting the "good" and "bad" guys, permitting new initiatives to understand how Portugal's rule in this part of Asia was different from the projects of British or French colonisers.
Goa-based lecturer Vasco Pinho's series Snapshots of Indo-Portuguese History is currently out with its second book. This one focuses on the "rise and demise of Estado da India" - as Portugal's colonial state was then known - being, once an important centre in control of major sea trading routes to the east.
It's in the little nuggets of information, that the book's value lies. It cites the last message Portuguese dictator Salazar sent to Lisbon's governor in Goa, after the takeover of Goa by Delhi was imminent and "even personal efforts of President Kennedy were unfruitful".
Salazar, the dictator who ruled Portugal for half of the 20th century with an iron hand, is quoted saying: "Nothing is left now but to honour the mission entrusted to the troops under the command of your excellency (the governor's)."
Other researchers are quoted as saying that Salazar also ordered the Portuguese governor to repatriate the remains of 16th-century missionary-saint Francis Xavier, to transfer Portuguese airplanes back home, and adopt a 'scorched earth' policy in Goa, an order the governor fortunately didn't implement.
An "hour-by-hour" story of the last hours of the once-proud Portuguese colonies in South Asia is particularly interesting.
Details from the Portuguese side of the operation emerge too, something that earlier barely discussed here, either considered too controversial, or lost due to sudden shift-over to English post-1961.
Pinho, though Goan, belongs to a dwindling generation still fluent with the Portuguese language.
Bizarre stories emerge: two boxes that reached in from Karachi, thought to carry ammunition, actually contained sausages for soldiers. In their hurry to blow up bridges, and lack of coordination, the Portuguese made their own evacuation more difficult.
In the local capital, then called Pangim, the local archbishop and the police chief pleaded with the governor to announce a surrender - Pinho reminds a newer generation of readers not as knowledgeable about these details.
Portugal was the first European power to set up base in India, in 1510, and continue ruling - not willing to go like the British or French - till 1961. It has played an important, if under-recognised, role in India's encounter with Europe.
Pinho says towards the end of Portuguese rule, Lisbon had handed over several "important government posts" to Goans.
Many were heads of departments here - chief secretary Abel Colaco, director of telegraphs Janardana Counto, director of administration Sripada Narcornim, director Vishnum Nagarcencar, archives director Panduronga Pissurlencar and director of the press Rodualdo Costa.
Nonetheless, the book argues, "a very delicate political relationship between the Portuguese and the Goans (existed) in the last years of 'India Portuguesa'".
http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/asian-age-plus/news-plus/author-takes-a-look-at-goa's-political-jigsaw.aspx Goanet A&E http://www.goanet.org
