------------------------------------------------------------------------ * * * * * * * * * ANNUAL GOANETTERS MEET * * * * * * * * * ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goanetters in Goa and visiting meet Jan 6, 2009 at 3.30 pm at Hotel Mandovi (prior to the Goa Sudharop event, which you're also welcome to). Join in for a Dutch dinner -- if we can agree on a venue after the meet. RSVP (confirmations only) 9822122436 or 2409490 or [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Selma wrote: > In 1956-57, there existed a Goa League London. Not much is > known about them except they held a public meeting once > and issued literature on why Goa should be liberated from > Portugal and join the Indian Union. > If anyone has information about this league or its > counterpart Goa Movement, which raised its voice for > self-determination, please do get in touch with me. > Any information by way of literature or contact with > people involved or related to those involved would > be greatly appreciate. Way back in 2002, I got an email (13 Jan 2002 17:49:02 -0000) from Anthony Remedios <[email protected]> who is a prominent engineer. He was in the news because of his stand to opt out from being a consultant to the Konkan Railway, because of the policies they were following in some eco sensitive areas... or some such issue... if I recall right. His contacts then: A P Remedios, BSc(Eng)(London), MICE(UK), Regn No.32553976 CHARTERED ENGINEER (Civil)- CONSTRUCTION CONSULTANT & TRAINER 3/20, Pushpa Vihar, Opp Colaba PO, Mumbai. 400 005. India Phone: (91 22) 215 1993, 218 9300, email: [email protected] I think we met up at aone of the expat conferences, and in those days I used to follow Goa-related issues far more closely than I did subsequently. This is what he told me regarding the Goa League: OPENQUOTE I went to London, from the country of my birth Southern Rhodesia (now renamed Zimbabwe), in 1949 to graduate in Civil Engineering, after completing my High School studies in Cape Town (South Africa) in a Government Coloured School in 1948. The S.African Universities would not admit me for Civil Engineering as it was strictly for Whites only. There were three racial catagories for Schools - White, Coloured (mixture between white & Blacks and including Asians) and Black. I could not attend High School in Zimbabwe then as the best High School was run by white Jesuit priests only for Whites. While I was in Cape Town for three years, in 1948 the then Prime Minister, Malan, introduced SEGREGATION (Apartheid) in Cape Town buses and local trains. I soon got involved in Anti-apartheid activities during my High School days. In London in 1949, I got involved with Liberation politics. We students from the British colonies were encouraged by India's first High Commissioner, V K Krishna Menon, to agitate for our independence as Indians did to gain independence two years earlier in 1947. Being of Goan origin (my mother used to bring us to St Mathias, Divar, Goa every four years to spend a full year at a time in our ancest th the freedom struggle for Goa when the Satyagra Movement and shooting took place on the Goa Border around 1956. The Goa League was started by a few Goans in London. A Goan lawyer JOAO CABRAL with a Portuguese passport was the Secretary, and a medical Dr Denis was the Chairman. Another Goan opera singer, working for the Indian High Commission was also a member. She trained us to sing Goan songs. The Portuguese Embassy in London complained to the British Government that one of their Goan Portuguese passport holder was involving in politics in London. So Joao Cabral asked me (a British Colonial passport holder) to become the Secretary of The Goa League, till I came to India three years later on 29.July.1959. At The Goa League in Lodon, we organised public meetings to highlight the Goa Freedom Movement. Whenever Goa Freedom Fighters were released from Portuguese Jails, we used to organise a well-coming function for them. As I could not get many Goans to attend these functions, I used to go to various ships in the docks to invite Goan 'shippies' to come. I remember I organised one such function for Kakodkar and Hegde. At that time Portugal had an International Court case at The Hague in Holland, against India, because the Indian Government was not allowing movement of the Portuguese, from Damao to Dadra Nagarveli, through the Gujarat territory. We also assisted the Indian High Commission with translation of data from Portuguese to English for that case. The first get-together function of about 80 Goans in Earls Court London, was in 1956. I remember the artist Newton D'Souza's wife and I cooked, in her basement kitchen, 'sorpotel' for the 80 Goans. The backbone of The Goa League was Joao Cabral. You should really meet him to get the full details of The Goa League. He is now retired in Goa at Nagoa, Verna. He was running a stone crusher business in Vasco, supplying crushed stone metal for concrete to various contractors and builders. His phone No. was 783357. His brother, Jose Cabral, has a c [TEXT APPRENTLY MISSING] Margaon Municipal building. ENDQUOTE I did meet Joao Cabral in Nagoa, Verna, subsequently... but for some reason didn't get down to write on it... He was rather elderly when we met up. At that time, I recall he gave me some of the yellowing printed papers (just 2-3) from the 1950s, that he still had with him in his files. It must be somewhere around in my badly cluttered rainforest of papers back home. But I'm sure these might be archived somewhere. They were neatly printed, with the depressed letter-press marks that were so typical of their time (unlike offset printing)! Hope this helps. Keep up the interesting digging-around you do. FN
