2009/10/20 Mario Goveia <[email protected]>: > I developed a health disrespect for Indian > history as a schoolboy in India and reading > in history books written by some British ...
Mario, I agree with some of your points made. "History" depends on who's writing it. Btw, were you reading history books *still* written by the British when you were a schoolboy in the 1970s? Or did the texts simply take that long to get changed in good ole Jubbulpore :-) Also, I was amazed at your ability to write a largely Goa-related post on Goanet! We'll overlook the Bushisms and Saddam tidbits creeping in! > As Cheryl Pereira and I pointed out > recently, Goa has been in Goan hands > since 1987. That's 22 years ago. It depends what you mean by "Goan". As you would have realised, as the only voice of reason etc, Goans are a divided lot, and two can seldom agree on matters of history, politics, culture, song, religion, common heroes and the like. There are chasms of differences in perception not just among religions, but also within people living in different areas of Goa, those with affinity to different caste groups, and depending on what point of history they were born at and whether they turned out Anglophone or Lusophone, Konkaniwadi or Marathiwadi. Btw, why 1987? You could say 1963. Even the Lieutenant Governor (despite the power he had in paper) was a figurehead, who seldom went against the wishes/advice of the Goa chief minister even in union territory days. > In my opinion, it all has to start with > electing honest politicians. You are presuming that the system works in a way that (i) by electing the right people, it can be fixed (ii) the system itself works in the interest of the people (iii) 'honest' people can get elected -- despite the huge cost of the carnival called elections -- and will stay honest after getting elected. I do not think it does justice to your "only voice of reason" claims to see the issue in such simplistic terms. FN
