*We deceive ourselves if we feel everything in Goa is fine, while our
identity, culture and survival are at stake, says DR JOE D?SOUZA*
Since 1961, every 19th December, Goans celebrate their ?Liberation Day? from
their colonial masters. The Indian Army took over the administration of Goa
from the Portuguese in a smooth operation, before anyone in Goa knew
anything much. Power was peacefully transferred without any bloodshed and
with no loss of life.
But as I lie on my bed, lazily reflecting on the past, my mind poses a
question: ?Is Goa truly liberated??
I belong to the generation which can vividly remember and reflect about
those good old days with their pleasant times. I belong to the era wherein
as a child I could sea no evil, as I wasn?t big enough to know and
understand much about the difference between Indian democracy and Portuguese
dictatorship. My interaction with the Portuguese pakles was at the check
post, each time I visited Goa from Mumbai (then Bombay) for the annual
summer holidays. What Aunty Laura used to do as a freedom fighter then
mattered to the extent that we missed her company during the time she was in
the freedom movement.
Good fish, lots of cheese and a tinge of port wine was on the table for us
to relish, especially when she was around. Lots of oysters, big crabs and
mussels fresh from the River Chapora used to find their way to our home from
the nearby fishing canoes. In the 1950s our lives in Mumbai were a bitter
struggle, I can remember famines, rationed food and study under dim lights
or sometimes under electric poles.
But once in Goa, it was like going from hell to Paradise. My granny used to
rear pigs and fowls, grow vegetables and ensure that plenty of mangoes,
jackfruits and tender coconuts remained on our trees. Taking a bath straight
from the brass pot drawn from the village well on a hot summer afternoon and
again under the banana plantation, either by moonlight or the dim light of a
small kerosene lamp, was an enchanting experience.
A wholesome and healthy quality of life for our family all through the
erstwhile Portuguese regime under Salazar made me ponder if liberation for
Goa is truly achieved, especially as the life in the state for the niz
Goemkar is becoming increasingly tough and challenging. Mining beyond
sustainable limits has made Goan agriculture reluctant and unremunerative.
Our rivers have been silted with mining rejects and our aquiferous hills
have been butchered, raped and bled devoid of forest cover, inviting floods
and drought. The greed of our politicians, bureaucrats and the manipulative
illegal mine-owners lobby has ushered in lopsided tourism and mushrooming of
concrete jungles which has transformed Goa from green to grey. I cannot
visit the pristine beaches of Goa and swim at Vagator beach as I once did
during the Portuguese, era because it is today infested with cancerous tar
balls and rich in oil slick and copious amounts of drifting garbage.
Industrial pollution has contaminated our air, water and soil.
My beloved Mandovi River is today colonised by casino vessels, belonging to
rich migrants who employ Russian belly-dancers, women from the North-East
and Punjabi managers.
The garbage menace is seen all around due to lopsided tourism. Today Goans
are prisoners of gambling and victims of alcohol abuse due to faulty
planning of economic activities. We accuse Portuguese of colonial dominance,
oppression and religious inquisition, but do we realise for a moment that
Goa today is seeing increasing religious intolerance, thefts in churches and
temples on a daily basis, destruction of public properties, deaths due to
suicides, rapes, murders and road accidents ? all essentially a result of
lax implementation of law.
Today more Goans are leaving Goa?s shores to make a living outside the
country. Acquiring a Portuguese passport is today not only a status symbol
but an identity for receiving international credibility ? a recognition
which is not available with an Indian passport. Let us not be hypocrites,
and let us acknowledge the blessings which we have derived and still derive
due to our association with the Portuguese. Genuine freedom fighters and
worthy Goans, while accepting the blessings of liberation, do not go hammer
and tongs against the Portuguese benevolence.
There are a few smugglers and antisocial elements who claim to be freedom
fighters. By destroying anything of Portuguese history in Goa, they want to
project their nationalism, which is totally absurd and misleading.
Elsewhere, in another article, I have recounted that for about 12,000 years
of written history of Goa, Goans have yet to learn to accept their mistakes
and historical blunders. Goans over 12,000 years have always remained as a
subdued society, ruled by invaders, be it the Kolarian tribes, Sumerian
warriors, the Aryans, Portuguese, etc.
In the past Goa was plundered and looted not only by Mohammad bin Tughlaq,
but also by the Bahamani and the Vijayanagar empires, which found Goa and
the Goan people an attractive target to exploit. We would be soon heading
towards celebrating 50 golden years of Liberation. But alas! Goans call
themselves free citizens of a free country but cannot feel safe to live or
reside in their own traditional homes, which face threats of demolition due
to CRZ laws, Mega housing projects have brought home hordes of dubious
migrants and unscrupulous builders from Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Belgaum,
Bangalore, etc, and Goans are pressurised into selling their homes. It is
not the Moguls or the Marathas this time but the Russian, Israeli and Delhi
barons who have taken over. Our markets are flooded with vendors from
Karnataka. Our hotels and restaurants have cooks from the North-East and our
labour force is from Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, UP, Karnataka and Rajasthan.
Dancing during meaningless carnival shows and during the IFFI celebrations,
if we feel everything in Goa is fine and under control, we would be
deceiving ourselves. More than ever before, our Goan identity, culture and
survival are at stake.
The active protests at Gram Sabha meetings about the destruction of Goa by
unscrupulous politicians and obliging bureaucrats is a welcome sign. Actions
speak louder then words. We must free Goa from the clutches of vested
interests who are looting and plundering Goa beyond sustainable limits. In
the next 50 years global warming and adverse impacts of climate change would
see a 16 cm rise in sea level and temperatures would rise by 4?C. Being a
coastal people, Goans must prepare themselves for the imminent disasters due
to affect the state. Let not unscrupulous elements destroy and butcher our
hills, fill up low-lying areas and reclaim them, or else the sea would
reclaim us and liberate us for ever.
Eternal vigilance is the price we must pay for freedom. May I salute the
Gram Sabhas all around Goa for working hard to nip in the bud the growing
menace of corruption and open rape of Goa by our greedy politicians and
unconcerned legal system, which seems truly blind to Goa?s degradation and
Goan marginalisation.
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BC
