Editor Sir,
Let me respond to Adv. Bhembre's insinuations and expose him as a communal
mind at work.
1. Adv. Bhembre is one of the main persons to have included 'ONLY IN
DEVANAGIRI' in the Official Language Act.
The word Konkani should have and will have stood all on its own without
this devious communal insertion.
2. Adv. Bhembre says that the Portuguese banned all regional languages in
primary schools and promoted only Portuguese language.
He is blatantly wrong here and his slip is showing. While Konkani was
banned, Marathi flourished with Marathi Xhalas in place everywhere in Goa.
Thanks to the two timing communal individuals like Adv. Uday Bhembre who
preferred to tutor the Portuguese against Konkani. If this was not true,
Uday Bhembre would have acknowledged this fact about Marathi primary schools
flourishing during the Portuguese regime at the cost of Konkani.
3. 'Gaokaries' which later came to be called 'Comunidades' (thanks to the
Portuguese) of Goa existed since prior to the 11th Century. The Portuguese
acknowledged these as best systems of administration for villages and helped
preserve the same by even writing the Code of Comunidades. Who destroyed
them are the people like Adv. Bhembre with the aide of communal Bandodkar
and communal instigator - Janardhan Shinkre who could not see a perfect
system of management and who wanted the corrupt system that was offered by
the neo-colonialist......... INDIA.
4. My ancestors are Hindu and I have forgiven the Portuguese for their
religious excesses. This because their model of administration was good and
impartial. I have tasted a sample of it in my childhood. Bhembre and his ilk
have lauded the entry of Indian colonizers into Goa and have taken advantage
of this purely for communal reasons, tolerating the stench of corruption,
which never existed during the Portuguese regime. Put the two
administrations i.e. the Portuguese and Indian side by side and I will want
to vomit on the Indian administrative system which is one hundred per cent
corrupt and malafide. This has made me say that 'WE DO NOT WANT THE
PORTUGUESE BACK, BUT WE WANT THE PORTUGUESE ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM (RULE)
BACK.
5. A colleague advocate of Uday Bhembre ...Adv. Amrut Kansar is on record to
have publicly said " BANDODKAR IMPORTED HINDU BHATS (READ PRIESTS) FROM
MAHARASHTRA INTO GOA TO POISON THE MINDS OF GOAN HINDUS. This imported
Indian vicious communal poison has corroded Uday Bhembre's brains to the
core for him to write what he has written above.
5. I proudly say that I am a GOAN, not Portuguese, and definitely not
INDIAN. The Indian citizenship was forced on me through Goa's invasion in
1961. If the Portuguese skunks had not signed the co-operation treaty with
Indian invaders in 1974, in the similar manner that they did not sign the
treaty with Indonesia for East Timor, I would have today been fighting for
Goa's independence from India just like Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao aka Jose
Alexandre Gusmao, the 1st President of Independent East Timor. The
Portuguese are the worst of them all. They have been humiliatingly thrown
out of Goa through force. But they chose to come back with their tails
between their legs and without asking GOANS what they had to say about them
signing the treaty with India.
6. My chief ambition in the formation of GOA SU-RAJ PARTY is to use the
democratic set-up that India has promoted in Goa (however vile it may be) to
throw these unwanted and despicable High commands from Delhi, Nagpur and
Maharashtra out of Goa once and for all and along with them Adv. Uday
Bhembre and all other traitors of GOA , the New Delhi's main GOAN
(CONGRESS) chamchas, for sure. If the Independence for Goa is not
possible, then I shall vigorously fight for SPECIAL STATUS for Goa, that
which has been promised by various high ranking 'charlatans' and which is
still a distant dream.
Cheers
floriano
goasuraj
9890470896
www.goasu-raj.org
PS: I would be please if Adv. Uday Bhembre responds to this response.
Glorifying colonialism: Ignorance of history or slavish loyalty?
Uday Bhembre, Jan 17, 2011, 05.05am IST
I wonder whether it is ignorance of the history of Goa, especially of the
colonial period, or the slavish mentality acquired during the period of
subjugation that leads some Goans to glorify the erstwhile Portuguese regime
in Goa by distorting the truth, attaching to the Portuguese the virtues that
they did not possess and drawing ridiculous conclusions.
It is appalling that any Goan should use adjectives like 'progressive',
'reformist' or 'tolerant' to the Portuguese regime. In the history of the
world, no colonial power was ever motivated by an urge to do good to the
conquered people. Every colonial power exploited the conquered territory and
the people for its own good. The Portuguese regime was no exception to that
rule.
Massacre of Muslims
Soon after the conquest of Goa in 1510, Afonso de Albuquerque massacred the
Muslims-soldiers and innocent people. The widows and their daughters were
converted to Christianity and were married to the Portuguese soldiers. This
was not out of any compassion, but to bind the soldiers to the conquered
land and increase the number of Christians. Albuquerque wrote to the king of
Portugal on December 22, 1510: "…… I then burnt the city and put
everything to the sword, and for days continuously your people shed blood in
them, wherever they are caught and found, no life was spared to any
Mussalman and their mosques were filled up and set on fire…"
Persecution of Hindus
In 1940, the unholy alliance of the colonial rulers and the religious
authority began the persecution of Hindus. Temples were demolished, idols
were broken and books were burnt. Captain Diogo Rodrigues of Rachol fort
demolished 280 temples in Salcete alone. J H da Cunha Rivara, Portuguese
historian and chief secretary of the government in Goa in the 19th century,
has put on record: "In the first heat of conquest, temples were destroyed,
all the emblems of the pagan cult were shattered to pieces and the books
written in the vernacular were burnt for being guilty or suspected of
containing precepts and doctrines of idolatry. The wish was to exterminate
also the part of the population that did not convert itself immediately, and
this was not the desire only of that period; but even after two centuries
there were some who with magisterial pride advised such a measure to the
government."
Many Hindu families had to leave Goa and go to the South. The properties of
the temples were given to the churches and lands confiscated from those
Hindus who fled their villages were confiscated and given to the converts.
Torture of neo-Christians
Not being satisfied with such barbarity, the Portuguese brought the
inquisition to Goa in 1560. It was intended to be a tribunal to try and
punish the converts. Gradually it brought non-Christians too within its evil
vortex. Prisoners were tortured in the "torture chambers" of the so called
Holy House and death as a result of torture was not infrequent. "Auto de
Fe's" (Acts of Faith) were held periodically and punishments were awarded
publicly. Some were burnt alive at the stakes. If a prisoner died while in
prison his bones were burnt publicly. The inquisition punished even the
dead! How civilized were those who watched this carnage from a dais as if it
was a celebration?
Cultural holocaust
After converting a sizable section of the Goan community to Christianity the
Portuguese embarked upon a policy of total conversion by uprooting the
converts from their Indian culture and foisting upon them their own culture
so as to make them fully loyal subjects of the king of Portugal. They forced
the converts to change their names, their dress, their food habits, their
lifestyle and even their language. In 1684, they passed the infamous decree
to abolish the use of the local language Konkani; it was to be replaced by
the Portuguese language within three years. I think the Portuguese succeeded
in some measure in their policy and created among the converts a small
section of fully loyal subjects. Otherwise, how does one explain the
attitude of some Goans who still consider the Portuguese as angels who had
come to Goa to civilize and emancipate the Goans?
Racial prejudice
The Portuguese, the administrative wing as well as the ecclesiastical wing,
acted with racial prejudice. The religious orders for a long time did not
admit the local Christian priests to their fold, nor were they put in charge
of parishes in spite of having requisite qualifications. The inhuman and
barbaric manner in which the leaders of that revolt were punished speaks
volumes about the "tolerance" of the Portuguese! Yes, the 'angels' from
Portugal were tolerant in one sphere-to the caste system. There is no place
for caste in Christianity, but the Portuguese allowed it to continue among
the Goan Christians who were Hindus before conversion and had carried castes
with them. The religious leaders perpetuated it in church congregations. The
underlying reason was that the Portuguese wanted Goan Christians to remain
divided and open to manipulation. Perhaps Goa is the only place in the world
where caste exists among Christians.
'Angels' who did good to Goans!
The Portuguese regime was not interested in the education of Goans. It
opened primary schools only of Portuguese medium. The inevitable result was
that at the time of liberation, literacy was less than 30%. There were no
institutions of higher learning except the Medical School and the Lyceum.
Before liberation Goan students had to go to neighbouring states to join
colleges for higher education. The colonial regime did not bring in any
industry. No jobs were created. Mining was the only local industry. As a
consequence educated Goans as well as others had to leave Goa for
employment. The Portuguese denied civil liberties and any kind of freedom.
There was censorship not only for books or periodicals; but also for wedding
invitations! The Portuguese did wear pants and suits and did use forks and
knives; but were as uncivilized and inhuman in the 20th century as they were
in the 16th.
It is time the blind admirers of the Portuguese regime read and try to
understand the tragic history of Goa as a Portuguese colony which is full of
massacres, torture, persecution, oppression and suppression.
(The writer is a Margao-based lawyer and Konkani writer.)
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