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Protect Goa's natural beauty
Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve
Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php
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Editor of Goan Observer Mr. Rajan Narayan has done his readers a big favor by
reprinting (as part of his 'Countdown to Liberation Series) the very objective
and detailed report of independent American journalist Homer A. Jack, on the
attempt by unarmed 'satyagrahis', to enter Goa soon after the 'liberation of
Dadra & Nagar Haveli' in 1955.
. The article first appeared in the Issue of Hindustan Times, Delhi dated
August 19, 1955. It would be nice if that piece could get wide circulation; not
because there is need to raise new or renewed feelings of bitterness about the
past, but because those who fail to know the real facts of their history may be
condemned to repeat it. Homer Jack's report is very detailed since he was
present for the Press Briefing given in Panjim at ten o'clock evening when
things were deemed finished and the 'satyagrahis' 'routed'.
Perhaps, unknown to me, there is a tangible memorial to one Panna Lal Yadav, so
beautifully memorialized by Journalist Jack in the main body of his story (at
least thirteen of them died) and in his closing sentence, "And I shall never
forget the supreme sacrifice of Panna Lal Yadav and how, so silently, so
determinedly, so wonderfully calm his comrades sat around his body on the stone
floor of the ancient Hindu temple. Azad Goa! Jai Hind!"
My emotional response to those enormaties of the historical past---the
killings, the tortures, the stupidities and horrors of it all---derives from
attempts to fathom the thinking of Jesuit scientist/philosopher Pierre Teilhard
de Chardin; the whole cosmic reality is 'all of a piece', and in a constant
state of 'becoming'---and WE are its leading shoot. As WE go, so goes the whole
cosmic future. What to do (?), except forgive the 'sins of our fathers' and
pray for our own deliverance, in the hope that the historical evil, like
bio-compost (just plain 'manure') can serve as the growth-medium for a new
spiritual and psychic flowering.
In Goa hundreds of Masses are read every day for the 'departed souls'---that
'they may be loosed from their sins'. Perhaps every year, on one of those
commemorations of newfound social & political 'freedom', we should flock to our
churches, mosques and temples to beseech our 'GODS'---to grant FORGIVENESS to
those who, mostly unwittingly, were 'oppressors of the past'---"Father, forgive
them; for they know not what they do".
