http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-10-26/goa/43414855_1_indian-union-independent-india-goan-soil
Global Goa: India's window to the Lusosphere Vivek Menezes, TNN Oct 26, 2013, 06.31AM IST PANAJI: Now well into the 21's century, Goa is the only part of country still denied a post-colonial future, and so India continues to squander an ever-growing opportunity. This is particularly bizarre, because the rest of the country has long since gotten over its hostility to its former colonizers. In a famous speech at Oxford in 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seemed to go as far as forgiving the British, while glossing over centuries of atrocities as simply inevitable when "an age-old civilization met the dominant Empire of the day". Relations between the UK and India could not be better today, and nobody resents it as an unending stream of Punjabis decamp the pind for Southall. Similarly, in the tiny enclave of Pondicherry, formerly the capital of French India, the locals benefitted from a carefully managed accession plan signed by both France and India in 1948. Today, the territory proudly celebrates and proclaims its French connection in every way it can-it's the centerpiece of its tourism agenda. Again no one resents the large proportion of citizens who hold European nationality, and fly back and forth to Paris whenever they feel like it. So Goa is an anomaly in India, because hostility still flashes even more than 50 years after the last Portuguese troops were unceremoniously booted from Indian soil. In this state, you could be led to believe colonialism is still a threat. Here, street signs in heritage areas will be smashed because they remind a rabid fringe of the distant past, a well-meaning foundation devoted to preservation can be ritually denounced for trying to glorify colonialism, and the arrival of a ship to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the historic voyage of Vasco da Gama was picketed as though the old man had been resurrected to attack the coastline all over again. It is a uniquely perverse state of affairs, a hangover from colonial times that never ever seems to go away. Part of the reason for the sustained oddity is the shabby, awful way the 451-year-old Estado da India was finally extinguished. If Goa had been able to manage its own accession to India soon after 1947-like Pondicherry, or some of the North East states-there is no doubt everything would have been different. After all, so many sons and daughters of Goan soil from Dharmanand Kosambi to Frank Moraes to literally uncountable numbers of doctors, educators, artists and common citizens, had already contributed mightily and far disproportionally to the making of Independent India. There was huge goodwill towards Goa and the Goans from Gandhi, Nehru and the other founding fathers of the country. Unquestionably, a negotiated settlement for Goa to join the Indian Union would have been as fair and beneficial as the one still enjoyed by Pondicherry, and, crucially, elements of a special status would have been certain to have been included. But that was just not possible under Salazar, with his truly insane diktat that 'aqui e Portugal' (this is Portugal) still parroted long after Portuguese internal reports warned that public opinion in the state was lost, and that most citizens aspired to merger with India. The madman held on to the bitter end, and was still humiliated. But the biggest losers in the ugly denouement were actually the Goans. The tiny territory joined the rest of India under the worst possible circumstances-military conquest and occupation, followed by annexation. No understanding offered, no concessions made, no negotiation possible. Though the military action that squashed Portuguese resistance was mercifully brief, unmistakable hostility from Delhi continued unabated for decades. Goans were forced to watch aghast, as their highly evolved, confluential identity was treated with suspicion. Their singular, exquisitely syncretic culture-whether architecture, music or food-was dismissed as mere aping of the West. Delhiwallahs speaking English criticized Goan grandmothers for speaking Portuguese! But now there is finally an opening. The state government wisely pursued the Lusofonia Games, which will rekindle connections that can be of great benefit to Goa and the rest of India into the 21'st century. The Semana de Cultura that is underway from this week is another excellent initiative that will help to revive Goa's profound ties to Macau (thus China), to booming Brazil, and resource-rich Angola and Mozambique. Tamil Nadu derives terrific benefits from its centuries-old ties to Singapore, Thailand, and the rest of the far east. No one denounces an ethnic Tamil for being a foreigner. Gujarat reaps reward in the other direction-its diaspora in Africa, the USA and UK is always favoured over other Indian communities when it comes to business. All this has to happen with Goa too-every year the same old divisive nonsense prevails is another year of opportunity squandered.