I greatly appreciate the initiativa of Eduardo Faleiro to find a place for
T.B. Cunha in the gallery of the national freedom fighters in the Indian
Parliament as reported recently on the goanet. It should have been done long
time back! In the wake of the on-going debate provoked by the VCD produced
by the Goa's Education Department, I presume that such provocations need to
be exploited to balance the historical reconstructions, without ignoring any
points of view or experiences of the past realities. There is much yet that
has not been written and oral history needs yet to be tapped. While in
charge of the XCHR I was able to bring together in 1986 various leaders of
varying brands of freedom struggle who were still alive then, including
among them V. Lawande and Cajetan Lobo. I also published the memoirs of
James Fernandes, * In Quest of Freedom*, in 1990. I wish Eduardo Faleiro,
Udhay Bhembre, Aurora Couto, etc. would sponsor a re-edition of the writings
of Tristão Bragança Cunha, where the role of Christians and Hindus in the
struggle for Goa's Freedom is depicted without bias, and so also the
participation of the Portuguese in Portugal, in the midst of all the
political odds under the Salazar regime. More Goans (including Goanetters)
could try to obtain and read the volume of collected writings of T B Cunha
published by T.B. Cunha Memorial Commitee, Bombay, 1961 (with a message from
Jawaharlal Nehru, dated August 13, 1960, and I would leave it to curious
readers to find out who wrote the Preface!). Incidentally, P.P. Shirodkar
was recently quoted on Goanet for some of his communal (?) views, but one
should also read and quote his *Trial of T.B. Cunha*, published through the
Goa Gazetter Dept., in 1991, where he hails T..B. Cunha as a Goan patriot
par excellence, and as Father of Goan Nationalism. All of us suffer from
incoherences due to varied and contradictory experiences in our lives!
History writing should also acknowledge them and report the contradictions.
That is what has been called as history with warts and all.
Teotonio R. de Souza
Teotonio R. de Souza
