G’BYE GOA: PAKLES ARRIVE
By Valmiki Faleiro
West Asian Muslims were in Goa circa the 8th/9th century, as traders at the
prosperous
port of Gopakapattana (from Dando-Agacaim to the foothills of Siridao.) As also
were the
St. Thomas Christians, descendants of 12 Brahmin families first converted in
Muziris
(Cranganore), Travancore and Cochin by Christ’s own ‘doubting’ Thomas.
When Afonso de Albuquerque arrived as Governor of Cochin in 1506, he dreamt of
an
Eastern Empire. He captured Socotra to control shipping lines in the Red Sea,
to crack
the monopoly of oriental trade between Arabs and Italians in Alexandria and
Venice.
His next object was Hormuz, a strategic island between the Persian Gulf and the
Gulf of
Oman, which would provide control over the major flow of Gulf trade.
Albuquerque was
preparing for an attack on an Egyptian trade fleet in the Red Sea when the
Vijayanagari
naval captain, Thimayya, came calling.
Thimayya convinced Albuquerque it would be better to attack Goa first. Because
the
Sultan of Bijapur built ships in Goa, like his own ‘Caravela,’ for
Egyptian/Turk traders.
Albuquerque also knew that Goa, a trade entrepôt on the western seaboard of
India,
would get him closer to his dream eastern empire.
When he conquered Goa, he promised to destroy the Muslims and protect the
Hindus.
Albuquerque had a pathological hatred of Muslims. Muslims had occupied Portugal,
rather barbarically, for four and half centuries (check the coincidence with
1510-1961)!
After 3,700 wars, Portugal finally emerged free in 1238/9.
Albuquerque lived by his word. During the 1510 battles, he ordered his soldiers
not to
traumatize Hindu locals, under the pain of death penalty. He proclaimed freedom
of
worship and slashed taxes to a third of what Bijapur collected. He assured
Goans would
be treated as Portuguese citizens. He abolished sati, set up a municipality and
a court of
law, styled on the lines of Lisbon. He built Goa’s first church, endowing it
with revenue of
confiscated mosque lands. He erected impressive public buildings, beautified
the city,
and started its first school.
Albuquerque’s success as a soldier/strategist/statesman was envied by his
fellowmen,
who intrigued and won over the king in Lisbon. Albuquerque was peremptorily
deposed.
He died of shock as his ship, after a successful mission in Hormuz, entered the
Aguada
Bay, where he was served the news. His body lay interred in Goa for 51 years,
until it
was finally allowed – not by a royal order, but by a Papal Bull – into Portugal.
His successors changed the policy towards Goa. Egged on by European
missionaries,
they decided to christianize Goa. Divar’s Ganesh temple was the first to be
destroyed, in
1515. On June 30, 1541, the first order to demolish all Hindu temples was
enforced.
Then began a saga of persecution of Goan Hindus, and Christians under the
Inquisition.
The persecution continued until all missionary orders were banned by Portugal’s
atheist
Prime Minister, Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Melo, the Count of Oeiras (later,
Marquis
of Pombal), in 1761.
For 16th to 18th century Portuguese officials, Goa was a place of loot and fun.
Best
described by Portugal’s national poet, Luis de Camoens. He landed in Goa, and
soon in
the Margao jail – where the Old Market trial courts now are – for writing in
highly critical
terms of his compatriots in Goa. When in liberty, he ‘married’ a local girl
named Barbara,
who he described as “Aquela cativa que me tem cativo...” (that captive who
holds me
captive.)
During those two dark centuries, a good part of Goa – then comprising of Bardez,
Tiswadi and Salcete talukas – moved either to the New Conquest talukas or
beyond.
Many Salcetans settled in South Kanara. In my hometown of Margao, 99.99% of
‘Mathagramasths’ (as Margaoites were known) relocated. Of the few ‘ganvkars’ who
stayed back were two Faleiro families, one my own, the other of Adv.
Lourencinho of
Borda (and its two branches, one of late Arthur Faleiro, the other of
Mario/late Narciso),
and a Moraes family that shifted to Benaulim. Among Hindus, only the Ghodes
count.
This out-migration by Goans, both Hindu and Catholic, on account of
persecution, was,
though substantial, neither the first as generally – and wrongly – believed,
nor the last.
We will come to that story of Goan Emigration from next Sunday. (ENDS.)
The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at:
http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=Newsfile=articlesid=330
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The above article appeared in the July 12, 2009 edition of the Herald, Goa
