By Valmiki Faleiro
valmi...@gmail.com
Portugal's protracted intransigence in negotiating the 'Case
of Goa' on the one hand and India's failed diplomacy on the
other led to the imposition of an 'Economic Blockade' of
Portuguese Goa by India.
The measure produced unexpected results. Instead
of the anticipated economic depression, there was
an economic boom in Goa. In marked contrast to
neighboring Indian states, high-wage jobs and West
European luxury goods suddenly became easily
available to Goans. Goa enjoyed a period of
prosperity unseen either in Goa before or in India
now.
"In India now" because India was once a prosperous land.
Roman Emperor Vespasian (69-79 AD) discouraged Indian imports
and Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) lamented, "Not a year passed
in which India did not take 50 million sesterces away from
Rome" (Naturalis Historiae or Natural History). British
economist Angus Maddison (1926-2010) estimated in The World
Economy's Historical Statistics (2004) that India enjoyed a
staggering 33% share of the world economy in the 1st century
AD, compared to that of entire Europe (21.5%) and China
(26%).
India held about 25-30% of all the gold ever mined in
the world. This attracted invaders and plunderers. Mahmud
of Ghazni raided India 17 times in 25 years, 1001 to 1026.
Babar wrote, "Hindustan is a place of little charm The
one nice aspect of Hindustan is that it is a large country
with lots of gold and money" (Tuzuk-i-Baburi).
By 1498 when Vasco da Gama arrived, India's share of the
world economy stood at 24.5% and, thanks to Great Britain,
shrunk to 16% by end of the First Industrial Revolution
(1820)... and to a dismal 4.2% in 1947 (Europe and North
America surged to 60%).
Post 1947, India's leadership chose not to prosper. The
share slid to 3% in 1991 when, under severe circumstances,
India, the world's second most populous country, pawned gold
with the Union Bank of Switzerland.
The Economic Blockade of 1954 did a world of good to Goa.
For the first time in history, Portugal drafted a six-year
Economic Development Plan for Goa. A provision of 200,00,000
Escudos for construction of airports in Goa, Daman and Diu
was made in the first Development Plan, 1953-1958. Airfields
were quickly constructed in Goa, Daman and Diu in 1955 by the
Obras Públicas (local PWD).
A Goa-based civilian airline, Transportes Aéreos da Índia
Portuguesa (TAIP), began operations with DeHavilland Herons
each carrying 14 passengers with a flying range of 608
nautical miles. Goan expatriate Gabriel de Figueiredo in a
well-researched article titled 'Dabolim and TAIP' said these
aircraft were replaced by Vickers Vikings carrying 27
passengers over 1,477 nautical miles. The fleet was later
expanded with McDonnell Douglas DC-4 Skymaster and DC-6B.
For the record, TAIP was the first civilian airline
from India whose airhostesses wore the sari as
uniform. Patsy Almeida Cardoso who worked as a
TAIP airhostess said every time a flight landed in
Lisbon, its airport staff would say, "Já chegaram
as pombinhas brancas de Índia" (the white doves of
India have arrived)... Goan airhostesses wore
white saris in summer. TAIP flew to Colombo,
Daman, Diu, Karachi, Aden and Jeddah, and to Lisbon
via Damascus, Beirut and Malta, then a British
colony.
The seven-year Economic Blockade led to three unwitting
results.
One, it demonstrated to India that Goa was not economically
dependent and could survive on its own.
Two, imports of western merchandise -- especially
luxuries like silks, fountain pens, watches,
liquor, silver, gold and precious stones -- led to
cross-border smuggling by locals who posed as
'freedom fighters'. Goa's first elected Chief
Minister, D.B. Bandodkar, called freedom fighters
blackists, meaning smugglers, to the howls of
protest of genuine freedom fighters! Brigadier
(later Lieutenant General) Sagat Singh had an
interesting account of an attempt by a sub-unit of
his 50 Para Brigade to capture the Sanquelim Bridge
intact where Goan smugglers helped with maps and
ground guidance (follows in a later piece when we
come to the actual military ops). Author Arthur
Rubinoff said Goa was "a haven for smugglers"
(Rubinoff, 1971, Pg 106).
In just three months, Indian Customs seized contraband valued
at Rs.25 lakhs (of the value of 1954, when gold was Rs.
5/- per gram against Rs. 5,000/- today) – and Customs
Department believed it had detected/seized only about 10% of
the goods smuggled from Goa into India (Rubinoff, 1971, Pg 34).
The Consul General of India in Goa pointed out that one-third
of Goa's economy survived on contraband smuggled into India.
Of the Rs.9 crore
