Beholden to the White Man. By Roland Francis Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 4 Aug 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk
Full Text: As any school kid who has had the opportunity to study Indian history knows, a very long time ago, going back four and five thousand years BC in what is known as the Indian subcontinent today, there were the hallmarks of advanced civilization the likes of which would come to Europe much later and to the Americas even later than that. Even the Portuguese who came to the southern part of the subcontinent twenty thousand years after those ancient civilizations existed and to Goa a little after that, marvelled at the riches, the lifestyle, the food and the general opulence of the population driven by knowledge and industriousness. They were led by rulers who had the wellbeing of their subjects, in a sort of democratic system but without its failings which have proven all too common today. The only flaw in that Eden was the desire of individual rulers to expand their territory which made them a ripe target for Portuguese, Dutch, French and English ambition. These European nations had little of the splendour of the natives but they had what counted then as what counts today - superior arms, discipline and strategies. Fast forward to modern and contemporary times, say the nineteenth century and later where the western hemisphere dominated and the rest of the world became either their subjects, vassals or followers. Lets us concentrate on Goa and Goans. Change came with the times. The wealth of Goa slowly eroded and not entirely due to the Portuguese who themselves declined from a world power to an insignificantly colonial one. However Goa being an agrarian society because of the fertile land, the rivers and the monsoon, while other lands suffered from drought and consequent hunger, remained self sufficient. Elsewhere wars came, but in Goa and the rest of India there was peace thanks to our foreign rulers. And thanks to Portuguese neutrality during the Great Wars, Goa was spared even the minimal war-time deprivation that India under the British could not avoid. Goans prospered under the white man. Many of them may have been converted to another religion against their will, but in return they were offered education, music, good law and governance and many opportunities in trade, mercantilism and administration to better themselves and their families. This was not confined to the Catholic community alone - Hindus and Muslims benefited too. For those whom prosperity bypassed, British East Africa beckoned, followed by the Arab Gulf opportunity and England, Canada, Australia and the United States in addition to those who made the mother country Portugal their home. They all prospered under those conditions. For such a small population, they made themselves felt in every endeavour they undertook and in every society they lived. Those who did not excel lived solid burgher lives; law abiding, education seeking, wealth accumulating and just as industrious as Vasco da Gama must have found the subjects of Tipu Sultan and the Cochin and Travancore Rajas on his trade trips there. When the British left India and the Portuguese, Goa, there was great hope. Both peoples had educated and trained leaders whose only interest was the good of the country they governed. They had learned their lessons from the Europeans well, often applying them in unique ways. Gandhi taught the world non-violence, Goans the rest of India, trustworthiness and music. In Bombay not too long ago, the word of a Goan and a Parsee was implicitly trusted. Everyone else had to prove themselves. Freedom seemed a magic word. Somehow it was taken to mean the antithesis of betrayal and it was going to make the lands now freed of oppressors shine for all those who lived within it. Even if it didn't shine quickly enough, the intentions were going to be faultless. The rot took a little while to set in, about 20 years, since the lessons learned under the white men could not easily be burnished. And then with the generations who learned them gone, thousands of years of civilization notwithstanding, all the factors that take a country to greater heights have been dropped by the wayside. India and Goa seem prosperous, but it is the prosperity merely of the moment, like a large lottery won and quickly spent. Take the recent words of the clever Finance Minister. He says he is looking for ways to encourage more FDI as a means to prevent the freefall of the Indian Rupee. That ship has sailed. A band-aid for the battle wound of wastage, nepotism, corruption, crime and a thousand major failings that instead of being addressed are being denied. The favourite argument remains the same as from Indira Gandhi's time: It happens everywhere. A good indication of India's and Goa's future is the ever increasing desire of people to settle overseas despite the currently weak economies and India's still strong showing. They have no faith in the fundamentals not only of the economy but those of character and in the end, those are ones you can't keep ignoring. ===================