WOULD THERE HAVE BEEN ANYTHING CALLED GOA IF NOT FOR PORTUGUESE by Dr. Eduardo Braganza

Prompted by the oppressed Hindus under Adil Shah’s rule and with the help of Timoja Naik of Honawar, a feudatory of the Vijaynagar Empire, Portuguese Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque first conquered Old Goa in March 1510. The people did not offer any resistance, and handed over the keys of the city. But two months later, Albuquerque was defeated on 23 May 1510 by Adil Shah’sarmy, forcing him to flee with a few damaged ships.

He was stranded in the Mandovi estuary on account of the coming monsoons, and faced with starvation. But the Hindu gaunkars of Taleigao came to his rescue with provisions. This humanitarian act was honoured by the Portuguese, and the gaunkars have the privilege of presenting the first paddy sheaves to the Viceroy and the Bishop. They celebrated 500 years of this event in August 2010.

After the monsoon, an angry Albuquerque went to Anjediv Island and was fortunate to get reinforcements; a fleet of ships from Portugal. He reconquered Goa on 25 November 1510. Albuquerque abolished ‘sati’ in Goa, liberated Hindus from Mohammedan domination and made Timoja administrator. Much later, on his way back to Goa after reconquering Ormuz in 1515, he died on board his ship in the Mandovi estuary, and was buried in the Church of Our Lady of Serra at Old Goa. His remains were later taken to Portugal.

In 1510, Goa comprised only the islands of Tiswadi. It was expanded by annexing Bardez and Salcete (including present Mormugao) in 1543, to form the ‘Old Conquests’. Most of the population was converted to Christianity as per the ‘Westphalia’ accord that the King’s religion would be that of his subjects, enforced by the Inquisition (1560 to 1775).

In 1780, the New Conquests were added. The Bhosala of Sawantwadi, who held sway over Pernem, Bicholim and Satari, and the Soundekar over Ponda, Sanguem, Quepem and Canacona, handed over four-fifth of present Goa to the Portuguese almost on a platter. This gave Goa its present geography.

Religious zeal was receding. The Inquisition was abolished. There were no conversions in the New Conquests. But the year 2010 marks 500 years of Latin or Catholic Christianity in India, even though Apostolic Christianity is said to have been brought by St Thomas and Bartholomew in 50 AD. The Dominicans, who came with Albuquerque, converted the widows of the 6,000 Mohammedans he slaughtered after capturing Goa.

In 1287, coming via Ormuz, Archbishop Joao de Monte Curvino, with the title ‘Primate of East’ and seven Bishops had preached Christianity without any major impact. Again, in1321, Franciscans missionaries were martyred in Thana. The Franciscans, who came in 1517, and the Jesuits with St Francis Xavier in 1542, spread Christianity in India and all over the East. Indian missionaries followed suit. Some even became saints, like the first Indian St Gonsalo Garcia (1557-1597), born in Vasai and crucified in Nagasaki (Japan) together with 25 other missionaries, and St Alphonsa (1910-46) from Kerala.

The state of Goa was under Portuguese rule for 451 years. No other state in India is as old. Goa needs special status, if not autonomy, as it was acquired by military conquest. But no Members of Parliament have ever raised this issue, because of their own selfish interests.

The second conquest of Goa was by Independent India through Operation Vijay, on 18 December 1961. Gen K P Candeth led the Indian army assault with over 40,000 heavily armed troops, nine warships including aircraft carrier ‘Vikrant’ and several squadrons of the Indian Air Force, to defeat just 4,000 regular Portuguese soldiers with no Air Force, and a Navy comprising just one old destroyer, ironically named Afonso de Albuquerque. The last Portuguese Governor, Gen Vassalo e Silva, surrendered on 19 December 1961. Gen Candeth was the military Governor till 1963. The first elections were held in 1963, and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader Dayanand Bandodkar became the first Chief Minister of Goa, Daman and Diu, then a Union Territory. Dr Jack Sequeira was Leader of the Opposition.

The Congress and Goan freedom fighters were routed in the poll. A shell-shocked Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru called Goans ‘ajeeb’ (strange) and since then ignored all those who had influenced him to invade Goa in haste; one of the major international armed aggressions after World War II that invited condemnation from the whole western world. The immediate provocation was firing on the coastal liner ‘Sabarmati’ by a Portuguese sentry at Anjediv Island, and another accidental bullet that killed a fisherman.

Since Goa’s second conquest, India is permanently in a state of war. In 1962, there was the Chinese invasion in which we lost over 3 lakh sq km of territory (75 times the area of Goa). Next was the Indo-Pak war of 1965, followed by a UN-sponsored ceasefire and talks in January 1966 at Tashkent, where Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shatri died of a heart attack after being forced to agree to terms imposed by the USSR.

Indira Gandhi took over as Prime Minister and, in 1971, there was a war for Bangladesh. In 1974, the kingdom of Sikkim was annexed. In 1975, Indira Gandhi imposed the infamous ‘Emergency’. In the elections that followed 18 months of dictatorship, Mrs Gandhi was routed in 1977. But two unstable non-Congress governments ended in the dissolution of Parliament, and Mrs Gandhi bounced back to power in the 1980 elections.

After ‘Operation Blue Star’ to tackle insurgency in Punjab, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on 31 October 1984. Her son Rajiv Gandhi took over as Prime Minister and, in a sympathy wave, got a two-thirds majority in the elections that year. He was forced to grant statehood to Goa on 30 May 1987, after a massive agitation in Goa. He also sent Indian armed forces to Sri Lanka to put down the Tamil Tigers.

The army was withdrawn after heavy losses. He lost the next general elections in 1989, but managed to topple the unstable non-Congress governments that followed. While campaigning for the election, on 21 May 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Tamil Nadu by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber.

India is now in an ongoing war in the North East and in Kashmir (7 lakh troops), there is tension on the Pakistan and China borders, and there are the Maoists or Naxalites (guerilla armies of the poorest of the poor), creating havoc for the armed forces.

While this year is the 500th anniversary of Albuquerque’s conquest of Goa and the coming of Latin or Catholic Christianity to India, next year is the 50th anniversary of India’s conquest of Goa, in 1961. There are no official celebrations of the former, but there will be many celebrations of the golden jubilee of ‘Operation Vijay’ in 2011.

We tend to forget one important thing. The modern state of Goa exists because it was founded by Afonso de Albuquerque on 25 November 1510, then expanded and maintained for 451 years by the Portuguese. Otherwise, Goa would have been annexed village-wise by Karnataka and Maharashtra. Now, nobody can wipe out Goa and Goans from mainland India.

Goans taught a lesson to all fanatics, mergerists, communalists and pseudo-nationalists in the 1967 ‘Opinion Poll’, and again in the 1986 agitation for Konkani and statehood. In 2008, a unanimous resolution in the Legislative Assembly demanded ‘special status’ for Goa. But this has not yet been implemented, because of corruption at the state and central level. Whatever may happen next year, in 2010, the modern state of Goa and Latin or Catholic Christianity complete 500 years. It is a landmark that all should be aware of.