NO SLAVISH GLORIFICATION OF COLONIALISM by Joaquim Correia-Afonso

In recent times, there has been a lot of talk about the Portuguese colonial rule in Goa as well as a few articles in the print media, some praising it for the good they did, others criticizing it for the bad and the ugly. Those who have praised it have been called blind and slavish admirers, ignorant of history, glorifying colonialism. However, one does not see any blind admirers of the Portuguese regime, though there are blind detractors.

 They are those who cannot accept any good that the Portuguese did during the four and half centuries, even if very little, the most important, perhaps, being the meticulous land records and uniform civil code, besides the “Código da Estrada” (call it the “Road Users’ Act”), a concise but much more comprehensive piece of legislation than our Motor Vehicles Act and Rules there-under, and the codification of the law for managing of our age-old Comunidades and the preservation of their lands. The present-day survey records are a mess and the Comunidades are in a pitiful state. The Land Acquisition Act, enacted during the reign of Victoria, Queen and Empress of India, is being perpetuated, to the detriment of local people.

It is said that after conquering Goa, the Portuguese massacred the Muslims and exploited the land and its people. If I am not ignorant of history, Portugal came into existence or was born out of the war against the Muslims of North Africa (Sarracens), who had been “invited” by one of the Spanish rulers to help fight another ruler, his neighbour. After winning, the Sarracens also defeated their “host” and overran and were ruling over the Spanish Peninsula.

When Afonso de Albuquerque landed on the western shores of India (Cochin, Kannur and other places), and then in Goa, in March 1510, he was faced with a great welcome from the Hindu natives who were under the tyrant ruler of Bijapur, the Adil Shah, and they sought his help to evict the Muslim rulers. Albuquerque, inspite of having only about 1500 men to confront the large army of the Bijapur ruler, won after a very tough fight.

It is true that, after their success, the Portuguese indulged in excesses (even the poet Camoes criticized Albuquerque for it) but, again, if I am not ignorant of history, that was often the way how conquerors, exulting in their hard-won victory, treated the vanquished, even pursuing and destroying retreating enemy armies. Today, almost 50 years after the December 1961 re-conquest, the Muslims of Goa do not have a place to give their dead a decent burial.

Whatever things bad the Portuguese did would be during the monarchy or during Salazar’s dictatorship, both of which spanned almost the entire period of their rule in Goa. Were there no bad or inhuman rulers in the rest of India? How many magnanimous conquerors has the world had, who have had the good of the conquered people, and not the exploitation of the conquered territory and its people for their own benefit, at heart?

But while those are things of the past, modern history is not much different. We read about rapes and murders, there is a spate of housebreaks, burglaries, chain snatching cases, and, more recently, temple thefts. Before 1961, one could leave the main door of the house open throughout the night, while the inmates slept soundly. Today, not only the house has to be bolted and the garage locked, but even the car and the scooter inside the garage have to be locked.

In the name of “development” we have rampant exploitation of natural resources and destruction of ecology (not by a colonial power), destruction of heritage. Huge housing projects consume large quantities of water and electricity, while many villages in Goa are deprived of both, some even not having proper motorable access roads. There are heaps of garbage and other litter everywhere. One of the best beaches in Goa is being turned into “sewage beach”.

It is said that in December 1961, literacy in Goa was less than 30%, as there were no institutions of higher learning for people to improve their educational qualifications. Fifty years later, one gathers that a sizeable proportion of our legislators also exhibit a low level of educational qualifications. I may mention here that Goa under the Portuguese had a Lyceum, a College of Medicine & Surgery (Escola Mèdico-Cirurgica de Goa), a Teachers’ Training College (Escola Normal) and some good law schools.

During Portuguese rule, it is claimed, educated Goans as well as others had to leave Goa for employment. Even today a sizeable population is out of Goa for the sake of employment and there are many more unemployed in Goa.

It has also been claimed that the Portuguese denied civil liberties and any kind of freedom. That they had a special police cell called PIDE to deal with those rebelling against the regime. Today’s Goa can match that, with police brutalities or atrocities – detainees are tortured, there are custodial deaths, even atrocities against “suspects”. We hear of the men-in-uniform – high and low ranking – dealing in drugs or having a nexus with drug dealers.

It has also been said that everything was done to suppress and eradicate Konkani. That there was not a single newspaper in the local language. Yet the first books of catechism and simple prayers were printed in vernacular for the benefit of the priests and of the faithful. Unless I am mistaken, “Vauraddeancho Ixtt” was being published during the Portuguese regime.

The first printing press, the first Municipality and the first College of Medicine & Surgery in Asia – among other institutions – came to Goa thanks to the Portuguese.

I would dare say that the Goan “blind detractors” of all things Portuguese forget perhaps their greatest gift to the world, spanning from East Asia to South America. Thanks in part to Garcia da Horta, the Portuguese established a virtual plant gene exchange bank with HQ in India. They brought a whole range of fruits, vegetables and spices – even tobacco – to Goa and India, and from here, propagated them to the rest of the world. No other people in the history of mankind have done so much, so silently, on this front.

We need to keep our eyes open and be realistic. I am no apologist to the Portuguese colonial rule. But let’s not condemn it with a single stroke of the brush. There were things good that were done by them and things bad. I remember what the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, said in almost the same context: “We must keep our windows open, so that the good of other cultures can enter our home”. Let us, by all means, condemn the things bad done by the Portuguese (however meaningless the exercise, when we must live in the present), but using a single brush could only be the job of a blind painter!