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GOA-BRAZIL LINKS NEED A BOOST By Constantino Hermanns Xavier BEING THE largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world, Brazil is necessarily the first port to be docked at in this global trip to Lusophonia. Following three centuries of Portuguese rule, Brazil became an independent nation on 7 September 1822. By far the largest and most populous country in South America, enjoying vast natural resources and a large labour pool, Brazil is today a global economic power and a regional leader. Its population stands at 169 million (2000), 86% are literate, and its federal capital is Brasilia. The GDP per capita is $7,600 (2003 est.; India $2,900). Brazil ranked 69th in the Human Development Report released by the United Nations in 2001 (India ranked 115th). It is approximately the size of the United States of America. This surely is not the place for a lengthy analysis of the rich historical links between Brazil and Goa. It is enough to remember that the Portuguese transported the coffee plant from India to Brazil in the 18th century and the cashew nut travelled the other way, from Brazil to India. Another example is the Brazilian Jesuit priest Francisco de Souza, the missionary in India in the second half of the 17th century who was Superior of the Professed House of Bom Jesus in Goa. But let us instead draw the attention to this contemporary period. There are nearly 1500 people of Indian origin and 400 Non-Resident Indians in Brazil today. If we have to choose one individual as the founder of contemporary Goa-Brazil relations, it would be Prof. Froilano de Mello, who after being ostracized by Salazar’s dictatorship for his staunch defence of Goan civil rights and an independent Goa, migrated to Brazil in 1951. Sao Paulo has a street named after him, while the local Medical College has named one of its halls in his honour. Then there is Prof. Eduardo Judas de Barros, heading the Department of Afro-Asian Studies at the State University of Londrina, in Paraná. More recently, renowned Goan artist Mario Miranda has also been to Brazil to promote his work and various cultural projects. A Goan living in Rio de Janeiro, Rui do Carmo Costa, has released the book “Da Sagrada Índia ao País do Carnaval” on Goa, Brazil and India. Sao Paulo, the metropolis where most Brazilian-Goans live. Regarding Brazilians in Goa, it is impossible to ignore the legacy of worldwide reputed intellectual Gilberto Freyre, who created and studied the concept of luso-tropicalism. He saw it as a transnational lusophone identity with its common denominator in the Portuguese colonial experience. Having visited Goa only for a short period, yet he successfully identified its distinctive capacity of assimilating and transforming Lusitanian colonial inputs. Then there was the historical visit of one of Brazil’s most brilliant contemporary writers, Cecília Meireles, in 1953. She was warmly welcomed in Goa and in New Delhi she made friends with Jawaharlal Nehru and was given an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Delhi. More recently there has been a new wave of Brazilians rediscovering Goa, as footballers looking for a career opportunity, as young tourists or as artists and writers. What prospects are there for the future, considering the emergent India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) axis? The main political leaders of these countries have been discussing mostly commerce and international trade. But the conclusions of the last IBSA Dialogue Forum Trilateral Commission Meeting held in New Delhi in March show that this is now spilling over to such diverse areas such as oceanography, Antarctic research, development of joint education programmes, E-Governance etc. Brazil has also taken the initiative of actively promoting the Portuguese language in India. There is a Brazilian Chair at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, as well as at Goa University. Goa can and should explore this Brazilian interest. There is a Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Goa University, but other academic exchange and joint research programmes may be explored. Not only in social sciences studies, but also the rich common heritage in botany, agriculture, or tropical medicine. The airfare between Goa and Brazil makes tourism hardly viable but why not focus on regular cultural exchanges? Brazil’s Carnival is known worldwide, and Goan groups could surely learn much from a samba troupe touring India. Could we have some musical interaction, in new Brazilian styles such as jazz and salsa with traditional Goan dances and folklore? Regarding investments, there was an unsuccessful approach in 1996 by the Brazilian software sector to set up shop in Goa, and Portuguese language was then presented as a plus point. But, having lost the race for global IT investments, Goa still has the potential to attract other Brazilian investments. Relevant to this rediscovery of a Goa, Brazil identifies very closely with, is the common lusophone legacy. Both societies, having moved away from the colonial era, are now mature enough to work together and claim their own understanding of lusophonia and its consequent benefits.
