That's not unexpected. I think Portuguese cultural colonialism was very strong, together with the switch in religion they effected. Add these two facts to the reality that the Portuguese managed to keep the general population very apolitical (and we can't just blame Salazar for that) inspite of having tools like the printing press in Goa right from 1556!
On top of that was the reality that Goans did fairly well for themselves (in a middle-class sense, not like, say, the Parsis who were into trade and enterprise big time, and some even connected to the opium exports to China). So, understandably, there was little of a fire-in-the-belly. Or any need to feel dissatisfied with the system. Even if to survive, a large section of the population had to scour the world. Literally. Freedom fighters in Mumbai admit that they had a tough time "rousing" the Goan population out of their smug existence. But, to be fair, the few who revolted did so in a rather drastic manner. Whether it's a T B Cunha or a F N Souza and many, many more. Is it any coincidence that those who fought the Portuguese also did so against "their" religion? By contrast, the British (and, to a lesser extent, the French) probably just knew when it was best to call it a day! FN On 07/07/06, Gabe Menezes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 07/07/06, Frederick FN Noronha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Gadgil, When I mention a section who retained loyalties to the > > British, I didn't even remotely mean the Anglo-Indians. Being a > > community which was part-British and part-Indian, their own > > dual-loyalties could be well understood. It is nobody's case that > > Goans are part-Portuguese (except a very miniscule segment). Nobody > > doubts our, er, South Asian identity (to avoid a huge debate over > > whether it's Indian, or how long back India existed, whether it was a > > pre-1947 reality, etc...) -- ---------------------------------------------------------- Frederick 'FN' Noronha | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha http://fn.goa-india.org | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436 ---------------------------------------------------------- 2248 copylefted photos from Goa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/ _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
