Vivek Menezes Last month, the Migration Observatory of Oxford University released a new study that underlines the continuing uniqueness of the Goan diaspora. The study found only one significant group of permanent residents in the UK, of European Union (EU) citizens who were not actually born in the EU—only one consisting of over 10,000 individuals. That group actually totaled over 20,000 UK residents, and they were all India-born Goans who carried Portuguese passports.
It's a startling number. According to the Election Commission of India, 11,500 Goans surrendered Indian passports in favour of Portuguese citizenship between 2008 and 2013. Assuming the same rate held over recent years, almost every Goan who queued up to "become Portuguese" at the consulate in Altinho over the past decade then promptly purchased a ticket to the UK, seeking better opportunities than available in his or her new "mother country". Predictably, some Portuguese fume at this adroit opportunism. Edgar Valles, the lawyer who presides over the Casa de Goa in Lisbon is usually pragmatic about Portugal-India ties, but bitterly complained to a Macau newspaper "it disgusts me" more requirements have not been placed on citizenship—like knowledge of Portuguese language and history. He found it "ridiculous" to meet someone at the Panaji consulate who acquired Portuguese nationality, yet refused to accept her identity had changed. Valles should recall this kind of thing goes both ways. Portuguese who forcibly entered Goa in the colonial era wasted no time chasing fortunes wherever they found them. Garcia da Orta—now heralded a great patriotic hero—sagaciously fled anti-Jewish bigotry in the Estado da India (he was nominally a convert) to serve the Muslim Nizam of Ahmednagar, where his countryman Sancho Pires (also a secret Jew) was the captain of the cavalry. Fernao Rodrigues Caldeira—who advised the Sultan of Golconda—was one of hundreds of other Portuguese mercenaries in the armies of India. Of course, the main reason Goans are acquiring Portuguese passports but heading straight to the UK is that their new "mother country" is mired in economic crisis, and itself haemorrhaging talent to countries like Switzerland, or—here is an irony—Angola. More than 2,50,000 have left in the last four years. When Portugal is competitive again, you can be sure Goan migrants will start landing up in Lisbon—it is a deep-seated cultural value that has always propelled the community around the world. The story of global Goans is probably as ancient as the trade routes that connected the age-old ports of this entrepot across the oceans. But there is no doubt the process accelerated in the colonial era, in both British and Portuguese spheres of influence. By 1900, an estimated 30% of Goa's population had moved outside the territory, adventuresome pioneers who brought great benefit to their new homes. Pernem's Dr Bhau Daji Lad, twice Sheriff of Bombay, was a great native figure of British India, the Mumbai city museum is named for him. Porvorim's Dr Rosendo Ribeiro, the first physician in Nairobi, saved the city from bubonic plague. A legion of Goans from Saligao helped build Karachi. Cincinnatus D'Abreu left a neighborhood in his name, Cincinnatus Town. Few people realize there is still an important Goan fishing community living in the port of Catembe, Mozambique, which gathers together just like their counterparts in Candolim, on the feast of Sao Pedro on June 29, to point their boats across the oceans from where their ancestors came, to celebrate continuing prosperity. Further up the coastline, living in the tiny Comoros Islands, is Dr Godfrey Coutinho, whom I read about in the excellent diaspora website Goan Voice ( goanvoice.org.uk). Coutinho's family is an archetypical example of marvelous Goan wanderlust—one brother is a distinguished physician in Uganda, and another a microfinance consultant in Tanzania. His grandfather migrated from Goa in 1910, trekking as far as Congo, where he married an African chieftain's daughter, "Mama Theresa, matriarch of the family." I found the next generation of the Coutinho family via the internet, who offered further illustration of the extraordinary fluidity of the Goan diaspora. Nicky Osman Coutinho was born in South Africa, and writes, with remarkable understatement, "My cultural portfolio is highly diverse." He grew up in the Comoros, went to high school in Bordeaux, attended college in Texas, and speaks Comorian (a Swahili dialect), French, English, Spanish, and, believe it or not, Mandarin Chinese. He has been to 14 countries, but not India. When he finally visits, you can be sure he will be at home. That is the Goan ways. The writer is a widely- published author and photographer. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Global-Goans-keep-spreading-their-wings/articleshow/48716849.cms -- DEV BOREM KORUM Gabe Menezes.
