Let me be the arbitrator in this instance :-)) Amitav Ghosh is a historical novel known for his intensive research when he writes a novel. Ofcourse it is still fiction but only the characters are fictional set against a fairly accurate historical background, very similar to say the English writer Catherine Cookson. The much celebrated author now lives in Goa and is known to Augusto. I have read the Glass Palace, a magnificent novel, which in some part traces how divergent loyalties emerged in SE Asia from Burma to India, Chandra Bose get a nod, and an examination of the machinations of Empire. I didn't want to write this earlier, but there were in Goa, according to British records some Goans not unsypathetic to Chandra Bose. I don't want to say who and start another riot here.
We now know from our own Goanet investigations :-)) that Goan loyalties depended largely on which colony they were occupying at the time. In an extract that I released earlier this year, there was a passage where East African Goans decide to give up their Portuguese passports and take up British citizenship to show their loyalty to Colonial Britian. Perhaps in a way this does not reflect well on Goans, makes our loyalties seem mercenary but then this is a assessment in hindsight and we don't know what immediate circumstances presented themselves in those years. I know that a lot of them returned to Goa during the War. So in a way, Frederick's point is valid that it wasn't entirely "our war" but I still think that a memorial to mark the loss of life is something we Goans should pursue. best, selma --- On Sat, 11/14/09, Santosh Helekar <chimbel...@yahoo.com> wrote: > What should I do if someone told me to read the Da Vinci > Code novel to find out about the nuances that justify that > the claims of a world-wide conspiracy are not far-fetched? > > Cheers, > > Santosh > > > >
