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http://www.GOANET.org
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Goanet mourns the passing of Cornel da Costa in London, England - Sep 10/10
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DR CORNEL DaCOSTA: TWO REVIEWS
Below are two reviews, written earlier by Dr Cornel
DaCosta, who passed away last weekend, at 71, in
London, of a heart-attack. The reviews spell out
the writer's concern about issues like colonialism,
social justice and casteism in Goa. Dr DaCosta has
also been active on Goanet in the past. Formerly
at Mombasa, he was the husband of Dr Nancy DaCosta,
and the father of Jessica and Joanna.
Blood & Nemesis
An imaginative story of Goa's turbulent time
By Cornel DaCosta, PhD
On beginning to read this novel by a Goan author and set in
Goa, my memory was drawn to a period between August and
December 1961 that I spent in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya,
whilst temporarily away from my hometown of Mombasa. I had
stayed at a relatively new up-market YMCA, made new friends,
including fellow Goans, others from the Indian sub-continent,
and a few Brits, Germans, Dutch and Danes.
One was a particularly jovial young Portuguese gentleman.
Television was not yet available to us, but in the main, BBC
radio kept us informed about news around the world.
On the morning of December 19, 1961, on radio, I heard the
dramatic news that, after 451 years, the Portuguese rulers
had been ousted from Goa by the Indian armed forces. I recall
being quite elated by this news. I had always opposed
colonialism in principle and felt happy over the removal of
the colonial yoke in my ancestral homeland of Goa.
Over breakfast that morning, it became clear that
most of my new friends were rather excited and
seemingly pleased with the news. However, the
Portuguese gentleman in our midst wept
inconsolable. When he calmed down, he explained
that it was not so much the news about the Indian
"occupation" of Goa that really upset him. He felt
that this would have occurred sooner or later,
because of the obduracy of the Portuguese Prime
Minister Salazar. Rather, it was the manifestation
of joy in me and fellow Goans that morning that
upset him greatly.
"How", he asked, still in tears, "could you, my Portuguese
brothers, celebrate the Indian takeover of Goa?" He was
pained even more when I told him, as gently as I could, that
as a Goan, I was never pro-Portuguese as he had perhaps
imagined but an Indian at heart.
On continuing with Ben Antao's recently-released novel 'Blood
and Nemesis', it further struck me that, despite visiting Goa
several times from my subsequent abode in England, I had not
followed the political changes in Goa too closely over the
years. Instead, I was strongly drawn to study the abomination
of caste practice among significant numbers of Catholic
Goans, and also, to explore the effects of mass tourism on
the paradise that is Goa.
The novel, however, captured my attention to the dramatic
events leading to the incorporation of Goa into the Republic
of India and the roles of many individuals there who were
for, or against, the expulsion of the Portuguese from the
territory of Goa.
We thus get a vivid account of many antagonisms and actions
centred mainly in Goa, over a relatively short historical
period, up to and soon after December 1961. The Indian
military action is presented in considerable detail and the
many characters involved are very real in terms of the actual
events of the time.
In this very absorbing story, we note the
ever-vigilant police presence represented by Jovino
Colaco and his immediate boss Gaspar Dias. Both are
determined to suppress any Goan anti-Portuguese
sentiments and political activity sympathetic to
Indian nationalism.
They take it upon themselves, on behalf of the authoritarian
Portuguese administration, to bait freedom fighters, capture
them, physically abuse them and then incarcerate them in the
infamous Aguada jail in Goa. Their particular quarry from May
1955 was a fellow Goan, Santan Barreto. They kept a close eye
on him and on his friends who usually spent their leisure
time at Bombay Cafe in the town centre of Margao in south Goa.
This cat and mouse strategy is captured brilliantly in the
novel. It depicts Jovino, the policeman invariably on his
motorbike, as a power-hungry individual, with a weakness for
drink, gambling and prostitutes.
He is determined to amass wealth corruptly and to gain
promotion at work, having been told by his superiors that his
advancement would depend on his success in capturing Goan
freedom fighters who operated clandest
