Dear All,
I received the appended response today from one of our fellow Goans
living in Goa as additional material to what I wrote this morning at
8.58 am our time.
“Dear oscar
You forgot one more term. "Annexation”
Nehru had to use force immediately because some Goans and the Portuguese
were already working out the possibility of an autonomy for Goa. I am
told that this meeting took place in now Hotel Mandovi, 3 months before
the troops marched in. This explains India's hurry. Even M. Gandhi was
against taking Goa by force way back in 1947.
We do not require foreigners putting up boards 'Goans not allowed.' Our
goans themselves do it. A local (gauntti) going to Souza Lobo's in
Calangute or any of the local run beach shacks will get the same
treatment of discrimination. This will not happen with South Indians
particularly. They will respect their own people.
”We goans are definitely a cursed race roaming in the desert of confusion”
Need I say more!
Mog sodanch assume
Cr. Oscar C. Lobo
Melbourne
Together we can make a difference.
From: Oscar Lobo
Sent: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 8:58 AM
(Without Prejudice)
Senhor Viegas,
Nineteenth December is around the corner and we will be completing 49
years in the bosom of India.
We Goans need to have one thing clear – Goa is a part of India (after
1947) and sooner or later Goa would have been a part and parcel of
India. The French left Pondicherry after British and so would the
Portuguese.
There are various terms used for the event of 19 December 1961; however
the most commonly used words are:
Invasion
Liberation
Conquest
The definition of each word depends on where a Goan has spent most of
his/her time. For example:
People living in Mumbai and other parts of India, for them it is a
liberation – They had to go outside of Goa i.e. Mumbai to earn their
living for reasons best known to them. They fought for
Goa to be “liberated” as they thought Goans were in bondage. Some of our
Goans in Goa were not happy with the Portuguese regime and they joined
the force. Even today many of our people including
some Hindu brothers and sisters are not happy and are migrating from.
People living in Africa, some of whom never lived in India, (however
knew about India only through their parents), considers the date as a
liberation.
Due to scarcity of jobs in the offices many of our people decided to
migrate to British India and Africa. Of course they would come for
holidays in Goa with the necessary visas.
Many Goans consider the 19 December 1961 as Invasion – I will not go
into the definition of Invasion as we all know it thoroughly well.
Although Goa was taken over, India did not get the official handover
until the U.N.
resolution of 1975/1976. Goa was in a limbo from 1961 to 1975 circa 14
years.
Goa had reached its peak; due to the dictatorial government we were
backward in education, electricity and the essentials of life. Goa
could not go much further even the people in Portugal realised that and
got rid of
their dictatorial regime. In the circumstances, it was necessary for
Portugal to leave Goa. Many would debate, then when would Portugal leave
of their own accord like Britian and France? Well you tell us!
The million dollar question is – Did late Pandit Nehru had to use
military force? And was there a need for him to ask Goans what they
wanted, apart from the fact that he said “Goa ka logh ajeeb hai”. If
Mahatma Gandhi got rid of the
British without any violence in 1947 (when the birth of India took
place), was there a need of military force to make Goa part of India?
Yes, it was time for India to have total control, however, perhaps the
way it was done was not the Gandhian way – It was Nehru’s way or the
high way.
Like Falkland Island and East Timor, Goans should have been given the
opportunity to run their territory/state having known the place for 451
years. Perhaps, Late Pandit Nehru saw too many Bollywood films and was
influenced by the role of a Goan in those films. Pandit Nehru did not
fully understand what being a Goan was all about! leave aside the fact
that his name was plummeting after the India China war and he had to do
something quickly to reinstate his name amongst our people.
The best thing that happened to Goans is the promise of “Portuguese
identity” if we should want it. This is the greatest thing they have
done when we compare it with Britain and France who used and squeezed
our country
taking away India’s jewels which are embedded in the crown of the Queen
of England.
One thing that we all need to also remember is when the British ruled
India some of the restaurants/pubs had a notice reading: “INDIANS AND
DOGS NOT ALLOWED” this history is apparently now being repeated in Goa with
