Goa & Portugal Looking Ahead

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It is disappointing to note that Goa, which has always prided itself on being a model of pluralisms and cultural homogeneity, open to influences of the East and West, founded on the bedrock of Indian tradition and the Indian Constitution, is being assailed and pushed into an extreme corner of chauvinism and closed minds. The pity of it is that, this attack against the Portuguese Cultural Week has been prompted by freedom fighters, for some of whom I continue to have great respect. We must remember that Goa’s struggle against the brutalities of the Salazar regime was a struggle not only for the liberation of Goa but also for Angola, Mozambique and indeed for Portugal itself, which did get rid of the Salazar regime.

Freedom fighters in Portugal were united with our own freedom fighters in jails. Purshottam Kakodkar and the former Portuguese president, Mario Soares were in the same jail. Tristao Bragança Cunha has written of the intellectual stimulus that enlivened his hours at the jail in Peniche were he met writers, artists and political activists imprisoned for anti Salazar activities in the metropolis. I recall how this connection was commemorated two years ago when a delegation from Portugal, sponsored by the Fundacao Oriente, celebrated the birth centenary of the Goan poet and social activist, Adeodato Barreto, who worked among the miners in the poorest area of Northern Portugal. Adeodato Barreto also wrote about the Indian civilization and Hinduism to educate the European about the traditions and culture of his homeland.

We must remember that the liberation of Goa demonstrated that Goa was not a lusitanised culture as Salazar claimed but a vigorous and responsive culture within the mainstream of Indian tradition. It was a mainstream that was assimilative and not exclusive, and was responsible for Goa’s social harmony, indeed a culture in which various traditions are in harmony. Is it not this culture that we should be proud of? Are we instead to endorse what critics of Goan culture like Richard Burton, who led the British assault in the 19th Century to project Goa as a place of easy virtue and lazy ways, a dimension which I am afraid is being projected in some quarters to attract tourism? Should we not show the vitality and vibrancy of Goa with a culture and way of life, a human and natural resource that has been resplendent throughout Goa’s history, a resource we are struggling to preserve?

What saddens me as a teacher who has benefited from the many traditions to which I have been exposed to right from my birth in Goa, is the short term gains, the narrow claims of expediency that prompt such agitations and mutterings when instead the energies of all of us who have been around as adults since 1961 should be directed towards enriching the minds of our youth by helping them understand the past in ways that would broaden rather than warp their minds. It is strange indeed that there seems to be an opposition to the teaching of the Portuguese language in Goa. The French language is a rich resource in Pondicherry in particular, as is the English language in the whole of India. Why should Goan students be denied knowledge of Portuguese when the same is being taught at the Universities of Delhi, Calcutta, Jamia Millia Islamia and Jawaharlal Nehru in Delhi?

It has been argued that the focus of co-operation by Portugal is only with Goa, to the exclusion of the rest of India. This argument is in keeping with the attitude of closed minds that are unaware of the developments in the rest of the country. The fact is that the Indian Institute of Oceanography along with Portugal is developing co-operation on the sciences of the sea. The Portuguese Champalimaud Foundation together with the L V Prasad Foundation have created a joint research centre for research into eye diseases with a donation of one million euros. Cultural areas of cooperation have been mainly in social sciences and history through several international meetings and seminars held throughout India.

Through a bilateral agreement with the University of Delhi, there is a lecturer of the Hindi language at the Lisbon University. One may recall the Chair of Sanskrit at Lisbon University in late 19th Century, held by the eminent Goan scholar Monsignor Dalgado whose contribution to the development of Konkani has been acknowledged recently in Goa. His two dictionaries, Portuguese/Konkani, Konkani/Portuguese, published in 1893 and 1905 are an invaluable resource acknowledged to this day by Ravindrab Kelekar. Similarly, Manoharbab Sardessai took immense pleasure in illustrating the assimilative richness that makes Goan Konkani echo with words from other languages including many in Portuguese. These words have passed into our vocabulary and are common usage.

Are we now to expunge them all from our vocabularies?

Perhaps what one needs is better media coverage in Goa of ongoing projects in the rest of the country. Among the many practical areas of co-operation between Portugal and India, including the private sector, are joint ventures in electronics and robotics in Mumbai and New Delhi, two shoe factories in Chennai, a cement plant in Gujarat, development of software in Bangalore and several industrial cooperation agreements with Wipro, TATA and Ranbaxy that have opened business offices in Portugal to take advantage of the special access, which Portugal provides to Indian trade and Industry for opportunities in Europe.

The question today is not to strike back vengefully to earn self-goals but to step forward creatively in an era of international cooperation, in a relationship of trust that benefits both countries and indeed the world. The former President of Portugal, Jorge Sampaio who is currently visiting India as head of the UN’s Alliance of Civilisations to address the Global Fund to Fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, and shore up Indian support for national strategies on cultural and religious diversity, said that India, “is a big contributor to cultural and religious diversity which has thrived since long”. In an age of migrations, and hence an age of new worlds, we need to strengthen our society and our youth to grasp opportunities that will enlarge their vision and their potential instead of shrinking the open-minded and humane tradition of which all of us as Goans are rightly proud.