The history of Goa dates back to prehistoric times. In spite of being India’s smallest State by area, Goa's history is both long and diverse. It shares a lot of similarities with Indian history, especially with regard to colonial influences and a multi-cultural aesthetic.
The Usgalimal rock engravings, belonging to the upper paleolithic or mesolithic periods, exhibit some of the earliest traces of human settlement in India. The Mauryan and Satavahana Empires ruled modern-day Goa during the Iron Age.
During the medieval period, Goa was ruled by the Kadamba kingdom, Vijayanagara Empire, Bahmani Sultanate and Bijapur Sultanate.
It was ruled by the Kadamba dynasty from the 2nd century CE to 1312 and by Muslims of the Deccan from 1312 to 1367. The city was then annexed by the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagara and was later conquered by the Bahmanī sultanate, which founded Old Goa on the island in 1440.
The Portuguese invaded Goa in 1510, defeating the Bijapur Sultanate. Portuguese rule lasted for about 450 years, and
heavily influenced Goan culture, cuisine, and architecture.
In 1961, India took control over Goa after a 36-hour battle and integrated it into India. The area of Goa was incorporated into Goa, Daman and Diu, which included the Daman territory in the north of the Konkan region. In 1987, following the Konkani language agitation Goa was granted statehood.
As one can see, despite being the smallest geographical State of India, Goa has a huge historical legacy. But very little of it is recorded in the school history textbooks.
History is the gateway to trace an individual or a society’s roots. History books are the best way to know the genesis of modern society. Every society has dug into its past to understand itself how it has expanded and what will be the next phase. Whatever it does in the present, draws the justification for it from its past, especially in the case of politicians.
The question now is who writes the past and who controls it? We have understood history from a particular perspective. Past has not been revealed to us completely. There are some gaps. A lot of the past is yet to be discovered and hence the past has been presented in a very selective
manner, as per the convenience of the
ruling dispensation.
Politicians always used history as a tool to justify their certain policy decisions, as people don’t accept anything new very easily. Even though the concept of democracy came from outside, we tried to discover liberal values, democracy from our own past, which still continues.
Manipulating history in textbooks by the government, irrespective of the party in power, is a convenient way of controlling the future. Removing certain chapters, glorifying someone or an event or deploring it to suit the political narrative…these are
all attempts to shape the ideology of the
future generation.
It allows the establishment to control the young minds by tweaking the history lessons and make them believe in what it wants them to believe in. When a limited version of the past is put in the history text books, it is learnt by generations. That is why any attempt to rewrite history books generates a lot of controversy.
But the fact remains that gaps regarding our history still remain in the text books. So, should the government blindly modify the text books to suit a particular political agenda or should a sincere effort be made to depict our society’s rich legacy accurately and sincerely?
Prof Vallabh Kelkar, Member, Board of Studies, Goa Education Board, said, “Basically, history is a very sensitive subject. There is a saying that a nation that forgets its history has no future. In 2006, the NCERT curriculum was introduced in Goa. This process continued from 2006 to 2008. But it is very important to check whether these books are appropriately drafted to suit the intellectual level of the children, the language used among other things.”
“One should also think about how Indian history has been portrayed in these books. Why do we teach the subject of history? Because, learn something from it. While studying this subject, it is very important to learn that we should not repeat the mistakes that were made in the past, or that we should focus on the good deeds of our forefathers. This is the reason why history is taught in schools, and this is exactly the difference between other school subjects and history,” Kelkar said.
“Unfortunately, after independence and even now, we were forced to include history books in our curriculum that represent a certain way of thinking. Everything that is true and factual should be taught to students. The current situation is when people protest against certain content in a subject and the government removes it from the textbook to avoid a dispute,” the
Member, Board of Studies, Goa Education Board, said.
However, history cannot be taught in this way; rather, the writing of history should be left to experts.
“Students should be taught what is factually correct. We have been advocating for years to change these textbooks. Look at the grade 5 History textbook, for example, and you’ll see what the history in it is like. There should be continuity in the history taught in the first grade till 12th. Unfortunately, we do not see that continuity in the current textbooks,” he said.
“So we have rewritten the 11th textbook and are now in the process of revising the 12th. It took us almost seven to eight months to rewrite the 11th grade textbook. It contains the history of Goa, and the further history of Goa will be included in the standard textbook for grade 12. The 10th grade history textbook was rewritten four to five years ago, and currently we are rewriting the 9th grade history textbook. But rewriting history textbooks must also be done at the primary level,” he said.
“As I said earlier, there should be continuity in terms of history taught. Ramayana and Mahabharata are our epics, but unfortunately the students of today do not know these epics. The history of India is a history of struggle and victory. But when are we going to present this history to these children, or are we just going to teach them
the history of how others have ruled us?”
he asked.
“If you go to Japan, the history books there contain the history of their own nation. But in our country, the history of other countries is taught. Why is the unification of Italy taught in Indian schools? Leave this for college level. Same is the situation regarding the French Revolution, the American Revolution, etc,” Kelkar said.
“Why are 8th grade students taught about French Emperor Louis XVI or Nicholas II of Russia? They know nothing about Chandrashekhar Azad. Neither do they know about the struggle of Swatantra Veer Savarkar. This is because we teach them about the heroes of other countries, but when will we teach them our own history?” he asked.
“There are many people in the history of our India whose story will inspire us. It must be brought out how cruel Aurangzeb was and how he tortured Sambhaji Maharaj. It is not that we hate him, but that is the true story, and it must be taught,” the Goa Education Board member said.
Goa has a unique folklore, a unique folk art, a unique folk culture, and when one looks at the history of Goa, is this aspect of history being taught to students?
Dr Pandurang Phaldesai, Director, Thomas Stephen Konkani Kendra, said, “We should keep in mind that the history of a State, region or country is the history of the conquerors there. The culture of that region is the culture of the people who ruled there. The language that the people of that region speak is the language that the rulers spoke.”
“The same thing happened here. These things happened during the 450 years of Portuguese rule. But no one knows the history of the dynasties that ruled Goa before the Portuguese. Everyone who goes to higher education in this area learns about it. But for that, there are scholars who mainly deal with this subject. We are not teaching our children what they should know about Maurya, Chalukya or other dynasties. And in that sense, our history textbooks should be rewritten,” he said.
Agreeing with professor Kelkar, he said there is no continuity in the history curriculum that is being taught. And when there is no such continuity, confusion arises.
“The same thing has happened with our folk literature. If we want to study folk literature, we must also study different aspects of folk art. And if we do not understand our folk culture, we cannot get to the bottom of it. It is not that the Ministry of Education has not made efforts to fix this, but there is a lack of effort,” Phaldesai said.
He said that there should be an organisation or a separate system to deal with
all of this.
“When we talk about rewriting Goa’s history, we need to first and foremost change the names of the places and villages in Goa back to their original names. Why do you need three different names for one place? It should be changed into the original name, which is the same in pronunciation and spelling. This is necessary so that children can learn the story more easily,” the
Director of Thomas Stephen Konkani Kendra, said.
Why does the need arise to rewrite the history books? When history is taught, it focuses mainly on the invasions and battles. But music, folk art, and folklore are also part of history. Shouldn’t we teach these subjects too as part of our history?
Phaldesai said that in our own history, there are many such stories, folk tales, from which one can learn something new.
“We have stories about how to live a good life and stories about people who were heroes. The poems they wrote and music they composed need to be included in the curriculum. And if we vividly portray these heroes, we can teach their stories well. If we can teach this material to the students with examples, the stories will be understood by the children better,” he said.
Historian Prof Prajal Sakhardande, who has been teaching history to children for many years, said that as a student, he had a lesson in the 3rd grade called ‘Our National Leaders’, which was about the country’s leaders.
“Then in the 4th grade, we learned the history of Goa and in the 5th grade we learned the history of India. After that, we had the history of the Maratha Empire and then the history of India's independence. But when NCERT introduced its textbooks, this curriculum was completely changed,” Prof Sakhardande said.
“The sad thing is the dilution of Goa’s history. What we were taught in the 4th grade went into a thin book, and after that we were not taught any history of Goa. When I did my Master's, Goa history was included in the curriculum. In my opinion, there should be no political interference in the writing of history. The facts should be spread before the students,” he said.
For example, Dayanand Bandodkar was the first CM of Goa, Daman and Diu. This fact cannot be changed even after a thousand years.
“If you present the facts without adding your personal opinion, then history will be safe. There have been many discussions about various things that have no use, but I am glad about one thing. Earlier, people hated history or were bored. But now, they are really interested in knowing what happened in the past,” he said.
“But regardless of everything, facts should be taught in history classes. There are many debates about Mahatma Gandhi versus Bhagat Singh or Gandhi versus Chandrasekhar Azad, but we must not forget that all of them were freedom fighters,” Sakhardande said.
“I once wrote that Nathuram Godse took Gandhi's life on January 30, 1948. In response, someone commented that Godse had done a good deed. Whether Godse did something good or something bad is not up for discussion here, but it is a fact. In a court hearing, Godse said that Gandhi demanded $55 million for Pakistan, which is also a fact. We must publish a balanced story by presenting both sides equally, without adding our opinion,” said.
Sachin Madge, historian and sculpturist, when first came to Goa, he found that the general idea of history was very confusing. Then he tried to link them and find means to study them.
Giving his perspective about the history of Goa, Madge said, “Actually, every country or region has its own identity and self-respect. This self-respect and identity comes from its history. In this regard, I consider Portugal as my role model.”
“No doubt the Portuguese ruled Goa and persecuted the Goans, but there are many things that can be learnt from the Portuguese. If we look at the history of Portugal, in the 8th and 9th centuries, both Portugal and Spain were completely conquered by the Arabs. Arab civilization had taken over. The religion of Islam had gained the upper hand. But when European revolutions took place in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Arabs were completely ousted from both Portugal and Spain,” Madge said.
When these revolutions took place, these two nations did not leave even a trace of Arab culture.
“The Indian mentality is attached to colonialism. We idolise the countries that ruled India. We treat their culture as our culture and honour it. Indo-Portuguese culture has now become our culture, and we cherish it with pride, and unfortunately we are not ashamed of it. Unfortunately, here we
are proud to teach how the Portuguese invaded us,” he said.
Not only Goa, but the whole of India is a slave to colonialism. It is a good thing that history is being rewritten.
“As for the confusion in Goa's history, I am not a student of history but a reader of history. And the confusion in Goa's history
has made me read reference books on Goa,” he said.
Almost 60 to 70 percent of Goa was not conquered by the Portuguese. It was a part of India.
“What is the reason for that? Why did not the Portuguese attack this part of Goa? Why did not the Portuguese convert the people here, even after the conquest of Goa in the 17th and 18th centuries? And the people or the scholars here did not have an answer to that, and that’s because this whole thing was totally neglected. And the main reason for that is Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj,” the historian and sculpturist said.
“Eight of the 12 talukas of Goa were part of Shivaji Maharaj’s empire. We are told that he visited parts of Goa like Ponda and Bicholim. But in my opinion, he had to take care of these areas as they were part of his empire. We have to understand that most of Goa was part of his empire. He would definitely visit it, but no history textbook in Goa highlights this, no scholar teaches about it,” Madge said.
“This led to a great social and political change at that time. In the 18th century, because of this pressure, the Portuguese did not force people to change their religion or follow it. And this should be taught in detail. The Revolt of Cuncolim is included in the modified 11th standard book, but it should be taught in elementary school,” he said.
Not only Goans, but many other people from different parts of India have sacrificed their lives for Goa, but the children are not taught properly about these martyrs. These people are considered as outsiders. But we need to remember that they too played an important role in the liberation of Goa. Does the study council think about this?
Kelkar, who is a member of the study committee for class XI and XII, wrote the original names of places in the class XI
text book.
“For example, the name of Harmal was popularized as Arambol, but we made sure to write the original name as Harmal. Secondly, we included the Cuncolim Uprising in the 9th grade history book that will be introduced next year. And we mentioned the names of the 15 people who died in that mutiny,” Kelkar said.
“We have highlighted the names of many people who have not come out to the public till date, and also included many places in Goa that have a special history not only of liberation but also of folk culture and folk art. Children need to be informed about this, starting from elementary school, because when students enter secondary schools, they choose other subjects and move away from history. So it is necessary to teach them this history in elementary school,” he said.
Madge said that the battle between Bajirao and the Portuguese in the so-called Vasai battle was a one from which Goa
benefited a lot.
“Goa got both political and social benefits from this battle. These battles lasted for almost three years. I think a battle like this would have become a big Hollywood war movie, if it had taken place in Europe. And in that battle, the Marathas were victorious and completely annihilated the Portuguese,” he said.
The Battle of Vasai or the Battle of Bassein was fought between the Marathas and the Portuguese rulers of Vasai (near Mumbai). About 22,000 Maratha soldiers fought in the battle. After studying the documents, one gets to learn how they destroyed the Portuguese and how Goa benefited from it.
Prabhudesai said that one cannot change history. This should reach the children without anyone expressing their opinion. For example, communidade is a word that was introduced by the Portuguese, but nobody knows that the Gaonkari system existed in Goa before.
Madge added that this Gaonkari system is practiced not only in Goa but all over India, but the common perception is that the communidade system was introduced only by the Portuguese.
Sakhardande however said that in the current BA curriculum, changes have been made and the word Gaonkari has been used instead of writing communidade.
While the curriculum for graduation has been changed, what should be taught in primary or secondary schools?
According to Sakhardande, the pre-Portuguese era needs to be taught.
“What happened in Goa before the Portuguese came should also be taught. The children should learn about the history before 1510. Unfortunately, when we ask students about the Kadamba dynasty, they only know about the Kadamba buses, and that is a sad reality,” he said.
“The history of Goa before 1510, should be taught to the children gradually, so that in elementary school the history of Goa is covered, then the history of India and, if desired, in 10th grade,” he said.
Kelkar said that according to the New Education Policy, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades will be combined.
“Our effort is to bring continuity to history education. The history of Tambadi Surla in Goa, the history of Saptakoteshwar, modern India, and ancient India will be taught,” he said
Sakhardande said that if we are teaching children about Saptakoteshwar temple, it should be also ensured that the teachers take students to visit this place.
“This should be given in written otherwise the teachers will not take the children to these places because our education is only textbook-oriented. We can teach students outside the textbook, but teachers are not doing that,” he said.
Kelkar said that regarding the Cuncolim revolt, it has been demanded that a letter be written to all the schools and that the children be made to visit the Cuncolim memorial so that they know about the 15 people who lost their lives.
Sarkhardande said that marks could be also allotted for these field trips so that teachers and children have the urge to visit the historical sites.