Portuguese invention of Goa
Debate has evoked mixed responses, but reservation factor may weigh in, says TEOTONIO R de SOUZA
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My previous OPinionatED column reflected upon how new inventors follow the old inventors across the history of Goa. This opened a lively discussion about a recent book published in Portugal and entitled “A Invenção de Goa”. A poll is currently open on Goa-Research-Net cyber-forum. It tends towards disapproval of the use of the term ‘invention’, while there are a few takers and a few others who are not averse to accepting the idea with reservations.
The author of the book, Angela Barreto Xavier, is aware of the debate and made a short debut by proxy, but has so far shied away from direct participation in the debate despite invitations to do so. Intentionally or not, the discussion of the “Portuguese invention of Goa” has been shifted to places away from Goa. Conferences and round-tables are organised in Paris, New York, and Lisbon, where contrary native voices may not easily interfere or disturb the superior understanding of a superior scholarship.
In Portugal itself, the commemoration of 500 years of Portuguese conquest of Goa has evoked muted responses. There is an exhibition of select bibliography on the Conquest of Goa by Afonso de Albuquerque in the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and the presentation at the Casa de Goa in Lisbon, of a documentary entitled “The Other”, produced by Francisco Veres Machado. Both these events are scheduled for 25th of this month. These are laudable initiatives, but a near anti-climax to 500 years of the epic history of Estado da Índia.
One historic reality that is discussed very little is the collaboration or participation of many actors of different nationalities in the so-called “invention” of Goa attributed to the Portuguese. Merchants, religious and adventurers from many nationalities enabled the Portuguese to run the show. From my own earlier research, it is clear that without active collaboration of the Goan Hindu businessmen, tax-collectors, and diplomatic agents the Portuguese administration in Goa would have been short-circuited very much earlier than it did.
As an illustration, a little known Florentine, John of Empoli, accompanied Afonso de Albuquerque in his maiden voyage to India in 1503, and later took part in the conquest of Goa and Malacca. He left a first hand eyewitness account of the conquest of Goa by Albuquerque. But he also filed a complaint before King Manuel against ill-treatment at the hands of Albuquerque. The Medici Pope at that time, Leo X, backed his case before the Portuguese crown for compensation.
John Empoli was duly compensated by being appointed factor of the Indonesian island of Sumatra in 1515, where he suffered a series of natural disasters which destroyed his factory and belongings. He died of an epidemic during a diplomatic mission to China a couple of years later. He was only one of the many Italian traders and merchants who contributed to the Portuguese venture in the spice trade.
Incidentally, right from the 13th century, the Genoese and Florentines contributed to the training of the Portuguese in ship-building, navigation and cartography, helping the initial integration of Portugal in the European market. The pay master appointed by Afonso de Albuquerque after the conquest of Goa was a Florentine, Francesco Corvinelli. A later governor, Diogo Lopes de Siqueira also chose another Florentine, Piero Strozzi, as his factor for the Coromandel coast. The Portuguese may have been spirited crusaders, but were ill-equipped with skills for commercial operations to rival the Italians.
John Empoli wrote a letter to his father in July 1514. In it he referred to Timoja as lord and governor of Honavar, married to a daughter of the ruler of Gersoppa, a vassal of Vijayanagar. It mentions the participation of Timoja in the conquest of Goa with 60 fustas (pinaces) and 4000 warriors. It also describes how on 25th November, the Portuguese engaged nearly ten thousand Rumi defendants of the castle of Goa before daybreak along four fronts for the attack which lasted four hours.
The vivid description of Empoli refers to blood and corpses that showed up along the river banks during the week following Goa’s capture. During three and half months that followed, the Portuguese dismantled the historic Muslim monuments and mosques and built a new castle and new walls with stones that were recovered and brought more stones and wooden beams from the suburbs of the city. Nearly 150 Portuguese died of fatigue and malnutrition.
Afonso de Albuquerque was widely known for his policy of mix-marriages as a colonial strategy. This strategy produced a social class that was known in Goa as “descendentes”. Their genealogy has been traced recently in three bulky volumes authored by Jorge Forjaz and José Francisco de Noronha and published by the Fundação Oriente. We are told by a Portuguese historian, Luis Filipe Thomaz that there were six thousand descendentes in Portuguese India in the nineteenth century, but that only two thousand remained on the eve of the Indian takeover.
A detailed study of this class during the closing decades of the Portuguese colonial history in Goa is a desideratum, to permit us to understand their political role in the wake of Goa’s freedom struggle. We know from the existing studies that their relations with the local elites were hostile, marked by ethnic and colonial superiority and by disregard for the native local culture. It would be interesting to trace the linkages of the surviving descendentes and some native collaborators in the post-liberation political resistance organised in Portugal. Could it be also linked to the neo-orientalist scholarship that is showing up in recent times?
It is but natural that while 500 years of Goa’s conquest by the Portuguese, and 50 years of Goa’s liberation from colonial rule are being commemorated, we take stock of the impact of colonial rule and the benefits derived from the post-colonial dispensation. The assessment is bound to be coloured by varying viewpoints of different interested social groups. However, while the reality of globalisation gives many individuals and social groups worldwide an opportunity to express their feelings of support or frustration, there is no doubt that the historic destiny of Goa will always be decided by the Goans in Goa.
I chose to commemorate the two fold event by providing an opportunity to the ethnic Portuguese and Goans in Portugal to learn Konkani, the soul of Goan culture. A short course of Konkani language and Goan culture at the Universidade Lusófona, in Lisbon, was meant to be only a commemorative and symbolic action to call attention to the need to compensate for the 500 years of the colonial past.
I believe that Lusofonia can win hearts and become Lusofilia through a linguistic dialogue, by learning each other’s language, not just by teaching Portuguese language. There is a long way to go in that direction! The Konkani course was successfully realised and the participants were awarded certificates on 16 October, at the Casa de Goa in Lisbon. May Portuguese-Konkani dialogue grow and flourish during the coming 500 years.
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November rain
By Adelmo Fernandes
There was nothing much happening in Goa during the past week besides the preparation for the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) and the new Chairpersons of the civic bodies getting the feel of their seats of power. On the national scene, there were of course more skeletons tumbling out from the cupboards of politicians like A Raja, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and of course, Suresh Kalmadi of CWG fame.
I was at my wits end as to what topic to dwell upon. As I was sitting by my PC with a blank look, there was a deafening sound of thunder. In no time, the sun had disappeared and it had become dark all around. And before I could go to my window to investigate the reason for the sudden change in the intensity of day light, it began to pour cats and dogs. That is what made me write on the November rains in Goa. I was immediately reminded of the hit song ‘November Rain’ sung by the band ‘Guns N Roses’.
The year 2010 has been the second wettest year for Goa in the past hundred years. One thing is for sure, if the rains continue the way they have been going so far, this could well be the wettest year Goa will experienced in the past century. Be that as it may, call it the unseasonal rains or an extended south west monsoon or north eastern monsoon or wet weather caused by the cyclone ‘Jal’, the rains have succeeded in making our lives less pleasant.
In my lifetime, I have never heard of people going out with an umbrella or rain wear in the month of November. The pot holes on the roads are only getting deeper and wider. The worst part is that we are not in a position to blame the authorities. They are quick to blame the weather for their inability to repair the roads. The frequently changing weather pattern could give sleepless nights for the weather-man. The other day I happened to be at a wedding reception which was held in an open-air hall during the night. It so happened that it rained heavily during the afternoon. The only prayer on the lips of the bridal couple during the reception could probably be “Lord please hold back the rains”.
Interestingly enough, God seems to have listened to their prayers as it did not rain during the time the reception was in progress. An hour later, the heavens opened. Well, the newly married couple now considered the rains as a shower of blessing. I was reminded by my better half that it did rain on our wedding day twenty-three years ago. I reminded her that we got married in the month of September and not November. Now the big question on everybody’s mind is whether it will rain during the International Film Festival of India, and during the Old Goa feast, or whether it will rain on Christmas day and even on New Year day. Well, with the rains being as unpredictable as they are this year, you will never know.
