Over 1.5 million people marched through the streets of Paris on Sunday in a show of unity after the terror attacks last week. As the world watched this unity march on their television sets, heads of state and government linked arms in a show of solidarity that the world had seldom seen. A day earlier people had done the same walk in Nice and other cities. France, and all of Europe, is displaying a united front against terror. Importantly, there is also need to stand united for the freedom of speech and expression, not just in Europe but across the globe.
Just two days after the attack on the Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo, in Goa we had the occasion to remember a fearless journalist and writer who through his writings denounced the establishment and had no qualms about taking on the rulers of that time. In the era in which Luis de Menezes Braganca lived – a century ago – freedom of expression was not considered a fundamental right. Goa was living under a colonial administration that frowned upon liberal thought and its expression. That didn’t stop Menezes Braganca from expressing his views – his very liberal views. He did it, and won the admiration of the intelligentsia and at times the condemnation of the establishment.
One may not be able to place Menezes Braganca in the list of freedom fighters if one goes by the strictest definition of the term freedom fighter, but it was he who advocated nationalism and even independence for Goa and came under the Portuguese government’s radar for this. Later champions of freedom, including Tristao de Braganca Cunha, were influenced by Menezes Braganca and his works.
Menezes Braganca lived at a time when the colonialists themselves were seeing a political change transitioning from a monarchy to a Republic. While the Republic brought with it some freedom, it also brought about responsibility. When the Acto Colonial that whittled down the little autonomy that Goa enjoyed, was released, Menezes Braganca lost no time in criticizing it. Today, when every word written is, within moments of being published, scrutinized across the world, Menezes Braganca becomes relevant to us as the great thinker who never shied away from expressing his thoughts in writing. He never took up arms, relying always on his pen to put forth his view.
He was a man who was perhaps a century ahead of his time. His writings were critical of the colonial government and its policies, but they were never scurrilous. He wielded his pen with responsibility which is what made him acceptable to the people and earned him the sobriquet of ‘O maior de todos’ (the tallest of them all).
There is, today, need for fearless journalism of the kind practiced by Menezes Braganca. In 1990 he cofounded O Heraldo, giving Goa a newspaper that till today remains as fearless and committed to the cause of Goa as it did 114 years ago at its inception.
More importantly today, there is need for an environment where people are able to speak and write what they feel without the fear of being attacked physically for their views. That environment appears to be disappearing quickly. We live at a time when people shy away from expressing themselves for fear of being attacked. There is always room for debate, for discussion and even opposition on any pronounced view, but this can and should be done in a civilized manner seated across the table or through other writings. Tolerance, is a word that appears to be missing from certain sections that are angered by statements or drawings that to many others may appear innocuous. There is no way that everybody can be pleased by a certain statement or drawing, but there can surely be a civilized response to it.
While there is always need for some fearless voices, these too have to be tempered to a certain extent. Freedom of expression does not give one the licence to hurt another community, belief or people. It has to work both ways.
We in Goa, owe it to the memory of greats like Luis de Menezes Braganca to uphold the freedom of expression and speech, and to do it responsibly.
