I would suggest to the readers of my op-ed columns in Herald to look up or google for the writings of Steven Pinker, Harvard Professor and a leading authority on language and mind. He has devoted himself to the study of the evolution of the human brain through a concept of cognitive niche, a mechanism which he defines as characteristic of humans as they learnt to handle the surrounding world and prevent threats to their survival. In short, cognitive niche gave rise to cultures.
Cultural evolution may be defined as a characteristic that distinguishes humans from the physical evolution studied by Charles Darwin, who formulated the principle of the survival of the fittest. It is the culture that permitted humans to take care and seek to control their evolution unlike other living beings. Culture permits humans to bypass Darwin’s law of survival of the fittest. The children born deficient and many others would be doomed to extinction if culture and its calls for the protection of the helpless did not give many a chance of survival.
All cultures have a strong environmental base, because they have all evolved with the experience of dealing with the physical surroundings. Human diaspora that is also necessitated by the physical needs throughout history has brought about imposition and conflict of cultures outside their native milieu.
My reflections upon culture are intimately connected with the much debated theme of human rights, including the press freedom. These realities have to be understood in the context of the cultural conflicts and the pressures of globalization. Incidentally, the western powers started talking about international law and the policy of open seas when the Portuguese were trying to enforce their policy of Mare Clausum (Closed Seas) with their Cartaz system, and restricting it only to the Catholic believers and those who fell in line with them. It took a Dutch Hugo Grotius to counter the Portuguese claims with the doctrine of the Open Seas.
Goa experienced a lively press since the first quarter of the 19th century, or to be very precise, 22 December 1821, when the first number of Gazeta de Goa was published, as a tool of the liberal politics and propaganda of its ideals, or rather the ideals of the upcoming middle class.
The new press in Goa, under the direction of a Brazillian ultra-liberal exiled to Goa, defended freedom of expression against the abuse of power by “descendentes” of Goa, who controlled the local State militia. They did not take it kindly, and bayonetted Luis Prates, the editor of the Gazeta, the first known victim of Press Freedom in Goa. The recently defended doctoral thesis of Sandra Lobo in Portugal traced the evolution of the press in Goa during a century, until Salazar’s Acto Colonial. Dr. Sushila Mendes has also studied Luis de Menezes Bragança and his experiments with press freedom, until he tasted the violence of the censorship of Salazar’s Estado Novo.
There has always been freedom for those who had the influence and power to exercise it. The struggle for decolonization saw multiple examples of press censorship enforced by the colonial powers, which otherwise present themselves as pioneers and defenders of human rights and freedoms. Behind all such claims, History has umpteen examples of brutal suppression of human rights. We also know that political wisdom recommends that to protect its freedom a country needs to be prepared for war.
The Herald daily represents a long and glorious tradition of active press in Goa, and its own history should illustrate the ambiguity of Press Freedom as no exception from the reality anywhere else in the world.
There are also few disgruntled Goans abroad, who seemingly do not get a hearing in the Goa press, neither in some decent internet forum, and choose the medium of unsolicited e-mails for trolling and to convey how much they hate the “invasion” of Goa by India! At least one such case originating from UK seems to be presently under investigation by its Police for Criminal Investigation. The UK legislation can punish such violators with two years in jail. It could serve to tame some wild definitions of Press Freedom.
(Teotonio R. de Souza – Founder-Director of the Xavier Centre of Historical Research 1979-1994).
