“Meu querido Senhor Salazar, did you ever imagine that Goans will follow you back to Portugal and one day rule over your linda terra (Beautiful land)? Perhaps no one did, but the improbable has happened and today a Goykar (person of Goan origin), Mr Antonio Costa is the new Prime Minister of Portugal!
Portugal ruled over us for 450 long years. The earlier part of their reign being pretty harsh, many natives had to seek refuge across the borders. But when they finally checked out in 1961, it was with warm brotherly gestures of goodwill that allowed us free access to their own land irrespective of caste and religion. They left footprints that made Goa stand out with a unique character of its very own and a culture that made Goykars distinctly different from main land Indians. Thanks to the privilege of acquiring Portuguese citizenship, today, thousands of Goans are making a fruitful career in Europe.
Whether this wholesale migration is a blessing or not is of course an interesting subject for a debate, but the point is that Portugal has been generously kind to leave their door open to us even half a century after severing colonial ties.
At the time of ‘liberation’, Goans were indeed ‘Ajeeb’ as described by India`s First Prime Minister; Time when we could sleep with doors and windows wide open without a worry…. That ‘ajeebness’ has been substantially diluted mainly with the influx from across the borders. The only thing that has perhaps remained intact is our penchant for fighting amongst ourselves which has over the years brought us to the brink of becoming strangers in our own land!
The living standard of an average Goan during Portuguese rule was much higher than that of an average Indian. When the rest of India rode on bullock carts, Goans were travelling in our much romanced ‘Caminhaos’. One of the first Medical colleges in Asia was established in Goa. The Portuguese were also the first to ban barbaric traditions like Sati when the rest of India still glorified such acts. That our ‘Tarvotis’ are renowned the world over is also a legacy of the Portuguese – the Masters of the sea in the 15th , 16th and 17th century. There are many good things for which the Portuguese deserve to be remembered but some fringe elements always keep harping on the negatives… They are even allergic to names of our towns and villages and want to destroy all vestiges of our treasured history.
