A photograph can sometimes speak louder than words. Politicians in particular, thrive on optics. A rather mundane and routine sarkari affair last week to commemorate Shivaji’s birth anniversary at Farmagudi (a large statue and something like a fort stand here, built in the memory of the Maratha warrior-king) provided opportunity for twisted political messaging. Wearing saffron turbans, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude seemed to compete in getting astride Shivaji’s horse for the photo op. Whatever Shivaji fantasy the two might harbor — Gaude has played Shivaji and Sambhaji in Marathi plays — neither has a grasp on the facts of history.
“Without knowing history, they want to make a God of Shivaji,” says the outspoken Konkani writer and critic Uday Bhembre
“When Sawant is ignorant of the historical facts and doesn’t understand the issue, why does he venture to speak?” asks the Sahitya Academy awardee Damodar Mauzo.
Venture to speak the chief minister did, claiming that Shivaji Maharaj had been close to conquering Goa in the mid-1600s (which was a century-and-half into Portuguese rule, when the colonisers held parts of Goa territories). Had he done so, Goa would have been spared the atrocities of colonial domination, Sawant said.
Nothing could be further from the truth, says Bhembre of the Maratha chieftain, who was known to have courted hostilities as well as woven alliances with the Mughals, the sultans of Bijapur and Golconda and the colonial powers as was common of rulers and chieftains of the day.
Quoting historian P S Pissurlencar’s Portuguese Mahratta Relations, Bhembre says it was the Desais of Kudal that Shivaji was after, and he resented that the Portuguese — they occupied Ilhas, Bardez, Salcette and Mormugao at the point — had provided them protection. “His quarrel was not with the Portuguese, but the Desais, who he wanted to capture and punish.”
The Portuguese resisted the attack (an interesting account of it is provided in Pissurlencar’s book: “The Ranes of Rewade, Nanode and Peirna, villages under Portuguese control on the outskirts of Bardez, were used by the Portuguese as bases against the Mahrattas.”) and Shivaji went back to Bicholim, says Bhembre.
Pissurlencar writes: “…Narba Savant, a nephew of Lakham Savant, Desai of Kudal, one of those Desais who had come to Goa, having taken fright at Shivaji’s movements, went to Vengurla on 15 September 1667, caused a riot and molested the Dutch. He was accompanied by some Portuguese. The Dutch of Vengurla protested against this to the Portuguese and probably complained to Shivaji also. These Desais who were sheltered in Bardez often returned to their original seats of power (vatans) and terrorised people in the neighbouring territory controlled by Shivaji. In order to capture them and also punish the Portuguese who had harboured them, Shivaji dispatched an army of 1,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry to Bardez on 19/20 November 1667.”
The attack played out over three days. “For three days (20-22 November) Shivaji’s troops plundered a number of villages and arrested hundreds of people. Among them were many women and children. A contemporary Dutch report says that they killed three padres and a number of Christians.” (Pissurlencar)
Contrary to current attempts to embroider historical truths and paint him in a nationalist avatar, Shivaji was more a “guerilla warrior” out to expand his reach and territories, Bhembre says. He was pragmatic too in striking up military alliances. Soon after this attack, in December of 1667 he signed a treaty with the Portuguese, committing to return “all that he has carried away from Bardez”. In return, he asked for Portuguese help to build his navy, says Bhembre.
“There’s no doubt he was a great man,” the novelist Mauzo contends, calling attention to RSS tactics to appropriate the Maratha leader as ‘Go-Brahmin Pratipalak’ (protector of cows and Brahmins) and portray him as anti-Muslim.
No religion was involved in Shivaji’s military actions, Bhembre says.
Kaustubh Naik, a research scholar at JNU points to the “moral refashioning of Shivaji” to the extent that the lines between historical fact and myth have blurred.
Playing to the BJP script of editing Nehru out of the Indian independence movement and the Goa Liberation — Nehru had lacked the “political will” to strike, which delayed Goa’s liberation, Sawant has claimed — is more a reflection of the Sangh’s insecurity (and shame perhaps) over the RSS’ subservience to the British during the freedom struggle. The Goa CM is now threatening to tinker with the Class XI history textbooks at the behest of the Sanatan Sansta’s Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS).
“A supplement added to the textbook – ‘History of Goa’— says that Chhatrapati Shivaji attacked Bardesh tehsil in Goa for three consecutive days, looted villages, burnt them and killed some children and women.
“All this is totally false. It is an attempt to tarnish the image of great Chhatrapati Shivrai, who even honoured the women belonging to the enemy camps,” HJS convenor Manoj Solanki complained to the Goa government recently.
“No Hindu will tolerate such distorted history of the great kings of our motherland. The Goa government should immediately withdraw this history textbook or else all Shivpremis will come out on the streets to protest against it,” Solanki said.
Well, history does bear out the events that HJS finds objectionable. But the fact that the Chief Minister of a State intends to accede to the menacing demands to recast history — Pramod Sawant has since hinted that the “contentious” sections in the book will be deleted from next year’s textbooks — shows the level of sympathy within the BJP for fringe outfits like the Sanatan.
As education Minister, efforts would be made to “ensure that Shivaji’s ideals and a proper version of history will be taught to students,” Sawant said. He also promised a much larger fort and statue would replace the current one.
As Education Minister, Sawant would do well to not squander taxpayers’ money on irrelevant statues and to focus instead on improving education in the State. Scores of government-run primary schools in Goa are shutting down because no one in the government has the vision, education or interest in reimagining them.