Dear Pramod Sawant Ji,

I was shocked by the statement you made recently that plans are afoot to wipe off every trace of Portuguese rule in Goa. I wondered how could a Chief Minister, and that too, as young and educated as you, could even think of such a course of action. Is it possible, let alone desirable?

Within a few days of your statement, the Law Commission of India invited the views of the general public, including religious, social and political leaders, on the desirability of having a uniform civil code (UCC). By the way, the previous commission had studied the issue and decided against having a UCC.

As you belong to the BJP, you know for sure that the demand for a UCC is as old as the party. In fact, right from the days when your party was known as the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, it was one of the three main demands of the party, the other two being a “magnificent temple” at Ayodhya and abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.

The BJP is in a hurry to fulfil the promise of a UCC before the next Lok Sabha election. That is why the government has put pressure on the Law Commission to initiate the process. The party always says that UCC is not a new thing in India, as such a code has existed in Goa for centuries!

Let me quote Mani Shankar Aiyar’s ‘Confessions of a Secular Fundamentalist’ (Penguin, Page 256): “It must be remembered that the Code was imposed by a totally non-democratic, foreign, imperialist power that captured Goa after defeating the ruling Muslim dynasty in the region”. 

What is interesting is that it is the Portuguese model that you want to replicate in the country. If you are truly anti-Portuguese, you should have the integrity to tell your national leaders that the UCC is a foreign concept and the people of Goa had to pay a price for it.

I know that you will never say that, because you are only interested in promoting pseudo-nationalism. What are the things that you want to wipe out that are of Portuguese origin? 

I saw some beautiful churches when I travelled in Goa on the first three days of this millennium. When I read K.K. Muhammed’s book Njan Enna Bharatiyan (Me the Indian) I learnt that “Goa is the land of several Christian churches. There were 10 Christian churches under the Archaeological Survey of India among the 80 or so churches there. Bom Jesus was the most prominent church. It was here that the mortal remains of Saint Xavier were preserved.” Do you want these to be razed to the ground?

While I was there, I visited one beautiful temple, not far from Panaji, which, I was told, was associated with singer Latha Mangeshkar’s family. What I liked most about the temple was that it was modelled after a church. I have visited many temples, including the Somnath temple in Gujarat, that I visited two months ago.

They are huge structures but there is no place for the people to sit and relax. You can just walk to the sanctum sanctorum and worship the deity for a few seconds, depending upon the crowd. Sitting in the temple is not encouraged.

In the Goan temple I mentioned, the deity is at one end like the sanctuary of a church, and in front is a large, rectangular open hall, like a nave, where one can sit, meditate or just relax. The idea is obviously taken from the Portuguese. Will you obliterate this temple also?

I am not an apologist of the Portuguese. It was not in Goa that they first arrived. They first came to Kerala. You can see a small monument at Kappad in Kozhikode, Kerala, which commemorates the arrival of the Portuguese sailor Vasco de Gama. 

There was a proposal to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Gama’s arrival. A grand tourist programme was finalised. Thousands of Portuguese tourists would have visited Kerala and Goa but some ultra-nationalists like you scuttled the programme. It was cancelled at the last minute.

Do the Portuguese have any such hang-ups? I read some time ago that the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the Planning Minister of Portugal were persons of Goan origin. I am not sure whether they are still in power but the point is that the Portuguese do not treat them as second-class citizens.

By now you would have realised that I am a Malayali. For Malayalis, one great hero is Kunjali Marakkar. He was from the Malabar region of Kerala. The Portuguese who ruled Goa would still be pissed in their graves if they heard the name of Marakkar.

No one gave the Portuguese as much trouble as Marakkar. They were literally scared of him and his men. In one combat, he was able to wound the Portuguese chief whose second-in-command was killed. Of course, Marakkar was caught treacherously and beheaded in Goa. Some say he was hanged to death.

If you are really anti-Portuguese, you would do well to set up a museum that would highlight the adventures of Kunjali Marakkar, a born nationalist, unlike another who had no compunction in writing clemency letter after clemency letter. I know you will laugh off my suggestion. 

History is not all black and white. There is a lot of grey also. You are grossly mistaken if you think that the Portuguese were the only  one to conquer Goa.

A major part of the early history of Goa is in obscurity. What is known is that it was always ruled as an integral part of a kingdom or as a vassal of a superior power. It is believed that it was part of the Mauryan Empire when Ashoka extended his jurisdiction into the Deccan.

It was ruled by a succession of dynasties like the Bhojas, the Chalukyas of Kalyana, the Silaharas and the Kadambas. The Kadambas were from Karnataka and they promoted Kannada, the remnants of which is found in place names like Benaulim, Bambolim and Zambaulim.

The Kadambas were overtaken by the Yadavas of Devagiri. Finally, the Mohammedans under Malik Kafur, an ambitious general of Sultan Alauddin Khilji, attacked the Deccan. The fortunes of Goa oscillated between two strong contenders: The Muslim Bahamanis and the Hindu Vijayanagar.

By the end of the 15th century, Goa came under the jurisdiction of Yusuf Adil Shah of Bijapur. He did not rule for long. Yusuf lost Goa when Afonso de Albuquerque firmly established Portuguese rule there on November 25, 1510. It lasted four centuries and a half.

The point to be noted is that the Portuguese defeated the Muslims to take over Goa. Do you know what the population of Muslims was in Goa? It was less than 3 percent. Ninety-seven percent were Hindus. If all the adult male Hindus had thrown a stone each at the Portuguese, as the Vietnamese did against the Americans in the 20th century, how could they have ruled Goa?

It is true that Albuquerque conquered Goa with a vengeance. He put to death a large number of Muslims, including women and children. He wrote to his sovereign, “we got a foothold in India and destroyed the dockyard of the Moors. Now no one can order us not to touch a Moor, nor can the Raja of Cochin demand the life of a Portuguese for that of a cow. It is the chief port of India, for the Deccan, for Vijayanagara, and for Europe”.

Albuquerque wanted to make Goa, the “Jewel in the Portuguese Crown”. His rule was not an unmitigated disaster for the people. Let me quote “Goa: A Social History” by P.D. Xavier: “He granted political amnesty to all Hindus, reduced their cumbersome taxes, tolerated their religion, permitted them to continue as thanadars and chief thanadars, whose functions included collecting taxes, scourged the sea to free it from the Moors and occupied Malacca (1511) and Ormuz (1515), the two keys to the Indian Ocean trade.” He also allowed the old village administrative system to continue.

Albuquerque is believed to have given an option to good-looking women to accept either the sword or the cross. Most of the Portuguese soldiers were bachelors. They were encouraged to marry them. Over 500 years later, how can anyone say whose blood flows in the veins of the Goans? Particularly when the Portuguese were the rulers and they ruled ruthlessly.

It has always foxed me how and why Portugal became a great coloniser. It was not an industrially developed nation even by the standards of the 15th century. It was an importing nation, not an exporting one. It had a population of only two million. Yet, it encouraged migration to colonies like Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and Goa.

Whatever you may say, the Portuguese might have ruled Goa ruthlessly for some time but for most part of the period, they enjoyed the support of the local people. When, after Independence, India decided to occupy Goa, the Indian Army was surprised by the least resistance it received. They just gave up.

It is often mentioned that the Goans suffered a lot during the Inquisition. If you study Inquisition as practiced in Goa, you will realise that the Christians of Goa suffered much more than the Hindus of Goa.

The Christians did not encourage the practice of casteism among themselves. True, the upper castes like the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas tried to keep away from the Shudras. One must also say that the relaxed caste practices among the Christians had produced a benign impact on the Hindus. Christian women were more educated and, therefore, bolder than Hindu women. Sooner than later, they learnt from their Christian sisters to resist patriarchy.

It is beyond doubt that the so-called Untouchables were not as much ill-treated and exploited as their counterparts were in other areas like, say, Travancore in Kerala. Of course, there was also the threat that they could move away to the Christian fold.

True, there was an attempt to annihilate Hinduism and raze down temples. There are also stories of Hindu community leaders taking away the idols for safety. The crusade did not last long as the Portuguese realised that they could not rule keeping the majority community at bayonet point. 

This week, I was invited by a friend to take part in the centenary celebration of the Kayamkulam Municipality. Do you know that the Portuguese had established a municipality as long as 500 years ago. And it met twice a week with powers to take important decisions concerning civic life.

The Portuguese were the first to start a mint in Goa. They also had the best printing press at that time. They contributed enormously to the growth of Konkani. Many of the Indian words for window, table, iron, chair, cabbage, hospital, shirt, pen etc have a Portuguese origin.

I am not a teetotaler. That does not mean I enjoy liquor. In a party I can hold a glass of beer or a peg of whiskey for as long as the party lasts. But when I returned from Goa, I brought two bottles of cashew feni, one to be gifted to a friend, who is now the editor of a well-known journal, and another to an uncle, who is no more.

No tourist returns from Goa without a packet of cashew nuts in his or her bag. The Malayalam word for cashew nut in my younger days was Parungi Andi. Parungi refers to Portuguese.

Now, tell me, Pramod Sawant Ji, which of these characteristics of Goa that you want to wipe off. If you succeed in destroying all the churches and crosses in Goa, as in Manipur, how will you ensure that none of the Goans has Portuguese blood flowing in his or her veins? 

What will you tell the coming generations about the four-and-a-half centuries that the Portuguese ruled Goa? Will you say that it represents the Black hole in Goan history? How can one be so bigoted, Honourable Chief Minister?

ajphilip@gmail.com