I am Goan -- By Nisser Dias

In the first month of January 2020, sweet truth emerged for the Goans from the mouth of a railway officer. Though some may term it as ‘controversial’ or ‘slur’ or ‘insult’. I strongly refer to it as the ‘truth’ nothing but the ‘truth’ but mixed with lack of knowledge of history

It all started with south western railway general manager Ajay Kumar Singh’s spat with a delegation of Goans led by Cortalim BJP MLA Alina Saldanha.

To Alina’s objections of double tracking of railway lines as it would cause damage to Goan houses which are 500 years old, Singh retorted, "India has houses that are 5,000 years old. Goans were the invading force who came about 500 years back. When you all came, you also must have destroyed houses here...By you I meant Portuguese."

By this Singh supposed we were Portuguese-Goans or from Portuguese lineage and ancestry.

To this BJP MLA Alina’s countered stating we are Indians.

Both of them were wrong, we are neither Portuguese nor Indians. We are ‘Goans’ in capital letters.

Firstly Goa was never the land-mass of India, millions of years back we drifted from European continent and attached itself to currently where we are.

Secondly when the fight for India’s independence from the British rule began, Mahatma Gandhi travelled the length and breadth of India by train as the initial steps towards independence from the colonial rulers.

There is no history of the great Bapu visiting Goa ever, this is a clear indication that Goa was never part of India.

Thirdly India was freed from the British rulers in 1947 and Goans had to request the Indian government to free Goa from Portuguese shackles in 1961 that is 14 years after India got its independence. Indians came, Portuguese fled but Indians never left Goa too.

 To commemorate that we were liberated from the Portuguese and we continue to celebrate our Liberation Day. In real sense we were never gained independence.

Alina Saldanha and Ajay Kumar Singh

We were cornered by India. They took our huge tracks of land and gave it to the Indian Navy and the army. They even took our civilian airport and turned it into a naval base. They took our mineral ore and paid us only royality and foreign currency earned from tourism industry and from our Goan brethren working abroad is being deposited in Indian banks. What is the benefit for us?

The Indian Constitution too was authored much before Goa was freed. Hence interest of Goa are not reflecting in it, but we are forced to abide by it.

Diverting a bit. Union government headed by the BJP has spent precious Rs. 3000 crores to build the statute of Unity in honour of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Patel is recognized as the person behind the unification of India after the departure of British in 1947. He oversaw the incorporation of more than 550 princely states into the Indian union, thereby blocking splitting of a country into miniature nations.

This is the proof that princely states fought the British and then were incorporated in the Indian Union. That is where ‘Unity in Diversity’ was coined.

Goa was not even in the picture during this amalgamation of princely states into Indian state, nor did Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel even try to incorporate Goa into India. Yet another indicator that Goa was never part of India.

During Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit to Goa after being liberated from the Portuguese, he said Goa and Goans were different and promised Goa would be accorded different status. Sadly it never got done and the fault can squarely be placed on the shoulders of the politicians who were elected after liberation and immediately thereafter. 

Like Nehru’s observation, Goans are different. I cannot be Portuguese, I cannot be Indian simply because I am Goan.