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On 27 May, the day the Portuguese traveller, Vasco da Gama,
'discovered' India, citizens of Goan have planned a massive funeral
procession of natives who were massacred by the Portuguese.
Almost 500 years after the fateful day, the freedom fighters of
'liberated' Goan intend to set the record straight about the
historical event, which was said to have placed India on the world
map. Vasco da Gama, they maintain, was not quite the glorious
explorer that history had made him out to be.
A delegation of Goan freedom fighters and prominent citizens, under
the banner of "Deshpremi Nagrik Samiti", have protested strongly
against a proposed move by the Central Government to celebrate the
advent of Vasco da Gama in the country, to coincide with the 50th
year of Indian Independence.
Addressing a Press conference, the leader of the delegation, Mr V N
Lawande, said today that the country did not know what Vasco da
Gama was, how he behaved with the natives and with what purpose he
had landed on the eastern shore of India.
The expedition to India in 14981 was in fact, brought on by a Papal
Bull (a directive from the Pope) to "discover the Indian
sub-continent". It was based on the condition that the Portuguese
would capture these areas and spread Christianity.
The sea route discovery was "no discovery at all", according to the
Goan delegation, which pointed out that Vasco da Gama was helped by
an Arab navigator who was operating from the African coast to
India. In the first expedition, da Gama had slain and captured the
crew of a Goan captain and returned.
Quoting historians, Mr Lawande related that in the second
expedition, the navigator, armed with a fleet of ships and 800 men,
wreaked destruction in the city of Goan, killing and torturing the
natives.
The barbarity continued when Portuguese rule was established on the
island of Goan in 1510. The delegation regretted that there were
"still certain elements" in Goan who were pro-Portuguese and
wielded religious clout.
"We Goons, who have been the worst victims of Vasco da Gama's
so-called discovery of the sea route to India and whose enslavement
continued for four-and-a-half centuries, cannot tolerate any
attempt to glorify our slavery within Goan or any part of the
country", Mr Lawande stated.
A "long and drastic" programme had been organised to register
protest against the .glorification", beginning with a mass funeral
procession. The main feature of the procession would be a "corpse"
of the celebrated navigator, to expose his atrocities on the Goan
people.
The delegation resented the move of the government to celebrate da
Gama's advent, which was said to have originated when the
Portuguese Foreign Minister met with his then Indian counterpart,
Mr I K Gujral, to discuss the commemoration of the expedition to
India.
"We were slaves of Portugal can we be a part of an event which was
imposed on us?" the members questioned. They lauded the Kerala
Government's strong objection to the celebrations.
The Deshpremi Nagrik Samiti is being supported by the All India
Freedom Fighters Samiti, which expressed solidarity with the
movement. At their national executive meeting held yesterday, the
members resolved to join the Goan delegation in presenting a
protest memorandum to the President, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma.
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