The Indianess in a Goan
- The Question is intriguing
- It arises today and has emerged in various points of history
- Neither history nor culture seem to provide definite answers
- Analyzing Goa’s past from Portuguese era till to-date, there has been a mirage of answers
- It depends to whom one speaks; it depends on circumstances; it depends on time
For instance the term India, indianess has been vaguely used by Goans to express different concepts
- Eg. Francisco Luis Gomes is believed to have demanded liberty and light for India
- When he spoke in the Portuguese Parliament about liberty and light, was he demanding those for the whole of India or Goa only?
- When Albuquerque said India will speak for me and for itself, did he mean Goa or Estado da India or India in general?
- Loyola used the word India in his speech of 1933 several times. Did the context appears to have changed frequently in the text (?).
- Many Portuguese writers in Goa begin with the history of Goa with the Portuguese entry in 1510 but this was not used by all the authors ,especially Goans?
- Many Hindu authors even in Portuguese times were not trapped in the 1510 bracket. So also many Catholic historians, poets from Goa were not imprisoned within the 1510 bracket.
- Again Francisco Luis Gomes in one of his letters claimed that he was born in the land that had invented the rules of war in a game (Chess) and had created an epic in Mahabharata
- Why was Gomes presenting this stand?
- Even traditionally families were claiming ancestry to some of the epic characters from the warrior classes, or from the priestly class., etc.
