From 18th
December 1961 till the end of that month, in Candolim the atmosphere was tense,
on 18th itself at dawn the Indian Military invaders of Goa consisting
of Tanks, Jeeps and other Military vehicles started moving on the main road
going to Aguada to capture the strongly manned Portuguese citadel. Early in the
morning my father was going to adjust the flow of water to our Paddy
field. He was wearing a sleeveless
Banyan and a “Cheddi” up to his knees.
Suddenly, one top ranking Military personnel from the front Military vehicle
spotted my father standing in our field 50 metres away from our house and
stopped the movement of the Military vehicles, called my father
thinking he was a “Paklo” because my father was fair.
When my father told the
purpose of his being in the field, the Indian Military personnel asked my
father “why you are wearing a Banyan?
For this. my father replied saying “I am a poor man”. Then the Military
man replied saying “We know Portuguese has intentionally kept you Goans as
poor. But now, henceforth, you people
will not remain poor any longer. We will drive the Portuguese out, make you
rich and hand over your Goa into your own hands”.
Hearing these good
tidings, my father came home smiling and all excited, saying Nehru Zindabad and
Salazar Murdabad while this same father of mine a few minutes earlier while
going to our field was saying just the opposite, that is Zalazar Zindabad and
Nehru Murdabad. It looked he was drugged
by the invaders to bring about such a dramatic change in him. However, to his regret, within a few days he
repented for the change in his thinking because first disgraceful act Indian
invaders did was to commit rapes though not in bigger scale but unbearable
scale as per Goan standard.
During that week, in
the evenings, Novenas “Salve” were going on in our Church to celebrate the
feast of Nossa Senhora de Esperanca”, on
the last Sunday of the December month, as per the tradition. Pe. Nicholau Noronha was the Pe. Vigar of our
Church and being a man of wisdom he suspended for a few days evening Novenas to
prevent raping of our female Church goers because during that period there was
continuous flow of Indian Military personnel on the main road. Though Pe. Nicholau Noronha distrusted Indian
Military yet he welcomed the ouster of Portuguese rule from Goa and as an
evidence of this he at Candolim Tinto somewhere on 23rd of that
month gave a small speech praising the invaders for getting rid of colonial
rule and concluded saying “Now we in Goa will have democracy and freedom to
express our views freely under the new government”. Earlier, when he was writing for Portuguese
Daily “A Vida”, his views on freedom were suppressed and banned by the order of
the “Censors”.
Hearing his speech,
some of the Hindus at the Tinto were surprised to know how a Christian Priest
can be a supporter of Jai Hind Raj? These
Hindus were third class illiterates because they thought Jai Hind means Jai
Hindu Raj and hence Goa under Bharati rule will be a Hindu Raj. However, these stupid idiotic minded Hindus
never knew the first Goans to raise their voice against Portuguese rule in Goa
were Christian Priests under the banner of Pinto’s Revolt from Candolim Pintos
Vaddo. Incidentally they were caught, arrested and publicly hanged in Panjim by
the Portuguese government of Goa then.
At one place, history says that even French Revolution was planned after
the Pinto’s Revolution. Even Abe Faria
the Priest son of Candolim Pintos Vaddo was a part of Pinto’s Revolt since the
distance between his house and that of Pintos is just a few metres.
Christians and Priests from
Goa played a very important role to free Goa from foreign domination. Dr. Francisco Luis Gomes, a renowned
Portuguese Parliamentarian from Navelim,
Salcette, Goa, raised the issue of Goa’s
freedom right inside European soil. But
all the intellectually bankrupt Hindus mainly from my village were not aware of
this fact and precisely for this reason
they were dubbing Goan Chrsitians as
pro-Portuguese. So much so, on 19th and 20th of that month of
December 1961, under the leadership of one fanatic Hindu, Balkrishna, some
stupid Hindus were firing fire crackers in front of the local Christians and
their houses near the Tinto. One Shamba Xett was even abusing Saint Francis
Xavier by saying “Now where is your Goencho Saib gone” as if He is from
Portugal. Somebody was giving bad words
to St. Anton.
During this period in
my village in Candolim in particular and in Goa in general, there was fear into the minds and hearts of
many Christias whom many Hindus treated as enemies of Indian Raj. But in reality what role Goan Christians
played for the ouster of colonial raj from Goa none others have played. But our misfortune was that during that particular period especially, our Church leaders have failed to open their
mouths loudly to silence the wrong opinion created of Christians. Many times we as Christian community failed
miserably because of our weak leadership based in Panjim at Altinho.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel: 7507394349.
