On 29th
of last month, at Old Goa Inst. Of Pastoral Council Hall, at 5.30 pm I attended the meeting organized
under the banner of All India Catholic Union.
Approximately 200 persons males and females attended this Meet which
was addressed among others by Dr. John Dayal, Prof. Fernandes, Bishop Ferrao
and Dr. Colaco. The entire proceedings
were compered by Jovito Lopes who was instrumental in organising this Meeting
to create awareness among Catholics of their future in Goa in particular and
India in general.
On 17th
December 1961 when one Laundry man Mr.
Esho from Candolim Orda, at 7.00 PM came to know that Indian Troops already
entered Goan territory, he started shouting loudly near the Church saying “Jai
Swaraj – Jai Maharaj – Jai Hind. Atam
ami tumkam kitem tem dakoitelet, tumcheo Ingorzo ani Kopelam ami moddtelet ani
tumkaim kobar kortelaum”. Listening to
his screaming I as a young boy realized what will be our future in our own Goa
when my own brothers will try to liquidate us saying we being Christians we are
foreigners embracing foreign religion and in one word we were considered as
outisiders.
Are we really
outsiders? Who are insiders and those
who considered themselves as insiders, are they not outsiders by virtue of
being settlers on the banks of Indus River, coming from outside that land? I object if anyone calls us foreigners
because of the foreign religion we follow from the Europeans. I am nether a foreigner nor a follower of European religion, my religion
Christianity is not an European but Asian just as Hinduism which is also an
Asian. If I am an outsider then those
who say so are also outsiders because they are not original people from Indus area.
In the said
Meeting the speakers voiced their concern of making India a Hindu rashtra by
the Hindu fanatics. Though it is a big concern for us all the secularists yet
it is not easy because our Constitution is very firm on this point. These Hindu rashtra pundits want Hindu culture
in India. But to do this India is not their fathers’
property. Instead of Hindu culture they
must use the word Hindustani culture. We
are in Goa currently about 25% Christians but surely this percentage will
likely to go down in the next 10 years.
At that point of time, the Hindu fanatics will pounce on us to impose
their ideology and religion on us. As it is now they are prowling on us. They feel during the Portuguese time in Goa,
Christians enjoyed preferential treatment but to my knowledge it is not
true. On the contrary Hindu community
enjoyed better facilities then. For example in the commercial segment only the
Hindus dominated the commercial industry.
Who were the Goans and even non-Goans who had the monopoly over Mining
Industry? Was it not the Hindus like Salgaocar,
Dempo, Chowgules, Shantilal, Bandecar, Bandodcar
and others? Who was Kakulo from Cadolim
having agencies for expensive Cars like Taunus, Ford and others? What about other agencies held by the other
Hindus?
From the time
of 19.121961 when Goa was invaded by Bharat serkar under Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru’s premiership by giving false promises to Goans, the seed of communalism
was sown on the sacred soil of Goa thru the instigation of low grade Hindus by
the few high grade Hindus who wanted to liquidate Christians from Goa or dilute
the impact of their presence in Goa. One
way to do this was to merge Goa with Maharastra where Maharastra like a big Hindu
ocean will not only dilute the Christians and its influence but also swallow
them. The low grade Hindus felt that
they were persecuted and troubled a lot by the Bhattkars mostly the Christians.
To a certain extent it is right but those “Bastard” Bamon Bhattkars persecuted
and troubled not only poor Mundkar Hindus only but more than them it was the
Christian poor and Munddkar who suffered from the these Bhattkar.
In the
dictionary of Dayananda Bandodcar only among Hindus the Bahujan Samaz people
existed. He was a traitor and fake
Bahuzan samaz leader. He was the
communal leader who treated Hindus only as Bahuzan samaz. Because he was the communal he sided with
Hindus only. It was he who sowed more forcefully
the seed of communalism in Goa. What he
and others like him who were spreading communalism in Goa then, now the Bharati
settlers are doing in Goa coming from neighbouring and other Sates in India. The genuine original Hindu from Goa will
unlikely to embark on spreading this type of communalism. Original genuine Hindu from Goa is humane and
secular believing in Goan brotherhood. It
is this class of Hindus who fought against Bandodcar to defeat him in the
Opinion Poll. But unfortunately their crop
is dwindling now.
One of the
speakers mentioned how our enemies are jealous of the assets of the Church
and if they get a chance they will pounce on it first. Hence, Church should be more vigilant.
Yet another speakers
deplored the disunity among Catholics in Goa.
In this regard, Church leaders like Pe. Vigars and Pe. Curs must play
their roles in the villages by preventing the Catholics from fighting against
one another, including settling court cases amicably thru the intervention of
the Church leaders.
A.Veronica
Fernandes.
