FE Noronha, a member of the editorial board of Renovacao, a pastoral bulletin of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman writes,”…get down on your knees and pray, whatever prayer you know” as a holocaust is about to be unleashed upon churches.
The Portuguese colonial powers may have left India’sGoa on 18 December 1961, but its hold on a few seems to have lingered on as seen in an article in the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman’s pastoral bulletin Renovacao. The article carries a shocking warning that if the state government continues its talk of “destroying traces of Portuguese culture” then Goa could witness clashes similar to those in Manipur.
According to a report, FE Noronha, a member of the editorial board of Renovacao writes: “Goa is expected to see the next holocaust after Manipur… The sporadic squeaks about destroying traces of Portuguese culture are announcements of the holocaust under preparation… Get ready to be paraded, you can save on your clothes. There are also sporadic announcements about places of worship.”
It continues: “People of Goa, enough of stupid Sao Joaos, dances, weddings, ‘Corridinhos’ and alcohol, get down on your knees and pray, whatever prayer you know.” It goes on to say, “Your grandfathers rescued Goa in 1967. There is no Dr Jack Sequeira today, and Goans are not united. But situations throw up the requisite leadership and people rise to the occasion according to the crises.”
What is shocking is that the article says that Goa is on the brink of a disaster. Churches are about to be demolished and priests may get beaten up if this hatemongering goes on, it says, triggering panic.
The article is inflammatory and alarmist, not to mention that it also creates fear and fissures among sections of society. “If you have any sense left in you, please find some time off from your easy lifestyle, to reflect on the fate of your landGoa won’t be saved in Swindon, it has to be saved right here,” making a veiled and unsavoury jibe at those who have migrated to the UK and are settled there now.
Recalling the time when the newly liberated state was to be merged with Maharashtra in the late 1960s decade, Noronha says Goans (Goan Christians) must not squander their votes anymore on fly-by-night political parties as that has hitherto proven to be a political stupidity.
The bulletin is published by the Diocesan Centre for Social Communications Media (DCSCM), from the Archbishop’s House in Altinho, Panaji.
Goa has rarely if ever seen any religious impositions by the majority of Hindus on the Christians in the state. Quite the contrary, in fact, Goa was the site of the worst religious persecution and massacres inflicted upon the locals’ Thousands of families had fled their native and ancestral villages since the early 1500s when the first colonisers arrived on what was the coastal strip between what is today Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The Portuguese rulers tortured those who refused to convert and also burnt many at the stake. In fact, they also burnt some neo-converts as they were upset over the lack of discipline in following only Christian Gods. The records of these conquests were then sent to the church in Lisbon as well as maintained by the counterpart in Goa.
Even in the 20th century, the Portuguese ruled Goa with an iron hand. One could not get as much as a wedding invite or a puja invite printed and had to take formal permissions for the simplest of religious ceremonies in the household.
Until Goa was liberated in 1961, the Azad Gomantak Dal fought the brutal war in an uneven scenario. Prabhakar Sinari and Prabhakar Trivikram Vaidya were the armed revolutionaries who took on the political might of the Portuguese while India’s then Primem Minister Jawaharlal Nehru continued to look the other way – fearing reprisal from NATO if the Indian Army were to attempt throwing the colonisers out. Finally, on 18th December 1961 in what was also called Operation Vijay, the Indian Army marched in and saved (liberated) Goa.
Nagar Haveli was liberated by a poorly armed contingent of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh volunteers. These RSS youths led by Raja Wakankar, and including a young Babasaheb Purandare, etc. had left Pune in a sudden and secret mission amidst inclement weather and with few guns. A 200-strong police force serving the Portuguese had surrendered to these men in that surgical strike.
Yet, there have never been any incidents of the Hindu Goans persecuting the descendants of those who converted at gunpoint nor were any churces felled.
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