Dom Faustino Dias' Speech
© 2003, A.D., P.J. Mascarenhas, Goa Livre Organisation
Address Delivered By Dom Faustino Dias, Indian Union Delegate, To The Goan Conference, Paris
It is a honour and pleasure for me to represent our Goan people living in Bombay, not only because I have spent almost my whole life there, but also because I have had the opportunity of knowing the thoughts and wishes of our people as an editor of a very popular Concani newspaper, Chabuk (The Whip) and as a social worker.
When I speak of Goa and Goans, I mean not only Goa and the people from Goa proper, but also our people from Damao and Dio, who have always formed an inseparable part of Portuguese India, and who themselves have always wished their fate to be linked with ours because for centuries they have had closer connections with Goa than with the Indian Union. We have always had the same way of living which we now find destroyed by an alien power. It is true that the number of people from Damao and Dio in Bombay is comparatively smaller, but I am certain that even they feel the same way as Goans proper in that city.
As you all now there are over 80,000 Gon living in Bombay, because to uss that ws the biggest city close to home. For economic reasons our people went to Bombay, not abandoning their homes, but leaving their wives and children behind to earn a better living in a big city. This is done all over the world and is not surprising. The friendly British government has always encouraged us and the life and work of our people is closely woven into the fabric of progress of the city for over a century.
Certainly, in the course of time, some had abandoned their homes in Goa itself and settled permanently in Bombay and in some other cities of the Indian Union, mostly because they were compelled to obtain British Indian domicile to be eligible for certain government posts. I do not claim to speak for the latter people, but I know that a large number of them sympathise with our cause.
About half of the Goan population of Bombay lives in that unique institution known as the "Goan club", which, as a rule, is established according to the villages to which we belonged. Most of the members of the clubs are seamen, who have sailed around the world and know that our way of life is a precious heritage to be guarded at all costs. The people living in these clubs have been the backboen of our community in that city and, suprisingly, more than the well-to-do people living elsewhere, the people lving in the clubs are always the conscience and soul of our people.
It would take volumes to relate the hardships which we in Bombay have gone through, especially since 1950, when the government of the Indian Union started to make efforts to take over Goa, but always without any consideration to the Goan people. These Indians knew very well that they would get never get any cooperation from Goans living in Bombay, and right enough when a determined effort was made to force the issue in 1954, they found a strong opposition from our people, especially those living in our clubs. (Cheers). The story from then on is a familiar one in the history of the world. A handful of would-be politicians, with financial help of the Indian Government, enlisted some tens of Goan donothing toughs, and tried to compel people to attend the so-called "mass meetings". They went from house to house, from club to club, using all their ruses to force our people to cooperate with the nefarious designs of the government of the Indian Union. In the end these meetings were formed not by many Goans but by members of several leftist parties in Bombay, who had nothing to do with Goa itself.
In retaliation for the stubborn and defiant attitude of the Goan people, the Indian Government imposed its sanctions, which amazingly enough were not directed against Portugal as a nation, but only against the Goan people. They closed the normal routes to Goa and the difficult, round-about road via Majali was watered by the tears of our people. They resolved never to go back to Goa but when the next year came, once again they took to the same tortuous road. (Cheers).
But our sufferings did not end there. Our mail was censored in Belgaum and it took eight days to get a letter, where it should have taken only one day. Even telegrams regarding illness or death of members of our families reached after three days, when only a few hours were needed.
Then came the hardest blow of all. We were not permitted to remit money to our families in Goa, nor could we take with us personally any amount over Rs. 75.00 A vast majority of our people have dependents in Goa, and we can easily imagine the hardship which these restrictions imposed on our people. All this was intended to bend the will of our people to the wishes of the Indian Government, but these measures antagonized the Goan people against the Indian Union all the more and the latter retaliated with another type of terror.
The Bombay Police C.I.D. (Criminal Investigation Department) started to deport Goans, at times even without the knowledge of their families, serving the twenty-four hour notice required by lawonly when the person was safely on train between two policemen, and detaining him in a cell in the meanwhile.
Others who innocently went as usual to their homeland, were debarred from returning to families and occupations at the frontier. As a matter of fact, the number of such deported and debarred people was higher than the number the Indian Union could recruit for the March on Goa on 15th. August, 1954. (Cheers).
The only accusation against these people was that they were "pro-Portuguese", when they by nationality were actually Portuguese! But this word came to be stretched so much that it needed only an unfriendly neighbour to report one that he was "pro-Portuguese" for the CID to take the person to the police station and at times to apply third degree measures as common for criminals in India.
In this terror we lived till the nightmare of the 18th. December 1961 and the days that followed. Goans in Bombay winced at every news that was received from home. Our way of living was destroyed over-night and with all the unheard-of crimes being reported from Goa, our people in Bombay lived in constant anguish. But however great may have been their misfortunes, they never lost faith in God and in their patron, Saint Francis Xavier, and to this day they firmly believe that the day of our freedom will dawn soon.
The idea ofself-determination for Goa is not a new one for Bombay Goans. Many had put it forward before the invasion, but they were brushed aside and black-listed at the Majari crossing. Now the Goans in Bombay, seeing the plight of their people at home, are united, more than ever before, in wanting to decide their own future. They all feel that the Indian Union should be compelled by the United Nations to revoke its bare faced armed invasion of Goa, Damao and Dio and that a plebiscite should be held to determine what exactly are the wishes of Goans living everywhere. (Cheers).
Since self-determination is almost an article of creed for so many nations, would it be too much for a conquered people like us Goans to ask for the minimum of human rights? If anyone talks of self-determination let us Goans have the right to decide our own future and wipe out the biggest blot in international affairs of our times &#: the armed conquest of a small, prosperous and peace-loving people by its more powerful neighbour. (Cheers).