GOA'S "GOOD OLD DAYS"
© 2003, A.D., P.J. Mascarenhas, Goa Livre Organisation From Goan Petitioners In The UN, GFM Publication, 1964.
STANDARD-TIMES, NEW BEDFORD, FEBRUARY 5,1963
One year after Indian troops ended Portugal's 451-year rule over its tiny colony of Goa on India's west coast, native Goans are longing for the "bad old days" of "colonial oppression."
Who says so?
The Goans say so, and Time magazine's correspondent so recorded them in the Feb. 1 issue of that publication.
How could this be?
Under the Portuguese, Goa's virtual duty-free status insured it a higher standard of living than neighbouring India. Teachers and minor government officals were paid nearly three times as much as their counterparts across the border, and they could afford imported luxuries such as belgian sausage and scotch whisky. Even some field laborers carried transistor radios, shipped from Europe.
But independence from Portugal brought Goa under the control of India's austerity economy and stifling bureaucracy. About the same time, foreign demand for high-grade Goan ore slumped; production dropped from 1,000,000 tons in 1961 to 6,50,000 tons last year. Wage scales were adjusted downward to an Indian scale, but the cost of living climbed by 3 percent. Indian import restrictions abruptly cut off the flow of foreign goods, bankrupting many small merchants and forcing Goans to pay more for Indian merchandise of a lesser quality.
Hesitant Indian officials refer even minor bureaucratic decisions to New Delhi, where they become lost in a labyrinth of red tape. It was more than a year before Goan merchants were allowed to pick up goods imported and paid for before the "liberation" by India, by which time much of the material had rotted away on the docks of Mormugao Harbor.
Portugal had given Goa a considerable amount of local autonomy. Under New Delhi's rule, Goa hoped at least to become a separate province. But the neighbouring Indian provinces of Mysore and Maharashtra, covetous of Goa's economic potential and of Mormugao Harbor, which is one of the finest on the subcontinent, have each begun a campaign to annex it.
Morale in Goa is low. One Goan grumbled bitterly to Time's correspondent:
"Under the Portuguese we were considered a province.
Under India, to our surprise, we find we are treated like a colony."
If the United States had a proper regard for the welfare of the Goan people, it would make one of the conditions of U.S. aid to India that Goa be returned to Portugal and allowed to resume its superior standard of living.