My EIP Nationalism: Evolution of Thought

© Prakash J. Mascarenhas, 20^th October, 2002.
In all matters we must strive that we not be, as the beasts, mastered by our passions, but that we master our passions by reason, morality and law.
I set out to find old, pre-Reformation (Vatican II) Konkani Christian hymns, and I found the Colaço's The Goan Forum (TGF). Reading the interesting documents there turned my mind from hymns to a more important issue that had been troubling me, but which I had put on the back-burner - the Question of the EIP and its relation to the Indian Union.

As I read the pretensions - the contumacious pretensions - of Harbans Singh and Nitin Singh, my blood began to boil. As I sat down and began to draft out my answers to their contentions, and to the positions elucidated by the various posts on the TGF, I began to revise my understanding of the situation.

When I began to write it, focusing on the Indian Union's claim to possess a natural right to 'reclaim' the EIP, without any obligation of a reference to its people, I was still labouring under the idea that we, the citizens of the EIP owed it some kind of obligation, even though we were unhappy as to the means by which the Indian Union achieved its desired ends.

That is, the Indian Union had only a moral right to our affections and not a legal right, and that it had no legal right, under any condition to seize and incorporate us and our country into ourselves; only we could, in the exercise of our Sovereignity make such a decision, to merge or not to merge. Therefore, the incorporation was and is patently illegal, and is to be reversed.

I laboured under the delusion - a self-delusion, that the Indian Union was, by intention, designed as the Pan-Indian State, an �cumenical State of All India and of All Indians. However, when I had mentally drafted my answers to the contentions of the two Singhs, I began to be able to see things much more clearly. I asked myself: "Why do I deluded myself, constituting myself an apologist for the Indian Union, attributing to it and defending its rights, as if it had constituted itself with the intention to be the Œcumenical State of All India and of All Indians, when in both practice and in claims, it, the Indian Union, not only did not make such claims and even actively repudiated them?"

Therefore, as I began to examine the points logically, for the first time, I saw clearly, as I have written above, that this idea, which the Indian Union has zealously sought to always impart to us, both before and after the events of 18th & 19th December 1961, that it has a 'natural' right upon us, our lands, our affections and loyalty, has no basis whatsoever. That is, we, the citizens of the EIP do not have and did not have, ever, any kind of moral or legal obligations or duty to entertain feelings of affection and or loyalty towards the Indian Union, and that the Indian Union has no call upon us.

When I was able to throw off this intellectual blinkers, I saw, for the first time, as clear as crystal, that the Indian Union's very claim or pretension of possessing a natural right to us and our country, was and is entirely and absolutely an immoral act - an act of shameless, hypocritical, unprovoked aggression - and totally unacceptable or condonable!

I can see now clearly, as clear as crystal, that we have been imposed upon and deceived by the Indian Union. We are the victims of Aggression and Imperialism. That is, the relationship between the EIP and the Indian Union is entirely and only that of victim and victimiser. That and nothing more.
Final Evaluation
Writing this essay has been a learning experience for me.

I began to write this essay for the purpose of posting it on the Cola�os' website, the Goan Forum. Reading and drafting out replies to the extremely insulting and provocative pronouncements of a Harbans Singh and a Nitin Singh, brought me to the white heat of anger, and then, after cooling off, I was able to think much more clearly and logically, with a clearer and sharper focus.

When I began to write it, focusing on the Indian Union's claim to possess a natural right to 'reclaim' the EIP, without any obligation of a reference to its people, I was still labouring under the idea that we, the citizens of the EIP owed it some kind of obligation, even though we were unhappy as to the means by which the Indian Union achieved its desired ends.

That is, the Indian Union had only a moral right to our affections and not a legal right, and that it had no legal right, under any condition to seize and incorporate us and our country into ourselves; only we could, in the exercise of our Sovereignity make such a decision, to merge or not to merge. Therefore, the incorporation was and is patently illegal, and is to be reversed.

I laboured under the delusion - a self-delusion, that the Indian Union was, by intention, designed as the Pan-Indian State, an �cumenical State of All India and of All Indians. However, when I had mentally drafted my answers to the contentions of the two Singhs, I began to be able to see things much more clearly. I asked myself, why I deluded myself, constituting myself an apologist for the Indian Union, attributing to it and defending its rights, as if it had constituted itself with the intention to be the �cumenical State of All India and of All Indians, when in both practice and in claims, it, the Indian Union, not only did not make such claims and even actively repudiated them?

Therefore, as I began to examine the points logically, for the first time, I saw clearly, as I have written above, that this idea, which the Indian Union has zealously sought to always impart to us, both before and after the events of 18th & 19th December 1961, that it has a 'natural' right upon us, our lands, our affections and loyalty, has no basis whatsoever. That is, we, the citizens of the EIP do not have and did not have, ever, any kind of moral or legal obligations or duty to entertain feelings of affection and or loyalty towards the Indian Union, and that the Indian Union has no call upon us.

I can see now clearly, as clear as crystal, that we have been imposed upon and deceived by the Indian Union. We are the victims of Aggression and Imperialism. That is, the relationship between the EIP and the Indian Union is entirely and only that of victim and victimiser. That and nothing more.

Summation
I found this very startlingly perspective speech of Dr. Salazar on the Indian Union's 'natural' claim on the EIP: In the Portuguese National Assembly on November, 30 1954, he said, "The extension of Indian sovereignty to include Goa is not a prospect opened up by, or an anticipation of, the evolution of history; it is a political goal which India's present leaders suppose it their duty to achieve in order to fulfill their mission... It is always historical facts, and not geographical outline, that fix frontiers, institute rights and impose sovereignties... For the Indian Union to claim to turn the clock of history back to the 15th century, to come forward now and make out that she already existed potentially at that time, or to set herself up as the rightful heir of those whom we found holding sway there, is a fancy of static dreamers; it is not for the dynamic shapers of history that the men who received an empire from England want to be". (Source) From the time I was a young boy in school, this was drilled into my head: The Indian Union, as a Nation, was born on 15^th August 1947. I always found this claim rudiculous and stupid. Now, however, I merely want to ask and point out, without bothering about the validity or othewise of this claim — How can the Indian Union, which by its own claims, was born only in 1947, claim to be the continuation of the states that existed on what is now its territories?

I want to ask this pointed question: If the Indian Union claims to be the continuation of the States that existed on what is now its territories, that means that it is accepts as legitimate the Governments of Mohammad of Ghazni, Mohammad Ghuri, Timurlane, etc., of Allaudin Khilji, of the Arab sultanates of Cambay-Gujarath etc. Is that what the Indian Union wants to claim?

I want to specifically point out that Portugal founded the EIP by acquiring these territories from the Arab Sultanate of Cambay-Gujarath (Diu, Damão, Dadra & Nagar-Avelim) or from the Indo-Turkish, Bahamani Sultanate of Bijapur (Goa & the Angedivas); that this was by the direct specific request both of the Hindu Emperor of Vijayanagar and also by the Hindus of Goa.