Initiative for Goan Swaraj

FromXacuti Vindalho
ToPrax Maskaren
CC Errol Rodrigues
Sub.Re: A Name for a new Goan political party.
DateMon, 07 Apr 2003 07:47:43 +0000


Hi Prax,

This is to inform you that Errol is one of our Free Goa activist. Your comments on the email sent by Errol would be appreciated.

Best regards

Xac
FromErrol Rodrigues
ToXacuti Vindalho
Sub.A Name for a new Goan political party
DateFri, 4 Apr 2003 06:07:38 -0800 (PST)


Xac,

We need a new Party to organise support for an Independent and Free Goa in Goa and abroad. I know we will have good support. We cannot depend on other parties (i.e. Suraj/Congress) with they own interests. We will help and support other parties (i.e Suraj/Congress). Our aim is an independent Republic of Goa.

The first Indian political organization to call for complete independence from British rule was the Ghadar (or Gadar) Party, organized in 1913 by Indian immigrants in California. http://www.gadar.net/index_2.html

The Ghadar movement was remarkable for many reasons. Although Sikhs from Punjab made up the majority of it's founding members, the movement was completely devoid of any trace of regional or religious chauvinism. Its platform was uncompromisingly secular and called for a total rejection of any form of caste discrimination. And unlike the Congress, its membership was primarily drawn from the working class and poor peasantry. Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus of all castes (including Dalits) were welcomed in the movement without bias or discrimination.

We need to organise and put our just case to the Goan people, we need to get people to stand in goa for elections etc. It will be difficult with the INDIAN RAJ! And the RSS/VHP/BJP FASCISTS.

We need a name that appeals to Hindu, Muslims, Sikhs, and Buddhists etc. We have to be diplomatic and deciplend to win against India. We need to win support from our Hindu, Muslims, Sikhs, and Buddhists community. I have been in the past reckless with my language; we have to be careful not to offend the other community or show any religious chauvinism, although we know they support the RSS/VHP/BJP FASCISTS and the INDIAN RAJ! We will win like the Ghadar (or Gadar) Party against the great BRITISH EMPIRE.

Small steps count and chip-by-chip we will break the block.

Thank you.

The names so far: Goa or Goan Swadeshi Party.
Goa or Goan Swaraj Party (Swaraj for me means freedom)
If we wish to achieve Swaraj through truth and non-violence, gradual but steady building-up from the bottom upwards by constructive effort is the only way. This rules out the deliberate creation of an anarchical state for the overthrow of the established order in the hope of throwing up from within a dictator who would rule with a rod of iron and produce order out disorder.

Regards,

Errol
Mogal Amikam,

Let me congratulate you on your new initiative that will hopefully break the mental logjam of the Goan people and activate them to redeem our motherland.

However, I do have problems with the suggested course that you chart out.

To be frank, I do not see that the Hindu and other creedal communities of Goa have any interest, leave alone any cause to favour and support Goa's liberation. For them, what we adulate is exactly what they hate.

Let us be honest with ourselves. Goa is Goa because it was founded and is founded on its character as a Crusader state, or even more precisely, a Crusader beach-head against the great pagan East Indies.

Portugal and Spain had been swept under the Islamic Arab empire, and it was the Crusader Reconquistas, supported, motivated and prodded on by successive popes that brought about the eventual though gradual liberation of Iberia from Islam.

And as a continuation and projection beyond Iberia (the Crusades were never localised in intent anyway), the Portuguese set out to outflank the Islamic empire and bring it to its heel — a project in which it admirably succeeded and would have brought to fruition but for the intervention of the Dutch protestants.

It was in the process of this, that Goa was founded.

And it is precisely this that gives OUR Goa and US, as opposed to THEIR Goa and THEM that particular character by which we are known and which is our national character.

That is, we are a Crusader state, a Crusader nation.

Take away our Christian character, which is based purely and entirely upon our Crusader heritage, and what do we have? Nothing!

Without this distinguishing characteristic, we are just the same as the other Konkani and other Indian peoples of the East Indies!

While some of Goan Hindus could be interested in defending Konkani nationalist rights, such as of the Konkani language, though of course, their version of the Konkani language, it is greatly improbable that they would be interested in a free Goa. As for freedom, they have got all that they want and more in the Indian Union and its dispensation, and it is in their interest to perpetuate the Occupation and prevent the restoration of the Crusader State of Goa.

Secondly, it is always necessary to keep in mind the distinction between a resistance to Occupation and a purely Secessionist movement.

We are citizens of a political entity that has determinate shape, character, form and constitution — O Estado da India Portuguesa, the State of Portuguese India or EIP, to give it it's Portuguese acronym. Now, constitutionally, this political entity was a non-self-governing dependency of the State of Portugal. Our country was encroached upon by the Indian Union, its largest neighbour in 1954 and in 1961, and in 1974, Portugal, under the vise of the Anti-Catholic Freemasons who seized power from the Salazarists, formally renounced sovereignity over us, the EIP.

Portugal did this by a fraudulent treaty signed with the Indian Union without the consent and without consulting the EIP, and recognizing the NON-EXISTENT CONSTITUTIONAL ACCESSION AND ABSORBTION OF THE EIP INTO THE INDIAN UNION. Since this 'Constitutional Accession' upon which this 'treaty' is predicated, never happened in law or in fact, this 'treaty' is an act of fraud on the part of Portugal, and aggravated act of crime on the part of the Indian Union, and an act of complicity in fraud by the UN by accepting and registering the 'treaty.' And by this act, Portugal formally and explicitly renounced all rights and claims over us, the EIP.

The legal consequence of this act on the part of Portugal was to constitute us a sovereign state. That we are under the occupation of our neighbour is not constitutionally relevant.

Now it is important to remember these facts because it demonstrates conclusively that we do not fall within the same legal status as the subjects of the British East India Empire were and who, such as the Gadarists, rebelled against its obviously legitimate and constitutional government.

The various factions of the Indian freedom movement fought on the platform of a sheer myth — that the British East India Empire constituted a 'nation' which was under the illegal occupation of the foreign English.

In sharp contrast to this are obviously legitimate movements of people which cannot be described, strictly speaking, as constituting legal resistance to foreign occupation, but as constituting legal option of secession under grave and just cause - such movements as of the Nagas and of the Eelamites, etc.

Goa, or to be more precise and give it its exact legal name, the EIP, is a legal and definite state that is under the patently illegal occupation of a foreign state, which has invaded and which occupies the EIP without any semblance of just cause and right.

In this, Goa is legally in exactly the same condition as France, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc., that were occupied by Nazi Germany, or Kuwait under Saddam Hussain, or Spain and Portugal under Napoleon Bonaparte, etc.

Now coming to the question of setting up yet another political party.

Let us be practical. If we are going to set up a party based in our own homeland, we will need to register it under the Occupation. And if we choose to do so, those who do so will be morally recognizing the 'legitimacy' of the Occupation.

Obviously, then, we need an organization that is not based in territory under the occupation of the Indian Union, whether it be the EIP or the Indian Union's own territory.

The suggested aim of attempting to achieve our liberation by supporting the collaborationist GoaSuraj and or other factions is self-defeating.

Likewise, the insistence upon unarmed struggle to achieve our end is self-defeating.

We must know the facts about our country and act in that belief: That we are under an illegal and unconstitutional occupation, and that the only legitimate and sensible means of vacating it is by armed struggle.

There is certainly need for a Goan polical party. However, unlike the Sinn Fein and the Basque polical parties, we do not need a 'constituionalist' front that seeks to aid the Resistance by working within the 'Constitutional Setup' of the Occupation — precisely because, unlike with Ireland and Eustardi, we are not attempting Secession but striving to end Occupation.

It is necessary to keep this important distinction before our minds always.

The Goan political party or parties must form the civilian Government-In-Exile, or Underground, and must collect together documentations and statistics to preserve our national identity in the face of the occupation. And its principal objective must be to co-ordinate and guide the Resistance.

But as for the Resistance itself, I affirm that it is my unswerving belief that the vast majority of Goans look with hostility upon the Occupation, but are comfortable and unmotivated enough not to act against it and to even connive with it; however, given a provocation, that dormant fire of resentment will burst into flames.

Therefore, we need to manufacture a provocation. Like the Irish Easter Rising.

A small but determined and well trained band of resistance warriors striking at a hugely symbolical object will result in a huge psychological blow against the Occupation; a blow for Goa and its liberation, and will cause the dormant flame to burst forth into ardent flames.

From the practical viewpoint, just as the protagonists of the Easter Rising were soon overwhelmed, so too will this band be, in the greater probability, overwhelmed by the terrorists of the Occupation. But that, and the inevitable brutality of the terrorists, will only add to the provocation.

Any movement that is designed to exclude and even anathematize armed resistance and to recourse to 'Constitutionalist methods' is inevitably doomed to commit treason and to collaborate with the Occupation.

Any movement that is designed to be purely and exclusively a peaceful, political movement is doomed to become 'Constitutionalist' and therefore Collaborationist.

I appeal to my fellow patriots not to waste their time in idle pursuits but to pursue the creation of the Government-In-Exile and of that core band of dedicated patriots and resistance fighters who will strike the first blow and fan the flames of patriotism lying dormant in the breasts of too many of our compatriots.

Let us put our energies in the only means that can reasonably assure us of our ends.

I say: Assuredly, let us imitate the Gadarists, as much as we shall imitate the Irish and any other group of human beings fighting for their rights. And the only way to imitate the Gadarists is by armed struggle!
We must stop chasing after pipedreams and look forward to achieving the practical. We should prepare for ourselves a roadmap to Liberation.

Let us begin by mentally acknowledging that when push comes to shove, we will need to turn upon our own fellow Goans - the 'loyalists' who support the Occupation, whether Christians or Hindus, and inflict condign punishment upon them.

That is, we must make it impossible for the civil infrastructure of the Occupation: Sarpanchs, Panchayats, Tahsildars, Mamlatdars, District Collectors, police officers, etc., to function. We must be always clear in our mind that these are not upholders of the law, but criminals, whether Goan or Indians, and that who takes on these offices must know that he or she will suffer sure and inevitable punishment.

And we must be clear in our minds about this: There are many who are born Goans but who not only do not care for Goan rights and independence, but are passionately for the enemy. And there are many non-Goans — largely the destitute and indigent immigrants whom we call Ganthies, who would welcome the opportunity to become true and full-fledged Goans. We must therefore not be stuck up emotionally but being strong and heardheaded, kick out the renegades and traitors and assimilate these Ganthies, grafting them into Goan society and conforming them to our culture and accepting them fully as our own.

Secondly, we must mentally acknowledge that the only real motivation that can bring in a large number of Goans to join and to support the Resistance is by assuring them of financial rewards - such as by awarding them, upon liberation, with the confiscated properties of traitors and of the Occupation.

This is also the only sure means to motivate monied ultramarine Goans and other EIP citizens to invest their monies in the Resistance.

We must also have a roadmap for Goa post-Liberation.

We will need to confiscate and re-distribute among those who fought and sacrificed for Goa's liberation, agricultural, horticultural and forest lands, mines and the estates of the East (Satari, etc.) We will need to force and kickstart the reform of Goan agriculture by forcing allotees of these lands to actually use them for the stated purpose in the first ten years failing which the grants will be resumed and alloted to others.

Only at the end of the ten years, when the allotees have demonstrated that they are sincerely using the allotments, should their allotments be confirmed as permanent.

We will also need to kickstart Goan Industrialisation. The Free Goan Government will need to be heavy-handed and push for Cottage industries to be organized and professionalized. Industry must be properly balanced with manufacturing and services, and high tarriffs will need to be imposed to protect Goan agriculture and industry in their infancies.

The third core area for the Free Goan government will be to regulate urbanisation, the road, rail, water and air transport systems, establishment of Industrial zones and Duty free zones, Free Ports and of a strong and respected Goan Merchant Marine.

The only means of assuring our continued freedom is by building as strong network of road, rail and inland water transport systems to support an industrialized economy. We must always keep in our minds the objective that we do not want to be a perpetually developing-but-not-arriving country, but a real economically developed country that has arrived at its destination in short order.

In foreign policy, we must act on the sure knowledge that Goa will never know real security and its manifest destiny for which it came into existence in the first place, until it has procured the cessation of the Indian Union and aided and assisted the individual nations emerge into their own right. However, at the same time, we must be careful not to allow the balance of power in the Sub-Continent to shift in favour of the Islamists, and we will need to watch out carefully, and to build alliances and leagues to take on and proactively engage and rollback, as before, the Islamic states.

Again, also, we must insist that liberation and the end of the Occupation are not enough, but that we must be paid millions and even billions in compensation and in reparations, and as punitive damages for wrongdoing.

We will need to build up ourselves as a credible nuclear and military power.

We are intimately interested in the Konkan nation and territory, and in the expulsion of Marathi and Gujarathi colonists from the Konkan. It must be our aim to bring about a free and friendly Konkan State into existence.

Finally, our Manifest Destiny is to revive the ancient and venerable project of acting as the Crusader beach-head against the forces of darkness - paganisms and infidelisms, and to propagate the Kingdom of Light of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I do not think that we should use such words as Swadeshi or Swaraj. These are not Goan words, not part of our native vocabulary. They are foreign words, but not only are they foreign words, they are actually the words of our oppressors. Therefore, we should avoid such words and vocabularies. We should use such clearly defining and provocative names as Goan National Movement, Goan Liberation Movement, EIP National Movement, EIP Liberation Movement, Movimento Naçional Goesa, Movimento Liberaçião Goesa, etc.
At this moment of time, support from among our own people is minimal. Therefore, the only practical thing to be done, as far as I can see, is to continue on propagandizing and educating our people, so that they will eventually realize and wake up!

In the meantime, we must not lose heart that the vast majority are indifferent. Like George Bush & Co., we must continue striving bullheadedly, confident about the morality and justice of our cause, indifferent to the cacophony of the scandalized chatterboxes.

The world is made by the brave and the unconventional, not by the tamed and domesitcated!

Deo borem korum

Prax Maskaren, Bombay.

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