The Goa Arts College Rape
Copyright Prakash John Mascarenhas. 7th June 2003.
The rape of a college girl in the college at the Goa Arts College located at Miramar, on the outskirts of Ponjhe, by her seniors, was a traumatic moment for Goa. However, the event has been largely misinterpreted, in my humble opinion.
There have been rapes before in Goa. There were rapes when the Muslims invaded and conquered Goa twice, when the Vijayanagari and later Portuguese armies liberated Goa on three different occasions from the Muslims, when Shivaji and then Sambaji invaded. In the meantime, there were rapes during the Rane rebellions and by the Pakle, who, by and large, earned a bad reputation for their brutality and rapacity.
Again, when India invaded, they raped women in Goa, although that has been largely hushed up.
However, Goa had a traditionalist society which discourages crime, and that society is in the throes of rapid change.
We can blame Parricar or the Bhailem (Outsiders), but I do not believe that that is either fair or honest. We can blame the Indians, and though it is true enough that they are invaders and illegally occupy our country, I do not believe that the change that is happening would not have happened if the invasion / occupation had not happened.
If any one is to be blamed, it should be the Congress Party rather than the BJP. The BJP is not a party of sexual promiscuity, however sharp our differences may be, while the Congress is infamous for this. And we are all fully aware that the Congress has always been corrupt, seeking not only money but also sexual favours in order to permit or facilitate anything. This is common knowledge and the common reputation of the Congress, as amply exposed and commented upon by Goan Tiatr.
But also, it is not directly the Congress which is blameworthy.
I think that what has happened, the Altinho Case, as much as the many rapes of foreign and Indian tourists, as also of the weaker, destitute Bhaile women, largely from Karnataka and Andhra, are part of a larger world-wide movement - a social change.
I note that Goans joined with Bhailem to rape a woman, of whom we do not know whether she is Goan or Bhaile. However, even if she were an Indian, it would not justify this horrific crime.
I note that the rapists were not strangers to the victim. The victim was friendly enough to consume a drug-laced drink which enabled the rapists to rape her.
The world is moving towards licentiousness and a 'freedom' where might is right and where the 'fittest' survive. In this world, the only crime is to be caught, not wrongdoing in itself.
Portugal itself has fallen victim to that revolutionary change, with followers of this ideology overthrowing the Phalangist regime in 1976. Therefore, if Goa had remained in Portuguese hands, it would still have met the same, or similar fate, as it is now, though there would be many things very different.
We could delude itself that Altinho happened suddenly and inexplicably, but I see that it was something waiting to happen. Goa has became famous, and is even sold to the tourist, as a place where promiscuity is permitted. Goans themselves have, by and large kept away from this culture of promiscuity, but that is changing under the pressures of living in such a culture officially cultivated and protected by the state.
We could pretend that Altinho was a surprise, but I was hurt when those two Australian women were raped that night, in Koingot or Anjuna, a year or so ago. And we have been deliberately turning a blind eye towards the abuse of Bhailem youth and even children in Goa by foreign, Indian and Goan paedophiles. I assure you that worse things will be happening in the future.
I can easily foresee that at the rate we are going, a Goan Dutroux is just waiting to happen. When it happens, we can rush into the streets and beat our breasts and lament loudly and hypocritcally, pretending that we know nothing about why and how it happened, but our pretensions will be just that: pretensions.
Goans cannot live surrounded by all this evil and not imbibe of it, partake of it, become a part and parcel of it. We may pretend that we are not part of it, that we are merely spectators, even if we passively yet knowingly permit our shops and restaurants and hotels, even our very homes, leased out to paying guest tourists, to be misused for these wrongdoings.
Again, just how much isolated are we from all this? We all have the modern sewers, the Television, the god of the modern world, pouring forth his 'prasad' right into our homes, promoting sexual promiscuity, immorality, immodesty, etc. Our 'Church' is not far behind, but part of the world-wide apostacy that exalts humanity and human pleasure over God and morality; the same new culture that has created the world-wide culture of priestly paedophilia. (See Poisonfruits. Note that Goan priests, such as Padre Vissent, Saligaoncar, are in the forefront of this Culture of Immorality.)
What Tiatr comments upon is the infamous demands made by Goan Congress and other politicians, not only for money, but also for sexual favours. What it does not comment upon, as far as I know (it is over fourteen years since I last saw a Tiatr performance) is that it is not so much solicited as much as offered. That is, it is commonly known in Goan society that upcoming and 'liberated', even feminist, women do not have any inhibitions in offering sexual favours in order to gain their ends.
And, this same is also public, though unpalatable, common social knowledge, that Goan women have, like many Filipinas, exchange sexual favours for jobs and job security, etc., in the Gulf.
Goan society likes to pretend that this unsavoury culture of sexual promiscuity is not happening, but we merely delude ourselves.
The only way to prevent or obstruct this Culture of Evil from progressing further, and even to force it back and to exterminate it, is to sit down and dispassionately work out that ideology to its roots and pull it out of our minds, mental outlook and thought processes.
We must return to a Culture of Morality.
We must ask why we must have a Culture of Promiscuity. We must ask why men not only tolerate it but in fact even encourage it. I believe that by and large, men, more than women, are guilty of fostering this Culture of Promiscuity, seducing women, because they want cheap and free sex without the responsibility of raising and providing for families. When women do that, it is usually in order to gain some 'good' in exchange. That is not to justify either form of this evil.
Again, I note that many Goan women are literally forced into the workplace and even to work as housemaids or as officeworkers in the Gulf, usually for Muslim Arabs who have the sexual morals of the alley cat, by their husbands and menfolk taking to the triune Goan deity of Hard-Drink, Football and Chasing-Skirt.
Lastly, this is because of the new 'Morality' where people are considered 'free' and social responsibilities is for idiots.
I am a Goan. But nevertheless, I neither drink hard drinks nor smoke. I attribute this entirely to my father who saw the havoc that his father, a tarvoti, created under the influence of drink, and the wastage of precious monies on other vices. Goan though I am, I have, to the astonishment of other Goans, never imbibed Urrack or Feni and, God willing, never will! I am a Christian, and for that reason, I keep strong drink at arms length, while I have a little wine now and then for health's sake (1 Timothy 5:23).
I have seen too many Goan families destroyed by strong drink. I have seen too many relatives and neighbours go to ruin, destroyed by strong drink. I follow in my father's footstep, and God willing, I intend to keep it up till I get to my grave.
We must ask why we permit Baina to exist. We must ask why we permit foreign tourists to walk around topless on our beaches and corrupt our morals and seduce us from our Christian heritage. We must ask why women contribute to this culture of promiscuity by immodest dress. And so on and on.
Once we have eliminated these evils, only then will we be able to eliminate this Culture of Evil.
©Prakash John Mascarenhas
The above article is written in reaction to this post on the GoanCauses list:
Message #11814 Goancauses list
From: Goa Desc <[email protected]>
Date: Sat May 24, 2003 2:11 pm
Subject: 5 students rape junior at farewell of Goa Art College.
Documented by Goa Desc Documentation Service & circulated by Goa Civic & Consumer Action Network (GOA CAN) <[email protected]> Ph:2252660
5 students rape junior at farewell
Five final year students brutally gang-raped their colleague in the toilet of an on-campus canteen of the Fine Art College in Altinho, Panjim last Saturday afternoon.
The ghastly rape occurred, when the final year students were celebrating their farewell party at the college premises. While the alleged rapists were from the final year, the victim was one year junior to them. Police sources added, that the alleged rapists drugged the victim with a dope-laced cigarette, led her to the canteen's loo and gangraped her.
The police have already arrested Vishal Dhuri from Taleigao, Vishal Mehta from Canacona and Audhoot Dabholkar from Chapora. The latter managed the college canteen and according to a senior police officer had "aided" the gory affair.
"Dhuri is originally from Vasco, but was staying at Taleigao," police sources informed. The police are looking out for one Roy Mascarenhas from Majorda. "There is one more person we are trying to trace from St Cruz, who has left for his native state Karnataka.
The process of FIR registration was on till late in the night. Police sources informed, that the victim has spelt out names of the accused who had raped her. "The boys are from Panjim, Taleigao, Vasco, Canacona and St Cruz all of whom were her colleagues," a senior police officer informed.
Superintendent of Police Muktesh Chander who is holding additional charge of the North District told reporters that several teams had already been sent to nab the culprits.
"We have put several teams on the job," he informed. Officers from the Crime Branch and the North District police are fanning out, looking out for the remaining accused.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar visited the police head quarters and took stock of the investigation.
As reported in the "O HERALDO" of 24th May 2003, page 1.
Despite the news report, however, it seems that the college, the scene of the crime, is located in the Miramar (Garpar Dias) borough, not in the Altinho district of Ponjhe city.