An Indianist Apologia
©Prakash John Mascarenhas, Bombay. 6th November 2003. This page is copyright!
Mr. Gupta,
I find your latest letter astounding. Your level of English has visibly deteriorated from that of your first letter.
Again, I wish to impress upon you my strong resentment against the gratuitous allegation that I am "spewing venom"!
Your latest letter is even more astounding given that you have sedulously ignored the main point I have raised - wherein I have sought your exposition of the legal and moral principles upon which India's claims and actions vis-�-vis Goa can be justified.
Instead of attending to that, which you yourself had invited in your initial letter, [
You had written: "We are pleased to invite you to send the issues to us which will be taken up by our organization in legal and righteos manner"] you launch into a long spiel of drivel and irrelevant or malicious misrepresentations.
It is not your concern whether we want to live with the Portuguese or not. That is Goa's internal affair - which we will deal with among ourselves, and you, as an Indian and an Indianist, have no say in it.
To be very, very frank, I personally believe that Goa ought to retain a working relationship with Portugal and the Lusophile Community. I believe that Goa would be better off as an associate state in a relationship of free association with Portugal.
It is a fact that states have changed in shape, complexion, constitution, etc. over the ages. It is also true that states have merged - just as it is true that states have fractioned.
That does not justify wrongdoing, and it cannot justify (your) rejection of (my) resistance to wrongdoing. By wrongdoing, I mean taking over of states against their sovereign wills. That is what is called invasion and occupation.
That is what Revolutionary France and Napoleon did, resulting in the Great Napoleonic Wars. That is what Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Meiji Japan did, with Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, the Sudentenland, France, Belgium, Ethiopia, Korea, Manchuria, the Philippines, etc.
That is what Saddam Hussein did, in 1990, with Kuwait.
That is what India did with Nongstoin and other Khasi States, with Manipur and other states in 1947-48, with Goa in 1954 and 1961, and with Sikkim in 1974-75.
Each of these actions was and is wrong, illegal, and null and void.
These actions do NOT constitute "modern democracies" - rather they militate against the very concept of democracy - which is based upon a universal recognition of the dignity of men and societies.
You talk utter nonsense when you say that "what view the majority takes is important and not what view a handful of people like you."
Goa has never been afforded a free and fair referendum and the due process to decide its destiny - whether it wishes to continue to be ruled by Portugal, emerge as an independent nation, or establish a relationship with Portugal as a free-associate state, or any other option, such as merger or free association with any other state or group of states.
India has merely marched in with main force and declared that Goa is thereupon become an "integral" part of itself - which is contrary to all civilized norms, contrary to law and morality, and therefore is null, void and criminal.
Therefore, there is no ground whatsoever to allege an opposition between the party of patriots, which you position as a "minority" and some mythical, non-existent "majority" of Goans who apparently, in some Sovietesque manoeuvre, voted to join India and merge Goa into India, while being blissfully asleep and unaware of this momentous happening!
How was this miracle achieved? By some Stalinesque Ukase?
"I, Jawaharlal Nehru, having condescended to invade you, Goa, now declare and proclaim that you have participated in a free and fair referendum and plebiscite, albeit entirely in my imagination, wherein you have piteously begged to be invaded and annexed by Big Brother India, and to gloriously liberate you from your properties, your rights, your humanities and dignities, etc."
I do not see why you raise the issue of "Divide and Rule". I am aware that Indians have a great mythology about it, and England figures in it somewhere, but believe me, it is all a lot of pious humbug and hypocrisy - all horse feathers!
In Indian history, we are taught of the Mauryan Empire. Chandragupta, the son of Mura, a courtesan of the Nanda Emperors, founded it together with his mentor, Chanakya "Kautilya" ("the Cruel One"), a Brahmin out to avenge his insult at the hands of the Nandas. In educating Chandragupta to take on the Nandas, Chanakya brings Chandragupta a plateful of hot steaming rice straight from the cooking-pot, and commands he eat. Chandragupta plunges his hand into the rice and backs out fast, having his fingers burnt. Then Chanakya tells him to split the rice into portions on the plate and to eat it. He does so and notices that it is easier now when the rice is segregated into portions, and the rice cools off faster...
Chandragupta went on to overthrow the Nandas and to found the Mauryan Empire, with Chanakya at his side. Chanakya wrote his ideology down as one of the treatises of Hindu scriptures, or
Shastras, the
Arthashastra - the art of politics, pre-empting Machiaveli's
The Prince by more than a millenium and a half...
What do you call this ideology? It smacks of "Divide and Rule". Divide and Conquer? Anyway, the
Arthashastra was and remains the Hindu textbook of Politics...
Before the English came to India, the various Muslim states had been practicing the same policy. It is called Millatism. And it was universal to Islam, not merely in India.
Thus the Ottoman Empire, the Caliphate of Istanbul, also had various millats for various social segments: Shias, Sunnis, Druze, Sufi, Greek Orthodox Christians, Melchite Catholic Christians, Maronite Catholic Christians, Jacobites, Nestorians, Jews, Sabaeans, etc. The Millat system was rigorously imposed and maintained.
In India, the Brahmin caste dominated Hindu society where Hindu Orthodoxy prevailed. But in the penumbra of the borderlands, or lands where penetration had not yet securely happened, people were freer with their beliefs and actions.
The Kshatriyas or Warrior and Rulers caste among the Western Aryans, who latter coalesced as the Persian, Parthian, Achaemenid Empires and latter as modern Iran, rebelled against Brahmin hegemony by abolishing Hinduism and substituting it with the new religion of Zoroastrianism, which began as a reform of Hinduism.
There were sporadic Kshatriya attempts in India also to overthrow Brahmin hegemony, resulting in mutual massacres of Brahmins and Kshatriyas, as recorded in the histories.
In India, the Brahmins, in order to maintain their hegemony and to keep the Kshatriyas divided, and the rest of society also, taught the Kshatriyas to constantly fight among themselves, and to seek each of them to establish their own kingdom, and to strive to overcome their neighbours.
This is what the Brahmins teach the Kshatriyas is the "Kshatriya Dharma" - "the religion and vocation of the Kshatriyas"!
This was the purpose of the "Ashwamedha Yagna" and the "Purushamedha Yagna".
This process kept India from coalescing into a single state, unlike in China or Egypt, and kept the Kshatriyas too busy to work out the trick that the Brahmins were playing on them.
There was also a time in Indian history, when the Indian peoples rebelled against Hinduism en masse and turned to Buddhism; during this time also, the Brahmins were eclipsed.
It was during these times of eclipse or penumbra, that the Indian peoples achieved great things. Indian merchants adventurers opportunists etc explored countries near and about the Indian subcontinent - south East Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa. They carried Hinduism, Buddhism and Indian culture to these lands, founding Sri Vijaya, Champa, Cambuja, Singhapuram, Jayakshetra, the Shailendra Empire, etc. Then, following the success of Sankaracarya's revival of Hinduism in India, the Brahmins once again dominated.
Following this, the Brahmins once again clamped down on the heterodox liberties and the Hindus ceased to be adventurous and to explore. Indeed, the Brahmins taught them that by crossing the seas, they would lose their caste status and become low castes! That worked as a powerful incentive to keep people in line, and thus the seas were handed over on a platter to alien peoples. It was this situation that the Muslim Arabs took advantage of, and they monopolized the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
Therefore, it is evident that the policy of "Divide and Rule" was not at all introduced by the English, but was practiced in India for more than two millennia before the English arrived... If the English practiced it, they must have learnt it from the Indians!
You have your problem with Nehru, which is of no concern with us Goans. However, I think that you are being self-contradictory when you allege that he was a "poor administrator" yet a "cunning person to keep hold onto power."
I find your talk about the nationalities and ethnicities of the Brahmaputra basin insulting and patronizing. You gratuitously position yourself as one better qualified than the natives themselves to know what is best for them!
When you say that "such small backward tribal belts will not survive as independent states because of geopolitical reasons and economic insufficiencies", you are pompously talking through your hat. You have no idea at all of what you are talking, and of what an ass you are making of yourself!
There used to be a time, when the "white man" had what he called a "burden" - to carry, willy-nilly, whether they wanted it or not, the native peoples of countries other than in Europe, to civilization, etc. Thankfully, that nonsense is over, and the Europeans, Americans, etc., no longer give credence to such garbage.
But today, at least in India, it has been substituted by the Brown Babu's Burden - to invade and occupy countries, and to insist that they are benefiting their victims!
Again, you talk through your hat about Khalistan. You have no idea at all of what you are talking.
East Punjab forms a very small and insignificant portion of the land mass of the Indian Union. From the viewpoint of agriculture too, of arable land, it is not significant, being overwhelmed by the much larger Gangetic basin to its east.
And yet, principally because of the ever-enterprising Sikhs, it is the breadbasket of India, providing it the largest portion of its food grain production!
If East Punjab were to emerge as an independent country, believe me, it will be financially and economically a far more powerful country than India minus East Punjab.
Since the annexation of the Sikh Kingdom by the British, the Sikhs, more than any other Indian people, have embraced the Industrial Revolution, the Green Revolution, etc. They have progressed fast - and India is only a drag on the progress of East Punjab!
An independent East Punjab would be an agricultural and industrial workhorse, shaming both India and Pakistan by its sheer industry and progress! It will be like having Japan, Korea or Taiwan in between Pakistan and India!
You keep on blathering about "US imperialists". That appellation is astounding given your own track record of Indian imperialism! What gives you the right to categorize Americans as imperialists automatically even while you Indians pretend to be a bunch of moral saints? This is sheer hypocrisy! Shame on you!
You are being ridiculous, and echoing senselessly the same old Indian mythologies of superiority, when you talk of India inevitably emerging as a superpower. Not so inevitable, considering that even you acknowledge the systematic corruption that is the very foundation and vehicle of India's movement!
Don't just blame the politicians! A society gets the rulers it deserves! Hinduism makes the Hindu rate of growth, and if, due to a fluke, it is zooming just now, don't exaggerate and lose sight of the facts, of the truth, or you will only hurt yourselves!
I would suggest that you learn to talk of God more respectfully. After all, it is no easy thing to get out of His hands, once you have crossed Him the wrong way...
You had no reason to bring in God, in asking if we sought independence from God. There is nothing in what I had written earlier that justifies this bit of blasphemy!
Goa was economically better off before the Indian invasion and occupation, and it can only be better when the occupying terrorists of India are ejected.
And please keep your "Mother Theresas" to yourself. Not everyone admires her, you know. I would suggest that you look up Dr. Rama Coomaraswamy's site on that woman in order to get a better perspective.
Certainly, there is a lot of misery in India, Goa and in the rest of the world. Since I live in Bombay, I know firsthand that it is entirely because of the attitude of the civil authorities: the Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay, and the Maharashtra provincial government, the Central Government of India, and other bodies, that there is so much of misery and anarchy and disease in Bombay. The authorities have a tactic policy of not merely tolerating but actually of conniving with squatters and land sharks so that slums and illegal commercial establishments proliferate on the pavements and streets.
I know that if the authorities started acting strictly according to law, however heartless it may appear, it will benefit Indian society and Bombay more than this traitorous connivance that cannibalises the city's infrastructure!
In the same way with Goa. It is because so many Goans connive with the occupation and merrily do business with it without any scruples that there is so much anarchy and misery in Goa. For rationality and sanity of all kinds to prevail, Goans need to understand that they must either formally compromise with and thus legitimise the Occupation, or reject it and fight it actively.
And yet, Goans also need to know that India's problems of management does not begin and end with Goa: If the Goans legitimise the Occupation, it would hardly improve the ground situation in Goa. The Indian state is constitutionally corrupt, and will continue to be and remain corrupt. Its corruption is integral to its very existence, so much so that only a massive social revolution in all India, overthrowing and suppressing utterly and mercilessly the plague of Hinduism, can change it - and that is, atleast at the present, beyond the needs and energies of the Goans.
Lastly, the most important fact that Goans need to always keep before them, in their minds, is this: India has blatantly and unrepentantly and triumphantly wronged us. If we legitimise this, we legitimise evil, and degrading ourselves, deliver ourselves to those who treat us as a conquest, as chattel they have won, as spoils of war and with whom they may do as they please.
If we legitimise the occupation, we legitimise evil everywhere - at home, in our daily lives, at work and at play. We legitimise it also worldwide - for we provide the incentives and justifications for all past and future impostors and tyrants - to thread down upon victim peoples everywhere and anywhere. Thus we augment evil and do a greater evil. We sin against God, ourselves and against all mankind.
In effect, we tell the rape victim that it is her fault, that she must compromise and yield to her rapist.
We tell the victim of robbery that he is at fault, and that he should allow himself to be robbed.
And so on and so forth.
Morality and law demands that this evil be fought and overcome. This will certainly require sacrifices - but the sacrifices that SURRENDER demands are much higher - our very humanity, our very dignity as men, among fellow-men, free men born free. We sell ourselves short and we insult all men, telling them that they ought not to be resisting being victimized.
We grant robbers and rapists and thieves and villains and tyrants and dictators and all the scum and vermin of the human race an open and free license to do what they do best - misanthropy!
Let us Goans be in no doubt about the issue that is at stake: If we will not shed our blood now, if we will not make the financial and other sacrifices to redeem ourselves, to reclaim our rights as a human people, then we betray ourselves, all humanity and our children.
We betray our children to the ignominy of being slaves, of being chattels of the conquerors, the invaders, and the evildoers.
Goa needs Guns. Plenty of Guns. We need Stingers. We need mines. We need tons and tons of military hardware.
But more than that we need courage - courage to look at ourselves, to face the cold, brutal truth, and not quail and surrender to evil, whether out of cowardice or of laziness...
Without courage, military hardware is garbage.
Courage to stand up and reclaim our rights and dignity as human beings, as a people in the standing and reputation of all men.
This is my invitation. I invite you, all of you, my fellow Goans: Forget your football matches! Forget your tiatrs, your fests, and your siestas! Forget your fenis, your mandos and dulpods! Leave them aside for another time.
Forget all your petty feuds, your household and family disputes and disagreements. Forget your property disputes. Forget everything and concentrate on Holy Mother Goa and her needs.
Our Goa is the patrimony of Goencho Saib, of St. Francis Xavier, our father in the faith.
Our Goa is beloved to Amcho Suam, Jezu Crist, to Amche Saibinn Mai - Morie!
And that is why she suffers. That is why Goa has been raped - is being raped by the pagans - because of their burning hatred of Jezu Crist, of Saibinn Mai, of Goencho Saib!
Goa beckons us: her sons and daughters. She calls us to her cause, to her holy cause - which is that of Jesus Christ Himself!
Redeem Goa! Free Goa!
Break the Chains of Slavery that the Pagans have forged!
Break them NOW!
P. Joao Mascarenhas
Date: 5 Nov 2003 03:39:34 -0000
From: Prof.R K Gupta
To: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: your letter to kynhun
Dear Friend
okay so with whom you want Goa to be with.With Portugese? I dont think they have any business either to stay in Goa.They were themselves invaders like so many in medieval times in history.
Forgetting the past.What you as representative of Goa want? Let me remind you that modern national democracy is not very old in hostory.No country existed before.all countries were formed by consolidation of erstwhile kingdoms and princely states everywhere in the world, because that is how society was arranged in those times.
Do you want to go back into medieval times or accept modern system of democratic countries.After all what is a country? It is a mass of homogeneous people based on geogrpahical proximity,lifestyles,culture and linguistic similarities. If racial basis is taken then many countries will have to merge and several new countries will be born by regrouping.
I think what majority takes the view is important and not view point of handful of people like you.
As regards pakistan , it was British handiwork to create it to keep India divided.They did it everywhere, as also it was big blunder of Nehru who was extremely poor administrator ans cunning person to keep hold on power.And he was successful in establishing nehru dynasty borrowing gandhi title to fool people.We should fight such imperialists.
As far as east indian states are concerned i dont think you know enough to speak on their behalf.I have stayed in Assam and extensively travelled in Nagalanad, Manipur, Meghalaya and other places in 1974-75 and know well what those people are, and where they should belong to.My dear friend such small backward tribal belts will not servive as independent states beacuse of geopolitical reasons and economic insufficiency.
If Khalistan was born it would cause more bleeding to sikhs and hindus alike becoming buffer state between India and Pakistan without any means to survive economically.In any case then like small states they would become proteges of US led imperialists.
So at the end of it all is not wisdom to be with people who you resemble closest and who care for you and love you as fellow citizens. And to work for strengthening the welfar of your own society by assuming leadership and extract economic benefits from Indian Union which is going to be a big power perhaps only next to USA in next decade.No one can stop this except god.People in so many states are dis satisfied with admnistration of union.We do agree that our polticians have spread filth in last 55 years.But this is because we are fighting amongst ourselves to break the country rather than to return good quality people in power and unite to make the coutry more liveable and prosperous by collctibve efforts.
For your kind information it is british who are famous for Divide and rule policy world over and not Hindu priests who themselves are a corrupt lot and cowards.They can hardly manage to indulge in such acts.It is just beyond their capability. And as far as kingdoms are concerned, their whole time job was to win territoiesd and grab power, welath and subvert people around their own territories.Most of the kings lived their life in blood.
No way it will be better. Weak are bound to be trounced and extiorted upon be it India USA Britain or Sekh kingsdoms.
Earlier you understand the better it is.
So do fight for your people but for prosperity, peacve and growth for your people. No individual lives beyon 100 years at the most.So why spend the time to establish and justify that we are independent.independent from whom? The God?or your own people?
And ven if we assume for a moment Goa is independent or goes back to portugese.It mweans the same thing.only changing the occupaiers that is all.Your people will become weak, economically depleted and quality of life will degenerate.And slwly they will fall trap to anoher imperialists most lkely USA.
So come out of fools paradise and join mainstream and contribute richly to your people so you will be remembered like Mother Teressas
Dont spit venom uselessly
use your enregies for self develpment and for searching the God for which we all get life of a human being.Contribuet positively to yourself and your people whose cause you are championing.
World is having enough fire already dont add oil to it.World badly needs calming down.70% of world poplation is living in pathetic condition.They need bread,clothes, health and spirituality not colonies in whatever name.
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 18:49:33 +0000 (GMT)
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: your letter to kynhun
To: RAJENDRA KUMAR GUPTA
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your kind reply. I am touched by your concern.
Since you raise the point, I would like an explanation exactly why you believe that I should get down on my knees and worship the Indian constitutions, why I must consider myself an Indian citizen and work within the ambit of the Indian constitution, especially since Goa, of which I am a citizen, is NOT a part of India, but is merely under its patently illegal occupation. If on the contrary, you believe that Goa is not illegally occupied by India, please demonstrate that fact to me clearly.
As for myself, I have demonstrated my perspective of this matter clearly in my pages, most especially, http://www.geocities.com/prakashjm45/goa/case.html and in other pages on my sites http://www.geocities.com/prakashjm45/goa and http://www.geocities.com/prakashjm45
And just as Goa is not, in any manner of law, a part of India, equally, the princely states that were terrorized into surrendering to India, by mainforce and at the point of gun, as with Manipur, Nongstoin, Sikkim, Travancore, etc.: these countries are not legally part of India, on the legal principle that the acts of accession were either forged or under duress...
You are aware that actions under duress are null and void.
Yours sincerely,
Prakash J. Mascarenhas
Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2003 16:24:05 -0000
From: RAJENDRA KUMAR GUPTA
To: [email protected]
Subject: your letter to kynhun
Dear Friend,
We are a civil rights group operating intenationally and having membership all over india and in overseas countries like US UK Australia Dubai,Canada etc.
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/india-force
http://www.geocities.com/india_force
We take up civil rights, environment, consumer rights, human rights violations and quality of life issues in india and globally.
Howevere, I am not happy with your comment about Indian colonialism and national self determination.
This is not the way to propagaet cause the purpose can be served by right approach and pressure build up remaining within ambit of Constitution of India and respecting it.
We are pleased to invite you to send the issues to us which will be taken up by our organization in legal and righteos manner
regards
Prof R K Gupta
[email protected]