Russell Peters, the
Indo-Canadian stand-up comic, has a joke about Indians changing the names of
their cities from British usages to more ‘Indian’ ones. Like most of his humor,
the joke is rather a no-brainer. Indians, he says, waited for so long after the
departure of the British only to be very sure that the Brits have indeed left
and would never ever come back again. Since this is not a real reason, one
could indeed ask what took the Vasco da Gama-Sambhaji Nagar controversy so long
to erupt, given that it has been in circulation for more than 50 years since
the Portuguese left?
Actually there
were efforts to change the name of Goa’s only
port-town right from the ’70s. One does not know the details of this attempt by
the Dayanand Bandodkar regime, except that the change was vehemently opposed even
then, including by tiatrists like the
trio of Conception, Nelson, and Anthony.
Coming to the current Vasco
da Gama-Sambhaji Nagar controversy, by and large, it has been represented in
the media as a ploy to whip up communal sentiments, and polarize the electoral
prior to the state assembly election in 2017. Given the BJP’s proven track
record in using this strategy there is no denying this possibility. However, it
appears that in the process commentators have missed the larger picture of
obfuscating and erasing history. A focus on the longer time period is critical,
because it helps us understand the process of how propagandists, demagogues,
and ideologues would create a political controversy before transforming it into
votes.
The names of places in India are often
changed in order (or ostensibly) to move away from British colonial history. There
is no doubt that an effort to change names (surreptitiously or otherwise) is
easily achieved by groups who enjoy political representation and power. The
marginalized groups within the nation, or those marginalized on the basis of
caste and/or religion have to battle it out to inscribe their identity and
icons onto the public sphere. Name-changes therefore is the display of triumphalism
by dominant groups in power and one should be aware of the manner in which
history is deployed through such a misuse.
The case of Goa, and the
history and legacy bequeathed by the Portuguese, are in a sense different from
the experience of British colonialism in the rest of India. This is the reason why Goan
identity within the Indian nation itself is structured on foregrounding the
influences of Portuguese culture and language on the Goans. A Goan self can be
said to have slowly emerged from European and Catholic influences over four
centuries. Though the upper caste Catholics assumed and appropriated for
themselves the guardianship of this identity, this Europeanized-Catholic identity
permeated almost all sections of Goans today, both Catholic and others. Therefore,
for many of these diverse groups, taking away the element of Portuguese
heritage would mean taking something fundamental out of their Goan identity or
‘Goan-ness’.
So, what does one do with a
certain Vasco – glorified as well as reviled within the history of European
colonialism? The Vasco-Sambhaji Nagar case illustrates the immaturity of the powers-to-be
in Goa in handling such issues. It seems that one of the motives was to
overwrite the history of the town of Vasco
using icons that the Hindu right has appropriated. Whether Sambhaji was really a
defender of Hindu dharma, as he is
portrayed in some quarters, is not the question that I want to address in this
column. What I would like to stress is that the Hindu right and the State today
has neglected the complex geo-political maneuvering between the Portuguese, the
Mughals, and the Marathas solely to appropriate Sambhaji as one who stood
against a proselytizing Christian (and Muslim) power. In fact Sambhaji had
allied with Prince Akbar, the son of Aurangzeb, against the Portuguese.
Before that the Portuguese are believed to have provided refuge to Prince
Akbar. Thus, the complex history of diplomacy, trade, and political strategies
are completely forgotten in order to propagate a narrow Hindutva agenda.
We must also ask ourselves
what exactly has the Maratha ruler to do with Goa or indeed the town of Vasco? Apart from the
panic and terror that Sambhaji’s raids had caused amongst the residents of
villages and towns of Bardez and the Portuguese administration, Sambhaji seems
to have little connect with the history of Goa or the town of Vasco. Rather, Sambhaji seems to be a
convenient figure to pit against that of Vasco da Gama in an easy binary scheme
of ‘us’ (Hindus) against ‘them’ (colonizers/Portuguese/Christians).
This understanding of
Portuguese colonialism and the overwriting of this history seems plausible as
the Christians – the group that (despite internal divisions) is perceived to be
the most Westernized and closest to the Portuguese – appears to be once again
held suspect for steadfastly refusing to let go of their love for Portugal or
the colonial hangover. In fact, this can be very clearly seen in the comment of
Custodio D’Souza, a resident of Vasco: “This is an effort to change the very
identity of our home town and our lives…Instead of giving us good governance,
all this government is trying to do is needle the minority community with such
tricks and upset Goa’s peace”.
If we think about the Vasco-Sambhaji
Nagar controversy more deeply, we can place it in a series of events wherein Goa’s legitimate history, made by its people, is
continuously undermined. One is reminded of the Jack de Sequeira incident,
wherein his role in the Opinion Poll and the
role of the Christian community in
leading the agitation for Goa’s statehood was sought to be undermined.
Similarly, one can also ask why stadia in Goa are
named after politicians like Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and Nehru, when they have
nothing to do with Goan sports? Thus, if we would like such kind of events not
to repeat themselves we would not only be vigilant to the ways in which history
is twisted and erased in contemporary debates over Goa’s past.
(First published in O Heraldo, dt: 23 December, 2015)
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