THE LAST REPRESENTATIVE OF GOA IN THE PORTUGUESE PARLIAMENT 

     * By Jorge de Abreu Noronha

March this year (2003) was the month of the 25th anniversary of the demise of Purxotoma Quenim, who was a Deputy for Goa in the then “Assembleia Nacional” of Portugal from 1958 to 1961, the year in which, in December, the territories which still constituted the (Portuguese) Estado da Índia were occupied by the Republic of India. Before that he had already had a role in that Estado’s Legislative Council. 

To that prominent individuality in the social and industrial milieus of Goa therefore we wish to pay a tribute in the pages of this magazine. And we do not find a better way to do this than by quoting what was written about him in “Harpa Goesa” (Goan Harp) – a magazine of the “Centro de Cultura Latina” (Centre of Latin Culture) of Goa which since 1968 was published every month of December in Panjim. And, if in its no. 11 (of 1978) that magazine referred to him as being a cultured and intelligent man since his student years in the Lyceum who imposed himself as such and also later in life as Member of this territory’s Legislative Council and Deputy for Goa in the National Assembly of Portugal where he was considered to be an expert on some intricate problems of the Estado da Índia which he represented in such a dignified manner, it was in the following number, of 1979, that “Harpa Goesa” registered its tribute to the illustrious son of this Land whose voice became silent for ever in the night of the 13th to the 14th of March 1978. In that no. 12, of  December 1979, we read in “Harpa Goesa”: 

“He belonged to that group of youngsters of his time who, originating from the true kidney of aristocratic Quenims, imposed themselves also by their fits of generosity and of human intercourse without any social differences between persons from the East and from the West. Even as a student of the Lyceum in Panjim, on top of him being a distinguished student there was something else in Purxotoma Quenim which would not take much time to show itself. 

“There were indeed difficult moments in his life which could have tarnished the horizons of his existence, had it not been for his intuition and persistence, his fighting instinct which was also a sort of stimulus to his elders: his late father Ramanata Quenim and his uncles Pundolica, Ramanata  and Visvonata, during the extenuating hours in which they had to sustain complex lawsuits. These constituted veritable forensic battles in which they fought for years in defence of their rights and in which they were assisted by eminent figures belonging to the Goan bar and by Portuguese jurists such as José Alberto dos Reis, Marcelo Caetano, Albino dos Reis and Almeida Ribeiro. 

“A student gifted with a great penetrating spirit, attending Law lessons in a private course at the end of which and after due exam he obtained licence to practice law. His choice as Member of the Legislative Council of the Government of Goa, Daman and Diu in 1955 proved to be a very judicious one, knowledgeable as he was of this territory’s administrative set-up and industrial activities during the Portuguese governance, but in an even greater degree when he was elected to the Portuguese Parliament in 1958, particularly as regards the administration and development of this territory, and its Development Plans in a difficult period which demanded immediate solutions. 

“For these reasons, his opinions, his points of view, his way of thinking and of facing problems always commanded the greatest respect from the Members of that Assembly, better known as “Hemiciclo de São Bento” (St. Benedict’s Hemicycle) in Lisbon, where the voice of Goa echoed so many times by the word of some of our illustrious Parliamentarians and is still remembered with true yearning through the Minutes of the Sessions of that same Assembly. 

“Purxtoma Quenim was thus one of the last of them all, occupying a prominent position thanks  to a set of qualities which forced his acceptance and because of the moral integrity which he displayed as a Member of Parliament until 1961. Thus (became vacant) his chair at São Bento, through which had passed some of the more illustrious Goan Members like Bernardo Peres da Silva or Francisco Luis Gomes, António Caetano Pacheco or Father João Batista Canã, Luis da Cunha Gonçalves, Froilando de Melo, Sócrates da Costa and others. 

“A man at once industrious and enterprising, cultured and widely travelled, he left an unforgettable heritage together with his brother Datatraia and other family members like the well remembered Ananta (better known as Babá Quenim) and Dr. Vamona. It is the construction of hotel ‘Mandovi’ in this city (Panjim), finished in 1952 in those patterns where there is much of his personal creativity and of his artistic talent, which gave to Goa new contacts with the World and the commemoration of whose 25 years he witnessed in December 1977 in the pages of the HARPA GOESA magazine of that same year, which he read with true affection before he left for Bombay from where he was not to return alive. 

“It is to this individuality of Purxotoma Quenim that the Centre of Latin Culture of Goa paid  tribute on the evening of the 15th of March of this year (1979) with a commemorative session held at the Centre’s premises, where his portrait was placed in the Goan Gallery. During that session speeches were made by the Curator of the Centre Senhor Renato de Sá, Architect Ralino de Sousa and M. Alain Desoulières, Professor of French Literature at the National Institute of Modern Languages of Islamabad, all of whom rendered tribute to the memory of the illustrious departed one and which his son Prashant thanked with great emotion”. 

This last Representative of Goa in the Portuguese National Assembly having died in Bombay on the night of the 13th (early 14th) of March 1978, his body was transported to Goa and the funeral took place in Panjim, having constituted a manifestation of heartfelt sorrow – again as related in no. 11 (1978) of “Harpa Goesa”.

(Translated by the Author from the original in Portuguese published in the magazine VOZ DO ORIENTE  - VI Year, 2nd Series, No. 16, April/June 2003 – LISBON)