Convenient and Diversionary Revisionism

a TGF editorial
December 25, 2002

There are normally three sides to a story:  side 1, side 2, and the overall truth. 

Very few among us are likely to know the real truth of events in the historic past. Forensic scientists and anthropologists try and piece together clues that have been left behind.  Politicians however, put their own spin on events. Business folks go with the flow most convenient to them & journalists do the best they can do. 

Portugal controlled Goa for 450 years. In fact, if not for the Portuguese, there would be NO Goa as we know it today.  For what was known as Goa, Govapuri, Gomantak, is not the same as Goa today. Rome as in the Vatican is not the same as Rome, the capital of Italy; the temple site of Mumbadevi (Mumbai) is not the same as the reclaimed and developed Bombay, and the village of Panaji is not the same as Ponnje or Pangim developed by the Portuguese. 

But, this is the age of revisionism - rather, the age of neo-revisionism. History teaches us that every ruler or ruling elite has attempted to wipe out evidence of the previous rule or generations and replaces it with  something new.   

The Ancient Mayan culture has disappeared.  The AmerIndian peoples barely survive in pockets. The most unholy Inquisition sent thousands of non-Christians (mainly Jews) to their fiery end. Indian men brainwashed the women into committing suicide (SATI) by jumping into the funeral pyre of their husbands. The Muslim invaders of the Indian subcontinent used the sword to put an end to those who did not convert to Islam. The Palestinians have been evicted from their homes by Jewish settlers. Hitler all but succeeded in exterminating the Jews of Europe. Millions of Russians were exterminated by Stalin.  Mao's so called cultural revolution ended the lives of several million Chinese. There was ethnic cleansing in Iran and Bosnia......and so on and on and on . 

 Let us ask ourselves: 

* Did the ancient tribespeople of the Indian continent have a religion and worship-places? What happened to them? 

* How did the original inhabitants of Goa, the Kunbis/Gavdis,  lose their land to the Saraswat Brahmins ? 

* Buddhism had risen to the position of becoming the dominant religion in India and the Far East. Buddhist kings held sway over many countries from Afghanistan in the East to Japan in the East.  Granted that Buddhist Kings and rulers could NOT have conquered this vast expanse of land mass without force and violence. Even the area we now call Goa was under Buddhist rule. So,  what happened to Goan Buddhists and their sites of worship? 

* Who really are the Rajputs, and what role did they play in the extermination of the Buddhists? 

* Given that Buddhism challenged Hindu Brahmaniacal tyranny at the time, did the Hindu Brahmins collude with the Muslim Moghal invaders in destroying Buddhist sites? It looks rather strange that the dominant (at the time) Buddhism was destroyed while the minority (at the time) Hinduism survived.  

* Why do we have to destroy the past and pretend that it did not happen? It won't just go away.  The Portuguese Catholic Inquisition with all its horrors wont just go away, neither will horrible discrimination of the Caste System of India, nor the fact that millions of innocent Hindu widows who were murdered (perhaps for their property) by Sati.  

* When will we end this charade,  realize that a good number of our Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist forebears were very treacherous and violent people, accept the past for what it was, learn from it, attempt to emulate  our good Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist forebears,  and move ahead? 

Sadly, from the looks of it........NOT in the near future!. 

A few years ago,  Goan journalist,  Fred Noronha,  was asked why he had zero comments on the irregularities happening in Goa. He lived there, he worked there, so WHY no comment on the problem du jour? 

His reply was quite telling. He stated that his questioners did not know what it was to "work  and live in ground zero". That is an absolutely telling statement from Fred Noronha.

It appears that Goan journalists are basically unsure of their livelihood and their personal safety in Goa - especially if they poke their noses into matters which "they should not" - i.e. the Massive increase in the rampant corruption, the swindling of public funds, the tremendous rise in crime, the deterioration of health facilities,  the destruction of Goa's once pristine environment, the replacement of Heritage buildings with concrete monstrosities and the absolute filthification of Goa. 

So what do Goan journalists do for a living, every now and again?   They utilise the diversion tool and write negative about Portugal! 

This is a strange form of revision. They proclaim that the 450 year Portuguese presence is really insignificant except for the Horrible Inquisition, and yet, the more they  advise us to forget about Portugal as useless past history, the more they write about Portugal  - usually selective bits of erroneous assertions. 

TGF
December 25, 2002

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