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| The Portuguese prime minister, Salazar and the Prime Minister of India, Nehru. The characteristics of the autocratic Portuguese regime helped Nehru in its international campaign against Portugal. |
The need to guarantee of the Internal unit, channelling the energies of the country against an external enemy, led the Indian Union drove to Portugal an Ultimatum on the territories of Portuguese Estado da India. The Indian Union demand was presented in the form of a letter from the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru addressed to the Portuguese Government on February 27, 1950.
In that letter, even if requesting the opening of negotiations, were not presented a request for negotiations (plural), having barely an only question it discuss: The Departure of Portugal from the Indian Subcontinent.
Even not appearing , it was basically an Ultimatum, because the Indian Union provided only one condition: The 'Return' of the territory of Goa to the Indian Union.
Absence of any other country for that negotiation can, even if this implied that the independence theory of Goa was completely and utterly out of the question, already in 1950.
The possibility of an Independent Goa would not be acceptable under any circumstances, as proved by the actions of the Indian Union against the other small neighbouring States (Junagad, Hyderabad, Kashmir,Sikkim Etc)in the Indian Subcontinent. Moreover, on average (per capita), the territory of Goa was more rich and prosperous than the rest of the Indian Union. That difference in prosperity, increased during the 50s and became increasingly more and more urgent to end the danger Goa Represented to the Indian Union.
Given the conditions of the Ultimatum, the Lisbon government has a problem of solution difficult if not impossible.
The Portuguese Government also recognizes in 1954, by words of the Prime Minister, Oliveira Salazar, the territory of Goa is Militarily Indefensible.
But the problem in Portugal, is related to the Interpretation of the Portuguese National identity, which, are based on historical rights, believes that Portuguese Estado da India are indeed an integral part of the Portugal nation and not merely as coon happened to the possessions of French, British or Dutch.
This conception of the world also extended from Portuguese Africa, where one would expect the emergence of the pro-independence movements, usually sponsored by the Soviet Union, who sought thus create problems for Western countries .
Portuguese policy makers believed that the existence of Portugal as an Independent state, relied on their control over these territories. The negotiation on the control of the Portuguese Estado da India would set a precedent and force Portugal to negotiate the provision of other territories.
It turns out that for most of the Portuguese this option was simply impossible to accept.
INTERNATIONAL LAW
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| The territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli were not physically connected to Daman. In 1953, India banned the Portuguese to cross the territories and in 1954 invaded them. Portugal has accused India in the international tribunal in The Hague, and the court has reason to Portugal. |
Although Indian Union for many years, advertising typically associated with the Soviet Union had propagated the plan that Portugal did not accept the International rules, in fact International law has always been on the Portuguese side. The violations were on the side of the Indian Union.
The first violation occurred in 1953 when Indian Union declared a blockade on the territories of Dadrá e Nagar-Haveli (nearby area of Damão and with which they had no geographical contiguity). In 1954 the Indian Union completed the blockade with an Invasion of that territory.
The issue was brought before the International Court of Justice in The Hague and that the Indian Union tried by all means avoid the outcome of the trial, it was absolutely clear:
The Hague Tribunal ruled that both the blockade and the subsequent Invasion of the territories of Dadrá e Nagar-Haveli By Indian Union in 1954 was illegal, and India Union should return the territories to Portugal. The Indian Union had secretly tried Portugal to withdrew the complaint in The Hague, promising to 'Forget' the question of Goa for some time. But as India Union was not willing to give up Goa, Portugal refused the deal.
Still, The Prime Minister of India Jawarhal Nehru, speaking on the Indian Parliament, affirmed that India should bow before the law (Strangely, he change the ideas a year and some months later).
Indeed, the Portuguese left little more than International law to defend territories of Estado da India.
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| International Court of The Hague: Unlike that for many years have tried to make us believe. Portugal always scrupulously respected international law and the decisions of IT are proof of that. |
Lacking any legitimate claim to the territories of the Estado da India, the Indian Union went on the offensive in a field where it was easier to attack Portugal.
Country of Western European, although that were headed by a Conservative Government autocrat since 1926, had clearly chosen to align with the Western allies during the war, Portugal began to be charged by the Indian Union with a quantity of illegal and "crimes ", which should justify before the world, the demands and the eventual annexation of territories of Goa.
THE POSITION OF PORTUGAL AND THE INDIAN UNION
While universally recognized as one of the least racist people in the world, the Portuguese, were accused by the Indian Union and its main ally, the Soviet Union, the crimes of racism, oppression and exploitation of the people of Portuguese Estado da India.
Among the arguments used to justify the departure of the Portuguese from the Indian Subcontinent, we used the following main arguments, to which the Portuguese responded as indicated:
India Union claimed that the territories had been stolen in India, which made the illegal occupation!
Portugal said that when the first Portuguese arrived in the Indian subcontinent, there was no Indian Union state or anything like that. In fact, most of the territory was dominated by Muslims, and Portugal were legally at war with Muslims, for determining the Pope himself. The Portuguese conquests were therefore legal, and under the 'Right of Conquest', which was accepted until several centuries after the seizure of those territories.
This right was acknowledged even by the Indian Union itself, to have recognized the Portuguese, and has even appointed ambassador to Lisbon and a Consulate General in Goa from 1947 to 1955 in Panjim.
The Indian Union said it wanted to release its "Brothers" either in terms of ethnic or religious, oppressed by the Portuguese.
Portugal replied that there was the slightest indication that the Citizens of Goa in fact wanted to be 'Liberated'.
Portuguese in India since the time of the Marquis of Pombal, who was tried for example, dilute the huge differences imposed by the Hindu Caste system.
The Goan people of lower castes (especially the Sudras), people were very poor and humble, but over 300 years of Portuguese law enforcement, had acquired a modicum of dignity that the Hindu system continued to deny them even after Independence of the Indian Union .
To add to this, the religious argument made no sense because the Indian Union itself had illegally occupied the territory of Kashmir, which is mostly Muslim.
India claimed that the presence of Portugal was a threat to its existence.
The Portuguese responded by stating that they had always recognized the right of existence of the Indian Union, Our Country had recognized and guaranteed always the order in the territories of Goa, ensuring that they would never be used as a base against the Indian Union.
Portugal did not follow the winds of history, intending to keep the colonies in the world that do not accept them, and the colonies were foreign elements on Indian soil.
The Portuguese responded the argument that if the Portuguese were foreigners in Goa, after 450 years of presence, so also the entire Australian, Canadian and U.S. population were foreigners in thier Lands, Russia would have no rights to the territories it occupied after the sixteenth century, when it expanded beyond borders of the Grand Duchy of Muscovy.
The most critical periods of the Portuguese presence in the Indian Subcontinent, was under the pressure of the Maratha Empire, were Goans, who in the seventeenth century, had paid a ransom, which prevented Goa to be taken by them.
Unlike the territories Controlled and Colonised by other countries, the status of Goa was a Province of Portugal, and since 1822 Goans elected deputies to the Cortes of the Kingdom in Lisbon and later to the National Assembly, the Portugal Parliament. Nothing therefore could be inferred that Portuguese Estado da India was a colony of Portugal.
India claimed that Portugal battled so intolerable to the Indian Union, which had tried to negotiate peacefully with Portugal.
The Portuguese said it was absurd that Portuguese Estado da India population of 500,000 people, who lived 450 years ago in a peaceful way with the Portuguese was an affront to Indian Union with nearly 500 million.
In addition, it was India which has always refused to negotiate whatever it was. India wanted to negotiate only one point: The Timing of the annexation of the Portuguese Estado da India to the Indian Union.
India does not want to negotiate Autonomy, Semi-Independence, Co-sovereignty, or any other form of government for Portuguese Estado da India that could resolve the issue peacefully. The only thing that Indian Union wanted to negotiate, was the only that Portugal could never accept it because it would be a denial of their historical rights.
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR PORTUGAL
Given this state of affairs, when it became clear that the Indian Union did not have any strong enough arguments to justify the transfer of Portuguese rights over the territory, little would be left to the Indian Union to do, aside from the Invasion of Goa, which would compel Jawarhal Nehru to leave the Dirty Image Worldwide as a pacifist.
Indian Union never asked in the International forum that there should be a Referendum held in Goa. Goa should be attached, whether or not what the Goans wanted , as the Nehru said '... We are unwilling to tolerate the Portuguese presence in Goa, even though the Goans want them there... "
Also unlike that have long been said, is absolutely not true that Portugal has been alone before the world in case of Goa.
Although nothing has been done, most European countries and states have shown themselves clearly in favor of Portugal. Countries like Spain and especially Brazil made several efforts to prevent the Annexation of territories by the Indian Union.
Pakistan, even ordered the mobilization of two of its divisions on the border with India Union and China, contacted by the Portuguese Government, came to show themselves interested in negotiating with Portugal some kind of cooperation involving Goa, although the Chinese probably did not consider that Indian Union would act militarily.
Beside Indian Union it was only the Soviet Union and its numerous satellites, many of them "undercover" of non-aligned countries.
Contrary to what was for many years via the media during the '50s and '60s, virtually no one in Portugal would gladly accept the possibility of returning the territories of Portuguese Estado da Indian to the Indian Union to which most citizens were in fact Portuguese. Even the Portuguese elites who opposed the regime of Oliveira Salazar, were not in favorable for the Independence of Portuguese African territories. That was clear, for example after the diversion of the Portuguese liner Santa Maria - a clear protest against the regime - most that when asked about the issue of settlements, the leader of the operation, Capt. Henrique Galvao made statements in which it became clear that did not make any sense to give independence to the Portuguese overseas territories.
This booklet, however, allowed the Soviet Union (to take just one example) a fierce and ruthless control over Eastern Europe and on the "colonies" of the Russian Caucasus to the eastern Siberia.
We must remember that the Hindu tradition divides the Hindu population into four major groups, called Caste System. One such group is divided in turn into two, so that sources in fact divide the varieties into five groups, namely:
Brahmins the most important, is the caste of priests and kings also (according to Hindu tradition, made from the mouth of Brahma).
Kshatriya (Kshatryas), or military caste of warriors (according to Hindu rule, made from the shoulders of Brahma).
Vaisya (Vaysias), which is the caste of traders and eventually rural workers (according to tradition, made from the belly of Brahma).
Sudras, which is the lowest of all, consisting of manual laborers, merchants and peasants mostly (according to Hindu tradition, made from the feet of Brahma).
Within the caste of Sudras, there is a fifth group known as Dalits or Panchamas (Hindu tradition says that the Dalits were made of dust under the feet of Brahma). The latter are called untouchables, and many aspects were not considered human beings.
Although the Portuguese Estado da India, continued to exist great divide between castes, she was criticized, however, much less intense than in the Indian Union. The Portuguese saw many Hindu customs as barbaric and banned several practices already since the sixteenth century. One of the practices prohibited by the Portuguese was the burning of widows, along with the corpse of her husband when he died know as SATI.
Where is noticed more the influence of the Portuguese was not among the wealthier castes (whose privileges held by the Portuguese conveniently self-interest) but more modest in castes, especially among Dalits.
The Portuguese banned Hindu practice of not letting the Dalits entering temples. This prohibition comes from the sixteenth century and was reinforced at the time of the Marquis de Pombal in the eighteenth century.
The problem of Caste was discussed by the ruling classes, but nothing was done to soften. Until 70 years, more than a decade after the Invasion of Goa, the system went into effect with all its Medieval features.
This will explain, why the Goan people rich and powerful caste of Brahmins and the Kshatriya were the first to hoist flags of the Indian Union, while the more humble Goans supported the Portuguese troops after the surrender of the Portuguese to the Indian Union troops and humble Goans parted with tears in their eyes after Portuguese Troops left Goa.
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