Fw: GEM (Goan, East-Indian, Mangalorean) Sailors

[Gilbert Lawrence]

GEM (Goan, East-Indian, Mangalorean) Sailors

The attached is an account of GEM sailors, one of the first groups to leave Konkan and Kanara region and challenge the high seas (Indian and Atlantic Oceans) perhaps for the first time in history. We hope you enjoy reading this aspect of colonial history.  To know our history is to recognize our culture. There is a lot of ‘food for thought.’ Please forward the article to your relatives, friends, peers, Indian and Lusitanian chat sites. Sharing history is sharing our cultural heritage; and the work is for us, by us. Thank you for allowing us to share this with you.

Hope this essay provides the readers with a framework of their historical journey.  Doing the homework will prepare one for Shashi Tharoor’s words of wisdom: “If you do not know where you have been, how do you know where you seek to go? History belongs in the past, but understanding it is the duty of the present.”

Philomena and Gilbert Lawrence,

Authors: Insights into Colonial Goa,

Published by Amazon in paperback and e-book. 

The 330-page book provides details about the “story behind the story” of certain major events relating to Portugal's Eastern Empire. The bibliography comprises the titles of 86 books and published papers examined, studied, and referenced, which makes the book a useful tool for those interested in Lusitania's colonial history.