Giving credit, where credit is due

[Gilbert Lawrence]

Giving credit, where credit is due

Reviewing a book is a comparatively easy task (compared to the work of the original author), and the views raised are often intriguing. Sadly, they go without being challenged, establishing new hurdles for future writers.   One such concept is “Giving credit to prior (purported) authors.”  In a recent review, the reviewer, through interesting phraseology, drops some “new concepts” and names of their originators. Below is the quote:

Another issue: This book (though only in a blurb) mentions Goans acting as a "subaltern elite".  This conceptualisation has a significant prior genealogy in Margret Frenz's scholarship.  Likewise, the concept of Goans acting as "cultural brokers" in different settings is mentioned, without giving any credit to the person who earlier created this important argument (which, unless mistaken, was Peter Nazareth).

Is the above concept of ‘intermediaries’ between the ruler and the ruled new? The priests practiced this not merely in religion but also in politics since time immemorial.  In the Konkan region, it was practiced by the GSB and Shenvi Brahmins for the Kadamba and the Maratha rulers since 1000 CE.

In the colonial context, in my Insights, the first to exploit this concept was Admiral Afonso Albuquerque in his efforts in 1510 to have his sailors marry native girls and create a mestizo class with Portuguese patrimony and Goan culture to live in the colonies and help the ruler administer, defend, and, if needed, die for the empire. From a British Colonial perspective, the concept was expanded by Lord Thomas Macaulay in propounding his concepts of colonial education in India.  Long before the current spate of authors for the concept, educators arrived in Goa and India precisely to create cultural, intellectual brokers among various segments of society.

Today, Goans need to fill in the literal-space with factual information and different perspectives depending on their background and geographical location; or the space will be filled by modern-day orientalists writing stories about Goa and Goans in fictional accounts, which in some Goan literary circles are richly acclaimed.  One needs to give Carvalho credit for taking advantage of her geographic location to daily visit the British Colonial Archival building to thumb through the archives, page by page, for any morsel of useful information. Many Goans live in the UK, including those from East Africa.  But none undertook this burden. Without compensation, it was an effort borne out of love and an inquiring mind. Kudos!  Every Goan family in East Africa and their progeny spread out through the English-speaking world should have a copy of her book as a legacy of their ancestors’ sojourn. Selma has truly done a service for them and the Goan community. We need more like Selma, who will lead by example!

 Regards, Gilbert