Yesterday's history... via Luizinho Faleiro (FN, in NT)

[Frederick Noronha]

Yesterday's history... via Luizinho Faleiro

FN

This is a book which came out  a year ago, but it was hard to find in the bookshops.  It is a topic of interest to us.  It deals with yesterday's history, issues still relevant, and ones that need to undergo intense debate for a better understanding.

Goan society, it could be argued, does not sufficiently focus on the issues which matter.  Newspapers have a different role, and time-frame.  They have a 24-hour vision (no offence meant, but the news-cycle moves fast).  Their focus is on the immediate.  Academia is not sufficiently locally-focussed.  Goa lacks independent think-tanks, though the late Matanhy Saldanha's GRID (Goa Research Institute for Development, at Sant Inez) came close to building one.  This is where a book could play an important role.

'The Battle for Konkani and Statehood of Goa' (May 2023, Dr Francisco Luis Gomes Memorial Trust) is politician Luizinho Faleiro's revisit to the politics of the 1980s.  But not just that decade alone.  Developments of that time were also connected to 1961 and 1967 (the 'Opinion Poll') and to Faleiro's own evaluation of how the events from those times shape our today.

It is in the latter that one could debate the former minister's (and, for a brief stint, ex-chief minister's) analysis.  Being a participant in these events, the main initiator of the campaigns for Konkani and Statehood as the book would have us believe, could make any author want to give a spin in a particular direction.  Especially when this is how history could recall a now almost-forgotten series of events, and scholars of a new generation could be basing their analysis on works like this.

How does 'The Battle' fare on this?  Download a PDF copy from luizinhofaleiro.com [http://alturl.com/s3i4s] or buy it from amazon.in.  In the meanwhile, take this reviewer's word for it.  But, as one was a close by-stander watching these events unfold in that period, don't expect neutrality in this review or a very 'academic' approach to the issues involved.

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Faleiro's 124-page book is a quick read.  This keeps it interesting, but you could also end up feeling the lack of detail.  It covers the topic in 18 short chapters, each of which (except the last) is focussed on dates.  1961, and the end of Portuguese rule with Operation Vijay; 1967; particular years from the 1980s leading up to the passing of the Official Language Act; meetings and protests held before that; the descent into violence in December 1986; and Statehood in May 1987.

Two chapters extend Luizinho Faleiro's tryst with Goan history as his story-line would have it.  These are: a July 1991 move "protecting employment for Goans through Konkani" and a September 1999 attempt (while he was CM) to create a separate IAS cadre for Goa.

Faleiro, for understandable reasons, begins his story in 1961, even though he was just a ten-year-old then.  He connects this and the 'Opinion Poll' with the shaping of his own later perception on Goa, particularly Konkani and Statehood.

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From a wider angle, a book like this can be critiqued at two levels.  It narrates the campaign over language in Goa as a battle waged and led primarily by politicians (of course, with Faleiro himself being at the centre of it all).

The role played by language groups and lobbyists gets underplayed, invisibilised or mentioned only in passing in this text; and it was huge.  The connection with party politics and intra-Congress dissidence of the time gets only hinted at.  Likewise, the role of some newspapers of the time (mentioned, for instance, by then journalist Ashok Row Kavi in his writings in 'The Week') gets passed off with a single hint of a reference.

This is the overall tone: "As a young MLA, I was thrust into the Konkani movement, assuming, along with the Konkani Porjecho Avaz, the leadership of the movement, with me handling the political side and the writers, artistes, poets doing the rest.  Yet, the movement would have not been successful, had not the people responded to the call in the manner they did."

Secondly, it presumes that the goals of both Konkani and Statehood were not only accomplished as desired, but also worked for the good of the people of this small region.

Some (or many) might agree today that the reality is different.  After much bitterness and even bloodshed, Goa got a law which dissatisfies many in the State.  This is not only due to the complete exclusion of the widely-used Roman script but also because the way it was passed makes it unimplementable, with the possibility of stirring up a hornet's nest for every purpose Konkani (or Marathi) is extended to.

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Faleiro, who has since moved parties, talks about being a "foot-soldier to Goa and Goans".  At one time, this was used by quite a few vis a vis the then dominant Congress party.  He writes: "Goa's crusade for Konkani and tryst with Statehood became an integral part of my life."

The pages move on interestingly.  Like any good story, there's some degree of conflict in it.  Emotive writing too: "Then there came a period when the people of the land aspired for nothing less than official language status for their mother-tongue Konkani and Statehood for their land Goa.  To obtain both, they battled the odds and emerged victorious."

Faleiro reminds us of the deputationists (mostly from Maharashtra) running the Goa administration after integration in 1961.  He gives credit to Nehru for not believing in Goa's merger with Maharashtra, as the then PM emphasised Goa's "separate identity, separate individuality"...  even if his party leaders in Bombay-Mumbai (Y.B.  Chavan, V.P.  Naik) had diametrically opposed ideas.

In his (debatable?) view, if Shastri had to continue in power at New Delhi, Goa would have probably merged into Maharashtra.

The trajectory of how Goa attained its Statehood is a little understood chapter in Goa's recent past.  That unfinished task might benefit from versions other than Luizinho Faleiro's.

The other task is to carefully understand Statehood's implications.  As young journalists, some of us then believed that Goa was better administered as a Union Territory, what with the young (and more idealistic) IAS officers having a better grip.  Rampant defections definitely got a fillip after Statehood; the issue of corruption might be tougher to quantify but the impacts are there for all to see.  Faleiro says the Lt.  Governor's "secretary participated and monitored Cabinet meetings" (p.22).

Faleiro claims credit for setting the agenda for Konkani and Statehood through his resolutions and private members' Bills.

On the back cover, the book says the author has been "substantiating his recollections with newspaper reports and Legislative Assembly debate records".  A critic could say that these have been quoted only selectively, to bolster Faleiro's arguments.

Faleiro claims that Konkani would give jobs to locals; while this might seem like a laudable goal, the actual promise and the results are miles apart for a set of complex reasons.  The debate about "80%" job reservations in the private sector is another issue the impact of which is barely discussed now.

At times, going down memory lane can be embarrassing.  For instance, when Faleiro recalls his then party's promise of 'Employment for All by 2001' (p.104).  There was also 'Housing for All by 2001 AD' (p.117).  He mentions this nonetheless.

Faleiro writes: "My view is not coloured.  I was there.  I saw and experienced the passion, the commitment, the involvement and the great sacrifices of the people of Goa, even the ultimate sacrifice of shedding their blood for the language."

But for someone following this movement closely as a curious journalist, that is precisely the point.  Luizinho Faleiro is telling us the story he wants history to remember.  Surely, other participants of this movement would have differing memories?  Don't let a critical review stop you from reading a book which concerns us all.... (Navhind Times, June 22, 2024)

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