The Fall of Goa: Causes and consequences – a synthesis
Frederick Noronha
The Fall of Goa: Causes and consequences – a synthesis
Authors
Synopsis
The author summarizes what happened to Goa and in Goa in the last almost fourteen years of its life under the Portuguese flag, that is, from the time Britain granted independence to its Asian colony in August 1947 until the invasion of the Portuguese State of India in December 1961.
In order to do this, as well as drawing on much published material, which is abundantly quoted, unpublished documents are used, such as the telegrams that the Portuguese Embassy in Karachi sent to Lisbon with the information given by foreign journalists who arrived in the Pakistani capital from Goa after Christmas, and which were the first reliable information received. Until then, the government knew nothing concrete, as the Indian Union only authorized telegrams to be sent by a journalist from the Reuter news agency.
Also unpublished, among others, is the report of the visit of a Brazilian diplomat to the Portuguese prisoners in Goa, the final report of General Vassalo e Silva, the considerations of that report, the appeals to the courts of some of the military punished, the Memoirs of the diplomat Bonifácio de Miranda and two pieces of information from another diplomat, Luís Gaspar da Silva, who was stationed in Pakistan and claims to have been contacted by the Moroccan Ambassador in Karachi who, at the request of his Chinese colleague, informed him that China was prepared to put military pressure on the Indian Union in exchange for recognizing the regime. Also according to the same diplomat, the head of the Pakistani secret services had told him, weeks before, the exact date on which the Indian Union would attack Goa.
Author Biography
Mário Matos e Lemos has a degree in History from the Faculty of Letters of the Classical University of Lisbon and is a researcher-collaborator at CEIS-XX, at the University of Coimbra. He was a journalist for various media (Agência Noticiosa ANI (1957-1971), Diário de Notícias (1964-1971) and Diário do Norte (1971-1972). In 1972, he was hired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Press Counsellor, a position he held successively in Rome (1972-1975), Moscow (1976-1979) and Madrid (1979-1985). In 1985 he was posted to the Portuguese Embassy in Guinea-Bissau (1985-1998) to run the Portuguese Cultural Center. He founded and directed the magazines “Jornal de Cultura” (1959-1960) and “Ópera” (1969-1971) and produced and presented the program “Falando de Ópera” (1972-1974) on Portuguese Radio Television.