This isn’t about Shivaji (or historical facts)
Why you can't fight political battles with historical texts, a Porvorim raw nerve and more in this week's edition
Hi folks,
Welcome to yet another edition of Gerard’s Gazette, a weekly newsletter, in which I attempt to break down the events of the week gone by, offer a bit of context, as well as a dose of news behind the news.
If this is your first time here, thank you for signing up, and happy reading!
It was a week in which we celebrated carnival, won a small victory against the railway double project in the Mollem sanctuary even as battles along the stretch in Velsao continue to be fought on a daily basis, and showed Farhan Azmi, the son of a Mumbai MLA and husband of Ayesha Takia, that driving around in a big-ass vehicle with an out-of-state number plate on carnival night in Goa comes with its own set of risks.
But for the main story this week, I thought I’d talk about something that played out over the past two to three weeks.
This isn’t about Shivaji (or historical facts)
Much has been said, and much has been written, and as such, you might wonder why I’ve decided to talk about events that first sparked off three weeks ago.
But first, a bit of background for those who may not be aware.
On the occasion of Shivaji Jayanti (celebrated on February 19th, the birth anniversary of the founder of the Maratha empire), Goa Chief Minister claimed that it was thanks to Shivaji that most of Goa (parts that were then not under Portuguese rule) were spared Christianisation. He also claimed that a wrong history is being taught in school, that the whole of Goa was ruled by the Portuguese for 450 years, when in fact, only the talukas of Bardez, Tiswadi [Ilhas de Tiçuari (sometimes spelt Tissuary) to the Portuguese], and Salcete (which then included Mormugao) were ruled for 450 years.
Now, unless you were dozing off during history class (or eating raw mangoes under the desk) in primary school no less (when these lessons was taught), you would know that Goa is divided into old conquests and new conquests -- the difference being that the ‘core’ of Goa was ruled for 450 years while the rest was ‘acquired’ later via battles, negotiations and treaties with local chieftains or vassals. In fact, if you want to be a stickler for history, the only part of Goa that was ruled for the full 451 years was the port city of Goa, now called Old Goa, and some surrounding villages that today make up the taluka of Tiswadi. Bardez and Salcete were conquered some 30 years later in 1543 or thereabouts with the sole purpose of having them act as ‘buffer zones’ to protect the Portuguese hold on the city.
But frankly, none of that matters. At least not in this context.
One way to react to the Chief Minister and his dubious claims is to try and do what former MLA Uday Bhembro via his YouTube channel (as well as several others on social media) was attempting to do—i.e., attempt to fact-check the chief minister on his claims by citing historical sources, documents, books, etc detailing the relationship between Shivaji, the Marathas, and the Portuguese, etc.
Now Bhembro is no historian (he says so himself), and neither am I, but irrespective of that, there’s an inherent problem with that approach. A problem that goes beyond inviting the hoodlums to your doorstep.
You see, you cannot fact-check your way out of a dictatorship—or even a populist government.
The Chief Minister, in the speech he delivered on the occasion, wasn’t attempting to give a history lesson (though he did make it seem that that’s what he was doing). He was making a political speech targeted at his political constituency (the caste constituency, rather than the geographic one he represents). And in doing so, he was making it clear who his target was. This isn’t the first time he was doing it either.
From asking to wipe the signs of the Portuguese to taunting those who still shout “Viva Portugal,” there’s a clear pattern of sly dog whistling disguised as anti-colonial nationalism.
This can’t be countered through fact-checking or academic discussions on the ‘real history’ and Shivaji’s legacy. You need to fight a political speech with a political speech (or action).
The problem with the fact-checking approach is that you are always playing catch-up whilst handing over the initiative (and the power to set the narrative) to the offending party.
It’s not without reason that one of the biggest losers of Trump’s recent return to the White House has been the fact-checking industry—an industry that he quite literally created on account of his speeches riddled with downright lies and half-truths during the run-up to his first victory in 2016. That he was able to do it the second time, with an even greater quantum of disinformation, tells you all you need to know of the effectiveness of fact-checking.
Voddakodde no more
On Sunday last (March 1), Porvorim finally lost one of its most famous landmarks—the Banyan Tree that gave the locality (and bus stop) its name—voddakodde (near the Banyan tree). The vodd (banyan tree) in question was no ordinary banyan tree (unlike the other six to seven banyan trees that have been removed so far (and not translocated)) in that there also was a shrine attached to it—a shrine dedicated to the local Rakhondar—or guardian deity/spirit.
For anyone familiar with Goan folklore, Rakhandars are deities who stand guard along village boundaries, or xim, as they are called locally. You are probably more familiar with the term ximer (at the boundary), which typically refers to the edge of a village. Shrines dedicated to Rakhondars are typically located at the edge of the village boundary and are known to guard over or protect the village (and the villagers and those travelling to and from the village).
Shrines will usually be located along bandhs or tide gates (manos) or, in other cases, at a geographic landmark that marks the edge of the village. The Dev Bodgeshwar temple in Mapusa (that was once a smaller shrine) is one such shrine dedicated to a guardian deity (Bodgeshwar) and lies on the boundary between Mapusa and Guirim, specifically along the natural canal (vhal) that is the boundary that marks the beginning (or end) of Mapusa.
There are, no doubt, questions about how old the Banyan tree and attached shrine in Porvorim really are, but what ultimately matters is how important it currently is and to whom.
A decision was made some time during the planning stage of the project that the elevated corridor would be built by getting rid of it and since then the writing was on the wall -- not just of this tree, but of several trees along the way including some very shady (not in that sense, lol) trees along the way.
So why did this shrine shifting strike a raw nerve? Removing the tree, and the deity -- in the manner that was being attempted -- was seen as adding insult to injury to the Bahujan Samaj -- a core constituency of the BJP, for whom the Rakhonkar deities are of special importance. A party that rose to power benefitting from the support of the numerically large but historically oppressed collection of subaltern castes is increasingly seen as one which continues to enjoy the benefits of power bestowed upon them, while the very constituency that put them there is increasingly marginalised.
More than that it was an opportunity to expose the hypocrisy of the ruling government who otherwise loses no opportunity to style itself as the defender of the faith (and culture).
Personally I have no dog in this fight, except to observe that -- it wasn’t the endless dust pollution, non existent safety standards and traffic jams -- but the demolition of a shrine that brought out the largest protests against the ongoing project so far. Some food for thought.
Besides it is one thing to lose a tree that was in the direct path of the flyover but who will explain the needless cutting of three age-old, robust and unique trees that were standing opposite the mall (in front of Agarwal Konkan Railway Booking Agency) that weren’t even in the path of the flyover?
Registers ringing
Former Minister in the Goa government Pandurang Madkaikar dropped a cat among the pigeons when he claimed that “nothing is happening” in Goa besides “all ministers (being) busy in counting money.”
To buttress his point he claimed that he was forced to cough up a bribe of Rs 15-20 lakh Rupees to do a “small, routine job” and a minister, who he refused to name, asked for the money via his personal assistant.
Now there are many ways to look at this -- you can say that Madkaikar was only elucidating -- in public and on record -- what is already a badly kept secret, or that Madkaikar is speaking up only because he, who is a former minister, expected to be treated differently and not like regular folk. Essentially, Madkaikar, who was already feeling sidelined in the party, ever since the BJP welcomed his rival Rajesh Faldessai into the party, is now feeling not just sidelined but humiliated that HE was asked to pay a bribe.
However, I think the best way to look at it, is to look at how those in the present government have reacted to the outburst. The opposition has reacted quite predictably and called for a probe into the claims, calls for action against Madkaikar and a case against the minister concerned while drawing the usual conclusions that this government is corrupt.
More interesting, however, are the reactions from the ruling side. None of them seemed to act as if anything was amiss. Mauvin Godinho even seemingly justified the act of corruption claiming that Madkaikar “knows how things are”. But the one that really took the cake was the Chief Minister who simply washed his hands of the allegations claiming that they weren’t against him. Case closed. This from a party that rose to power in Goa on the bank of “zero tolerance to corruption.”
More good news from the SC
There is some good news from the ‘Save Goa’ battlefront. The Supreme Court granted an interim stay banning the issuance of conversion sanads for plots that had been finally identified as private forests in Goa. The plots, which includes the Bhutani plot at Sancoale , were identified by the Thomas and Araujo committees constituted by the Goa government.
However, instead of accepting the reports, the Goa government decided to consider the forests they identified as ‘provisional’ and sought to review them. In the meanwhile the state was happily issuing conversion sanads for the plots in question. That was until the Goa Foundation approached the Supreme Court and won a small battle in the larger war.
That’s not all, the Forest Department too appears to have acted against the project proponent for allegedly illegally felling trees at the site.
A footnote
Remember how the Goa government went to town saying that the new agriculture policy had introduced a ban on the conversion of agricultural fields—khazan, ker, and morod—for non-agricultural purposes?
Well, if you drive between Porvorim and Mapusa at Guirim on the left side of the Guirim overpass, you will see a massive stretch of once green fields now being filled, allegedly for the purpose of construction—a move that appears to have upset the Gaunkars of the comunidade of Guirim—no matter that work on the site continues.
So much for the government’s claims that the agriculture policy was a move to save agricultural land (it wasn’t). To know what it really was for, read my earlier piece.
That’s all I have for you this week. Make sure you comment or write in, should you have something, anything to say.
I would also invite you to contribute via sending in your views, especially on a subject you know something about, and I will be happy to include it as part of the newsletter.
You are also welcome to write in with leads and tip-offs or anything that you think might be interesting enough to include here.
As always, please share and help spread the word.
Until next week, then. Tchau!
I feel like the majority in India don’t really have a problem with corruption per se (as many are in need of corrupt favours) they just would like hindutva in return for their tolerance of it. That is what the BJP give them.