Resumo de Inside Goa - Manohar Malgonkar

YOU CAN take the Goan out of Goa,
but it is impossible to take Goa out of the
Goan. The cover blurb of this revised edition of a book, originally published
in 1982 by the Government of Goa, Daman and Diu,
assures us of that.

But what makes this volume hard to
put down is a combination of factors. The in-depth, narrative virtuosity of the
updated text by Manohar Malgonkar, among the most versatile of old world Indian
writers in English. His intimate detailing of Goan history and mores, persona
and principles, religion and food, are outlined with such love that it ensures
them a new lease of life. And the brilliant, cross-hatched, black-and-white
drawings by that son of the soil, Mario de Miranda, bring Goa
scintillatingly to life with more charm than photographs ever could.

How else would we have learnt of
the first, faltering Jesuit steps of Francis Xavier in Paris, under the tutelage of none other than
Ignatius Loyola, long before sainthood loomed in his life? Or a literary lion
named Bakibab Borkar, a government servant in real life, whose lyricism lilts
through the everyday Marathi language? Or ?the very first Goan to achieve
fame,? one of history?s notable gadflies, the Lisbon-based Abbe Faria,
described tantalizingly by Malgonkar as ?part Rasputin, part Machiavelli and
part sorcerer, a man in holy robes who practiced esoteric crafts that were
regarded as heretical by the Church and who secretly sponsored revolutionary
political upheavals??

It would not do to give away the
stories of these magnificent, convoluted lives in a review. But this volume is
a crash course in history, geography and cultural studies, a case for what school
and college texts ought to be, so alive are its dramatis personae, so well-cued
its events, so pulsating its concentrated flow.

Through a narrative as riveting as
fiction, the intricate shades of Goa float
into focus. We learn that the Goa mentioned by
the Puranas, the one that Ptolemy of the 2nd century knew of, is a
far cry from the Govapuri of the 14th century. Today?s narrow strip
on the Indian western coast, about a hundred miles long, has a history as long
and winding as the Zuari or Mandovi rivers, a lineage that takes in the Bhojas
and Chalukyas, Mohammed Bin Tughlaq, Shivaji and Aurangazeb. Through
Malgonkar?s deft, painting-like strokes, we scan the backdrop that made Alfonso
de Albuquerque a key to Portuguese empire-building.

Buttressed by time-tested
documentation and local lore, we make the acquaintance of unsung Goan
protagonists like Madhav Mantri, Thimmaya and Krishna, the latter a Goan thanedar or Chief Magistrate, possibly
the first Indian to travel to Europe, where he was greatly favoured by
Portuguese king Dom Joao. We read of how palm leaf manuscripts were confiscated
by the clergy, no matter what their content or context. We shudder at the grim
realities of the Inquisition. And wonder at how virtually all the goldsmiths in
Goa are still Hindus. And the reaffirmation of
Hindu life against a dominantly Christian backdrop through the Ghodemodni
rites, the Rang Panchami festival or the idol of Saptakoteshwar, whisked away
to safety across the river. Or the undeniable contribution of Goa?s
bhavin or priestess families to the
Indian cultural mainstream. Or how Hindu names like Lakshman or Locu were
transformed to Lucas.

Over innumerable trips by car and
rail, between bites of sorpotel-sannam, Malgonkar and Miranda establish an
essential truth. That Goa is more than a
geographical entity; it is a quintessential state of mind. For their heady offering
of far-out facts and illustrations seems to be spiked with feni. Enough to make
most readers wish that this multi-layered, bebinca-like volume would spark fare
as dramatically evocative of other Indian locations, too.

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