by Parag Ranjan Dutta

To the present generation, the liberation of Goa from the Portugues could be a myth. A 1969 movie, Saat Hindustani by Khwaja Ahmed Abbas on Goa liberation, depicted the struggle of Maria and five others picked up from different locations and backgrounds to liberate Goa from the Portuguese. This was the debut film for the great Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan where he portrayed the character of the poet Anwar Ali. The real incident that cost the Portuguese very dearly was a firing incident at a fishing boat near the coastal area by the Portuguese army that killed an Indian fisherman. On December 19, 1961, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent armed forces to this coastal state. A joint operation by the navy, air and land forces for thirty-six hours forced General Manual Antonio e Silva to sign a surrender treaty. Long before this incident Goa Liberation Army, founded by an Indian Army officer, Shivajirao Desai in 1950 made attempts to end colonial rule by revolutionary tactics and direct action.

On July 8, 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon on a mission to India through the Cape route and Indian Ocean to reach the spice World and India. He sailed with a fleet of four ships and reached Calicut, present Kozhikode on the Malabar Coast, on May 20, 1498 on board the flagship Sao Gabrial. After a long voyage Vasco da Gama reached the port of Mombasa in East Africa. It is highly interesting that da Gama met a Gujarati sailor Kanji Malam at Mombasa and sought his help to explore the sea route to India.

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During that period spice trade was very lucrative that earned handsome profits. When the Ottoman Empire of Turkey was at the zenith of its power they took control of sea routes to the spice islands of South East Asia. But that did not discourage the Europeans. Instead in the quest of finding new fortunes, they sailed the mighty oceans to find the black pepper pods called the “Black Gold”. Seven years before Vasco da Gama launched his fleet to reach India, Christopher Columbus too set sail to reach India. But destiny drove him elsewhere to the Caribbean nation island of Haiti and then to America. While on his way to find the East Indies he dropped anchor offshore from South America and found chili instead of black pepper. Chili is a native of South America which used to grow in the wild and later domesticated by the natives.
It is believed that Vasco da Gama brought along with him a number of crop plants that included bell pepper, commonly known as capsicum and was later planted in Goa for the first time. From there it gradually spread to Bombay where locals called it Gova mirch. Chilli, known as mirch in India is a South American fruit was introduced by the Portuguese. Chili spread rapidly throughout the world. Before chili was introduced in India Indians were using black pepper growing wild in the Western Ghats of Kerala and Karnataka. Red chilli, an important ingredient of the Indian cuisine did not originate in India. A native of Mexico it was brought to India by the Portuguese traders. Two of the most important ingredients to make Indian cuisine special, red chili and tomato are actually not native to India. of the most important ingredients to make Indian. Prior to the coming of the Portugues, the Indians used to consume a number of grains like rice, wheat, bajra and maize. A number of crop plants belonging to the Solanaceae or the nightshades that include tomato, potato, pepper etc. were introduced in India by the Portuguese, mainly from Latin America, or the New World. Two of the most important ingredients to make Indian cuisine special tomato and red chili are not native to India. Prior to the coming of the Portuguese, not too many fruits found their way into Indian homes. A number of fruit trees like pineapple, papaya, cashew nuts etc. were brought by the Portuguese and extended the cultivation in the new environment. Some 8000 years ago potato was domesticated in the Andes of South America from where it was brought to Europe. Potato was introduced in the early 17th century by the Portuguese sailors and later spread to the northern part of the country, courtesy the British.

Indians in the olden days also consumed a lot of animals which were found in abundance in tropical forests. Archaeological evidence found in the Harappan civilization amply proves this food habit of the Indians.

It was Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer who discovered Goa in 1524 when King John III of Portugal nominated him as the Portuguese Viceroy in India. It was the Portugues General, Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque captured Goa from Adil Shah, the Sultan of Bijapur Sultanate. In 1492 Goa was annexed to Adil Shah’s Bijapur Sultanate. Though da Gama discovered Goa it was Albuquerque who laid the foundation of Portuguese power in India. The entire purpose of conquering Goa was to find a strategic location for Portugal’s naval base and to control maritime business in the Indian Ocean. To the Portuguese Panjim, a small village located at the mouth of the Mandovi river had a very strategic location. After the liberation of Goa Panjim was renamed Panaji. The Portuguese rule lasted 450 years.Goa finds a mention in Mahabharat where Goa has been mentioned as Gomantak. Portuguese is the language spoken by most Goans till it was liberated from Portugal in 1961. But today Marathi is widely spoken and the Goans recognise Marathi as their mother tongue. But the legacy of the Portuguese is still found with the earlier generation.

Without hesitation it can be well said that without the Portuguese coming to India we would have been poorer so far as our food habits are concerned.

The author is the former Head Department of Geography, St. Edmund’s College

Staff Reporter

Shillong, April 2: The state government is taking various measures to address the shortage of doctors in the state even as it will soon review the bond policy.

Minister in charge of Health & Family Welfare Ampareen Lyngdoh told reporters that the last recruitment was initiated through the Recruitment Board which was specifically constituted to quickly address the shortfall of specialist doctors across the state of Meghalaya.

“We are now going to readvertise this matter quickly,” Lyngdoh said.

The minister had recently informed the Assembly that about 397 new medical officers were recruited by the Board out of which 83 are specialist doctors. However, there is still a gap of 150 specialist doctors in the state, which is a cause for concern.

Lyngdoh also informed that the government is also sending doctors for short-term specialization programmes where doctors in CHCs and PHCs are duly equipped to deal with the more complex gynaecology or paediatric or even radiology matters.

According to her, there is a scheme of the government of India and two hospitals in the state – civil hospital, Shillong and Ganesh Das hospital – are now offering these courses to doctors and medical practitioners who have been on the job for many years and who are eligible to go for such kinds of programmes.

“(By) running these programmes, we will be able to quickly address the immediate shortfall of (doctors) in very important departments like gynaecology, paediatric, X-ray, and pathology. That is the mode we are adopting with the hope that at least ensure these specialists quickly get trained for a six-month programme and quickly go back to their places of posting and efficiently discharge their duties in those areas where there is a grave requirement of such specialists,” she added.

Meanwhile, the minister said that the government is yet to review the bond policy when asked on bonded doctors who refused to serve in the state.

“Several of these bonded doctors are now undergoing their PG programmes. Whether or not the government will increase the repayment in view of bonded doctors who do not want to work or serve the state of Meghalaya, we are yet to review that matter because if I am correct the review was done 3-4 years back. I will be looking at this to find out whether or not we still have to increase these bonds. I dont have the exact details of the amount of the increase in the bond but for sure we must ensure that that happens,” she said.

She informed that in the last recruitment, the government did employ most of the bonded doctors who applied for the vacancies of doctors in the state.

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On the other hand, Lyngdoh is of the view that “the doctors are in anyways clearing their NIIT examinations and are anyways proceeding for specialization in various PG hospitals and PG institutes then I think these kinds of situations or these kinds of doctors may be excluded from the purview of this bond.”

“Nevertheless, I am aware that this is an important agenda so that we may address the shortage of specialist, shortage of doctors in our facilities across the state and in the meanwhile the contractual doctors are in anyways been hired in the national health mission (NHM),” she said while adding that this is also helping the government to fill the gaps that are glaring there in the state of Meghalaya.

Further, the minister informed that the state government is now preparing to focus on tertiary treatments.

“We would like now to make sure that at least 10-13 big hospitals in various hospitals get upgraded to the best facilities so that these tertiary care centres will to a large extent address the problem of patients having to travel outside the state to avail higher facilities from hospitals to treat their various ailments. This is something which is going to be done in a big way and we are accessing several funding sources. We would like to see the state of Meghalaya progressing productively in the health sector,” she asserted.