CUTTING FROM THE
“The COLONIAL
TIMES”,
(Africa’s
largest selling Indian weekly)
Caption
GOANS
IN EAST AFRICA
Nairobi, April, 1946
To
the Editor, “E.A. Standard”
Sir,
-- “Would Goans mix themselves up
with the political life of the Indian Community?”
The answer is “certainly yes, and as Congressman”.
We mix because they are our flesh and blood.
Congress is our political unit because we have digested the 20 Congress
Commandments, which suit us. I
would ask my Goan comrades not to be led by disruptionist, not to distrust and
fear the other communities who are your blood and flesh; to distrust you must
side with the British and prolong our slavery, but to cooperate and give your
good-will, will bring social order based on eternal principles of Justice,
equality and fraternity.
Jai
Hind
Yours etc.,
Kisumu
1st
April,
1946
1st Reaction
GOANS
IN EAST AFRICA
To
the Editor, “E.A. Standard”
…
“Would Goans mix themselves up with the political life of the Indian
Community?” The answer is
“certainly NO !… Mr. Eddie Pereira is answer of the few…
Ask the Indian Elected Member Legislative Council what he has to say
about it… ring in our ears. Aliens of…
Yours etc.,
JOAQUIM DE’SOUZA
Kenya
April
6, 1946
GOANS
IN EAST AFRICA
To
the Editor, “E.A. Standard”
Sir,
-- In your issue of April 6, you published, in your correspondence columns, a
letter on the above subject. To
Goans in East Africa the information it contained came as shock, in particular
the sentence “Congress is our political unit because we have digested the 20
Congress Commandments, which suit us.” The
average Goan is innocent as such things as the Congress and the Congress
Commandments. He is ignorant of the
Commandments with the exception, perhaps, of the Lord God’s ten.
There is no escaping the fact that Mr. Pereira’s Goan comrades are
today being led, as they always have been, by the “disruptionist”; but to
assert that they distrust and fear other communities is stretching it a bit,
unless it is meant to be taken in the sense that, like all other communities in
East Africa they fear and distrust the Indian.
And as for prolonging our slavery to the British, we have never been
their slaves. Whatever slavery the
Goan has known, he left behind him in Goa.
Even
if the letter were dated any other date than April 1, I doubt that it could have
been more senseless. As for the Jai
Hind part of it, I must confess it is to be quite beyond me.
Yours etc.,
Uganda
8th April, 1946
3rd
Reaction
GOANS
IN EAST AFRICA
To
the Editor, “E.A. Standard”
Sir,--
Mr. Eddie H. Pereira’s bold retort which appeared in the issue of your
esteemed paper of April 1, Must have awakened many a Goan in East Africa from
their dormant political lethargy. If
Dr. de Souza was disappointed in Uganda and elsewhere not to have the
affirmative reply to his question “Would Goans mix themselves up with the
political life of the Indian community", Mr. Pereira has not only answered this
question in the affirmative but also has elucidated it fully.
Goans
in East Africa are part and parcel of the Indian community and the time is ripe
to make bold stand against those who are infusing in them, like Hitler, ideas of
superior complex. It is the sacred
duty of every Goan to mix up with Indian politics of today, and call a spade a
spade, otherwise Goans in East Africa will feel as if they are living next door
to a police station, (where one has got to be more careful than living in
another street) “The man who hesitates is bossed.”
Cecil Rhodes many years ago spoke of “equal rights for civilised
men,” and Goans in East Africa should claim these rights and call themselves
“Indians first and Goans afterwards”.
Yours etc.,
Jinja
April 15, 1946