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On Dec. 18, 1961, Indian troops entered Goa, ending
451 years of Portuguese rule of this enclave of beaches
and coconut palms on the Arabian Sea. Portugal angrily
suspended almost all ties with India for 15 years,
and New Delhi moved quickly to "Indianize"
Goa — Portuguese statues were shunted into museums,
for instance, while statues of Nehru and Gandhi were
erected in parks. English and Hindi were introduced
in schools.
Beneath the newer English-speaking overlay, however,
the surnames, the place names, the churches and many
of the religious festivals are Portuguese. And now,
people here are realizing that, for tourism, this
unique embrace of India and Iberia differentiates
Goa, India's smallest state, from the 27 others.
This tropical land is dotted with 167 whitewashed
Roman Catholic churches. The bed and breakfast at
the manor here is part of a state-wide network of
about 20 "heritage house" inns, an echo
of a similar system in Portugal.
Portuguese television programming, newly available
by cable television, is reviving Portuguese language
skills among older Goans. From Lisbon and a Portuguese
Consulate here, an increasing number of exchanges,
scholarships and seminars link "Goa and Lisboa."
In addition, there is a brisk business in Portuguese
passports, available to anyone living here in 1961
— when Goans were considered Portuguese citizens
— or to their children and grandchildren. Since
Portugal joined the European Union 15 years ago, and
union passport holders now have the right to work
across the 15-nation bloc, the Portuguese passports
are popular tickets out to coveted jobs abroad.
The highlighting of Goa's Portuguese history does
not necessarily reflect the taste of its politicians.
Almost three years ago, Manohar Parrikar, the standard-bearer
here for the Bhartiya Janata Party, India's governing
Hindu nationalist party, became Goa's chief minister,
or governor, and vowed to block "foreign"
foundations from financing such projects as church
restorations here.
Within months, however, he quietly dropped this stance.
"When they came to power, they tried to downplay
the Portuguese colonial thing, to cut off money to
the foundations," said Dean D'Cruz, a local architect.
"Then they realized it was a selling point. That
they were killing the goose that laid the golden egg."
At least a quarter of a million European tourists
visit every winter.
When the Hindu nationalists won power here, some
demanded the destruction of several Catholic churches
built during the 17th- and 18th-century Inquisition
on the foundations of Hindu temples. But Mr. Parrikar,
the state governor, shied away from culture wars,
devoting most of his time to cutting corruption, improving
roads and luring high technology companies. In late
May, India Today, a newsweekly, studied a host of
indicators, including income, literacy levels and
investment climate, and then ranked Goa as "India's
Best State."
Catholics have steadily lost political power and
population, and now make up about 20 percent of Goa's
1.2 million people. Tourism officials and their brochures
maintain a studiously impartial tone.
"We want to put in very big headlines: Hindus
and Christians never fought in Goa in the last 500
years," said N. Suryanarayana, state director
of tourism, skipping over 250 years of anti-Hindu
Inquisition and Portugal's alliance with Hindu states
in anti-Muslim wars. "We are saying this is a
unique blend of East and West."
In this interior village, almost lost among the green
treetops, is the tower of a chapel built by the great-grandfathers
of the Figueiredo sisters and of Mário Miranda,
scion of another old landowning family.
Mr. Miranda, who is also one of India's leading cartoonists,
recalled a visit with Mr. Parrikar, discussing official
Goa's ambivalence about its Portuguese past, and recalled
telling him: "I saw in Lisbon two statues of
Gandhi and two Hindu temples. There is nothing to
fear. The Portuguese will never return."
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