Prince Edward’s safari to
the Sub-Continent
A post by John J. D’Souza
in response to: Goa
“little else than a melancholy heap of ruins” –1875
A recent posing on Goanet
noted that “Panaji is decaying by the day” That awfully very foul stench of
rotting garbage that we have to all inhale every morning while entering Panaji
after crossing the Mandovi Bridge only depicts the current despicable state of
this Government which is now in total disarray.
A recent Times of India
op-ed also noted “The Degradation of Goa’s Capital”
Not infrequently, some
Snowbirds returning from Goa, lament
that things are going from bad to worse. The place is overwhelmed
with cheap tourism and migrants destroying its
unique character.
About 150 years ago Goa
existence was also held to be precarious!
In October 1875, Albert
Edward Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Queen Victoria, embarked on an
extensive tour of the Indian subcontinent. The tour was extensively documented (see
references at the end) this article, focuses on his impromptu
stop to visit Goa, on his way to Ceylon and onward to Calcutta.
However, in November 6,
1875 when he landed in Bombay, a fawning speech of welcome was delivered on behalf of
his Indian subjects by Mr. Dosabhoy Framjee — a
Parsee gentleman Chairman of the Bombay Corporation.(an excerpt is included at
the end of this posting. Hopefully Bomoikars on Goanet
will come up with a detailed assessment of times then)
Excerpts from press
reports of tour (see ref source at end):
In accordance with the
spirit of inquiry which is so marked a characteristic of the Prince of Wales,
His Royal Highness determined to anchor off Goa, the head-quarters of the
Portuguese in India. Had the Prince of Wales returned to England without
visiting the settlement, a valuable experience relating to that vast portion of
the people of India, the Portuguese Catholics, would have been denied him.
The Prince’s ship the
Seraphis , cast anchor in Goa Bay on Friday night, November 26th,(1875) A
Portuguese galley, brought the Governor of Goa aboard to pay his respects, and
arrange the program for the next day and for the visit to Old Goa.
It was once famous as the
great mart on the Malabar Coast between Europe and Hindustan; and although now
it is little else than a melancholy heap of ruins, these old ecclesiastical
buildings is of the greatest historical interest. The palaces and chapels are
crumbling away pillar by pillar and stone by stone and no one seems
anxious to restore them. We on board ship would have liked to have landed
before the royal salutes were fired, for there was no assurance that after one fou de joie (possibly 21 gun salute) was
discharged there would be anything left in Goa save bricks and dust.
On November 27, 1875,
Prince and his suite left in the steam barge for Old Goa, about twelve miles
higher up the river, rendered famous by the landing of the first Portuguese
General (Vasco de Gama) in India. The Prince was carried from the landing-place
to the centre of the old town in a palanquin, The Prince wandered, apparently
with the greatest interest, through the aisles of the three magnificent
cathedral-like edifices here. One of these contains a silver coffin, within
which reposes the body of St. Francis Xavier. The coffin rests on a richly
carved marble pedestal. It is the most splendid shrine in the whole world.
The press
reporter in the Prince of Wales party visiting old Goa noted the
following:
“We were greatly struck
with the strength of the Catholic church, still visible in this antiquated and
decaying province. We all brought away with us ivory crosses, and carved
figures of the Virgin and the infant Jesus, which we had purchased from the
coloured Portuguese.”
Comments:
* Critical
thinking skills are needed when reading the above.
* Old
Goa was in decay for several centuries due to unsanitary conditions mainly from
water pollution.
* Reference
to the noun Goan as inhabitants of place is hardly
used
* It
would have been mind blowing then to imagine that someday “coloured Portuguese”
would be elected to their House of Parliament.
* Had
the visiting party spent more time visiting Sunset Point in Bardez or walked
along the 30km white sand beaches of Salcete, who
knows – the hippy movement might have started then.
Excerpts from speech made
in Bombay November 6 1875 by Mr. Dosabhoy Framjee — a Parsee gentleman Chairman
of the Bombay Corporation
“Bombay may lay claim to
the distinction of being a royal city, for this island first became an
appendage of the Crown of England through forming part of the dowry of Charles
the Second’s Portuguese bride; and during the two centuries that have since
elapsed Bombay has had every reason to be grateful for this fortunate change in
her destiny.
From a barren rock, whose
only wealth consisted of coconuts and dried fish, whose scanty population of
10,000 souls …… she has blossomed into a fair and wholesome city, with a
population which makes her rank next to London among the cities of the British
Empire, with a municipal revenue amounting to 300,000
(lakhs)/. a year, and with a foreign commerce worth forty- five millions, and
yielding in customs duties to the imperial treasury three millions a year. All
this material prosperity she owes to the strong and wise Government which has
secured her in the enjoyment of peace and order, of equality before the law, of
religious liberty, and of freedom of trade, and has thus given confidence to
men of all races and creeds — Europeans, Indo- Portuguese, Hindus, Mohamedans,
Parsees, and Jews — to pursue their various callings
under the shadow of the
British flag. End of Excerpt
Full text of "India in
1875-76: the visit of the Prince of Wales<https://archive.org/details/indiainvisitpri00wheegoog
John J. D'Souza
Comments