November 29, 2014

Dedicated activists or autists?

November 29, 2014

Unwinding Culture
Teotonio R. de Souza
Teotonio R. de Souza is the founder-director, Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa (1979-1994). He
presently resides in Portugal, where he is a University Professor and Fellow of the Portuguese Academy of
History since 1983 and tweets @ramkamat

There is still much unknown about the cause of autism as well as about therapies to help ASDs to be integrated into
normal social life. Since Freudian discovery of the role of superego as an internal police that keeps us normal, we are
all presumably born with libidinal tendencies that can drive us off the rockers.
As pointed out repeatedly in my past columns about Unwinding Culture, it is the culture that distinguishes human species
from all others and ensures the continuity of the human species by taking over the control of the process of natural
evolution. The culture overrules the law of the survival of the fittest, and permits the deficient, the disabled and the weak
to survive in the human society. It is not the monopoly of the Christianity or any particular religion as it is often claimed by
the fundamentalists among them to justify conversions or to mark their superiority.
If some cultures have laid greater stress on kindness or charity than others, it probably reveals a greater need among
them to subdue greater aggressiveness inherent in those societies. Even though Christianity was born in the desert region
of the Middle East, it expanded and took roots faster in Europe, which has always been an environmentally harsh and
hostile home since pre-history of human diaspora.
It is not surprising if the desert religions, like Judaism, Christianity and Islam preach about a paradise as promised land
flowing with milk and honey at the end of lifes pilgrimage. These religions need converts to survive, and resources from
other lands and societies. Therein lay the key of their globalization, leading to cultural impositions upon others. These
environmentally defined religious doctrines and practices explain their activism bordering often on fanatic and
fundamentalist autism.

We may recall two events that are going to draw our attention in Goa in the ongoing season, namely a repeat of the
decennial exposition of the relics of St. Francis Xavier and the canonization of the first Goan saint, Jos Vaz, Apostle of
Sri Lanka. Curiously, the fanatic counter-Reformation policies of the Catholic Church brought to India by the Portuguese
are closely linked with the evolution of colonial Goa and colonial Ceylon since the mid-sixteenth century.
In the so-called mid-sixteenth century crisis of the Portuguese empire in India under the threats of the Turks, it was largely
during the vice-royalty of D. Afonso de Noronha (1550-1554) that the Portuguese consolidated their territorial possessions
in the North-western coast of India till Diu, and also in Ceylon, by re-establishing control of Kotte. In Goa, a plan to sell
Bardez and Salcete to Adil Shah was set aside.
D. Afonso de Noronha depended greatly upon the Jesuit missionary support and favoured their activities, even at times
at the risk of setting aside the pretensions of other religious orders, particularly the Dominicans who even excommunicated
him.The provinces of Salcete and Bardez were handed over to the pastoral care of the Jesuits and Franciscans, as a
strategy of ensuring their social control.
It was the same viceroy who funded the last trip of St. Francis Xavier to China, and welcomed his body in Goa in 1553
with great festivities. The viceroy adopted a policy of cultural intimidation in Sri Lanka during theearlier mentioned
campaign in 1551, when Bhuvanekabahu, the king of Sitawaka, was assassinated and replaced with Dharmapala. He
was converted as D. Joo Pereira Bandara and relied heavily on the Portuguese to maintain his hold over his kingdom.
By 1556 nearly 70,000 inhabitants in the vicinity of Colombo Fort had converted to Catholicism.The Portuguese captured
and destroyed the precious Tooth Relic of Buddha, despite the willingness of the locals to pay them a hefty ransom.
Had it not been for such drastic colonial moves, we would not have Goa as we have it today with its social, cultural and
political configuration, and there would be no Jos Vaz who ventured into Ceylon, to help rescuing the Portugueseimplanted Christianity from the ravages of the Dutch Calvinists after they dislodged the Portuguese from that island.
To conclude, it is usually hard to reconcile ourselves to many historic cataclisms. It happens in the lives of individuals,
and of societies. Factors beyond their control shape their future. We can see it all along history. We see it happening
today in various parts of the globe, external interventions changing radically the face of nations and the future of their
peoples.
Societies need activitists who look beyond their self-interests, but not when they are part of a problem, instead of a
solution. Unfortunately we come across activists who ignore blatantly facts and realities, like someone recently from
Mangalore, fuming against the exposition of St. Francis Xavier, who he believes is from France and tortured 2000
Christians in Goa! [http://bit.ly/1FaF6BX] We could certainly do without such activists who suffer from neuronal network
dysfunction and delusions.

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