When the book, Medieval Goa by Teotonio R de Souza, was first published in 1979, I would have been hovering on the brink of adolescence and my idea of history might have been a Barbara Cartland's historical romance novel, stolen from my mother's collection. It is timely that a second edition has been released so that a generation distanced from the emotions of colonialism can come to grips with their history.

We are now almost 50 years into Liberation and the time to continually burn the straw-man of colonialism is long past and yet we must acquaint ourselves with our history and inevitably come to terms with it, for history is an integral part of our understanding of ourselves both at a collective and at an individual level. In this seamless laying down of facts and events as they transpired in the seventeenth century, substantiated by unmatched scholarship, covering a spectrum of sources both archival and secondary, Dr Teotonio manages skillfully to avoid pointless curtain soliloquies and pontification. If at all the work suffers from a very minor deficiency, though, then it is that Dr Teotonio has not allowed enough of his own voice to surface through the pages. But the original version was released in 1979 when a young Dr Teotonio would have been just setting out on his career and been all the more conscious of letting research carry the day rather than his own personal opinions.

Wherever 450 years of colonialism may have led us Goans, whatever benevolence may have seeped into the Portuguese administration over the course of this period, whatever human dignity may have at times surfaced to redeem them from their human greed, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the colonization of Goa was first and foremost driven by displacement of indigenous populations for the benefit of a foreign population and this is brought thumpingly and painfully to our attention by Albuquerque's letter to the king of Portugal, April 1, 1512 : "If the Portuguese continue to marry and settle down at the present rate, it looks to me that your Highness may have to drive out the natives of this island and transfer their lands to the Portuguese settlers. These lands are nobody's exclusive patrimony, but they all belong to the kind and lord of the land."

A large section of this print covers original reports which have been translated and these are fascinating in their unadulterated state, allowing us 21st century Goans almost celluloid motion picture images of life in medieval Goa, a life made heavy with the burden of fines, taxation, inequity and injustice, a life which was often determined by one's position in this delicate administrative pecking order of ganvkari, kulkarni, potekar and nandkarni not to mention another dynamic of social order upheld by a layering of status on the periphery of which existed the thovoi, the vinani, the dhobi and the mahar. This then was seventeenth century Goa, where hordes of African slaves could be seen in the city and where on most days you could buy one on the Rua Direita, a street which led to the square of the Church of the Holy house of Mercy, in what must have been a hideous tableau of paradox in this very Christian Empire. Much like today, water shortages ran rampant, when "wells dried up" and the viceroy urged: "that the Municipality must consider having water tanks and fountains such as were common in the towns and cities of Portugal and elsewhere in Europe," and survival for the common Goan meant hoarding foodstuff at harvest time even if one had to sell off the wife's gold ornaments.

A charge often levied against Dr Teotonio is that he lives in Portugal and yet seems to kick in its teeth the very generosity which enables him to continue his work. This charge can only be the work of small minds. Some of the most damning books about British colonialism have been written by the British. Histories of the Hanged (WW Norton & Company, 2005) by David Anderson, lecturer at Oxford College, comes to mind, which practically mauls the British administration for the brutalities unleashed by them on Kenyans during the Mau Mau revolution. Likewise, Dr Teotonio's academic freedom of inquiry and expression cannot be held hostage to some imagined gratitude owed to Portugal. There are yet others who support that right-wing groups in India, bent on creating a certain view of history and indulging in a good deal of revisionism often use his writings to pad their arguments. In this instance, Dr Teotonio's work cannot be bridled like a horse to the cart of other's people prejudice, distortions and pamphleteering. His work must continue unfettered and take us Goans wherever the truth lies. This is not to say the work must not be held up to scrutiny and must be impervious to review but review and rebuttal must be informed and countered by its own set of facts, not by scurrilous email campaigns started on cyber-forums, mostly by those who have not read his work.

This book is essential reading for all those wanting to discover their historical past for we as Goans cannot afford the luxury of an historical amnesia.

Medieval Goa: A socio-economic history by Teotonio R de Souza. Published by: Broadway Books and Goa 1556, second edition (2009). The book is available, via mail order, at Rs 800 or equivalent (including postage and packaging to anywhere, via registered air mail) from Goa 1556 at goa1556@gmail.com

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