Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Goa Board Of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education has added a chapter on the Cuncolim Revolt in 1583 in the history textbooks of class 11th. The revolt is said to be Goa’s first revolt against Portuguese colonial rule. Chairperson of the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Bhagirath Shetye told IANS that all together, a team of around 20 people were working on this project.
“Lesson over Cuncolim Revolt in this textbook is around two pages. It is in detail. This year we have introduced it in Class 11, while next year’s basic lesson will be included in Class 9,” Shetye said, adding three scholars from Goa University were involved in this project. President of Cuncolim Chieftains Memorial Committee Oscar Martins said that he is very happy that the ‘Cuncolim Revolt’ has been included in the history textbooks.
“For the last 20 years, we have been submitting a memorandum to every Chief Minister. But all had failed to fulfil our demand. Now Chief Minister Pramod Sawant heard us and included it in the history book of the eleventh standard,” Martins said. He said that many meetings were held with the editorial board and other concerned persons to include correct information about the Cuncolim Revolt.
According to Martins, it is the first revolt against the Portuguese, which has importance. ‘Cuncolim Revolt’ in 1583 against the Portuguese colonial rule emerged as the first revolt in Goa. In this revolt, European Jesuit priests and other priests were killed for converting people. During the Cuncolim revolt of 1583, villagers killed Roman Catholic priests and their armed escorts, who were in the process of converting villagers and desecrating Hindu temples in the region.
One of those killed was European Jesuit priest Rodolfo Acquaviva, who was in the court of Emperor Akbar just before he was posted to Goa. Massacre resulted in swift retaliation by the Portuguese, who invited around 16 chieftains from Cuncolim and the adjoining villages of Ambelim, Assolna, Veroda and Velim at the Assolna fort for a peaceful parley and killed them. One among them escaped the massacre by jumping from the fort in the river and swam to Karwar-Karnataka, where he took shelter.
The day of the Cuncolim Revolt, July 15, has been fixed to pay tributes at the national war memorial in New Delhi. The Chief Minister had said that every year, a state government representative would visit the national capital to pay tributes at the memorial on the day.
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