Goa minister: Portuguese committed atrocities, but did a good thing by preserving documents

These records can be acquired from Lisbon, he said, and added that the Ministry of External Affairs has to be involved in the process along with the Goa government.

In June 2022, Phal Dessai had said bringing documents pertaining to Goa from Portugal would “reveal many secrets”. He had said the state would form a team of experts to bring the documents from Portugal, if required.

“There are a lot of documents that will reveal the truth. We hope that the Portuguese government has nothing to lose from their side. It is our property, and it should come to us. If there is anything that belongs to them and is with us, we may give it to them, as an exchange. We could recover several letters related to Shivaji, written by the Portuguese government from Goa to Lisbon…,” he had said last year.

On Tuesday, he said the online Portuguese translation service would facilitate time-bound and authentic translations, especially for researchers. People can translate documents from 15 empanelled translators at Rs 350 per page, he added.

Emphasising the importance of preserving and sharing Goa’s rich history, he said, “People should know our heritage and history and the documentation will help to keep it alive and build our future.

[It is important] we know our history…our ancestors and those freedom fighters who fought and sacrificed their lives for liberation. Every student of Goa should have access to this history,” said Phal Dessai.

On the Government’s initiatives to showcase the state’s history through films, banners, and books in libraries across various talukas, he said, “We have more than 3 crore records, and those are to be digitised in a phased manner. The digitisation of records will occur in a phased manner, with digitised data to be indexed for accessibility in the near future,” he added.