Panaji, July 16 (IANS) A Bharatiya Janata Party legislator in Goa Monday said that the Mangal Pandey-inspired 1857 uprising was not India’s first rebellion against foreign rule.
Legislator and renowned dramatist Vishnu Wagh told the Goa legislative assembly that a 1583 revolt in the Cuncolim village of Goa, 45 km from here, against powerful Christian priests, in which five Jesuit priests and a dozen other persons were killed, should be called the first uprising against foreign rule in India.
“The first revolution was not in 1857. First action against foreign rule happened in Cuncolim. It has to come in text books and I request the education minister to understand the sentiments of people of Cuncolim and other parts,” Wagh said.
Known as the Cuncolim revolt of 1583, villagers from Cuncolim that year killed proselytizing Roman Catholic priests and their armed escorts, who were in the process of converting villagers and desecrating Hindu temples in the region.
The massacre resulted in swift retaliation by the Portuguese administration, which executed the villagers without trial.
Politicians across party lines, including senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Shantaram Naik, who also hails from the same village, have been vocal about according the Cuncolim revolt the status of the first Indian revolution against foreign rule.
Chief minister Manohar Parrikar told the house that he would give the suggestion a thought.
Responding to Wagh’s mention during zero hour, Parrikar said that he would “think about it” and added that historians could be engaged to study the issue.
