India's Use of Force in Goa (An Old and Rare Book)

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Arthur G. Rubinoff (b. 4th May 1942), was graduated from Allegheny College in 1964 where he was awarded the Milton Jackson Beaty Fellow- ship for excellence in the study of international politics. He did his post-graduate education at the University of Chicago, specializing in the study of India's foreign policy. A Fulbright Fellowship in 1968-1969 enabled him to do re- search at the Indian School of International Studies in New Delhi. Mr. Rubinoff was named the recipient of the Morris Abrams Award in International Relations in 1969. He is presently serving as Instructor of Government at Dartmouth College in the United States, and is working on a study of India's Relations with Egypt and Yugoslavia.

Basically THIS study was completed in 1966 at the University of Chicago under the direction of Professors Lloyd I. Rudolph and Hans J. Morgenthau. A Fulbright Fellowship to the Indian School of International Studies in 1968-1969, in connection with another project, allowed me to gather new information for the Goa inquiry. My presence in New Delhi permitted access to new materials and enabled me to interview many of the personalities involved in the events of 1961 that led to the use of force in Goa. Consequently, I was able to revise my original work. While I was affiliated with Sapru House, Professor Bimla Prasad kindly read the manuscript. I wish to thank the United States Educational Foundation in India for enabling me to do field work on the subcontinent. At Fulbright House, I am particularly grateful to Mrs. Villy Sorabji for her many courtesies in connection with my work. I am deeply indebted to a number of highly placed undeniably reliable and very candid Indian informants who must remain nameless. Materials relating to the problem of Goa are often colored by the bias and national origin of their author. In any event they are somewhat difficult to obtain in the United States. Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. J. de Menezes Rosa, Minister-Counsellor of Portugal to the United States and Mr. S. K. Arora of the Information Service of India in Washington, D.C. for providing pamphlets, speeches, and other materials which would otherwise have been un available to me. Thanks are also in order to Miss Helen Smith of the Interlibrary Loan Service of the University of Chicago, who tracked down countless publications on my behalf, and to the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago which supplied Indian newspapers and Parliamentary Debates for my use.

While I, of course, accept responsibility for all errors of fact and interpretation, I wish to especially acknowledge the assistance of three people without whose help this book never would have reached publication. Professor Lloyd I. Rudolph gave generously of his time, his thoughts, and suggestions. The "Guides for Research in South Asian Social Science Sources," compiled by Professors Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph, provided an invaluable starting point. I am deeply grateful to Professor W. T. Roy of the University of Waikato in New Zealand not only for the counsel he had to offer as a student of Indian foreign policy but also for his sincere interest in this study. My wife Janet contributed in more ways than I could enumerate. Not only did she edit and type various drafts of the text, but she also interrupted her own studies and sought employment so that I could continue my research. It is to her that I dedicate this book.

ORDINARILY WHEN a nation resorts to armed force to resolve a long-standing dispute with another state, it does not evoke the hostile response which India drew from a large portion of the world community when it invaded Goa in December 1961. In this instance the United States and its allies chose to lecture India on morality rather than to consider the case on its merits. By resorting to force against the Portuguese in Goa, India was accused of practising a double standard in the conduct of her foreign policy. Allegedly her continued pleas for other states to employ peaceful methods in the solving of international disputes had exempted India-more than any other nation-from the right to use her armed forces.

The right of a nation to protect its national interest by ultimately resorting to armed force if peaceful methods fail to settle a dispute is, in most instances, taken for granted in the practice of international politics. However, in the case of India two additional factors besides power considerations have tended to put that right in question. First there is the legacy of the Gandhian revolution which Professor W. H. Morris- Jones refers to as "saintly politics". While at best of subsidiary value in any discussion of Indian political life, it nevertheless operates as a reference mark on the system. In the sphere of India's international intercourse, the Gandhian mission seeks to improve the relations of all peoples. This attitude precludes the display of hatred and violence against one's enemies which has sometimes characterized traditional European politics. The endurance and strength with which this concept survives is evidenced by the continual need of Indian scholars to refute its importance. One such student of Indian politics, K. P. Karunakaran, notes that in Kashmir, Nepal, Kerala and Hyderabad, as well as other areas of conflict, the Indian government has used its armed forces more or less the same way as other governments in similar situations. In the light of these examples he believes "non violence" to be "a concept so patently absurd (that it) may not need contra- diction but for the fact that it is often repeated by many important people in India and abroad"."