“I was born in the East Indies, once the cradle of poetry, philosophy and history and now their tomb. I belong to that race which composed the Mahabharata and invented chess. But this nation which made codes of it's poems and formulated politics in a game is no longer alive! It survives imprisoned in it's own country. I asked for India liberty and light; as for myself, more happy than my countrymen, i am free - civis sum.”

Quoted by Nishitha Desai in Lusotopie 2000, p. 474

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Francisco Luís Gomes 17
Indo-Portuguese physician, writer, historian, economist, po… 1829–1869

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