VICTOR FERRAO
In the emerald landscapes and coastal rhythms of Goa, a powerful declaration has taken root: ‘Enough is Enough.’ This is no mere slogan. It is the heartbeat of a growing people’s movement against the relentless erosion of their homeland. For too long, Goa has worn the masks of imposed progress: Develop ment that promises prosperity but delivers dispossession, tour ism that celebrates its beauty while commodifying its essence, and policies that offer recogni tion while perpetuating exploita tion. Drawing inspiration from Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks and Glen Sean Coulthard’s Red Skin, White Masks, this re flection tries to enable us to see how we as Goans are challenged to unmask the ‘white mask’ that appears innocent, progressive, religious and even national. Both Fannon and Coulhard manifest how colonised and in digenous people are compelled to adopt the coloniser’s gaze as, nat ural, normal and is even viewed as the standard way of being human in the world. This inter nalised eye of power (coloniser’s gaze) is then assimilated into systems that undermine the very existence of the colonised people in post-colonial societies. In Goa, the ‘black skins’ stand for Goan people who were subjugated under Portuguese rule and who are now facing a devastating in ternal colonialism. While the col onisation of the Portuguese has ended, Goans have the challenge to manifest the ‘white masks’ that continue the coloniality of power often dressed in the robe of pro gress, innocence and religious ethno-nationalism. The ‘red skins’ evoke the land-rooted, in digenous defence of territory and culture against exploitation of the outsiders and state-backed extraction. Red symbolises anger and protest. Both ‘black skin’ and ‘red skin’ are symbolic and are political notion and reject ‘white masks’ of false reconciliation that give the sense of amending the wrongs of the colonisers but en forces a capitalist-friendly ‘recog nition’ that mask ongoing theft of land, ecology, and identity in Goa . There are several ‘white’ masks that appear innocent, religious and even national in Goa. With the ‘Enough is Enough’ move ment in Goa, the skins of Goans are fast becoming red. Goa’s colonial legacy stretch es back centuries under Portu guese dominion, ending in 1961 with it’s integration into India. Liberation brought hope, yet it soon came under the weight of a new colonisation. This time it was from within the nation it self. Promises to preserve Goa’s unique Konkani-speaking, cul turally distinct character won by the opinion poll victory gave way to commodification of Goa and Goan culture where, land came to be viewed as a chief economic resource by the new elite while mining lobby made a smooth transition from colonial condi tions of being pro-Portuguese and put on its ‘white mask’ of joining the nascent nation and erase its past. The builder-poli tician nexus led to the depletion of land resources of Goa. Goans who embraced a promising fu ture with the ringing of libera tion soon had to face decisions about their own future that can celled that very future this time by the new power elite, the very own Goan vested interest. It fast tracked the sale of Goa. The vil lages transformed into concrete extensions of distant ambitions that displaced and exiled Goans in their own homeland. To a large extent, it is Goans who are responsible of this disastrous fate. This condition unfortunate ly echoes Fanon’s warning of in ternalisation of the ‘white mask’ of the coloniser. Goans, thus, mimicked the oppressor’s val ues, selling land for quick gains, embracing unchecked tourism or to fall for illusive ethno-reli gious nationalism only to awaken today to a nightmare of cultural dilution, ecological ruin and a neo-colonisation of forces from Delhi exemplified by the recent disaster in Arpora. Coulthard’s critique strikes us Goans even deeper. He argues that state-granted ‘recognition’— through environmental clearanc es, economic incentives, schemes for the women, the old, the chil dren and the homeless or recon ciliation rhetoric that apparently promised to rectify the wrongs like the destruction of the temples by the Portuguese simply was opium that numbed minds from real issues that troubled Goa and Goans. Such a sense of recogni tion is indeed a ‘white mask’ that domesticates resistance and sus tains neo-colonial-capitalist pow er matrix. We can see its signs everywhere in Goa. Mining that was halted for years due to ram pant illegality, has slowly resumed wearing ‘white masks’ with auc tions of new blocks in sensitive areas. Farmers in interior villag es protest as fields are damaged, compensation ignored and local labour side-lined for outsiders. In frastructure projects like railway expansions for coal transporta tion, highway widenings eating temples in Bhoma, port enlarge ments engulfing river Sal in Betul and surrounding villages and even threatening to swallow vil lages like Carmona in Salcete in dicate the coming disaster in Goa. The suggestion that the tiger is only a tourist in Goa can only open the destruction of forests of Goa and ‘white mask’ the diversion of Mhadei This opens us to the plunder of protected forests like Mollem National Park and Bhag wan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary, corridors vital for biodiversity and water security. The national isation of the rivers framed as ‘de velopment,’ is a clear ‘white mask’ and they revive fears of turning Goa into a coal-transport hub, poi soning air, water, and traditional livelihoods. Tourism, once a lifeline, now exemplifies a paradox. It again smacks of a ‘white mask’: Beaches overflow with visitors, sand dunes disappear for shacks, groundwa ter depletes, and waste piles up. Locals sell ancestral properties to newcomers seeking second homes, only to lament the loss of community and ‘Goan-ness.’ Goans fortunately have begun to see red. Hill-cutting in places like Arambol triggers torchlight protest marches from hundreds of villagers, decrying illegal con versions of forest land. Amidst this wholesale destruction, a re tired justice, concerned citizens and activists have called for a state-wide movement to halt the destruction of hills, rivers, lakes, and seashores. The response is a shedding of the ‘white masks’. Goans on the street have begun to demand ac countability. Calls for Special Sta tus have become louder. The need to create a Sustain able Development Council to re strict land alienation in eco-sen sitive zones have begun to look urgent. The challenge to protect cultural heritage, and ensure falling demographic balance ap pears to be vital means to make Goa, Goa again. These efforts aim to prioritise Goans in education, jobs, and re sources, safeguarding the tradi tional livelihoods tied to khazan fields, horticulture, and fishing. Goa’s ‘Enough is Enough’ is a profound unmasking. Goans no longer are willing to wear the ‘white masks’ of progress and a religious ethno-nationalism of the ruling benches that conceal ex ploitative degoanisation. Goa and its people demand authentic sov ereignty over land, ecology, and identity. In this fight, Fanon’s call for psychological liberation meets Coulthard’s vision of grounded resurgence. Goa stands at a cross roads: it can fade into a homoge nised resort, or rise as a model of decolonial defiance, proving that true freedom comes not from external validation of the ‘white masks’ but from reclaiming one’s roots (the ‘red skin’). My hope is that this movement grows—un yielding, united, and resolute. Enough is indeed enough! The skin of Goans is truing red! (Fr Victor Ferrao is an inde pendent researcher attached to St Francis Xavier Church, Borim, Ponda.)
