As an irony of history, it happened just as the Indian National Congress was planning to celebrate India’s 50 years of Independence under their unshaken dominant rule.
The state of Emergency in 1975-77 brought about the possibility of much awaited change, but only in 1997 a coalition of 13 regional parties, including MGP, at the Centre under the banner of Janata Dal gave the regional politics a say in the national politics, helping to initiate the federalization of the Indian federalism, which is classified by Constitutional experts as a “cooperative federalism” or “prefactorial federalism”.
India’s Constitution is not a covenant, or compact, between the states like in USA. The states in India are the creation of Constitution and subsequently of Parliament. Article 2 of the Constitution empowers Parliament to admit into Union, or establish new States on such terms and conditions as it thinks proper. Article 3 gives even more comprehensive powers to Parliament for formation of new states and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of the existing States.
Goan politics were marked by regional political parties, namely the U(nited) G(oans) P(arty) and the M(aharashtrawadi G(omantak) P(arty) immediately after the end of Portuguese colonial rule. The Indian National Congress party that boasted of having brought about this change was relegated to limbo in the first democratic elections that followed, including the referendum known as the Opinion Poll of 1967.
This scenario may be classified as regional, rather regionalist politics. The regional political parties accepted the integration of Goa in the Indian Union and showed no tinge of separatism. The regional politics permitted the Goans to have a first hand experience of democratic elections and to give vent to their pent-up feelings of anger / ambitions provoked and sustained by the colonial interests.
The colonial dominance of the feudal bhattkars (landlords) or favoured religious affiliation of Catholics were challenged by the dominant majority of the Hindu low-caste and mundkar citizens who could now freely display the power of their vote and demand the benefits of Liberation. Such sectarian and communal hangover of the colonial past provided justification to the regional politics. The attempt by MGP to merge Goa with Maharashtra was a strategy to win the political backing of a regional neighbour with its experience and power at the national level.
The Goan Catholics represented by UGP sought to ensure their identity with success by seeking statehood and recognition of Konkani as the official state language. These were instruments for integration in India by ensuring the identity. The Hindu-Brahmin minority joined in this strategy and its links with the national politics, so much so that during a visit of Sonia Gandhi to Goa on the eve of the last elections of 2012 she could claim that statehood and official language of Goa were a gift of the Congress Party, if not of the Nehru family.
Once the two major identity issues of statehood and official language were settled in 1987, it was in the interest of Goans to seek greater integration in national politics so as to win a greater share in national projects of development. However, this is a process that is fraught with dangers of diluting local identity through carrot and cooption of powerful external interests. As some of the earlier marginalized groups have gained with integration-based development, some of the former groups with social status and corresponding economic power are experiencing insecurity and fear losing their hold in the local communities.
A recent tendency to return to the regional politics is an indicator of such a situation in Goa.
The colonial past, once used as a leverage to gain benefits in the post-colonial politics, is now being used to emphasize the uniqueness of Goan identity and to seek special status to protect against the perceived threat of the new beneficiaries of national integration.
A new arrival on Goa’s political scenario, the Goa Forward promises to harmonize the regional interests with the national integration. Its manifesto containing over a score of non-negotiable issues is yet to convince the Goans how its politics will cease to be the art of the possible through negotiations that always imply capacity to compromise, specially on issues that really matter.
The dynamics of regionalism and integration is very tricky and requires constant watching and flexibility to harmonize local and national gains. For a working federalism there should be no loser in the long run, but requires patience of mature politics for timely and temporary compromises on either side, particularly in times when a new actor has arisen in the form of “international terrorism”, in addition to “internal terrorism”, like the Maoist version. They require fresh structural adaptations to meet the threat. It can no longer be a centralized power in a new nation born out of a tragic partition. The new federalism calls for sharing the responsibility for Law and Order. Entrusting the defence portfolio to a Goan is a prime indicator of the trust and hope of such an effective federalism.
(Teotonio R. de Souza is the founder-director, Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa (1979-1994).
