Dr Sushila Sawant Mendes
Today we commemorate an historic event, the only one of its kind held in independent India – the Opinion Poll Day. On this day the people of Goa decided for themselves about their future and the need to safeguard their identity. Fifty four years later, we have moved on politically, from a Union Territory status to Statehood but questions are still raised about the need to protect the Goan Identity or Asmitai.
Goan identity is difficult to define. Is it limited to culture, language, religion, music, folklore, dance, a shared common history or a feeling of oneness? The meaning of any identity-not only Goan identity includes all of this and none of this. This enigma is best understood in the words of the Goan author Magaret Mascarenhas, “When I reach into myself in an effort to grab into that part of me that is quintessentially Goan, what I finally come out with is a fistful of ingredients – sights, sounds, smells and feelings that change in the metaphorical palm of my hand. And I suppose this is not so unusual or surprising, or even unique to myself, since identity like culture is never static”.
Goa has a history of Portuguese rule and therefore Portuguese culture. Over the years there has been a syncretism of the cultures of the east and the west in the understanding of what is Goan culture. It has therefore the best and the worst of what both had to offer. It provided Goans with the finer graces of etiquette and grace, with an all pervasive influence on Goan art, architecture, handicrafts music, dance and even theatre.
The common Civil Code, along with a western liberal mindset, is the offshoot of the Portuguese legacy of over 400 years, that has melted in the big ‘Goan hando’ (cauldron) and represents the Goa of today. The worst is the notion of exclusiveness that has both the sanction of religion and tradition that many still cling to like caste, regionalism and the perceived superiority of dialects and classes.
When one lives in a global village, one should not think small. Identity is never static, it changes, it evolves and it grows within us and with us, not just physically but in our progressive and liberal minds as well.
We often condemn the influx of “outsiders” into Goa from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and other States of India for the dilution of Goan identity. These are mostly the poor people or the labour force that are here to earn better wages than what they would obtain in their own states.
They do the work that most Goans are unwilling to do or are not in Goa to perform. They live in horrible conditions, unlike their own houses in their own home towns. Goa needs these ‘outsiders’ otherwise the constructions of our buildings, roads, bridges etc would never see the light of the day. Goans have also immigrated to faraway lands with the hope of a better future for themselves and their children.
At any workplace in Goa, there are people from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra etc. Most have proved their mettle with hard work and dedication. Institutions are not buildings and Goa is not just land, it is the people that matter not stones, mud, cement and sand.
Today, Goan identity seems more linked to a geographical entity, rather than the people who constitute it. Goans fear of being overwhelmed with non-Goans buying their land.
The people of St Jacinto Island near Vasco have an unwritten code that no land is sold to anybody from outside the island, which the inhabitants still hold as sacrosanct. However the law of the land applies to the rest of Goa. If Goans can buy land in the rest of the country – why these double standards? What we need to be more concerned about is the destruction of our land, the destruction of forests, the cutting of hillsides, the pollution of rivers and coastal areas, archaic methods of garbage disposal, the demolition of heritage buildings and the communalisation of our people. We need to provide incentives to farmers to convert barren land into green land. If Israel can convert its desert land we can convert our fertile land blessed with the waters of the Mandovi and Zuari.
We have come a long way since 16th January 1967, we attained Statehood on 30th May 1987 and Konkani was made the official language of Goa a few months earlier on 4th February that year and was incorporated into the Eight Schedule of the Indian Constitution on 20th August 1992.
Today we need to cleanse Goa from opportunistic persons and provide opportunities to its people, rather than being worried about the protection of ‘Goan Identity’, which is almost a non-issue. It must be clear that the identity of Goa, (not to be the same as that of separate Statehood) was never raised in the Goa Freedom Movement.
Many a time persons who have their own political agenda, are in the forefront of agitations and project themselves as being interested in their homeland. It is these leaders that fan popular emotions of protection of culture from being corrupted by outsiders.
The Konkani crusaders who believe that Konkani is the core of Goan Identity and criticise those who send their children to English medium schools, but do not hesitate to send their own children and grandchildren to them can never be icons of emulation. To carry the torch of Konkani and Goan culture to greater heights cannot be the privilege only of the poor and the marginalised.
Goans carry with them their culture wherever they go, because it is a “State of mind”, not just land, language, dress, religion or cuisine, although it has shades of all of these components, it is not monochromatic. Debates on Goa’s culture and identity need to be replaced with the need for Goa’s development towards a cleaner and greener Goa.
In the words of Tagore,” let us not be divided into narrow domestic walls”. We need to embrace diversity, and multiculturality in all its hues in the making of a brighter and more “happening Goa”, for all.
(The writer is an author and senior faculty in History)
