While many in the rest of India tend to think of Goa as a Christian and English-speaking state, the Catholic population in Old Goa has actually come down to 25 per cent
“Ajeeb hain yeh Goa ke log.” It was Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who once remarked that the people of Goa were strange. The state was ruled by the Portuguese who were the first Europeans to arrive in India, in the 16th century, and the last to leave in 1961. They left because the Indian Army, at the behest of Nehru’s government, mounted an attack and liberated Goa officially. Following that, there was the complicated affair of whether Goa should be its own state or merged with Maharashtra, which was the context behind the former leader’s words. In any case, since then, Goa has been many things to people around the world but for many, it is the de facto party capital of India. Yet, is that all it is?
Once a thriving center of trade and knowledge exchange, it is now where Indians—young or rich prefer to escape for fun and relaxation. Sandesh Prabhudesai, a veteran Goan journalist and author, recounts how the state’s past and present are centered around its two main divisions— the Velhas Conquistas, or the Old Conquests, and the Novas Conquistas, or the New Conquests. The former includes the modern-day coastline areas of Bardez, Salcete, Mormugao, and finally, Tiswadi which houses the capital city of Panjim. The rest of the Goa, which shares borders with Maharashtra and Karnataka forms the latter.
By the time the Portuguese came around, Goa was under the rule of Adil Shahi of the Sultanate of Bijapur. “Adil Shahi had developed the Old Goa has one of the biggest trade centers in Asia,” Prabhudesai says, adding, “even today, you will find 7-feet high trading stations because the buyers used to come on horses, not feet”. It was this affluent part of Goa that was first won over by the Portuguese governor, Afonso de Albuquerque in 1510. Capturing the rest of the Goa took more than a century but by 1788, the colonial Portuguese regime controlled the state as well as the modern-day union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli until 1961 as part of their Estado da India.
What’s interesting, however, is the region’s religious experience. The Portuguese amped up conversions, the building of churches, and even inquisition in Old Conquests areas in an effort to gain greater control. Because of this, not only did this part of Goa become a Catholic Christian majority but it also saw a migration of Hindus to New Goa where their religious rights were protected by the Muslim ruler, Adil Shahi. Fast forward to the present day and the situation becomes stranger. While many in the rest of India tend to think of Goa as a Christian and English-speaking state, the Catholic population in Old Goa has actually come down to 25% whereas the rest of the state continues to be Hindu majority. “Christians saw a lot of out-migration to countries abroad, whereas Hindus saw a lot of in-migration from rest of India,” Prabhudesai says.
While many in the rest of India tend to think of Goa as a Christian and English-speaking state, the Catholic population in Old Goa has actually come down to 25% whereas the rest of the state continues to be Hindu majority.
But that’s not all. The way Goa’s districts are laid out, 24 constituencies lie in Christian-dominated areas whereas the remaining 16 lie in Hindu-dominated areas. Christians also retain control over many aspects of commerce, tourism, and trade and this is the reason why even the Hindu majoritarian party, Bharatiya Janata Party, has more Christian candidates than Hindus. Prabhudesai recently wrote about the strange politics of Goa in his book, Ajeeb Goa’s Gajab Politics, where he takes a look at thousands of years of region’s history. Because of the region’s unlikely religious history and administrative structures, he points out that religious politics actually doesn’t work here. “Goa’s politics is one of land where most candidates belong to the party of land-grabbers whether they are in BJP, Congress, AAP, or TMC,” he says.
The way Goa’s districts are laid out, 24 constituencies lie in Christian-dominated areas whereas the remaining 16 lie in Hindu-dominated areas. Christians also retain control over many aspects of commerce, tourism, and trade and this is the reason why even the Hindu majoritarian party, Bharatiya Janata Party, has more Christian candidates than Hindus.
In his book, he makes the case that 76 per cent of tourism-affiliated accommodations in Goa are, in fact, illegal. And while many have decried the rampant tourism in the state in the past, he believes that ultimately, tourism is Goa’s bread and butter too. “People feel a sense of freedom here that they don’t feel elsewhere,” he says. Vivek Menezes, writer and co-curator of Goa Arts + Literature Festival, agrees. “I see the look of relief on young people’s faces — especially women, people from the LGBT community — they love that they can be open and carefree,” he says, adding that he is sympathetic to the phenomenon. “Goa is moderately conservative but the rest of India is so regressive that people come here to blow off steam,” Menezes says.
“I see the look of relief on young people’s faces — especially women, people from the LGBT community—they love that they can be open and carefree,” says Vivek Menezes, adding that he is sympathetic to the phenomenon.
How exactly did this happen? Both agree that the Hippie movement of the 70s coupled with Bollywood movies like Hare Rama Hare Krishna have propped up the now-familiar image of Goa as a place that is less Indian and more Western. “There is an endless supply of Indians wanting to behave in a way that is not Indian,” Menezes adds. Indeed, many Indians are attracted by the idea of beaches, semi-clad women, an endless supply of liquor, and mostly, not having to behave like a nice conservative Indian.
Since the 1990s, tourism has officially been Goa’s main industry, catering to scores of domestic and foreign tourists. From high-flying professionals looking to let their hair down to honeymooners from conservative backgrounds, Goa welcomes everyone easily and at cheaper costs than say, Spain or Switzerland. On the other hand, for foreigners, it feels Western enough to suit their sensibilities. And then, there are the ‘holiday homes’ owned by celebrities, including writers and journalists, for quick getaways, writing retreats, or simply renting out their properties to tourists for an extra source of income.
However, in order to attract tourists, the typical image of Goa has been played up intentionally as well. For instance, while Christmas and Ganesh Chaturthi are the main festivals, celebrations like Carnaval are not as indigenous as many might think. “It is done to attract tourists, even the Church has disowned it,” says Prabhudesai. Smaller harvest and fishing community festivals are practically unknown to most outside the state but are far more important to locals, which is why, it is important to remember that while Goa might be a bohemian heaven for many, its realities are far more layered than are commonly understood.
Robert S. Newman, an American anthropologist and one of the most prolific researchers on Goa, was a young peace-corps volunteer when he first arrived in the state in 1965. He has written three books about his work on Goa and having searched for the post-colonial Goan identity, he wrote in his essay, The Struggle For Goan Identity, “Goa was seen as part of the Lusitanian world; Portuguese speaking, Catholic, with fondness for fado (a musical genre), festivals, football and Fatima, not to mention wine”. The Portuguese, he writes, made every effort to pretend that Goa was, in fact, Portuguese. Konkani was suppressed and the region’s Hindu realities were ignored. He chalks this up as one of the main reasons why Konkani literature is not as well developed as other regional forms of literature in India.
In an interview with former journalist and publisher Frederick Norohna, he shares that he had a hobby of collecting stamps. Of those from the Portuguese Goa era, he says there were only two that featured Catholic Indians. By contrast, however, none of the British or French stamps ever featured an Indian of any stripe.
Norohna started collecting books about Goa in the early 1980s when he was fresh out of college and went to work as a journalist before he set up his publishing house, Goa 1556 in 2007. Ask him about the curious name of the publishing house and one will be reminded of Goa’s unpredictability again. It so happened that in 1556 a Portuguese ship was bound for present-day Ethiopia, carrying a Gutenberg-style printing press. At the last moment, an appeal was made that Goa needed that press more and right away, it was sent over to the seminary of the College of St. Paul in the state. It was the first printing press in Asia and from there on began Goa’s experience with the printing press and an enviable exchange of knowledge, most notably (and unpredictably) with Tamil works. That vibrance died out somewhere down the line and it is the quest to rediscover it as well as celebrate this part of Goa’s accidental history where Goa 1556 comes in.
As a one-man army, he has published over 150 books about the state’s cuisine, history, literature, culture and diasporic communities. He rues that most of these have been in English and only 3-4 are in Konkani because of his lack of fluency with the latter but is clear about his goals. “I don’t want to cater to the tourism publishing market because then there are guidebooks and then you have to indulge in these instant stereotypes about Goa,” he says. “We are mostly focused on the local audience that reads in English or Konkani — we see a lot of interest from Goan diaspora communities too,” he adds.
Perhaps, the most illustrious Goan-origin foreigner is none other than the current Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa. Costa’s grandfather was born and lived in Goa and the leader has been rather vocal about his roots. But unlike the relationship shared by the sovereign republics of India and Britain, Portugal still retains a more than just an emotional connect with its former colony. It turns out that any native Goan who has a documented ancestor from the pre-1961 era is automatically a Portuguese citizen and only has to formally apply for it. This can be particularly noteworthy when one considers the fact that native Goans are actually the minority now as Indians from the rest of the country begin to settle in the state. This makes the project of understanding the Goan culture for what it really is all about and going beyond its stereotypical image all the more important, lest it may be lost forever decades from now.
This can be particularly noteworthy when one considers the fact that native Goans are actually the minority now as Indians from the rest of the country begin to settle in the state. This makes the project of understanding the Goan culture for what it really is all about and going beyond its stereotypical image all the more important, lest it may be lost forever decades from now.
Much would also depend on people who choose to call Goa home out of choice. Delhi’s Urvashi Aneja moved to the coastal state six years ago with her husband to set up her research consultancy firm. In her late 30s now, her goal at the time was to move to a place that was closer to nature, safer for her as a woman, and less crowded than Delhi while also being connected to an international airport. Goa was the obvious choice and now she feels very much at home. “I plan to learn Konkani but in general I try to live that Susegado life,” she says.
She enjoys going to beaches, local cuisine, and plans to grow her own vegetables at some point too. While she initially worked out of an office space in a Portuguese villa before Covid-19 came around, she has been working out of her home in Goa of late. “We were one of the first few people to have made a proper move but in the last two years, Goa has changed a lot,” she says, adding, “people are moving here because they can now work remotely”.
Garima Garg is a Delhi-based journalist and author. Her upcoming book Heavens and Earth: The Story of Astrology Through Ages and Cultures, formerly a Westland Publications title, will be published in 2022. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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