At the end of the 19th century, it appears the question of the Other gained great importance in philosophy. This led to awareness of the plural otherness. But the many was always subjected by the one. Luce Irrigaray teaches that the model of the subject in philosophy still remained imperialistic. Others can only be copies of this imperial, perfectly ideal subject. Although, our attention was drawn to the diversity or plurality, or otherness, philosophy still accepted the sameness of the subject as above otherness. Maybe we have to see Simone de Beauvoir’s book, the Second Sex. Beauvoir with all her good intentions, seems to remain in the imperialism of the male subject and define women as second sex / other to man only to demand equality for women. In doing so she has put the male subject as the benchmark that will validate the subjectivity of the female subject. In doing so, Beauvior converted the women subject as the Other of the Same. In this way the otherness of the women depended on the imperial sameness of the male subject. This in its turn kept the Otherness under the sway of sameness.
It appears that in Goa, we also seem to be trapped in this logic of the same in several ways. In this study, we attempt to examine St. Francis Xavier as an important coordinate of the symbolic order or the big Other of Goa. St. Francis Xavier as Goycho Saib does not mean anything outside Goa. Outside Goa the Saint has a plural appeal. But for Goans and in Goa, the Saint becomes Goycho Saib , Lord and protector of Goa. The presence of his sacred relics in Goa has cemented a belief that Goa is safe because of him from all natural disasters. This belief can be found among Goans of all walks of life. Now that the Saint enjoys of singular position in the symbolic order of Goa, the right-wing brought in Lord Parashurama as one who deserves to be called Goycho Saib. The otherness of Lord Parashurama was diminished or castrated by reducing him to be the Other of the same. Even when the word Saib has its origin in the Arabic lexicon, the politics of the right-wing which otherwise claims to be nationalist, thought it will displace St. Francis Xavier as Goycho Saib and place Lord Parashurama in his place by simply shifting the title Goycho Saib. But in doing so the right-wing seemed to have denationalised Lord Parashurama if one follows their own logic by privileging Saib as a marker of honour and greatness. It appears that somehow, the right-wing got trapped in the Platonic cave of sameness. This positioning of Lord Parashurama as Goycho Saib appears to have become the negation of his Otherness and thus, has inadvertently has become an attack on his stature.
The Logic of sameness afflict us because we think by privileging symmetry. Luce Irrigaray names it as the blind spot of our thinking. Our need to symmetry and balance makes us political. This aesthetic politics is developed by Jacques Ranciere. The politics of the aesthetics has to do with the distribution of the sensible. All right-wing Politics is deeply concerned with the redistribution of culture rather than the redistribution of wealth as we can notice with the left. This politics of the aesthetics appears to be behind the desire to displace St. Francis Xavier from his locus as the Goycho Saib by positioning Lord Parashurama as his rival. This binarization of the two Saints, perhaps, is used to polarise both Hindus and the Catholics of Goa, many of whom are united in their regard of St. Francis Xavier as Goycho Saib. It is because of this chains of logocentrism of sameness St. Francis Xavier’s presence in Goa may be a hauntology (in Derridian sense) to the right-wing in Goa.
