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: development that promises prosperity but delivers dispossession, tourism that celebrates its beauty while commodifying its essence, and policies that offer recognition while perpetuating exploitation. Drawing inspiration from Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks and Glen Sean Coulthard’s Red Skin, White Masks, this reflection 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 colonized and indigenous peoples are compelled to adopt the colonizer’s gaze as , natural normal and is even viewed as the standard way of being human in the world. This internalized eye of power (colonizer’s gaze) is then assimilated into systems that undermine their very existence. In Goa, the “black skins” stand for Goan people who were subjugated under Portuguese rule and who are now facing a e devastating internal colonialism. While the colonisation 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 progress, innocence and religious ethno-nationalism. The “red skins” evoke the land-rooted, indigenous defence of territory and culture against exploitation of the outsiders and state-backed extraction. Both Black skin and Red skin are symbolic and are political notion and reject “white masks” of false reconciliation that gives the sense of amending the wrongs of the colonizers but enforces a capitalist-friendly “recognition” that mask ongoing theft of land, ecology, and identity in Goa .
Goa’s colonial legacy stretches back centuries under Portuguese dominion, ending in 1961 with integration into India. Liberation brought hope, yet it soon came under the weight of a new colonization. This time it was from within the nation itself. Promises to preserve Goa’s unique Konkani-speaking, culturally distinct character won by the opinion poll gave way to commodification of Goa and Gaon 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 conditions and put on its ‘ white mask’ of joining the nascent nation. The builder-politician nexus led to the depletion of land resources of Goa. Goans who embraced a promising future with the ringing of liberation soon had to face decisions about their own future that cancelled that very future made by the new power elite, the very own Goan vested interest. It led opened the sale of Goa. The villages 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 to this disastrous fate. This condition unfortunately echoes Fanon’s warning of internalization of the ‘white mask’ of the colonizer . Goans, thus, mimicked the oppressor’s values, selling land for quick gains, embracing unchecked tourism only to awaken today to nightmare of cultural dilution and ecological ruin.
Coulthard’s critique strikes us Goans even deeper. He argues that state-granted “recognition”—through environmental clearances, economic incentives, schemes for the women, the old and the children or reconciliation rhetoric that apparently promised to rectify the wrongs like the destruction of the temples by the Portuguese simply was opium that numbed our minds from real issues that troubled Goa and Goans . Such a sense of recognition is in indeed a ‘white mask’ that domesticates resistance and sustain neo-colonial-capitalist power. We can see its signs everywhere in Goa. Mining that was halted for years due to rampant illegality, has slowly resumed wearing ‘white masks’ with auctions of new blocks in sensitive areas. Farmers in interior villages protest as fields are damaged, compensation ignored, and local labour side-lined for outsiders. Infrastructure projects like railway expansions for coal trasportation, highway widenings eating temples in Boma, port enlargements engulfing Betul and surrounding villages , and even threatening to swallow villages like Carmona in Salcete indicate 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 Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary, corridors vital for biodiversity and water security. The nationalization of the rivers framed as “development,” is a clear ‘ white mask’ and they revive fears of turning Goa into a coal-transport hub, poisoning air, water, and 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, groundwater depletes, and waste piles up. Locals sell ancestral properties to newcomers seeking second homes, only to lament the loss of community and “Goan-ness.” Hill-cutting in places like Arambol draws torchlight protest marches from hundreds of villagers, decrying illegal conversions of forest land. Amidst this wholesale destruction A retired 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 accountability. Calls for Special Status have become louder. The need to create a Sustainable Development Council to restrict land alienation in eco-sensitive zones have begun to look urgent. The challenge to protect cultural heritage, and ensure falling demographic balance appears to be vital means to make Goa Goa again. These efforts aim to prioritize Goans in education, jobs, and resources, safeguarding the raditional livelihoods tied to khazan fields, horticulture , and fishing.
Goa’s “enough is enough” is a profound unmasking. Goans a no longer willing to wear the white masks of progress and a religious nationalist that conceal exploitation. Goa and its people demand authentic sovereignty 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 crossroads: it can fade into a homogenized resort, or rise as a model of decolonial defiance, proving that true freedom comes not from external validation/ ‘white masks’ but from reclaiming one’s roots/ the ‘red skins’. My hope is that this movement grows—unyielding, united, and resolute. Enough is indeed enough! The skin of Goans is truing red !
