One cause theory for the migration of the Konkani people (the then Goans) into coastal Karnataka and even into Kerala is suspect. Unfortunately this one cause theory is a metanarrative used by the upper caste to invent a shared victimhood. Such a self-perceived victimhood emerges in a context of intractable conflicts that usually affect collective memory of people. Unfortunately,...
De-Konkanizing Konkani
Osmitay is an ornamental film. Its central narrative is built around several narratives that are interwoven with histories, struggles and pains of the people who speak Konkani. It scores high on its performance, music, singing and scenic display of the rich culture of the Konkani speakers. Such a film cannot be totally rational as it evokes deep emotions and...
Konkani Osmitay Cannot Divide
I was in Mangalore the other day and I got to watch the much advertised Konkani movie, Osmitay. The movie brings out several nice things about our identity (Osmitay) as Konkani speaking people. Like any good movie, it also raises several uncomfortable questions. Besides its historical inaccuracies, it makes me think that this is another propaganda movie like the...
The Goan Pedagogy of Peace
Inter-religious peace and harmony has been threatened these days in Goa. We can recount several incidents that triggered an anxiety about the possibility of collapsing peace and good will in our society. Goa that always lived a sense of unity and peace suddenly began to look like furnace of religious conflicts. Although, we in Goa have colonial wounds ,...
Strange times , strange things and the strangers
We are living in strange times in Goa. The strong fabric of the communal harmony built by Goans appears to be in danger. What is even more strange is that these disturbances are said to be socially engineered by strangers. The question is how did we make room for what has been condemned to be only a rebellion for...
The Return of the Repressed Master and Lessons of Peace for Goa
Anyone will tell us that the controversy around Fr. Bolmax’s statement about Chatrapathy Shivaji is excessive. Perhaps, we have to mark a line of distance and critically view the same. Somehow the reactive politics manifested what we may use psychoanalysis call surplus Jouissance. The mob reaction linked to the said event creates an over-proximity of things which we as...
The End of Rational Public Discourse
Recent events in Goa seem to manifest that we have reached the end of rational discourse. We seem to have allowed mindless angry mobs to disturb the fabric of peace and harmony in Goa. Mob politics has taken hold of us. Time has come to be mindful of the dangers of a society that mindlessly allows reason to die....
Dialogue and Peace for Goa
Just saw Irinev Gonsalves’ new tiatr. Kanni nhoi Ghoddnni. Many things struck me as the tiatr unfolded but the ending gave me an insight into what is happening in society, particularly, what happened with Fr. Bolmax Periera. The ending tells the story of ants. It said when the two kinds of ants (red and black )are put in a...
Goa can lead to an India to Come
We as beings in the world, actively create signification systems. By doing this we make meaning of our being in the world and become worldly. Charles Sander Pierce calls this process semiosis. This semiosis leads to what Aristotle calls mimesis. Mimesis (imitation) then, leads to poesis which is an actualization of a form or vision of being which is...
Decolonizing Philosophy— From Goa
Do we need to decolonize Philosophy? This question is dependent on the assumption that philosophy is colonized. What does it mean for philosophy to be colonized? Philosophy is a discipline that offers us a testament of freedom but the canon of philosophers is largely male. It has been demonstrated by the feminist thinkers that it is bound by the...
