We have been discussing the political nature of the present. One chief conflict that hunted Goans for a long time is the battle for Konkani. This battle is not something of a distant past but is hovering over our living past. Displacing Konkani in Nagri script through the choice of english by a significant number of people in Goa...
The Goa Question and Its Erasures – IV
The term semiotics may be new to some people. It has been defined as the science of life of a sign in a society. The Goa question does evoke a profound semiotic importance and cannot be easily erased. Goa being a tourist destination it is employed as a sign that has become globally a semiotic resource for a tourism...
Susegad Goan Under Acceleration – II
Speed of life in hair splitting. It has transformed us humans. Today we are in the fast lane. We exhibit what we Goans call Takit. On the wings of technology our life is more and more technicizied. Perhaps we are unable to discern its impact because of an original fault of Plato. Technology and Anthropology has begun to regret...
The Feast of Navelim- Holds Life Together Like the Beads of the Holy Rosary
The Feast of our Lady of Rosary in the parish of Navelim is highly popular among the people of Navelim and indeed the entire Salcete. It brings together people of all walks of life and the entire village of Navelim rises to a profound festive joy that binds both the Catholics, the Hindus and the others of the surrounding...
Religion, Politics and the Political in Goa
Religion and Politics do not mix. It is said to be a hazardous cocktail. Religion has often served political ends. God is repeatedly sold for notes and votes across several religions. Violence has sometimes enjoyed religious sanction. Heinous crimes have been committed against Humanity in the name of God. ‘The other worldly’ concerns of religions have numbed and anaesthetised...
Goans Between Desire and Drive
Most of us have a sense of being blown away by a nameless force that embeds our mass culture. Goa is no exception to this predicament of humanity in our country and the world. We seem to feel that the ground under our feet is fast shifting and Goans, Goa ad Goan-ness are in an exile right in front...
Goans and Human Development – III
Today we have several indices that enable us to calculate human development in our society. Goa is regarded as the best and the fastest developing small states in our country. But still have many reasons to be concerned as the so-called development continues to leave several Goans (if not all) behind as it marches ahead in triumph on our...
Goans and Human Development – II
There is a spirit of Goa that animates Goans and their goanising everywhere. It is both within and outside Goans and embedded everywhere in Goa. It populates everything that we are and do and becomes glue that gives meaning to our life as Goans. While the spirit of Goa is undying, it seems to be steadily losing its grip...
Feast of Our Lady of Rosary and Inter-Living of Grace and Goan-ness
Goans seem to want more and more of Mother Mary. We seem to have never had enough of mother Mary. She is hailed as mother by all Goans. Some even link her to the six sisters of the popular Hindu devotion. From the humble mother of Nazareth she has become our Lady of everywhere. In Navelim she is hailed...
Being a Goan at a Time of Hindutva – II
If we are to use a loose allegory of Salman Rushdie, we can boldly say: ‘Goan’s are not midnight’s children!’ A lot of India was still sleeping when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru gave the famous speech at the stroke of midnight. Goans were certainly sleeping at that auspicious hour. Because we were not awake at the time of India’s tryst...
