Can we do psychoanalysis of Goan identity? Is there an inner world that animates Goans everywhere? Goan society is complex and multilayered and maybe it is difficult to analyse the psycho-myth that drives it. Like every society Goan society does have a psycho-myth that somehow interacts with every Goan’s impulses, feelings, fears and fantasies. There are distinct psychic layers...
Belonging to Goa and Goans
Being a Goan is being in-between. This is a given-ness of a Goan. Although there are plural ways of being Goan, something that runs through all of them is being in-between. It is this in-between space where Goans belong together. This being in-between cannot be reductively captured. Maybe we find it illustrated in the view that sometimes portrays Goans...
Standing Up for Goa and Her Children
The name is the most beautiful sound that every person likes to hear. It being essentially a sound image that is also rendered alphabetically legible naturally belongs to the world of images. Though the name represents us and becomes intimately linked to ourselves, there still remains a gap between the self and its name. Images have a representative function...
‘Thinking the Unthought’ – A Path Breaking Path Maker for Goa
Goa is not just out there but is also something within ourselves. Maybe there are several Goa’s within us. Recently, Dr. Peter Roland deSouza at the first event of ‘Think Goa’ which was convened by me gave a profoundly insightful and a fascinating keynote address that opened us to the horizons of several competing ideas of Goa cohabiting in...
Reversing the Process of De-Goanization
Can we Goans rise above everything that divides us? Can we find a middle ground that will bring every person in Goa feel that he/she belongs? Though all Goans have shared space and history, often, these geographies and histories have been used to whip up divisive sentiments and converted into vote banks for the political forces. Can we Goans...
Enough is Enough of this Whataboutry
An argument that we may call whataboutry has reached a nauseating peak on prime time television in our country. Of course It does not rule just our television. We can also find it being put forth in our legislative assemblies and parliament. We can see how BJP is hiding behind the cover what about the seventy year rule of...
The Politics on the Goan and the Non-Goan Tangle
The question that asks: “who is Goan?” has gained importance in the context of the recent decision of the Government to offer mediclaim to any Indian who has a domicile of five years in Goa. Does that mean anyone who stays in Goa for a minimum period of five years becomes a Goan? Is Goan-ness transferable? Can it be...
Myth and Reality of Democratic Equality
Every society moves through what may be called politics of recognition. Political powers have exploited the quest for recognition to build vote banks based on castes difference and religious majoritarianism. Often, this need for recognition remains unfulfilled as the political powers thrive on this craving of our people to build their support base. Within this desire for recognition, it...
The Reproduction of the Whitemen’s Burden in Goa
With the politics of culture reigning supreme in our country, it is vitally important that we study how our cultural practises can be read as images and texts. This takes us into an analysis of political use of certain dimensions of our culture/ cultures. It is critical to understand how these selective employments of our cultural symbols operate as...
Aligning the Politics of Recognition with the Politics of Redistribution
The politics of culture that churns identity politics across the globe and our country is profoundly a politics of recognition. We in Goa are also not free from this politics of recognition. Our cry for special status and many of our battles against land grab are battles that intertwine politics of recognition and politics of re-distribution. Every struggle against...
