Recovery from Memory lane 2008: Goan identity

Goan identity Soter D’souza, Socorro 2008 The debate about Goa’s fast disappearing identity is not about being Goan or anti-Goan. It is about ‘Goans awake’ and ‘Goans lost’. Goa’s problem begins with those Goans lost in the presumption that they are the sole possessors of Goa’s knowledge economy. Influenced by the latest market trends in global jargon from the Internet, these Goans sell us clinical concepts like “Goa’s identity is kaleidoscopic” or “there can be no Goan identity” or that “all Goans are migrants”, and so on. The threat to Goa’s identity begins with this disconnect with Goan reality from some elite urban Goans, many of whom are busy selling their knowledge outside Goa, but are imposing their views on us. The reality is that the Marathi, Gujarati, Kannadiga, Bengali, Keralite, Tamilian, Andhraite, Delhi-ite and other ‘-ites’ that have migrated into Goa are far from kaleidoscopic. We have another world within Goa that conciously asserts its independent identity as Bengali Samaj, Gujarati Samaj, Kananda Samaj, Marathi Samaj, Malyalee Samaj, Andhra Samaj, Bihari Samaj – everything other than a Goan Samaj. “Are, Amcho Oscar goykar mure!” “Utt re Goykara!” or “Konknni amchi bhas re!” is what Goan identity is all about. It is the use of the egalitarian salutation ‘re’ that immensely disturbs the Marathi Manoos and the north Indian. This is Goan identity, and so shall remain. To our lost Goan brethren, we pray that one day we can say like the father of the prodigal son, “He was lost, and has now been found”. But till then, please stop chopping our forests, plundering our land, cutting our hills, infesting our social life with drugs and crime, converting Goa into a Mumbai or a Delhi and redefining our Goan identity, and leave our susegado Goans in peace! (published in Herald, 2008)