My comments on the above review (unpublished, written circa 2009) --FN: >> India they come from is irrelevant. The numbers that have left Punjab >> probably equal the numbers that have left Kerala. That Goa has a monopoly on >> exiles is simply not true. The Indian subcontinent has been left by millions >> of people over the last two centuries.
Nobody denies that in absolute numbers Goa is completely insignificant in the South Asian migration story. However, that does not deny two facts (i) that Goans have been migrating overseas for approx 150 years or more, much before others parts saw opportunity in large-scale migration or was compelled by circumstance to do so. One exception is the British-fuelled indenture labour, but that is another kind of migration altogether, with the population that went out integrating completely with their new areas and not planning or dreaming of a return afaik (ii) Goa's migration, per capita, has been very high. About the highest in the world (if I recall Robert Newman right, at levels of countries of Lebanon, Cyprus and other depleted-by-migration societies....) >> colonisation, the only real identity it had ever had. It has not yet >> acquired a wholly Indian identity. If and when it does, it will be like any >> other small Indian state, allowing for local idiosyncrasies. The whole >> reason for Mr. Coutinho’s quixotic quest will disappear. Btw, what is a "wholly Indian identity"? Is there any such thing? I thought every state was unique in its own way, and even the Hindi speaking belt has its own uniqueness among the areas there. This kind of thinking of the 'mainstream' and the 'periphery' in a country with the diversity of India is both simplistic and misleading, in my view. >> These remarks have been prompted by the decisions of the two famous and >> sophisticated Goans to live in the state they were born. Mario Miranda went >> back to his ancestral house at Loutolim, Frank Simões built a beautiful >> villa at Candolim. Many other Goans have returned home with less publicity, >> and of course many other people non-Goans have chosen to live there of late, >> because it is a pleasant place to live. Again some more stereotyped thinking by someone who seems to understand Goa only through a few big names. But just because the writer isn't aware of trends or people beyond Simoes and Miranda, does it mean they don't exist? This is like New Delhi deciding it's time that its time that someone with a Goan sounding name deserves some national award, and they opt for the most cliched Goans available, i.e. those who are popular in the 'national mindset' but might not be known or too relevant back home. Even more pretentious is the Times of India Goa edition which tries to define Goa through the three-to-four prominent Goans it has created through its own projections in places like Bombay. So, stereotype feeding further stereotype.... On Fri, 26 May 2023 at 21:38, Frederick Noronha <[email protected]> wrote: > > *Dom Moraes apparently wrote the review below (needs to be verified)... FN* > > > > *Goan exile: in search of an identity* > Somebody recently sent me a slim paperback called "A Kind of Absence: Life > in the Shadow of History". The author has a very melodious name. João da > Veiga Coutinho, and the blurb tells me that he was born in Margão, but > now lives in Philadelphia. He would seem to be a fairly elderly person, and > to have traveled widely in the course of his career. The book is very > difficult to describe. On the surface it is a collection of essays and > fragmentary prose pieces, but they do not seem to be particularly connected > in terms of chronology. What connects them is that they are all to do with > the theme of exile. The theme interests me. Wherever I have lived I have > felt an exile, and this would worry me less if I knew from where. > > The book is about a specific kind of exile: the exile of Goans from their > homeland. The author seems obsessive about the great numbers of Goans who > have traveled, and in many cases settled, in other countries, and he seems > to find this a unique phenomenon. I don’t think it is at all. I have spent > the last few months traveling through India in search of a book, and in > every state I have visited there is a long history of people who have gone > abroad to better their fortunes in one way or another. > > Two Asian countries, the two largest, China and India, are like this. They > have continually been overpopulated, in the sense that they have always had > populations too large to be sustained by the resources and available > technologies of the time. So people left their birthplaces, at first to > look for a life somewhere else in the country, then, as travel became > possible, to look for it overseas. > > Wherever one goes in the world today one sees Chinese faces, or some > indications of Chinese blood; in many places one sees Indians. Where in > India they come from is irrelevant. The numbers that have left Punjab > probably equal the numbers that have left Kerala. That Goa has a monopoly > on exiles is simply not true. The Indian subcontinent has been left by > millions of people over the last two centuries. > > But Mr. Coutinho also inquires into the components of an exile, > particularly a Goan exile, and he seems to take himself as an example. He > says that his childhood memories of Goa are sharp. He recollects the kinds > of plants he saw, or smelt, or touched. But he tells us that he now cannot > describe them, since throughout his schooldays, presumably under the > Portuguese, he was forbidden to use the Konkani words which to him were the > natural names for various kinds of flora and fauna. Some part of this book > is well conceived, but it is also confused, and it uses too many words to > describe what, when it comes down to it, are relatively simple ideas. > However, it is a book deeply committed to itself, and some part of it is > very well written. > > There are several ways to look at Goan history, most of which Mr. Coutinho > refutes. What he cannot refute comes down to the simple fact that Goa is a > small place, and that for much of its history it was situated on islands, > like Bombay before the British. It was therefore more or less cut off from > the more important events on the mainland, or they affected it at a second > hand. Any event that affected Goa directly, like the Portuguese invasion > and occupation, naturally had a more powerful effect on the people that it > might have done on the mainland. This produced some curious results. Goan > Hindus submitted to conversion but retained their original casts, almost > like Talismans. > > Goan Christianity had other unique features, amongst them the fact that it > was practised with slight local differences from village to village, as > Hinduism had been. The territory drifted rudderless for four centuries > under Portuguese rule, and during this time many people left it for > unmysterious reasons, like the need for employment. In 1961 the mainland > once more directly affected Goa, this time by the Indian occupation or > liberation or whatever one wants to call it. This has had some fortunate > effects and some which are far from fortunate. A great influx of people > from the mainland has caused the state to lose the identity it acquired > through four centuries of colonisation, the only real identity it had ever > had. It has not yet acquired a wholly Indian identity. If and when it does, > it will be like any other small Indian state, allowing for local > idiosyncrasies. The whole reason for Mr. Coutinho’s quixotic quest will > disappear. > > Many people have commented on the fact that Goans have a strong sense of > their homeland, which is why so many of them return to it. > > These remarks have been prompted by the decisions of the two famous and > sophisticated Goans to live in the state they were born. Mario Miranda went > back to his ancestral house at Loutolim, Frank Simões built a beautiful > villa at Candolim. Many other Goans have returned home with less publicity, > and of course many other people non-Goans have chosen to live there of > late, because it is a pleasant place to live. > > All over India and the world there are Punjabis who want to retire to > Punjab, Keralites who want to go home. It is a very Indian trait to want to > end your life where you started it. In fact, the modern Indian urban > population is still close to its rural roots. > > People still want to identify with the village of their ancestors. It is > worth note the memories of village life that called Miranda and Simões back > to Goa, and which seem to inspire Mr. Coutinho in his search for the > identity of the Goan exile. But judging from what I saw when I was in Goa > last November, soon even the villages may have vanished. > > *Panjim, Goa* > February 14, 1999 > > The above review appeared in the February 14, 1999 edition of The Herald, > Goa. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CAMCR53L08SUi-OdZiV8dMROK8EuhCogzrOOoOWkVaXFDnOpS0Q%40mail.gmail.com.
