In the time + context in which it was written, A Kind of Absence was an invaluable little book, and did find many of its intended readers.
My recommendation to Duarte is to contact the publisher Ralph Nazareth: [email protected] VM On Fri, 26 May 2023, 21:42 Frederick Noronha, <[email protected]> wrote: > My comments on the above review (unpublished, written circa 2009) --FN: 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 > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CAMCR53L08SUi-OdZiV8dMROK8EuhCogzrOOoOWkVaXFDnOpS0Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- 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]. 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