Here's what Robert S Newman (who has reviewed literally hundreds of books) wrote on amazon.com:
Top review from the United States Bob Newman <https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AGRB576OZYJ4EUSJL4SIHFT4ODCA/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_gw_tr?ie=UTF8> *3.0 out of 5 stars* <https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2BHS70VJBO5MP/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0938999109> An Exile from Paradise Lost <https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2BHS70VJBO5MP/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0938999109> Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 13, 2009 Goa, now a bustling, overcrowded, tourist haven on the Arabian Sea coast of India south of Mumbai, used to be a sleepy backwater lost to the world in a Portuguese colonial empire that had forgotten to look at the clock. A Portuguese-speaking elite dominated the place for many years, Catholic by religion, Indian by blood, and belonging almost exclusively to the Brahmin caste [which they had never discarded on conversion]. In 1961, when the Indian army arrived to expel the long-lingering Portuguese, this elite abruptly lost its privileges. Unlike say, the Soviet occupation of various places, nobody was shot, nobody jailed. All you had to do was join the new rulers, sit back and fume silently, or, if you desired, exile yourself to Portugal, North America, or anywhere you could find a secure spot. But now, absorbed into the new India, a nation teeming with linguistic, religious, ethnic, and caste minorities, Goans began to wonder "who am I and how do I fit into such an enormous society ?" The present volume is a very intelligent, thoughtful, long essay on that topic. The author, a Catholic Brahmin ex-priest from an elite family living at the very center of the Indo-Portuguese world in Goa, ponders what it means to be Goan. Couched in clear, almost lyrical language, it is an attempt to establish a Goan identity, a series of inquiries conducted at times as a dialogue with persons unknown, or maybe with himself. The modern world, as the author notes, has created untold millions of people without much identity.....the alienated masses, if you like. I admired this attempt and consider it a valuable book for Goans in particular and for anyone wishing to understand more about that small, coconut-palm shaded corner of the world. My criticism is that the book does not go far enough; the author cannot burst the bonds of his own past. Nobody can do that a hundred percent, fair enough. But if you are going to write on anthropological themes, you must, to some extent, get beyond your own perspectives and the biases you absorbed in childhood. Da Veiga Coutinho sees India as "the other", not as "us". It is alien and scary, dirty, crumbling, chaotic. He rejects any possibility that it could be "home". There are two kinds of Catholic Goans: the christianized and the lusitanized. The former are Catholic, but Indian in most sensibilities. They make up the vast majority of Catholic Goans....even if they disparage what they see as Bad Habits from Beyond the Ghats, they remain--to an outsider's eye, irrevocably Indian. The lusitanized Goans saw themselves as Portuguese, spoke Portuguese, and were actually able to fit into Portuguese society. These were a minority, many of whom now live in Portugal, Europe or North America. There is also a large class of English-educated Goan emigrants to [mainly] the Anglo-Saxon world. In their struggle to succeed and fit in, they have lost their identity to a large extent. Their travails are another matter, however, separate from the content of this book. The truth is that Goa has never ceased to be Indian over the centuries, no matter what the Church or the Salazar regime claimed. To recognize this is the necessary first step in forging a Goan identity. I feel that da Veiga Coutinho was still in denial. He felt more Portuguese than Indian. His personal story is interesting and poetic; his take on the whole matter is divorced from his Indian roots. https://www.amazon.com/kind-absence-Life-shadow-history/dp/0938999109/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?crid=39GMO6NB839XI&keywords=joao+da+veiga+coutinho&qid=1685118445&sprefix=joao+da+veiga+coutinh%2Caps%2C319&sr=8-1-fkmr1 -- 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/CAMCR53KwPm0dzZUU7p75JJr-D6ndbETha9rQbXAeU23gRhpqWw%40mail.gmail.com.
