Locating Goa RAHUL SRIVASTAVA Ethnography of Goa does a thorough job of detailing the state's social, spiritual and material history.
It is refreshing to come across such a skilful translation... For English-speaking Indians unfamiliar with Goa, this little colonial anachronism seems as quaint as we ourselves must appear to historically ignorant Englishmen. Such is the condemned fate of all descendents of colonialism who have to repeatedly explain themselves to a world that keeps forgetting, inventing, or mythifying history every minute. The fact that all histories are complex is a truism. However, what is undeniable is that Goa needs a special lens to understand its complexity. Compared to modern categories of the sub-continent's history, over here you get touched more easily by momentous European events like the inquisition, the enlightenment, or the French revolution. The proximity of these critical events is unsettling and underlies everything in this work, making for pure education. In a completely unself-conscious tone, Pereira, a celebrated 20th century Goan scholar, details the social, spiritual and material history of Goa. He does this in the mode of the ethnographers of his day - by paying great attention to every possible minutiae from food to clothing to flora and fauna. Unlike British ethnographers studying quaint Indian customs though, he does his job with greater and obvious identification with the subject. He is conscious of the intensely political nature of his simple observations - an awareness that is never openly expressed but easily evident in the arrangement of facts and the choice of extracts and quotations that punctuate the text. The slippery location of Goan identity that continues to concern its citizenry even today is evident in these subtle gestures. What the ethnography seems to suggest is that the very desire to understand Goa's specific history produces its uniqueness. Everything becomes vivid here - its dominant Catholic and Hindu dimensions and the sub-textual Islamic, Brahmanical and tribal ones. Everything is special here not only because it has been touched by the great critical events of Europe but also because there is a fierce desire to understand its significance. It is refreshing to come across such a skilful translation that introduces this slice of the sub-continent's history to English speakers who otherwise remain mostly intrigued, ignorant or puzzled by Goa. It takes a particular translator's skill to carve out a frame for this historical lens to make it unobtrusive, yet appealing to a contemporary gaze. The translation takes into account today's context and re-produces it in ways that resonate within. That much liberty translators have and Aurora Couto does a splendid job. Her introduction is clear, precise and as exhaustive as the length permits. She quotes contemporary as well as older scholars to substantiate her summarising of the author's life and its location within Goa's social and intellectual history. One is never sure whether it is her or the author's skill that pulls the reader into the text. I found myself reading it from start to finish at one stretch, gulping in detail after detail, getting hypnotised even by the lengthy descriptions of local medical practices, musical instruments, the dossier of superstitions and religious beliefs. I have read a good number of ethnographic accounts, having been trained in anthropology, but this was one of the few that I actually enjoyed reading. I suspect the translator did a fair bit to showcase the brilliance of the anthropologist in elegant prose. Maybe all anthropologists should get their works translated by good writers - even if it happens to be from English to English! Ethnography of Goa, Daman, and Diu, A.B. de Braganza Pereira, translated by Maria Aurora Couto, Penguin/Viking, 2008, p.367, Rs. 699. http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/08/17/stories/2008081750040100.htm ~(^^)~ Avelino
