GOODBYE GOA By Valmiki Faleiro Nothing in the universe is static. Everything is dynamic. Change is inevitable. That is Mother Nature’s basic law. All manner of things – including humans – change or evolve, usually for the better, at times for the worse. I write this with a heavy heart, not with an objective mind. For two reasons: one major, the other incidental. First the major. All good things, they say, must come to an end. The Goa we once knew – the land, people, music, food, culture, the East-West blended fabric – as most of us would know, is changing. For the worse. The Goa we knew is dying. Let’s delve into this sad story over the next few weeks. The “incidental” reason. This ‘Goodbye Goa’ series marks the end of *All-‘n’-Sundry.* Even if I have no idea of how good (or bad or indifferent) this Sunday column has been! There sure was reader feedback, albeit mostly from non-resident Goans who read the column via e-mail or internet mail lists. I have written every Sunday for the last three and half years, without a break. Goa has many talented writers and I hope one of them will take over. The real reason I need to stop this weekly distraction, though, is to help me concentrate on some other serious writing work I always dreamt of doing. (I had started this column with some pieces on Margao; I shall end it with a few more on my hometown, at the end of this series.) * * * * * For the fundamentally changing profile of Goa, everyone blames migrants. Rich migrants from India’s metros, and the bulk, poor migrants, in search of better economic prospects.
From all over the country. From Punjab to the five North-Eastern sisters, from Kashmiris
and Lamanis at every Goan beach to Malayalees and Tamils, with whom, incidentally, we have a historic link, dating back to the 16th century. Are migrants really to blame? They admittedly are the most visible manifestation of the metamorphosis that Goa is undergoing, but I do not subscribe to the view that migrants are the only – or even the chief – cause. It lies elsewhere, as we shall see later in this series. Besides, Goa, down history, has been a land of migrants. It would be worth the while to begin here. To review that interesting kaleidoscope of a story of how Goa got populated.
From between 4,000 BC or 3,000 BC, upto 1961. I guess it’s more or less accepted that
the so-called ‘Goan Identity’ is as it was on the dawn of December 19, 1961. Beginning the next Sunday, let us briefly run through the story of in-migrations to Goa.
From the Proto-Australoid or Austro-Asiatic tribals from south and central India, to the
Indo-Aryans from north or north-eastern India, to a sprinkling of our countrymen from across the Ghats, till the morn of self-rule. For sequence and chronology, I shall rely on Anant R. Sinai Dhume’s ‘The Cultural History of Goa’ (1986), now reprinted. But take it with a pinch of salt. Dhume himself, at Pg.64, added a caveat: “Now, let me describe the tribes … possibly on a chronological scale, warning that the chronology is tentative upto the advent of the first wave of Aryans in Goa.” * * * * * AN APPEAL: I appeal to you to exercise your franchise on April 23. Voting is a sacred right. Many around the world have been imprisoned, tortured and killed, fighting for that privilege. I know you may be disgusted with the local scene, but please keep the national perspective in mind. If deciding who to vote is difficult, remember it simply boils down to just one question: who would you like to steer India’s destiny over the next five years? People like Dr. Manmohan Singh, PC Chidambaram, etc., or people like Lal Krishna Advani, Narendra Modi, etc.? There, you have your candidate! In North Goa, you have one for the former (Congress/NCP), one for the latter (BJP). In South Goa, you’re luckier. You have one for the former, and a choice of two for the latter! * * * * * SUPREME INFALLIBILITY: The Supreme Court of India is the flavour of the times in Goa. Mull over this maxim: “The Supreme Court is not supreme because it is infallible; it is infallible because it is supreme.” (ENDS.) The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at: http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330 ====================================================================== The above article appeared in the April 19, 2009 edition of the Herald, Goa
