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Goa: the stereotype capital of India By Frederick Noronha | Devil's Advocate This is getting more than a trifle tiresome now. Whenever the "national" media is short of some sensation, they descend on Goa, string together a series of facts, spice it up with some quotes, and create a salacious story out of it. Goa, according to Aroon Purie's *India Today* has supposedly now become the "crime capital" of India. What could be more funnier than that? For a State whose people have done fairly well for themselves -- despite their politicians -- this is less than fair. Yes, we do have our problems. We have our mafias in parts of the State -- created, one might add, with the perfect collusion of New Delhi and its satraps in Panjim. But on what basis does one reach such sweeping generalisations about a tiny part of South Asia which is anyway tough to understand for "mainstream India"? India often complains about the stereotypes which the West views it through. If "Indophobia" has been an issue for some time now, we have to start talking about Goaphobia. Actually, it's more than that. It's a strange mix of fascination with Goa, and yet the tendency to create a crude caricature of it when the place, its culture and its people prove a bit hard to fit into easily understood norms. You can bet that such a coverage of Goa would only increase interest in the place, and probably draw in the crowds who end up disappointing in not finding what they expected. Last time round, *India Today* proclaimed Goa to be the destination for the millennium. They deserve at least part of the credit for leading a large crowd marking their entry into the new century with a kilometres-long, hours-long traffic jam along the Calangute-Baga road. Great fun! But overall such sensation-mongering has less to do with the reality, and more with the pressure on journalists to perform in these times. Specially in a setting where media competition is intense, there are a plethora of publications competing in the same space, and, as everyone knows -- sensation sells. In its cover story dated October 29, and a subsequent issue, *India Today* makes the case that "as Goa's beaches become a major market for narcotics dealers, the tourist hotspot reels in the face of a drug-laced foreign invasion." Goa and her people have had a long and contentious equation with tourism. The modern version of 'sex, drugs and rock-and-roll' spectacles through which *India Today* sees Goa hardly does justice to a complex reality. Besides, comes too late, and is typical of the exploitative equation the dominant Indian media has when it comes to understanding the diversity of the sub-continent. 'Mainstream' India has long complained about the crude stereotypes through which the West has seen the second-largest country in the world. Right from unhealthy Indian food, to an inability to speak English, being a place not safe for women, dirty, flooded with uneducated people, filled with cows running on the roads, a land of snake-charmers and elephants, and a country that is all about the Taj. One would have expected a country that has been on the receiving end of such things to be more sensitive towards its smallest State. Like with any stereotype, there is an element of truth here. But the 'truth' has been grossly exaggerated, even misunderstood, and juxtaposed in a way to create a very misleading picture. Firstly, the news media is expert in repeatedly focussing on a limited incidents and creating the impression that this is what happens all the time. A Scarlett here, a Russian land scam in one coastal Pernem village, the slipshod way in which police deal with suspected drug dons (nobody seems to talk of the rivalry between them)... and all this becomes clinching evidence to make sweeping claims. Secondly, and this is more galling, there is nothing new about this situation. Pockets of Goa's coast have been a wild places since the late 1960s. Apart from a few voyeuristic accounts, the mainstream media hardly had the space to discuss such an issue. In the early 1970s, villagers from Calangute protested against nudism and drugs in their area. Newspaper reports of those times record how a prominent women politician in Panjim simply turned around and said the protesters had themselves come in sleeveless dresses, which was obscene to her! Drug deaths have been routine. Five to six years back, colleague Ashley do Rosario and myself found there had been 45-50 deaths happening each tourist season (Nov-Feb roughly). The lack of testing labs here are crucial to allow a situation of ignorance and neglect to continue. New Delhi, and its media mouthpieces that set the "national" agenda, has been quite comfortable with this reality. As long as local politicians here did the bidding of their Dilli bosses, kept in line which whether party ruled there, and did not rock the boat. Keep in mind that "sex and mafia on the cocaine coast" is only the latest of stereotypes to hit Goa. It has little or nothing to do with the concerns and worries of most of the people living in this State. For much of the 1990s, Goa was the place for toppling governments. Never was any attempt made to find out why this was happening, or the big money poured into such activity. There was hardly any space to discuss the lobbies behind our political dramas of those times. Politicians in Goa, instead, were shown to be a fickle-minded lot, and extremely opportunistic. So, have they now suddenly stopped being so? Or do we accept that what we see at the surface often has very little to do with the reality? In the 1980s, the "national" media was stuck with explaining language conflict in Goa. "Goans turn communal" was one screaming headline in the aftermath of the killings that rocked Goa. Huge point sizes is hardly any substitute for a better understanding of complexity and diversity. Goa has all but given up protesting the stereotypes about it in the filmi world of Bollywood. As Deepa Gahlot points out in the Mario Cabral e Sa-edited 'Location Goa': "Hindi films have had many characters with names like Pinto, Braganza, Fernandes, Gonsalves, D'Costa and D'Silva; lots of Monicas, Rosies, Michaels and Monas." Everyone knows how unflatteringly most have been depicted. Writer Vivek (VM) Menezes has penned a blunt response to India Today's antics. Titled "Another low for Aroon Purie". It can be found online via a Google search or on the archives of tambdimati.com VM argues, "There is also a persistent strain of xenophobia, underpinned by aggrieved Delhi-style feudal entitlement -- as in, 'why am I not being treated deferentially in Goa, in the feudal manner that I am accustomed to. How dare these foreigners feel so at home here!'" It is little consolation that many of the 'beyond the mainstream' parts of India suffer from being stereotyped, routinely and ruthlessly. While many of us here have been concerned about issues of crime, mal-governance and the politician-crime nexus, just trying to squeeze out sensation out of such problems is not just unhelpful but misleading. But if the influential British historian of the yesteryears James Mill could claim that Indians (like the Chinese) are cowardly, unfeeling and mendacious, then what's there for the 'national media" including the once-influential India Today to see "sex, drugs and mafia" in all things Goan? -ENDS- Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490 _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ tambdimati: the Goa review is a community blog of original _/ art, writing, music, news and commentary from and about the _/ smallest state in the subcontinent. check out the newest _/ member of the Goanet family daily at _/ http://www.tambdimati.com. _/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
