Category: Popular Essays

By AMITA KANEKAR

Another educational institution has been announced, again very prestigious. As always, it needs huge amounts of land, and, as always, the government of the tiny state of Goa has more than enough to offer – and on long lease no less, which means practically free. The project is a new India International University of Legal Education and Research, to be run completely by the Bar Council of India (BCI). This proposed university requires 2,00,000 square metres of land, which Goa’s government says it has already identified in Dharbandora taluka. A state bill has also been passed, formalising the setting up of this university, one of whose objects – according to the bill – is to reserve 20% of the university’s seats for ‘permanent residents of Goa’. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

The recent news that bonded labourers were working on the infamous double tracking project of the Indian Railways through the Mollem forests should cause no surprise. The labourers were rescued from their abusive situation only because of complaints made by ARZ, a Goa-based NGO, and the efforts of an Adivasi organisation in Telangana. The Indian Railways now claim that the labourers were not bonded at all, but ‘only’ underpaid and ill-treated by their contractor. According to the workers themselves, the oldest of whom was a 72-year-old woman, they were paid less than minimum wages, were prevented from leaving and going home, and were forced to live right next to the tracks, without adequate shelter (in the monsoon) and without toilets either. (more…)

Por AMITA KANEKAR

O templo goês está a desaparecer a passos largos ao ser substituído por formas arquitetónicas de outras partes da Índia.

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Por JASON KEITH FERNANDES

Ninguém sabe ao certo como tratar o denominado património português em Goa. A confusão deve-s ao facto de que este património não se refere apenas a alguns monumentos ou práticas do passado, mas é um património vivo e que respira, corporeamente materializado nas pessoas de Goa, como um todo e, particularmente, nos católicos. Isto faz com que se trate de um património volátil e, por isso, muitos esforços académicos têm sido investidos em negá-lo ou rejeitar a sua complexidade.

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By AMITA KANEKAR

The new Union Education Minister is expressly charged – so we are told – with the fast-tracking of the New Education Policy (NEP). A new approach to education is actually something that this country needs desperately, given the huge failings of India’s Brahmanical education system, like the continuing lack of universal access to education, and the stratified system of education quality, which ensures that a child from a disadvantaged background remains disadvantaged in education too. But will this NEP make any difference? As has been discussed in this column earlier, this NEP is actually hardly new at all, for, like earlier such policies, it ignores or brushes over all the fundamental problems of the education system. All of which have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as we shall see below. (more…)

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

We are witness today to a heightened terrorizing by the State of the marginalized sections of society and of those who support the marginalized sections, in order to stomp over their lives and usurp their resources, especially land. The State has been deploying various means to do this, one being the weaponising of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 (UAPA),   or by repeatedly invoking the equally draconian National Security Act, 1980, for crimes, or under the guise of redressing or preventing crimes, that can well be handled by the existing criminal law, if only the police and other authorities are efficient  with their investigations. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

Goa’s government finds itself the butt of almost constant ridicule nowadays. From the widely-appreciated twitter-thrashing of Mauvin Godinho by Tamil Nadu’s Finance Minister P. Thiagarajan, revealing, among other things, the former’s anti-people support for GST on COVID19 drugs and vaccines; to the surrealistic declaration that the government wants to forest areas in Madhya Pradesh to compensate for forests destroyed in Goa; and the unbelievable announcement that Goa is a top performer in the Niti Aayog’s Sustainability Development Goals’ (SDG) ratings, every bit of news about this Sawant-led government gets greeted with disbelief, scorn, jokes, and memes, not to mention hashtags like #PramodSawantMustGo. (more…)

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

While still a student, Prof. A. P. Kamat, who taught at the Dempo College of Commerce in Panjim introduced us to the concept of “Small is Beautiful” taken from the book of that title by E.F. Schumacher, and it stands firmly engraved in my mind. But when we are confronted with the reality of small Goa, we find that the smallness has been (ab)used to (mis)appropriate. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

As Goans deal with the chaos, despair, and complete absence of governance of the present moment, a question comes to mind: what is the government for? (more…)

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

The pandemic seems to have accelerated a pre-existing trend  of work from home, that seems to have gained very good press. What we broadly know is that ‘Work From Home’ involves working at home instead of at the physical premises of the office, and teleconnectivity to be able to work. And when one looks at it this way, one would think that working from home is something beneficial, and it was even heralded by some workers initially after work from home was started when partial lockdowns were in operation. But as the glamour  wears thin, it is now increasingly obvious that while COVID19 situations could demand staying at home and consequently working from home, working from home can only be a temporary measure, or else it will stifle the working class. (more…)