Tag: Official Language Act

Al-Zulaij Exclusive

60 Years of ‘Liberation’: The Pressing Need for a Constitutional Contract

By THE AL-ZULAIJ COLLECTIVE

Introduction

The 19th of December 2020 marks the commencement of the sixtieth year since Goa was annexed to the Indian Union, ending Portugal’s sovereignty over the territory. To celebrate this moment, the current government of Goa has planned a 100-crore celebration, even while the pandemic, and decades-long mismanagement of the Goan economy, along with corruption and communal politics, have pushed the Goan people to the edge. Against such a backdrop, it is critical that we look beyond the celebratory rhetoric, and focus on the structural problems that were written into India’s relationship with Goa right from the start. It is our argument that Goa’s ‘liberation’ may have ended Portuguese sovereignty over the territory, but, due to the manner through which the integration with the Indian Union took place, it has produced a condition of lawlessness that is in no small measure responsible for the unfolding chaos in Goa. (more…)

Popular Essays

Portuguese Passport and the Language Issue

By DALE LUIS MENEZES

 

Rui Carvalho Baceira, who has recently completed his 3-year stint as the Consul General of Portugal in Goa, made some very interesting comments about his stay before moving onwards to head Portugal’s diplomatic mission in Palestine. Of his many observations, his statistics on the people applying for Portuguese nationality can offer some insights on the problems Goans are facing vis-à-vis education and employment. In an interview to a prominent national daily in Goa, Baceira said that most Goans seeking a Portuguese passport “are male, between 20 and 30 years old, and are not skilled. Few have a university background”. He further added, “In Goa, Portuguese passport aspirants are roughly 60% Christian, 30% Hindu and 10% Muslim”. While it is not exactly clear what Baceira meant by “unskilled”, the reference, perhaps, could be to a lack of professionals, such as doctors or lawyers, seeking the Portuguese passport.

 

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Popular Essays

Why don’t you see Fascism?

By  JASON KEITH FERNANDES

 

The bye-elections to select the representative for the city of Panjim are being seen as critical given that it will determine if the BJP-led coalition will continue to govern Goa, and will also determine the career of the BJP candidate Manohar Parrikar. It is for this reason, therefore, that most people are on edge and apprehensive about the outcome. Some of the tensions involved in this election were made evident in the article written by advocate F. E. Noronha and published in Renovação, the newsletter and magazine of the Archdiocese of Goa. In this article, Noronha all but urged the electorate to reject Parrikar at the polls, arguing that a Nazi-like atmosphere had arisen in Goa.

 

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Popular Essays

Unburdening the Language from Motherhood

By KAUSTUBH NAIK

 

The debate over Goa’s language issue continues because the conflict is far from being resolved.The passing of the much controversial Official Language Act (OLA) in 1987 did anything but resolve it. In my previous columns, I have argued that the passing of the OLA was an act to impose Hindu Saraswat hegemony onto the Goan people, particularly the Hindu and the Catholic bahujan communities. In a book published in 2004, bahujan activist Ramnath Naik termed Nagari Konkani as ‘Bamani’, indicating the caste location from which the Nagari Konkani assertion emerged and is sustained till today. BJP MLA Vishnu Surya Wagh, in his op-ed article in a Marathi daily few weeks ago, also made a similar assertion, attracting sharp reactions from the Nagari Konkani camp.

 

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Popular Essays

Whose Medium is it Anyway?

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

 

It is only a mirage that the contours of the language debate in Goa are shifting. Though now assuming overtones of a religious divide in the medium of instruction controversy, at the heart of the agitation lie the fault lines of caste and class, which predate even the language agitation of the mid-’80s.

 

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