------------------------------------------------------------------------ * G * O * A * N * E * T **** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enjoy your holiday in Goa. Stay at THE GARCA BRANCA from November to May There is no better, value for money, guest house. Confirm your bookings early or miss-out
Visit http://www.garcabranca.com for details/booking/confirmation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The "Goan" identity is itself the result of a 'melting pot' process. Sorry to disappoint everyone, but what is "Goan" today has emerged out of a series of accidents of history, a mix between two-dozen plus racial groups (okay, if caste isn't race, tell me what it is!), violent clashes and contestations over land and resources (Parashurama isn't just a legend ... and even a joke has some truth to it). If we scratch deeper, we'll find there's little "Goan" about the Goan identity. Even the Konkani chauvinist argument (cf Uday Bhembre or Chandrakant Keni) that one cannot have a Goan identity without Konkani is flawed and simplistic. However much we denigrate the 'ghantti', we need to realise that till the 15th century, regions of current day Karnataka played a dominant role (if not determining) role in Goa's culture, literature, politics. Yes, we (parts of Goa, that is) do have a shared experience ... that goes back centuries... in some cases. But on the other hand, the perception of what it means to be Goan differs vastly, say, between Salcete (a Catholic hotbed) and Ponda (the Hindu heartland), which are just a few kilometres away... and where the river has been bridged. For that matter, with my Bardezi lived experience, when I walked into Salcete in the 'eighties -- and more so the 'seventies -- I felt like it was a foreign land! It was soooo different. Today, of course, homogenisation overtakes all. We'll soon start talking and thinking like each other, as people in those media-influenced societies of the West do... where the media does most of the thinking for you, and you have just 2-3 broad points of view to choose from. My view is that there are not just 2 or 5 or 20 ways of being a Goan. There are 1.3 million (or 1.9 million, if we assume 600,000 expats ... not a far unrealistic figure, given that there were 100,000 in Mumbai estimated around 1961!). So just let's celebrate the difference.. and not be too worried about defining who's an "insider" or an "outsider". --FN On 27/10/06, Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Gabe you have put it succinctly. No matter where we go > our main identity remains Goan. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/ Free Software gives you the freedom to run, study, copy and improve software! _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org