Frederick, to enter into debate or not is personal choice and my choice is not to enter in any debate on the question I asked.
All that I need is the definition of Goan Identity. Would you like to define this considering your multiplicities and space theory? Best regards, U. G. Barad Frederick FN Noronha fredericknoro...@gmail.com on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 wrote: Dear Uday, Why are you not interested in a debate? Is there no space for the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method Can you define what it means to be a "Hindu"? Or a "Catholic"? There are different and diverse definitions for each, but that doesn't mean to say that some shared sense of commonality doesn't exist (even in might primarily surface on a Sunday morning, Thursday evening, feast day or when we need to polarise votes for an election). Because of Goa's peculiar past, we have very differing understanding of what makes a 'Goan'. It could be argued that the identity is a product of accidents of history, from Parashuram (and earlier) to the Portuguese. But then, so is today's modern Indian identity... and four-and-half (or even just under two) centuries of shared experience cannot be wished away. I'm not suggesting a Two Goa theory here ... in fact, even within religious groupings there are divides of caste, geography, class, language, etc... But what I'm saying is that we have to (i) accept the multiplicities while defining this "identity" and (ii) create space for The Other, instead of just trying to exclude him/her, something which we have been great at doing over centuries. FN On 17 August 2012 15:49, U. G. Barad <dr.udayba...@gmail.com wrote: FN, I'm not interested in entering debate with you or with anyone in the Goanet on the message I posted seeking answer to: 'Can anyone define "Goan Identity" which most Goans use invariably in writing and while speaking in public places?' If you can define 'Goan Identity' please do so. Best regards, U. G. Barad Frederick FN Noronha fredericknoro...@gmail.com on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 wrote: Dr Barad, Are you suggesting that no such thing exists, or that there is no unanimity/agreement on how we conceputalise it? On the latter I would agree, as different segments of society have very different ideas about their history, culture and traditions. FN