Cogwheels of two Empires: Goan administration within 19th century British Indian Ocean Empire.
Abstract Since 1961 the relatively tiny ex-Portuguese Goa has been transformed from a rather forgotten and underdeveloped colonial enclave to a state within the Indian Union with a strong tourism sector and one of the highest per capita-income of any Indian state. The success of Goa today allows one to forget that its colonial past resulted in thousands of Goans being forced to migrate to ‘British India’, East Africa and the Persian Gulf. Historical research has tended to focus on 16th and 17th century “Golden Goa” or its liberation. At the same time 19th and 20th century histories of the Persian Gulf and East Africa have been Eurocentric in focus or have stressed indigenous narratives in the post-colonial period. Both of these directives have excluded the migrant story, and it is this hidden history that is investigated in this paper, with particular reference to the development of an army of Goan administrators for the areas under the jurisdiction of the Bombay Presidency of British India. The paper also sets out to identify the relationship between Goans and their colonial rulers in East Africa and its implications for cross-cultural relationships between Goans and other Indians as well as Africans. https://www.academia.edu/3604017/Cogwheels_of_two_Empires_Goan_administration_within_19th_century_British_Indian_Ocean_Empire?email_work_card=title -- FN* फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا +91-9822122436
