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You have to look all the way back over sixty years ago to the last time Goa’s borders were as critically important they are today, on the 37th anniversary of the former centrepiece of the* Estado da India* becoming the smallest state in the Republic of India. Back then before 1961, there were customs agents posted at all the main entry points, who tried to prevent contraband from being imported. Fast-forward to 2021 and this time the border controls are our best attempt to keep out the worst of Covid-19. In identical ways, all over the planet, the pandemic’s mortal threats have compelled humankind to once again raise up barriers that were once lowered - or even outright removed – by previous generations. We have become divided anew into barricaded islands: shut into our buildings, vaddos, neighbourhoods, villages and towns, one state across the guarded line from another state. The difference between one and the other is literally life and death. When the walls go up like this, who is an insider? Stranded away from home, have you been transformed into an outsider? What determines belonging: ancestral roots, proven commitment, or whatever and wherever keeps you safe? And in the end, how do any of these factors result in the way identity is nurtured in your innermost being? The great laureate Bakibab Borkar was convinced the disparate peoples of Goa have been moulded together by the undulating landscape. Using language that strikes a chord with many contemporary neo-Goan migrants from around the world, he insisted his ancestral home’s “scenic beauty has a supernatural quality of refining the human mind, and of turning it inward into the depths of creativity and spirituality.” Borkar explained, “Tribals, Dravidians, Aryans, Assyrians and Sumerians settled in this territory through the course of several centuries but Goa’s scenic beauty humanized them all so insistently and efficiently that they amalgamated into a single society, with one common language and one cultural heritage. The kinship and co-operation forged unto them by the aesthetic impact of Goa’s rich scenery taught them the art of living in peace and friendship, and inspired them to strive for nobler ideals.” What the famous poet is masterfully describing is *vegllench munisponn*, the innate Goan humanism characterized by radically open minds and hearts, and rooted in fierce independence of spirit. This bedrock quality distinguishes the peoples of Goa – no matter their specific ethnic origin – and runs powerfully throughout the many-layered culture they have built together. There is an implied corollary: if you can relate, you might find your place here. This uniquely inclusive aspect of our identity was wonderfully outlined by Amitav Ghosh at the Golden Jubilee edition of Goa Arts + Literature Festival in 2011. The Jnanapith award winner, who has maintained a home in Aldona for many years, said, “one of the ways that Goa is new is that it has invented a kind of cosmopolitanism that is peculiarly its own. It is a cosmopolitanism of lived experience; a cosmopolitanism of inner dialogues, where the outsider becomes a part of an inner voice. Sometimes embraced and sometimes excoriated, this voice is nonetheless not ignored as it might be elsewhere.” Those are consequential insights. Post-colonial generations are accustomed to thinking of Goa as finger-nail-tiny on the periphery of the giant landmass of modern India. But if you pivot oceanward, the skein of history unravels differently, revealing this location’s very long history as an all-important entrepôt. Full 1000 years ago, the Kadamba dynasty was sufficiently enlightened enough to appoint an Arab prime minister, to encourage improved exchange across the waves. Five centuries later, when the Portuguese headed to the Mandovi, they faced off against a Polish Jewish admiral representing the Adil Shah (himself from Georgia in the Caucasus). In all this – and the tumultuous succeeding centuries – the record is amply clear: what we now call globalization is fundamentally built in to Goan DNA. Nowadays we suspect the whole world feels excessively free to land up in Goa, but the flip side is Goans have poured out of their homeland in ceaseless torrents since the 19th century, and happily made good in every corner of the globe. At this moment, the Deputy Mayor of London is Goan and so is Boris Johnson’s Attorney General. Across in Portugal, the finance minister and planning ministers are both Goan, and their prime minister Antonio Costa constantly flourishes his Overseas Citizen of India card. Costa is visibly and passionately proud of all aspects of his identity, which is comfortably Margaokar, Lisboeta, Indian and Portuguese at the same time. There’s no question of there being any contradictions. Every Goan recognizes this reality, and you need to if there’s going to be any hope for you. It is the case that for much too long, Goa suffered at the hands of ignorant, malevolent reductionists. The colonialists blustered Aqui é Portugal as fact, and when they were expelled, another set of assimilationists chorused that our language was an insignificant dialect of Marathi, and we are actually Maharashtrians. They too were defeated, but there is no denying that Goan identity is fraught with questions and contestations. Luckily some useful answers are embedded in there too. Thus, deep in the annals of our jigsawed past, we find the persistent presence of the Sanskrit name for this part of the Konkan: *Aparanta*. For the landmark exhibition of that name, the curator and critic Ranjit Hoskote translated it as “that which is at the horizon” which he says, “describes Goa beautifully, conveying the spirit of a richly confluential society that has been nourished by diverse cultural sources, among them, Indian and Iberian, Kashmiri and Persian, Arab and Chinese, Mediterranean and East African, Hindu and Catholic, Sufi and Bhakti.” Those are our roots, but also aspiration. On this momentuous anniversary, as we seek relief and healing from the dreaded virus, let us also pray for our civilizational ideals to be restored and renewed. After all, statehood is significant and meaningful, but what’s much more critical is the state of Goa.
