Goa and the Portuguese heritage

agosto 05, 2019

The Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Panjim

The Portuguese rulers of Goa were expelled from the state in 1961 by the Indian army after having ruled it for more than four centuries. Fifty seven years later it is one of the most prosperous states of India, with the highest GDP per capita among all the Indian states and union territories. The difference in welfare in relation to other states and cities is evident even at first glance. During my visit to South and North Goa I hardly saw any signs of poverty, pollution and other issues which are consuming the rest of the country. However, as an enthusiast of Portuguese culture and language and a former student of postcolonial literature, I was especially interested in looking for the Portuguese heritage in Goa: traces of culture, language, some identity. I can say that I found some, although fifty seven years in India is a very long time...

Perhaps the most easily noticeable trace of the Portuguese colonisation is Christianity, once dominant in the state and currently the religion of about twenty five percent of all Goans. Hindus have overtaken Christians as the most numerous religious community already before the annexation of the region by India. Despite that, the number of churches, crosses and Christian religious symbols in the streets of Goa is very significant. In several public and private places I saw inscriptions such as “Jesus loves you”, which are relatively rare in most countries in Europe. In fact, it is easy to have the impression that one is travelling in a country with a Christian majority.

Old, colonial mansions in Panjim

Many Goan Christians have Portuguese sounding surnames such as Da Silva, Pinto, Ferreira, Pereira, da Costa, de Souza, Menezes, etc. Their names, however, are often English and I saw numerous sign boards of doctors, lawyers or other professionals advertising the office of a Michael da Silva or a John Menezes. The names of many streets also reveal the Portuguese past, they are often still called ‘ruas’, as opposed to the usual ‘roads’. In the capital of Panjim (spelled ‘Pangim’ during colonial times) I found the ‘Rua 31 de Janeiro’, ‘Rua São Tomé’ and several others, mostly in the old town. Towns, cities and neighbourhoods also bear Portuguese names, despite the Indian government’s efforts at erasing the colonial past. For instance, Panjim was renamed as Panaji, but nobody in Goa really uses the new name.

Apart from names and religion there are very few visible traces of the colonial past, at least to an untrained eye like mine. There is of course the architecture: the old churches, houses and colonial mansions. As I could infer from several locals I have spoken to, only the oldest living generation of Goans is still able to speak some Portuguese. The postcolonial generations communicate mainly in English, Konkani (a language mostly spoken along the Western coastline of India) and Hindi. If English wasn’t the globally most important language nowadays, we could argue that the colonial heritage of the Portuguese in Goa is similar to the one of the British in other parts of India: what is left is mainly the architecture, some infrastructure and names. One of the differences is that the British did not attempt the massive conversion to Christianity which was carried out in Goa by the Portuguese.

An independence memorial in Panjim

However, the Portuguese are still remembered in Goa on certain occasions. While I was staying in Palolem (South Goa), the state celebrated its 57^th anniversary of “liberation” from the colonial rule. The Goan, a local newspaper, dedicated several pages to the celebration. Despite the overall patriotic tone, one reader wrote with a complaint against the central Indian government, calling for a “second liberation”: from the corruption and arrogance which, as he seemed to suggest, reminded him of Salazar, the Portuguese dictator during the times of the Goan struggle against colonial rule.

One day in Panjim I found the Portuguese consulate on the map and decided to walk up towards the neighbourhood of Altinho to have a look at it. A steady-climbing street with some old, colonial mansions led me until an impressive building with a Portuguese flag, protected by an equally impressive fence and several policemen. Outside there was a long queue of around fifty people waiting with documents. I approached them to ask them what they were waiting for and I was told that they had come to collect their Portuguese passports. One woman, originally from Mumbai, was accompanying her son who was born and raised in Goa. When I asked ingenuously if he is planning to move to Portugal, she said he needed the passport to study in London. Despite the application for Portuguese nationality, perhaps most Goans only request it to settle elsewhere in Europe or travel there.

As far as I could see, there is not much left from the colonial influence of Portugal in Goa. India has performed a large-scale decolonisation process. The statue of Vasco da Gama in one of the central parks of Panjim had been replaced by the three lions of the Indian Coat of Arms, and several place names have been indianised. Quite understandably there is no nostalgia for the colonial exploitation which Portugal symbolised for most Goans. What will outlast the Portuguese here is the beauty of the architecture, very unique in the Indian subcontinent. Perhaps only in this aspect Goa will remain a little bit Portuguese for a long time.

Some more photos from Goa: