GOA…………..THROUGH THE YEARS! ! !
 

 

An Emerald fleck on India’s western shore…. A 50-minute flight-out south of Bombay…GOA! ! !
 

A holiday –maker’s paradise …sprawling hills, meandering rivers, lush green fields…miles and miles of virgin beach…Goa has it all! ! !

With its sunlit beaches, green hills, silvery waterways, waterfalls, and lakes, Goa has always been a unique spot with vast tourist potentialities, which are now being re-discovered continuously. The gift of nature has endowed Goa with enchanting loveliness and idyllic serenity. It’s culture… a unique blend of the Indian and Portuguese, laced with ‘Alegeria’, and the Goan spirit of laughter, good fellowship and song. Besides a long and checkered history, Goa reflects in its monuments, churches, temples, forts, its colorful festivals throughout the year, music, cuisine, and even a distinct style of living—a harmonious blending of the East and West.
 

The people of Goa are affable and hospitable, and there is a lot more to this glorious speck, than the sun, sand, and natural beauty, making its allurement pretty distinct from other Indian states in India. The lush and tranquil countryside plays a perfect host to all visitors with enchanting views. Undulating land with hills and waterways intermingling, and the Arabian Sea touching its shores all along, really becomes a scene of beauty. To add to this glory, the fascinating relaxed lifestyle among marvelous expanses of palm-fringed white beaches, azure blue seas, scenic splendors of wooden hills and green valleys, finding rivers and ponds dominated by rising steeples of white-washed churches and temples across its expanse of land, over the centuries, have evolved a culture which is a combination of Portuguese and Indian art.
 

The scenario is dominated by agricultural farming operations, throughout Goa. The ploughing of land, by the conventional method of the bullocks is still very much in vogue. Within a fortnight after the first monsoon showers, the fields are transformed into green carpets with exuberant and luxurious vegetation all around, and the overall view you catch of the blossoming of nature, is simply spectacular to the eyes. Goa’s beauty during the monsoons has to be experienced, to be appreciated----and then for every day of rain, there is a sunny day to get back to all the exciting indoor facilities and activities. By creating a global awareness that the monsoons in Goa are simply beautiful, there is no reason why visitors shouldn’t visit out here, during this glorious time of the year. The pleasant weather, with a drop in temperature after the scorching heat, is a memorable experience. As well as we know Goa for its rich, peaceful, and multi-cultural heritage, and a history comprising a unique blend of the East and West, also poetically described as the “Pearl of the Orient”, the reality is that we live in an age of confusion, cultural fermentation, structural engineering, modern technology, so on and so forth. A simple instance of this fact is, in traveling along the scenic Arpora-Anjuna road, where the place opens up a long stretch of paddy fields, meandering through which, is a small rivulet of the Baga river, a small arched bridge is situated on the western side of the road, perhaps the last vestige of heritage importance in this area. We are so engrossed with our present day lives, leaving us with little or no time to care for our own heritage, until outsiders wake us up. We need to create awareness among our locals, to preserve our heritage, before we wake up to see concrete jungles all around us. The swift transformation of Goa from the idyllic feudal grandeur of the past to the present urbanized global village has brought in its wake, a shift in the ethics and economics of contemporary Goa. Those who have an intrinsic understanding of the natural, and cultural heritage of their place of birth and upbringing, rarely waste their time searching their ‘roots’ and ‘identities’. Alienation from one’s heritage induces identity crises, which is constantly negotiated, and isn’t defined for an all time purpose. It is no something physical, and therefore it’s a space, which is subject to constant negotiation.

Our Goan culture and identity has to be protected within the Indian Union. The people of Goa should be our prime concern, and it is our duty to protect and preserve their interest in every field. The interest of the people in any region depends largely on protection and promotion of their identity. That is why, every state in our country, and for that matter, every region in all the countries worldwide, is very proud of its identity and works zealously to preserve it. We need to learn from our neighboring states and even countries like the U.S. or U.K. on how to protect the interest of the locals. Our identity is something, which cannot be bought from the market, or imported from abroad. It is deep-rooted in the hearts of its people. It is a living vibrant thing, which is not stagnant, and its evolution is a continuous process, making it a beautiful blend of our tradition and change. To protect and promote our identity, we need not strain on ourselves in the futile exercise of calculating the role of education, or employment, or other materialistic prosperity by keeping room for their natural development. Likewise, our rich culture too, is not found in its gold-encrusted palaces and temples, or in our teaming business centers, like the metropolitan cities but rather in the stillness of a mango groove, or the chatter near a well, or in the grace of an elderly gentleman. There are three distinct but interlinked components---natural heritage, comprising of natural artifacts; material heritage i.e., man-made movable artifacts, like paintings, frescoes, tapestries, icons, garments, books, parchments, furniture, coins, caskets, sculpture, and other movable objects, which require preservation, restoration, and protection; and built heritage, with man-made immovable artifacts, in the form of buried and often identified archeological sights, sacred grooves, or visible archeological remains or ruins like historical gardens, or parks, that are mapped on the ground, and also edifices in use; identified for constant maintenance or the ones lying neglected (Architecture and Design:Nov.-Dec.2000).
 

Today, tragically, many idols and old artifacts lie abandoned all over Goa, while several new created ones are revered and admired. Unless heritage conservation becomes a people’s movement, there is a danger that it would remain an elitist, intellectual, and public policy lobbying mission. Non-movable heritage must be conserved and protected with the help of the local communities. Movable heritage conservation, on the other hand, is a complex, delicate, and an expensive issue, but will ensure people’s participation at the grassroots level. It’s a common experience that historic sights and monuments are neglected due to lack of dedicated manpower to supervise their maintenance. Because of the influx of outsiders that started here, and still continue without any kind of checks and balances, no doubt we need external manpower for the work we Goans don’t do. Simultaneously, there r also many areas where the locals are jobless, simply because the outsiders’ lobby are grabbing our opportunities.

To protect these opportunities for our locals, what is thus required are two things: firstly, the fifteen year domicile rule, and secondly, making essential the knowledge of the official language (Konkani), and in this respect we have to thank our ancestors, who zealously preserved the Konkani dialect for centuries, even during the oppressive regime, which tried in vain to uproot it from the soil, in order to protect our linguistic and cultural identity. Our dialect is undoubtedly a form of language, which is specific to our region and society, and should make us proud, because not all languages are fortunate to be spoken by its speakers. But sadly, in spite of possessing a rich mother-tongue like Konkani, our people are adopting English as a language of communication (their English being grammatically incorrect and practically horrible!!!), resulting in martyring their mother-tongue and crucifying the English language. The days will come when they will alienate them selves from the soils of Goa and simultaneously be disowned by the English people. Who benefits from this eventually? Won’t the wise acknowledge their indebtedness to their mother tongue by preserving it in their hearts and developing it through their speech? Only the spoken languages will survive and get enriched for years to come, and those that are not used in day today life, in spite of being rich in literature, are destined to be pushed into the archives pretty soon. Thus, if these two clauses are strictly implemented in both---the government and the private sectors, our unemployed youth could get jobs and other means of livelihood. Frankly speaking, implementing these clauses is important, only to stop the ongoing influx of outsiders. But though we need them in certain sectors where our local manpower is not available, it doesn’t mean that they are our enemies. They are expected to stand by us and support our cause since the ongoing influx would also hamper the interest of their children. The need of the hour is to prepare a mission statement for safeguarding the future of Goa’s heritage. It is thus a fight for all Goans at heart, even if they are not locals, so long as they integrate with the Goan identity, culture, and interest of Goa. Obviously, this commercialization has brought in its wake, a compromise on values and morals, but still, through this kaleidoscopic compendium, Goa emerges as an unsurpassable amalgam of Indian civilization.

Ethel Carvalho
ethel_carvalho@yahoo.com