Congresses and seminars

International Congress «Goa: Past and Present» (2011)

2010 marked the completion of five centuries of Portuguese presence in Goa. This represents an opportunity to reflect upon 500 years of Portuguese and Goan coexistence, made of encounters and separations, twists and turns, affections, indifferences and hatreds, both past and present. «Goa: Past and Present» is the theme of the international conference that tooked place between 26 and 28 October 2011, focusing on the following topics:

- Language and Literature:

Goa's linguistic universe encompasses strong specificities. Apart from the most commonly spoken local languages, such as the Concani and the Marata, nowadays Goans also use Hindi and English, disseminated as the main languages used for teaching purposes.

Even though spoken for 450 years in Goa, namely by the elite of the State of India, Portuguese language was never able to disseminate and compete with local languages. With the end of the occupation in 1961, it was labeled «the ex-colonizer's language». However, literature and documents produced in Portuguese will always be part of the history of Goa.

In this context, noteworthy are two extraordinary repositories of written Portuguese, the Historical Archive and the Central Library. They preserve documents of all sorts on the history of European presence in the Indian Ocean and their relations with the Asians as well as an extensive collection of periodicals dated back to the 19th and 20th centuries, recording Goa's everyday life where literature earned a privileged position. A few poetry and tales books were also produced in Goa, giving rise to quite a specific literary universe.

This topic aims to reflect upon this linguistic and literary production, in the past, present and even future, where it remains alive.

- Tangible and Intangible Heritage:

To speak of Goa is to evoke a place where the relation between tangible and intangible heritage takes on a central role in defining goanity and the way Goans strive to rebuild their place in history and in the world. Marked by a clear commitment between Portugal and India, Goa?s tangible and intangible heritage describes a unique human landscape and an exceptional territory.

However, whilst the tangible heritage is limited to Goa's territory, the intangible heritage presents Goa also as a space of many places, characterized by the strong diasporic community dispersed throughout the world and bearer of a message of goanity which includes the performance of difference through dance, music or theater.

The proposals put a focus on topics associated with Goa's tangible and intangible heritage and reflected upon their place within Goan culture, mainly in a contemporary context.

- Coexistences and Religion:

Border town between islamic and hindu powers, when conquered by Afonso de Albuquerque, Goa was a city where religions coexisted. The Portuguese victory led to the outflow of muslims and the inflow of christians.

In a time of political activism and intolerance, Goa was witness to the effort of thousands of clergymen committed to spreading the Gospel, and to the early growth of a large Goan clergy community. By the mid-16th century, the Christian city was no longer a space of inter-religious dialogue as in the decades immediately following the conquest, but it remained as an area of silent interaction between Christianity and Hinduism. Sacred art is the best witness to this encounter, as many of the artisans that gave birth to Christian images were conditioned by ancestral practices that were applied to the new religion.

Alongside the religion of the town's lords, the hindu religion persisted and was always the majority in the New Conquests. At the end of the period of missionary activism, the peaceful coexistence between the two communities intensified, joined progressively by a new group of muslims. Throughout its long duration, Goa was thus a space of religious coexistences which are still poorly known and should therefore be discovered and revisited.

- Economy and Development:

Over time, Goa became a strategic port, owing to its strategic and economic function but also to the political-administrative center it was as the capital of Portuguese India. Trade and several trading routes, namely the «carreira da Índia», merit special attention. But also agriculture and industry should be studied and reflected upon, as well as the financial issues which have been present throughout centuries.

After its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries, Goa started losing economic importance, notwithstanding some efforts otherwise. After 1961, there was a strong impulse for its development at all levels of education, agriculture, industry and services. Goa rapidly became one of the richest States of the Union of India and a world tourist attraction.

- Territory and Identity:

One of the interesting paradoxes of Goa is that its identity transcends its original territory, in a process of continuous evolution, assuming multiple forms in its different expressions. And even though there is a history with remarkable continuities, the Goa which geography and individuality we are analyzing, in fact emerged five centuries ago.

Physical geography alonedoes not account for Goan identity; however, the fact that Goa is a port, a point of passage and trade, helps understand the Goan character and presence in the world. But before expanding onto the world, this identity defined itself in a reduced geographical space where Hindu and Portuguese elements combined, giving rise to a multiform social and cultural mixture that has grown and evolved ever since. Therefore, there is not just one image but several possible and ever changing representations of Goan identity, differing according to place of reference, whether the original territory or other.

More than a language, Goan identity finds expression in a unique culture that uses the various languages which were placed at its disposal, thus reflecting the composite richness of its origins and contributions to its development. This identity also refers to a way of being in the world, to habits and customs resulting from the coexistence of Goan and other societies. Moreover, an identity that reproduces and disseminates itself, making use of all available means.

As such, Goan identity is the fruit of the juxtaposition of these different layers which have been in constant evolution since the 16th century, through which it became the intermediary, par excellence, of a process of exchange and civilizational dialogue that remains alive and current.

Coordinator: Artur Teodoro de Matos.

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