Gilded cage or Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam?

http://bit.ly/1XPchY0
Teotonio R. de Souza
La Cage Dore (= A gilded cage) is a recent film that represents the new generation of
Portuguese emigrants in France. It explores humour very successfully to get over the trauma,
sufferings and humiliations of the earlier generations of Portuguese emigrants who fled from
the political and economic travails of their land to find better future for their children. The film
was acclaimed worldwide, but had no echo in Goa.
The film could serve as a perfect replica of the Goan emigrants who love the land of their
ancestors, and are grateful for their parents who ventured abroad, many of them with no
other qualification than their hope to create a better homeland for their children. Most of
them had no conditions to understand the politics of colonial domination of their land. But by
their sufferings they educated and enabled their children to seek what they did not inherit.
Contrary to politically motivated propaganda, the Goan emigration was not just an outlet for
poor Christian Goans, but it was also a forced or chosen option for many of the Hindu
community. The Christians benefitted to some extent from the religious-cultural good-will of
the Western colonizers, while the migrating Hindus benefitted from the shared Hindu culture
in the wider subcontinent.
Fortunately, the new generations of Goans have been born in a relatively comfortable
ambiance, and probably this makes them more inclined to shoot from the hip without taking
aim. The only logic linking their ideas in a non-thinking culture was best described by an old
Goan priest-teacher, as the logic of goat droppings, meaning suggestively that they follow
one another, but without any inter-linking.
This is reflected nowadays in the time-wasting discussion groups of the Facebook. Whenever a
Goan sees a posting about Goan identity or heritage, he or she feels entitled to let the tongue
loose and claim the right to opinion, be it with no other basis than as supported by ones
emotions.
I myself admitted once this logic as partly unavoidable in defining ones heritage. I was invited
to lead a panel discussion at the Goa University, as part of an international seminar organized
by a research group called Lusotopie of the University of Sorbonne (Paris), in partnership
with the Political Science department of the Goa University. The full text of my conference may
be read at http://www.lusotopie.sciencespobordeaux.fr/souzat.pdf
I started that conference by admitting that the subject the Goan identity is by its nature
as much emotional as academic to a Goan like me, and therefore required a conscious effort to
keep emotions in check. The objectivity required in any scientific analysis made me resort to
a conceptual framework, and then to elaborate six points that referred concretely to the Goan
identity.
It is no use decrying the past we cannot repair, but we need to analyse it with a patient and
dedicated research to get the facts right, rather than repeating vociferously ideologically
structured sound bites of transmitted memories that suit political agendas, often with
explosive mix of fundamentalist rancour.

Moved by curiosity to glance through postings in some Goa related FB groups or internet
forums I was pained to find many educated young Goans fighting feuds with little regard, if
not total disrespect, for older generations, including our freedem-fighters who gave their best,
their limitations notwithstanding, to make Goa a freer place for the new generations to carve
their future. No one expected from them to wish away the challenges of the future.
Contrary to pious believers in uninterrupted human progress towards goodness, the digital era
is far from being a boon that leads us into a more harmonious future. If we take the FB or its
Chinese or Russian variants, they have gripped millions of world population and are hurtling
them backwards towards a society of dog eat dog, all barking at all, spewing revenge and
threats, fuelling more fanaticism than harmony.
As they make it possible even for the ignorant folks to vent their feelings without restraint,
such platforms are becoming valuable tools for the secret services of States to identify the
potential trouble-makers. But can also assist the future democratic leaders to manipulate
social cleavages and exploit them for electoral gains.
On the eve of elections we see a crescendo of emotional outbursts in the social media. For
someone curious and eager to understand the political evolution of Goans, it is a feasty
privilege to follow the pre-electoral pronouncements of the political leaders and their proxies,
but also of hoi polloi Goans in the social media, particularly the FB or Twitter, where editorial
censorship is very limited or non-existent. People, nation, citizenship, identity, regional party,
State language, special status, keep gaining new meanings every day.
I was happy to read last week (2nd June) a tweet by @prabhakartimble: No power can flush
out Goa ingrained in Goan's heart. No Goan wants to lose Goan nationality. Was that a
political sop to agitated Goans, chiefly from GF political base in Salcete, where most seekers of
Portuguese passport are located? We need all political forces in Goa to clarify and act upon
their understanding of the age-old Upanishadic wisdom about Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam for
Goa and the Goans.