Hindutva is growing in Goa even as the tiny state has a large and electorally vital and politically sensitive Catholic minority (25%) and a Muslim population of around 8%.
Concerned stakeholders including the Lotus party-led ruling dispensation prefer to push the slogan - Goa should transform from being a “bhoga bhoomi (land of enjoyment)” to a “Yoga bhoomi (land of yoga and Yogis).”
Hindutva in Goa has thus since 2019 consolidated across the civil and political society divide, presenting an ever more polarising version of itself.
The use of anti-colonial rhetoric works full-steam as a proxy for targeting Goan Christians, many say.
The state Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has generally backed the right-wing Hindu groups. Not long ago at an event organized by the Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha - obviously supporting the cause of Hindu Rashtra - said --
“Earlier, people used to come to Goa for the sun, sand, and sea ....Now they visit Goa’s beautiful temples, culture, and villages. This is Goa’s culture". Those in the know of things say --
the Hindutva’s metamorphosis in the former Portuguese colony, Goa, from the margins to the centre of Goan politics has taken time.
It came the hard way and often seen as slow. But now the grip is strong.
The RSS arrived in Goa shortly after its integration into the Indian Union in 1961, a time defined by pronounced Hindu revivalist sentiments.
Only in the 1980s and 1990s did Hindutva register significantly in Goa even as it is well known that Bharatiya Jan Sangh (the earlier version of the BJP) came to this province way back in 1972.
Analysts say ceremonies and practices that are anathema to Hindutva were Hinduised or ‘purified’ by removing Catholic content.
Moreove, there has been increased Hindu control over ceremonial roles and functions; or by shifting the site of syncretistic practices from Churches to Hindu temples.
For many Goans, the so-called Hindu revivalism tone is disquieting.
"The state’s archbishop, who once hosted a traditional Christmas reception for government officials, quietly ended the practice. The Church, he said, preferred to “move to the peripheries” and celebrate with local communities instead," reports Catholics-run website UCA News.
Understand the finer points:
The BJP’s electoral breakthrough and consolidation did not come easy either. In 1991, on the heels of a rath yatra across north India that left a trail of violence and destruction in its wake, BJP leader L.K. Advani visited Goa, a visit that is listed on the website of the BJP as ‘the first major event of the party’ there. Three years later in 1994, the saffron outfit made its electoral presence felt.
It walked away with around 10% of votes and won four seats in a state legislature of 40.
There was also an 'uneasy alliance' with the regional party the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). 2025).
The turn towards 'hard Hindutva' has been spearheaded by groups such as the Sanathan Sanstha and its affiliate the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti who, among other things, organise an annual All India Hindu Rashtra Convention, says an article tandfonline.com.
This was a prime setting for articulating xenophobic and chauvinistic Hindu nationalist agendas, the article claimed.
They also include a multiplicity of local groups of Shiv Premis, or followers of Shivaji, who mobilise the history and symbolism of the seventeenth century Hindu king Shivaji to enhance Hindu pride and spatial dominance.
But the UCA News article says - "not everyone remains silent about the pro-Hindu ideology influencing state policies".
Lawyer and former legislator Carlos Alvares Ferreira of the Congress Party questions the state’s inaction against vigilantes. “There are people who have no authority in law who are coming and stopping these meat traders,” he says. “How can the state allow it?”
Political commentator Cleofato Almeida Coutinho sees a larger pattern: “What is happening in Goa is a clear attempt to target Christian minorities under the guise of attacking the Portuguese. Even Catholics in the BJP are not speaking out, perhaps because they think it’s politically unwise,” he said.
“Everyone knows who the real target is,” he adds.
Anthropologist Kenneth Bo Nielsen, who co-authored the paper “Goa: A Hardening of Hindutva,”
-- sees the current shifts as part of a long-term political strategy of the Sangh Parivar, a collective name for groups supporting the ideology of the RSS.
“The RSS has had a presence in Goa for a long time, along with other affiliated groups .... They have been very effective at engaging with various religious sects that used to be anti-Brahmin but are now more aligned with the RSS and BJP.”
2024 Parliamentary polls -- provided key inputs:
The 2024 results indicate considerable electoral polarisation along religious lines, with a majority of Hindu voters consolidating behind the BJP, and Christian (and Muslim) voters supporting the Congress.
This trend has been accelerating since 2009-2010.
The electoral dominance of the BJP in North Goa indicates beyond doubt that electoral support for Hindu nationalism is well established.
There are as many as 20 North Goa assembly segments. Last time, the BJP won 16.
In contrast, the South Goa constituency offers a more competitive and complex scenario. That constituency too has 20 assembly segments, out of which the BJP won in 11 and the nine went to the Congress.
 |
| Chief Minister Pramod Sawant - a hardcore Hindutva player |
Christians constitute about 25 percent of Goa’s 1.5 million people, while Muslims — mostly migrants from Karnataka — make up roughly 10 percent. At the start of the 20th century, Christians comprised nearly 80 percent of the state’s population, but by 1961, this had dropped to 40 percent. According to the 2011 census, their share was reduced to 25 percent.
Hindus now comprise 70 percent of the population, although fewer than half identify as ethnic Goans, with migrants from other parts of India making up the rest. Despite its Hindu dominance, the BJP’s hold on power remains fragile, built more on defections than clear mandates, says UCA News.
It is argued that Sawant cannot be compared with someone like Yogi Adityanath, the popular chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, who is known for making strong statements against religious minorities. “Sawant is not Yogi Adityanath… And he couldn’t be, even if he wanted to. That would be political suicide in contemporary Goa" - goes a refrain.
Yet .... what’s at stake is not only who governs Goa, but how its people begin to think about identity, history, and belonging, he observes.
Merely voting the BJP out of power will not be enough.
ends
No comments:
Post a Comment