Paper short abstract:

From 1510 to 1961, the world viewed Goa from Portuguese eyes. Colonial hegemonial discourse relegated Goans to subaltern status---“those acted upon” rather than major actors. Liberation from colonialism should have changed matters but the new discourse of Hindi films has created different, but still subaltern, roles for Goans in modern India.

Paper long abstract:

In Hindi films, Goans have been depicted as clowns, idiots, and gangsters. But as serious people, with a role in modern India, they are nearly absent Goa has been represented as a "free" enclave in the rest of "tradition-bound" India; it is "the West" on the Subcontinent. Bollywood took (unwittingly) Portugal's "Aqui é Portugal" and made Goa into "This is not India." Goa has been repeatedly mythologized over the centuries and Goans' image has been consistently dominated by others.

The incredible growth of Indian domestic tourism to Goa has been fuelled by one thing---the mythological image of Goa presented in Hindi films and its follow-on effect among the public. This paper will trace that image in its various forms and argue that "the silence of native…voices…lost or omitted" in the highly-popular medium of film has had drastic consequences for Goan society and its natural environment. Goans are nearly invisible in the tourist flood. The narrative of the dominant group's media, of commercial giants, is of course the starting point of the story. In modern India, Goans are still subalterns in popular culture and thus in the eyes of millions. Are they full Indians ? Aren't Indian Christians still Indians? My paper will address such issues