Paper short abstract:

Exploring the emotional terrain of groups in Goa, especially with regard to Konkani the official language of the state, demonstrates how caste and practices of untouchability are central to citizenship experiences. What one encounters in Goa, is not an egalitarian polity, but a casteist polity.

Paper long abstract:

Running counter to impressions that caste is not a serious issue in Goa, this paper will demonstrate how caste, is in fact at the centre of the citizenship experience of Goans.

Following decades of struggle subsequent to Goa's integration into the Indian Union, in 1986 Konkani was finally recognised as the official language of Goa. However, rather than acknowledge the diversity of the Konkani language, written both in the Roman and Nagari scripts, the Official Language Act recognised Konkani as written in the latter script alone. In the manner in which this law was then implemented, it was not merely a script that was privileged, but Antruzi, a dialect associated with the Hindu Saraswat brahmin caste. These linguistic choices ensured that the figure of the ideal citizen subject, the Konkani munis or Konkani person, was recognised as embodied in the figure of the Hindu Saraswat brahmin.

Exploring the emotional terrain of the citizenship experiences of groups in Goa I will argue that through these linguistic choices it is not merely caste that is at the centre of citizenship experiences but in fact untouchability itself. Given that languages are not abstract forms but actively embodied practices I will demonstrate, how in this caste-Hindu centric polity, it is the lower-caste Catholic that is at the bottom of the pile, given that their linguistic forms and cultural productions are marked as impure and hence untouchable. What one encounters in Goa, therefore, is not an egalitarian polity, but a casteist polity.