Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes how tourism shapes the trajectory of development in post-colonial Goa, India. The paper will firstly, assess how tourism development emerges as a response and sustains the continued dominance of merchant capital in Goa. Secondly, explore how the discourse of tourism (re)locates Goa within the post-colonial Indian nation.

Paper long abstract:

The development of a tourism destination is a process of producing spaces, constructed by historically contingent political economic practices and cultural discourse. The tourism destination is both, a representation of space and space for representation. It is a space saturated by power and depending on the context, in the words of Henri Lefebvre, "a stake, the locus of projects and actions deployed as specific strategies, and hence the object of wagers on the future." Approached from this perspective, a close reading of the tourism destination and its associated discourses is particularly revealing. The specific manner in which touristic services are produced and consumed; the discursive construction of the tourism destination; and, the manner in which members of the 'host population' interact with the tourism destination provide a commentary on the historical developments within the society in which it is located.

In this presentation, I will analyze the articulation of the tourism destination and its related discourses in Goa since its liberation from Portuguese colonial rule and its inclusion within the post-colonial Indian nation in December, 1961. The focus of this presentation is twofold: firstly, to assess how tourism development in post-colonial Goa emerges as a response and in fact sustains the continued dominance of merchant capital in Goa. Secondly, I will explore the manner in which the discourse of tourism development has aided in (re)locating Goa within the popular imagination of the post-colonial Indian nation and contributes to the expansion of the Indian state's hegemonic control over the Goan society.