Paper short abstract:

Presentation will show landscape of emotions and lived in everyday life nostalgia behind the place of origin in context of sustaining group identity within Konkani communities in Kochi. In the lived experience of affect and emotion new notions of identity are created.

Paper long abstract:

The presentation will point out the landscape of individual emotions, lived in everyday life nostalgia behind the place of origin and sense of belonging in context of group identity within caste-based communities of Konkani speaking people in Kochi, South India. Konkanis came to Kochi from Goa in sixteenth century due to historical perturbations. Emotions associated with the past are re-called, lived and internalized, and at the same time new meaningful social shift is appearing promoted by community activists. In the fieldwork conducted in 2014-2018 I was witnessing phenomena of personal emotions emerging around subject of ethnic membership, as well as non-verbalized affectual situations where sense of belonging was transferred imperceptibly between members and non-members of Konkani communities, and through almost intangible was much more existing than classical studies on group identity used to present it. Having this as a base, Konkani activists consciously use the emotional landscape already existing in the community to promote stronger attachment to the notion of "being Konkani" and at the same time changing it from the local community to imagined one, from Kochi-based Konkani castes, where members know each other from everyday interaction, to the wider community of all-India Konkani language speaking people. In my research I am attempting to grasp what role emotion and affect are playing in identity building strategies. Emotions serve at the same time as a strategy of achieving certain political objectives, but they are also determinant of what is important for the community.