Goa 2011: Reviewing And Recovering Fifty Years

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

This book is the outcome of the national seminar, "Goa 2011: Reviewing and Recovering 50 years", organised on the occasion of the golden jubilee of Goa's liberation from Portuguese rule. The seminar intended as the first of a series of multi-disciplinary seminars on Goan themes and issues, was convened by the Xavier Centre of Historical Research (XCHR) and the Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr (TSKK) to begin a process of self-education and knowledge-creation to comprehend how the people of this state have shaped and directed their post-colonial history and how specific socio-political and cultural contexts have influenced that contemporary history.

The book underlines the rapid and at times traumatic social changes Goan Society is undergoing today. Whether it be in regard to the construction of their past or the preservation of their culture, including that of the subalterns and the marginalized; whether in controversies over their collective identity as Goans, expressed in their language or their politics, whether in relation to the land and its commodification by the market or its objectification with unsustainable development; whether in the search for a relevant education or the struggles of civil society movements everywhere there is evidence of the complex and multiple impact of rapid change at various levels. What surely is the need of the hour is now to find a horizon of hope within which to understand our world so as to be able to change it as subjects, rather than just coping with it as objects of our own history.

Dr. Savio Abreu is Director of Xavier Centre of Historical Research (XCHR), Goa. His PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai was a sociological study on New Christian movements in contemporary Goa. He has published articles in various Journals such as Indian Church History Review, Seminar, Social Action, etc. He has published papers in edited volumes, the last one being on "Social Development of the Christian Community in India" in, India Social Development Report 2012: Minorities at the Margins (Oxford University Press, 2013). He is visiting faculty at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth (JDV), the Pontifical Athenaeum in Pune since 2012. E-mail: [email protected].

Dr. Rudolf C. Heredia is an independent researcher residing at Campion School, Mumbai. His doctorate in Sociology is from the University of Chicago (1979), and he was the founder director of the Social Science Centre, St. Xavier's College Mumbai, 1980-1992 and director again from 1994-2003. From 1992-94 he was director, department of research, at the Indian Social Institute, Delhi and edited the institute's journal, Social Action, 1993-95. His publications include Changing Gods: Rethinking Conversion in India, Penguin, N. Delhi, 2007 and Taking Sides: Reservation Quotas and Minority Rights in India, Penguin, N. Delhi, 2012. He has also published in various journals such as the Economic and Political Weekly, contributions to Indian Sociology, New Frontiers in Education, etc. E-mail: [email protected].

As this volume goes to press I share the excited feelings of a mother delivering her first born baby. Putting together this volume has taken a long time, as it is with all edited ventures. I first spoke to Rudolf about the project of publishing this volume a few months after the seminar but due to various factors beyond our control the timeline for the project kept extending. I am grateful to Rudolf for accepting to co-edit the papers and for his continuous encouragement. It is because of Rudolf's constant support and timely reminders and the interest of some of the paper presenters that I was able to complete this maiden editorial venture. Balancing my duties of running a research centre with writing and editing has been a taxing job, but this assignment was made easy and enjoyable by the help I received from various persons.

I, along with Rudolf, would like to express our appreciation to all the participants of the seminar and the other scholars who have contributed to this volume. I wish to thank Dr. P.D. Xavier who carefully went through the papers, making corrections and giving valuable suggestions. I am grateful to Ms. Anjali Dar Sen Gupta who painstakingly copy-edited the papers. My gratitude goes out to Fr Anthony da Silva, former provincial of Goa Province, for his generous support. I cannot forget the hard work and reassuring support of the staff of Xavier Centre-Vanessa, Arti, Thomas, Tari, Urmilla, Fr Rinald and FrAnand-in organising the seminar and in the editorial work. I wish to thank Concept Publishing Company Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi-110059 for the trouble taken to ensure that the entire publication process went smoothly. Since this is my first editorial project I wish to dedicate the volume to the memory of two women-my late sister Jenny Abreu and Dr Sharon D'Cruz, a bright young historian, who was closely associated with the Xavier Centre, and who passed away recently.

**Contents and Sample Pages**