International Journal for Indian Studies, Jul 30, 2019
Even though close to one fourth of Goa’s population is Catholic, much scholarship on Goa is at pa... more Even though close to one fourth of Goa’s population is Catholic, much scholarship on Goa is at pains to emphasize the Hindu nature of Goan society. Contesting these assertions, this paper will draw on popular culture in Goa, with special reference to the lyrics of popular Konkani music, to not only demonstrate the way in which Christian cosmology structures the world represented in these lyrics but provides hope for the suffering Goan subject. Indeed, it was the institutions around local Catholicism that allowed for Konkani music tradition to emerge in the first place. It is Catholicism, this paper argues, which sutures diverse case groups into a single social unit and thus makes a society possible in Goa, and it is also the same faith tradition that provides the possibility to see persons not as members of castes but as human beings. By providing a language to challenge caste and other similar discrimination while retaining space for pleasure even while this goal is unrealized, this paper argues that it is Catholicism, or the message of the Gospel, which is the source of consolation in Goan society.
Introduction to the Special Section "Goa Before India: Late-Colonial Goan Society and Cu... more Introduction to the Special Section "Goa Before India: Late-Colonial Goan Society and Culture"
Effectively appreciating the encounters between Hindus and Catholics requires that one locate Hin... more Effectively appreciating the encounters between Hindus and Catholics requires that one locate Hinduism not only as an invention from the nineteenth century, but as the ideology of the Indian state, and, as such, an ideology actively sustained by the same. To talk about Hindu–Catholic encounters, therefore, is to necessarily talk about the relationship between Catholics and the Indian state, and to recognize Hindus as the subjects of this political formation. Toward this end, the chapter will progress in four stages. The first will elaborate the argument that Hinduism is sustained by the Indian state and propose eschewing the usual route of taking the term “Hindu” as a given. The chapter offers this proposal as a way to get out of the trap in which scholars usually find themselves when discussing religious encounters in India. The second points out that while Hinduism emerged, via Orientalist and nationalist interventions, beginning in the nineteenth century, Catholicism has been integral to the processes by which Hinduism and Indian nationalism were constituted from as early as the sixteenth century, with the institutional arrival of Catholicism via the patronage of the Portuguese crown. Developing the argument chronologically, the third section will discuss the Indian national movement and its linkage with Hindu nationalism, pointing out how even Indian secularism is in fact concerned with producing the Hindu subject. The fourth and final section will look at the manner in which Indian Catholic elites, whether in the clergy, or the laity, by collaborating with the Indian nationalist project, have established a self-defeating relationship with it.
Afonso Mexia foi uma das figuras fundadoras do Estado da India. Este artigo usa uma referencia co... more Afonso Mexia foi uma das figuras fundadoras do Estado da India. Este artigo usa uma referencia contemporânea de Mexia, pela Associacao dos componentes das comunidades, para desenhar as ligacoes entre o presente e o passado colonial e pos-colonial, mostrando como a ordem juridica e social das respectivas eras se tocam entre si. Ao faze-lo, o artigo contempla as varias contestacoes no seio das comunidades, e entre a comunidade e o Estado, e como a cidadania se pretende (re)definida no antigo territorio Portugues de Goa.
In meeting with Prime Minister Modi, the Pope was possibly offering Catholics in India an opport... more In meeting with Prime Minister Modi, the Pope was possibly offering Catholics in India an opportunity to show Christian witness, and a way to craft a new front for Christian politics in an increasingly troubled country.
When discussing the impact of Portuguese colonialism on the culture of the territory we now call ... more When discussing the impact of Portuguese colonialism on the culture of the territory we now call Goa, much is made of Indo-Portuguese art. The term operates as a euphemism for the meeting of Christian/Catholic art forms with Hindu/Sanskritic art forms. This framing of the encounter poses two problems . The first is that it continues to play out a colonial Orientalist tendency to identify communities with a religion, hence the Portuguese and European colonizers with Catholicism, and the local inhabitants with Hinduism (if such a concept already existed at the time of colonial conquest). The second problem is that it by and large ignores the impact of the Islamicate in Goa, more often than not content with dismissing it with a brief reference to Mughal forms in the art works. In this short essay I argue that Goa was very much the space of the Islamicate. Further, that to view 'Indo-Portuguese' art in this light would perhaps open up larger and richer ways of understanding this art, as well as moving it away from the colonial (and communal) tendency of seeing art (and culture) as founded in religion.
This paper is the curatorial essay for the group exhibition of Goan artists at at Kalakriti Art G... more This paper is the curatorial essay for the group exhibition of Goan artists at at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad from 9 Feb to 28 Feb 2015.
In the context of this exhibition, the imperialist phrase 'Portugal não é um país pequeno' is reutilized to suggest that Goa’s small geographical extent does not limit its size. Despite the fact that Goa is the smallest territory in the Union of India, it is home to a remarkably diverse history. Not only does it play host to a variety of migrant communities; it is also the home of a migrant community that is spread across the world. The essay uses the artworks in this exhibition to demonstrate this breadth of experience allows for Goans to hold a variety of perspectives and to own diverse insights into the multiple worlds that they occupy.
One Hundred Iconic Art Objects from the Museum of Christian, 2022
Taking the image of "Nirmala Mata" present in the collection of the Museum of Christian Art, this... more Taking the image of "Nirmala Mata" present in the collection of the Museum of Christian Art, this essay inquires how best to understand the Indian in Christian art in India.
The Routledge handbook of Hindu-Christian relations, 2021
Effectively appreciating the encounters between Hindus and Catholics requires that one locate Hin... more Effectively appreciating the encounters between Hindus and Catholics requires that one locate Hinduism not only as an invention from the nineteenth century, but as the ideology of the Indian state, and, as such, an ideology actively sustained by the same. To talk about Hindu–Catholic encounters, therefore, is to necessarily talk about the relationship between Catholics and the Indian state, and to recognize Hindus as the subjects of this political formation. Toward this end, the chapter will progress in four stages. The first will elaborate the argument that Hinduism is sustained by the Indian state and propose eschewing the usual route of taking the term “Hindu” as a given. The chapter offers this proposal as a way to get out of the trap in which scholars usually find themselves when discussing religious encounters in India. The second points out that while Hinduism emerged, via Orientalist and nationalist interventions, beginning in the nineteenth century, Catholicism has been integral to the processes by which Hinduism and Indian nationalism were constituted from as early as the sixteenth century, with the institutional arrival of Catholicism via the patronage of the Portuguese crown. Developing the argument chronologically, the third section will discuss the Indian national movement and its linkage with Hindu nationalism, pointing out how even Indian secularism is in fact concerned with producing the Hindu subject. The fourth and final section will look at the manner in which Indian Catholic elites, whether in the clergy, or the laity, by collaborating with the Indian nationalist project, have established a self-defeating relationship with it.
Monsoon, the new translation of Vimala Devi’s Monção (1963), offers contemporary readers a rare p... more Monsoon, the new translation of Vimala Devi’s Monção (1963), offers contemporary readers a rare peek into Goa as it appeared to a certain progressive Catholic elite on the eve of the Indian annexation of the territory from Portugal. This introduction offers a better understanding of this group enabling the reader to gauge how much the political terrain has shifted, in Goa and the wider subcontinent, and to assess the political positions that made sense to progressive Catholics in this period.
Reception of the reading down by the Supreme Court of Section 377 should be more circumspect, sin... more Reception of the reading down by the Supreme Court of Section 377 should be more circumspect, since there is much in the decision that offers reasons for concern. Rather than making a rupture with the contemporary majoritarian political climate, the decision is, in fact, a continuation of a longer nationalist project aimed at consolidating the ideal citizen subject of the Indian nation state.
International Journal for Indian Studies, Jul 30, 2019
Even though close to one fourth of Goa’s population is Catholic, much scholarship on Goa is at pa... more Even though close to one fourth of Goa’s population is Catholic, much scholarship on Goa is at pains to emphasize the Hindu nature of Goan society. Contesting these assertions, this paper will draw on popular culture in Goa, with special reference to the lyrics of popular Konkani music, to not only demonstrate the way in which Christian cosmology structures the world represented in these lyrics but provides hope for the suffering Goan subject. Indeed, it was the institutions around local Catholicism that allowed for Konkani music tradition to emerge in the first place. It is Catholicism, this paper argues, which sutures diverse case groups into a single social unit and thus makes a society possible in Goa, and it is also the same faith tradition that provides the possibility to see persons not as members of castes but as human beings. By providing a language to challenge caste and other similar discrimination while retaining space for pleasure even while this goal is unrealized, this paper argues that it is Catholicism, or the message of the Gospel, which is the source of consolation in Goan society.
Introduction to the Special Section "Goa Before India: Late-Colonial Goan Society and Cu... more Introduction to the Special Section "Goa Before India: Late-Colonial Goan Society and Culture"
Effectively appreciating the encounters between Hindus and Catholics requires that one locate Hin... more Effectively appreciating the encounters between Hindus and Catholics requires that one locate Hinduism not only as an invention from the nineteenth century, but as the ideology of the Indian state, and, as such, an ideology actively sustained by the same. To talk about Hindu–Catholic encounters, therefore, is to necessarily talk about the relationship between Catholics and the Indian state, and to recognize Hindus as the subjects of this political formation. Toward this end, the chapter will progress in four stages. The first will elaborate the argument that Hinduism is sustained by the Indian state and propose eschewing the usual route of taking the term “Hindu” as a given. The chapter offers this proposal as a way to get out of the trap in which scholars usually find themselves when discussing religious encounters in India. The second points out that while Hinduism emerged, via Orientalist and nationalist interventions, beginning in the nineteenth century, Catholicism has been integral to the processes by which Hinduism and Indian nationalism were constituted from as early as the sixteenth century, with the institutional arrival of Catholicism via the patronage of the Portuguese crown. Developing the argument chronologically, the third section will discuss the Indian national movement and its linkage with Hindu nationalism, pointing out how even Indian secularism is in fact concerned with producing the Hindu subject. The fourth and final section will look at the manner in which Indian Catholic elites, whether in the clergy, or the laity, by collaborating with the Indian nationalist project, have established a self-defeating relationship with it.
Afonso Mexia foi uma das figuras fundadoras do Estado da India. Este artigo usa uma referencia co... more Afonso Mexia foi uma das figuras fundadoras do Estado da India. Este artigo usa uma referencia contemporânea de Mexia, pela Associacao dos componentes das comunidades, para desenhar as ligacoes entre o presente e o passado colonial e pos-colonial, mostrando como a ordem juridica e social das respectivas eras se tocam entre si. Ao faze-lo, o artigo contempla as varias contestacoes no seio das comunidades, e entre a comunidade e o Estado, e como a cidadania se pretende (re)definida no antigo territorio Portugues de Goa.
In meeting with Prime Minister Modi, the Pope was possibly offering Catholics in India an opport... more In meeting with Prime Minister Modi, the Pope was possibly offering Catholics in India an opportunity to show Christian witness, and a way to craft a new front for Christian politics in an increasingly troubled country.
When discussing the impact of Portuguese colonialism on the culture of the territory we now call ... more When discussing the impact of Portuguese colonialism on the culture of the territory we now call Goa, much is made of Indo-Portuguese art. The term operates as a euphemism for the meeting of Christian/Catholic art forms with Hindu/Sanskritic art forms. This framing of the encounter poses two problems . The first is that it continues to play out a colonial Orientalist tendency to identify communities with a religion, hence the Portuguese and European colonizers with Catholicism, and the local inhabitants with Hinduism (if such a concept already existed at the time of colonial conquest). The second problem is that it by and large ignores the impact of the Islamicate in Goa, more often than not content with dismissing it with a brief reference to Mughal forms in the art works. In this short essay I argue that Goa was very much the space of the Islamicate. Further, that to view 'Indo-Portuguese' art in this light would perhaps open up larger and richer ways of understanding this art, as well as moving it away from the colonial (and communal) tendency of seeing art (and culture) as founded in religion.
This paper is the curatorial essay for the group exhibition of Goan artists at at Kalakriti Art G... more This paper is the curatorial essay for the group exhibition of Goan artists at at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad from 9 Feb to 28 Feb 2015.
In the context of this exhibition, the imperialist phrase 'Portugal não é um país pequeno' is reutilized to suggest that Goa’s small geographical extent does not limit its size. Despite the fact that Goa is the smallest territory in the Union of India, it is home to a remarkably diverse history. Not only does it play host to a variety of migrant communities; it is also the home of a migrant community that is spread across the world. The essay uses the artworks in this exhibition to demonstrate this breadth of experience allows for Goans to hold a variety of perspectives and to own diverse insights into the multiple worlds that they occupy.
One Hundred Iconic Art Objects from the Museum of Christian, 2022
Taking the image of "Nirmala Mata" present in the collection of the Museum of Christian Art, this... more Taking the image of "Nirmala Mata" present in the collection of the Museum of Christian Art, this essay inquires how best to understand the Indian in Christian art in India.
The Routledge handbook of Hindu-Christian relations, 2021
Effectively appreciating the encounters between Hindus and Catholics requires that one locate Hin... more Effectively appreciating the encounters between Hindus and Catholics requires that one locate Hinduism not only as an invention from the nineteenth century, but as the ideology of the Indian state, and, as such, an ideology actively sustained by the same. To talk about Hindu–Catholic encounters, therefore, is to necessarily talk about the relationship between Catholics and the Indian state, and to recognize Hindus as the subjects of this political formation. Toward this end, the chapter will progress in four stages. The first will elaborate the argument that Hinduism is sustained by the Indian state and propose eschewing the usual route of taking the term “Hindu” as a given. The chapter offers this proposal as a way to get out of the trap in which scholars usually find themselves when discussing religious encounters in India. The second points out that while Hinduism emerged, via Orientalist and nationalist interventions, beginning in the nineteenth century, Catholicism has been integral to the processes by which Hinduism and Indian nationalism were constituted from as early as the sixteenth century, with the institutional arrival of Catholicism via the patronage of the Portuguese crown. Developing the argument chronologically, the third section will discuss the Indian national movement and its linkage with Hindu nationalism, pointing out how even Indian secularism is in fact concerned with producing the Hindu subject. The fourth and final section will look at the manner in which Indian Catholic elites, whether in the clergy, or the laity, by collaborating with the Indian nationalist project, have established a self-defeating relationship with it.
Monsoon, the new translation of Vimala Devi’s Monção (1963), offers contemporary readers a rare p... more Monsoon, the new translation of Vimala Devi’s Monção (1963), offers contemporary readers a rare peek into Goa as it appeared to a certain progressive Catholic elite on the eve of the Indian annexation of the territory from Portugal. This introduction offers a better understanding of this group enabling the reader to gauge how much the political terrain has shifted, in Goa and the wider subcontinent, and to assess the political positions that made sense to progressive Catholics in this period.
Reception of the reading down by the Supreme Court of Section 377 should be more circumspect, sin... more Reception of the reading down by the Supreme Court of Section 377 should be more circumspect, since there is much in the decision that offers reasons for concern. Rather than making a rupture with the contemporary majoritarian political climate, the decision is, in fact, a continuation of a longer nationalist project aimed at consolidating the ideal citizen subject of the Indian nation state.
Based on various object that pertain to the Kwok-On Collection in the Museu do Oriente, Lisbon, t... more Based on various object that pertain to the Kwok-On Collection in the Museu do Oriente, Lisbon, this article challenges the tendency to conflate Indian with Hindu. The article demonstrates that very often what looks Hindu is in fact profoundly Islamic. In particular, the article discusses the manner in which practices associated wih the Shia faith and the historic figure of Imam Hussein are central to many aspects of Indian culture. Recognising this fact complicates the manner in which individuals and insitutions - such as museums - understand the subcontinent and offers a route to decolonize and democratize our imaginations.
Nidān: International Journal for Indian Studies, 2019
Even though close to one fourth of Goa’s population is Catholic, much scholarship on Goa is at pa... more Even though close to one fourth of Goa’s population is Catholic, much scholarship on Goa is at pains to emphasize the Hindu nature of Goan society. Contesting these assertions, this paper will draw on popular culture in Goa, with special reference to the lyrics of popular Konkani music, to not only demonstrate the way in which Christian cosmology structures the world represented in these lyrics but provides hope for the suffering Goan subject. Indeed, it was the institutions around local Catholicism that allowed for Konkani music tradition to emerge in the first place. It is Catholicism, this paper argues, which sutures diverse case groups into a single social unit and thus makes a society possible in Goa, and it is also the same faith tradition that provides the possibility to see persons not as members of castes but as human beings. By providing a language to challenge caste and other similar discrimination while retaining space for pleasure even while this goal is unrealized, this paper argues that it is Catholicism, or the message of the Gospel, which is the source of consolation in Goan society.
This paper interprets movement within the frames of citizenship theory. The ambit of citizenship ... more This paper interprets movement within the frames of citizenship theory. The ambit of citizenship is opened up to include citizenship acts and practices, understood as movements towards changes in relationships. Such attention to movement also directs consideration towards the concomitant acts of fixing or prevention of the movement of political subjects. The argument of this article is that looking at Goan communities in this manner opens up new vistas for our scholarship. Additionally, it would enable scholars of Goa to move away from the tendency to fix Goans in frameworks inherited from British Indian cultural nationalism, which are very often carried forward in post-colonial theory that has emerged from British colonial experience. Finally, the article draws attention to the fact that as producers of discourse, scholarly works often hold the possibility of being tools for fixing political subjects and preventing their movement. My first response to the call for papers for this special issue on " Goans on the Move " was to restrict the understanding of movement to the spatial alone. Given the global spread of Goans, such an interpretation might not be surprising. Contemplating the invitation longer, however, I soon saw larger possibilities enclosed within the concept of movement. In this article, therefore, I choose to interpret movement within the frames of citizenship theory. Within this larger understanding, citizenship, or more appropriately, citizenship acts and practices, are better understood as movements towards changes in relationships. The article directs attention towards this aspect of movement, and the concomitant acts of fixing or preventing the movement of political subjects. I argue that to look at Goan communities in this manner opens up new vistas for our scholarship. Additionally, it enables us, as scholars, to move away from the tendency to fix Goans in frameworks inherited from British Indian cultural nationalism and often carried forward in post-colonial theory that has emerged from British colonial experience. I would also like to draw attention to the fact that as producers of discourse our works often hold the possibility of being tools for fixing political subjects and preventing their movement.
This paper draws from fieldwork conducted in the former Portuguese territory of Goa to... more This paper draws from fieldwork conducted in the former Portuguese territory of Goa to illustrate the argument that proposes thinking of citizenship as a disciplinary tool in the international management of populations rather than as a regime of rights and
participation alone. Citizenship is not so much about rights as it is about the disciplining and the fixing of populations within the boundaries of the decolonized territories. The paper argues that citizenship regimes draw much from an international regime influenced by racist imaginations and agendas, as well as the imaginations that derive from the hegemonic colonial (and hence post-colonial) model. The focus in this paper is on the manner in which
non-statal groups, like the Catholic Church, participate in this fixative discourses.
ACT 27 - Goa Portuguesa e Pós-Colonial: Literatura, Cultura e Sociedade, Everton V. Machado and Duarte D. Braga (Eds.), 2014
This essay argues for recognizing a form of orientalism peculiar to Goa. This peculiarity results... more This essay argues for recognizing a form of orientalism peculiar to Goa. This peculiarity results from the manner in which two different types of orientalisms combine with one another to produce Goan orientalism. These two types of Orientalism would be Goa Portuguesa, a strain of Lusotropicalism, and Goa Indica, a strain of Indian nationalism which is in turn a product of British Indian orientalism. The terrain of Goan orientalism is sketched in this essay through a discussion of the recently published coffee-table book Moda Goa: History and Style by fashion
designer and stylist Wendell Rodricks (2012). Despite being the work of an amateur historian, I would argue that this work needs to be given academic attention, for it is largely the popular press that determines the manner in which history is understood, and the manner in which these histories are then used to frame personal as well as larger group or collective narratives.
The extant representations of the late nineteenth-century personality Wamanrao Varde Valaulikar (... more The extant representations of the late nineteenth-century personality Wamanrao Varde Valaulikar (1877-1946), known as Shenoi Goembab to Konkani activists, are marked by a hagiographical character. The present article offers a biography of the man which eschews these nationalist hagiographies to place the man in the context of his times and to demonstrate his primary role as an activist in the creation of the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin caste. In so doing, the article demonstrates how the foundations for the contemporary Goan public sphere were laid in the nineteenth century.
Book review of "Republic of Caste: Thinking Equality in the Time of Neo-Liberal Hindutva" by Anan... more Book review of "Republic of Caste: Thinking Equality in the Time of Neo-Liberal Hindutva" by Anand Teltumbde
Património é sinónimo de posse e ambos são uma convenção, histórica e social. Por maioria de razã... more Património é sinónimo de posse e ambos são uma convenção, histórica e social. Por maioria de razão, património cultural é também resultado de um entendimento, de um pacto de reconhecimento coletivo de valores culturais num determinado bem. Qualquer alteração na leitura desses valores implica, assim, a renegociação desse reconhecimento. Tal processo torna-se mais complexo quando decorre da entrada de novos grupos no coletivo de reconhecimento, pois conduz à atribuição de novos valores, significando, por vezes, a contestação dos anteriores.
Meio século depois da conclusão das descolonizações políticas, multiplicam-se argumentos a favor de uma descolonização cultural, o que gera processos de contestação sobre as formas de reconhecimento do valor cultural de uma miríade de bens, do seu significado, propriedade e tutela, das aspirações e regras para a sua partilha e usufruto. Não está apenas em causa a natureza patrimonial desses bens, mas todo o sistema internacional do património cultural. É, assim, um dos debates políticos com maior potencial transformador das sociedades contemporâneas.
Este livro e o curso que lhe está associado nasceram em diálogo com estas transformações. Oferecendo pontos de vista muito variados, especialistas internacionais e nacionais abordam casos e tópicos de grande pertinência contemporânea – de Mostar e Tombuctu a Goa e São Paulo, da Palestina à Etiópia, de Gandhi à questão das histórias coloniais dos museus e às dimensões internacionais dos debates e políticas de patrimonialização – envolvendo reflexões valiosas sobre Portugal e sobre espaços e culturas com influência portuguesa.
Ninguém sabe ao certo como tratar o denominado património português em Goa. A confusão deve-se ao... more Ninguém sabe ao certo como tratar o denominado património português em Goa. A confusão deve-se ao facto de que este património não se refere apenas a alguns monumentos ou práticas do passado, mas é um património vivo e que respira, corporeamente materializado nas pessoas de Goa, como um todo e, particularmente, nos católicos. Isto faz com que se trate de um património volátil e, por isso, muitos esforços académicos têm sido investidos em negá-lo ou rejeitar a sua complexidade.
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In the context of this exhibition, the imperialist phrase 'Portugal não é um país pequeno' is reutilized to suggest that Goa’s small geographical extent does not limit its size. Despite the fact that Goa is the smallest territory in the Union of India, it is home to a remarkably diverse history. Not only does it play host to a variety of migrant communities; it is also the home of a migrant community that is spread across the world. The essay uses the artworks in this exhibition to demonstrate this breadth of experience allows for Goans to hold a variety of perspectives and to own diverse insights into the multiple worlds that they occupy.
Toward this end, the chapter will progress in four stages. The first will elaborate the argument that Hinduism is sustained by the Indian state and propose eschewing the usual route of taking the term “Hindu” as a given. The chapter offers this proposal as a way to get out of the trap
in which scholars usually find themselves when discussing religious encounters in India. The second points out that while Hinduism emerged, via Orientalist and nationalist interventions, beginning in the nineteenth century, Catholicism has been integral to the processes by which
Hinduism and Indian nationalism were constituted from as early as the sixteenth century, with the institutional arrival of Catholicism via the patronage of the Portuguese crown. Developing the argument chronologically, the third section will discuss the Indian national movement and its linkage with Hindu nationalism, pointing out how even Indian secularism is in fact concerned with producing the Hindu subject. The fourth and final section will look at the manner in which Indian Catholic elites, whether in the clergy, or the laity, by collaborating with
the Indian nationalist project, have established a self-defeating relationship with it.
In the context of this exhibition, the imperialist phrase 'Portugal não é um país pequeno' is reutilized to suggest that Goa’s small geographical extent does not limit its size. Despite the fact that Goa is the smallest territory in the Union of India, it is home to a remarkably diverse history. Not only does it play host to a variety of migrant communities; it is also the home of a migrant community that is spread across the world. The essay uses the artworks in this exhibition to demonstrate this breadth of experience allows for Goans to hold a variety of perspectives and to own diverse insights into the multiple worlds that they occupy.
Toward this end, the chapter will progress in four stages. The first will elaborate the argument that Hinduism is sustained by the Indian state and propose eschewing the usual route of taking the term “Hindu” as a given. The chapter offers this proposal as a way to get out of the trap
in which scholars usually find themselves when discussing religious encounters in India. The second points out that while Hinduism emerged, via Orientalist and nationalist interventions, beginning in the nineteenth century, Catholicism has been integral to the processes by which
Hinduism and Indian nationalism were constituted from as early as the sixteenth century, with the institutional arrival of Catholicism via the patronage of the Portuguese crown. Developing the argument chronologically, the third section will discuss the Indian national movement and its linkage with Hindu nationalism, pointing out how even Indian secularism is in fact concerned with producing the Hindu subject. The fourth and final section will look at the manner in which Indian Catholic elites, whether in the clergy, or the laity, by collaborating with
the Indian nationalist project, have established a self-defeating relationship with it.
participation alone. Citizenship is not so much about rights as it is about the disciplining and the fixing of populations within the boundaries of the decolonized territories. The paper argues that citizenship regimes draw much from an international regime influenced by racist imaginations and agendas, as well as the imaginations that derive from the hegemonic colonial (and hence post-colonial) model. The focus in this paper is on the manner in which
non-statal groups, like the Catholic Church, participate in this fixative discourses.
designer and stylist Wendell Rodricks (2012). Despite being the work of an amateur historian, I would argue that this work needs to be given academic attention, for it is largely the popular press that determines the manner in which history is understood, and the manner in which these histories are then used to frame personal as well as larger group or collective narratives.
Meio século depois da conclusão das descolonizações políticas, multiplicam-se argumentos a favor de uma descolonização cultural, o que gera processos de contestação sobre as formas de reconhecimento do valor cultural de uma miríade de bens, do seu significado, propriedade e tutela, das aspirações e regras para a sua partilha e usufruto. Não está apenas em causa a natureza patrimonial desses bens, mas todo o sistema internacional do património cultural. É, assim, um dos debates políticos com maior potencial transformador das sociedades contemporâneas.
Este livro e o curso que lhe está associado nasceram em diálogo com estas transformações. Oferecendo pontos de vista muito variados, especialistas internacionais e nacionais abordam casos e tópicos de grande pertinência contemporânea – de Mostar e Tombuctu a Goa e São Paulo, da Palestina à Etiópia, de Gandhi à questão das histórias coloniais dos museus e às dimensões internacionais dos debates e políticas de patrimonialização – envolvendo reflexões valiosas sobre Portugal e sobre espaços e culturas com influência portuguesa.