Goa is India's smallest state with population of 1.4 million and an area of 3,700 sq. kilometres. This was the first place in Asia to have a printing press, which was brought by the Portuguese in the 1550s; Goa's Portuguese colonial rulers also believed in meticulous record-keeping. Goa (गोआ in Devanāgarī) is Indias smallest state in terms of area and the fourth smallest in terms of population after Sikkim, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. ... Asia is the largest and most populous of the Earths continents. ... The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ...

Early roots

Goa has had a long love affair with the printed word, although growth has been slow, and punctuated by problems like linguistic breaks and censorship. Goans, with a long history of outmigration and foreign-rule, seem to have also adapted, either out of necessity or choice, to writing in languages that had their origins in distant Europe, like Portuguese and English.

Writing by Goans in other languages

Professor Peter Nazareth points out that that Goans have written in thirteen languages, of which the chief were English, Portuguese, Marathi and Konkani, the last of these, the mother tongue, being written in four different scripts. Nazareth is editor of an anthology of Goan writing^[1], professor of English and African-American World Studies and advisor to the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He writes: Look up English in Wiktionary, the free dictionary As an adjective, English refers to anything from or pertaining to England. ... Marathi is one of the widely spoken languages of India, and has a long literary history. ... Konkani is a term used to refer both to a language and to an Indian ethnic group. ... Old Cap or Old Capitol Building, Iowas first state capitol building and a university landmark. ...

(By saying Goans are cultural brokers, I mean) Goans mediate between cultures, Goans live between different cultures, Goans are travellers from one world to another. This, in my opinion, happened when East and West met in Goans under pressure with the Portuguese conquest. Since that time, our usefulness to the world, wherever we are, is that we can understand different cultures and help people from different cultures understand one another. The disadvantage is that if we don't work on it, we may end up not knowing who we are.

Edward D'Lima, who has done his PhD on the Goan writer Armando Menezes, argues that Goan writing in English goes back to the late nineteenth century, when Goans were migrating out of this Portuguese-controlled colony in favour of jobs in the growing English-speaking British-ruled colonial world. One early example was the writer from the village of Pilerne (Bardez) named Joseph Furtado.

Goans now read in different languages. English is probably the most influential. Marathi is another widely-read language. Konkani, the widely-spoken and 'official' language of the region, is studied in schools.

Goan writers

• R.V. Pandit (poetry)
• Philip Furtado (poetry)
• Mumbai-based Eunice D'Souza (poetry)
• Lino Leitao (short stories) used Goan imagery in plenty in his writing from North America.
• Lambert Mascarenhas' book Sorrowing Lies My Land carries traces it of the Lohia anti-colonial movement launched in Margao in 1946.
• Konkani writer Pundalik Naik's short story^[2] touches traditional themes very important in yesterday's Goa.
• Margaret Mascarenhas' Skin moves from a bar in California to life in a Goan village.
• Victor Rangel Ribeiro's Tivolem
• Vasco Pinho
• Maria Aurora Couto with her book Goa: A Daughter's Story

Literature featuring Goan locations or people

• Dr Cleo Odzer's 'Goa Freaks', almost entirely set in Goa
• Alexandre Dumas' well-known 'The Count of Monte Christo' is believed to feature the Goan figure from history Abbe Faria (whose statue stands alongside the old secretariat in Panjim) as the deranged monk.

Indo-Portuguese, Konkani writing

Besides English, Konkani and Marathi, Goans, particularly those of the past generation, have contributed significantly to writings in Portuguese.

• Adeodato Barreto (Indo-Portuguese history)
• Francisco Luis Gomes, In the Land of Brahama
• Nacimento Mendonca, Through the Mythical Ayodya
• Fanchu Loyola
• Laximanrao Sardessai (poetry)
• Menezes Braganca (journalism)
• Floriano Pinto
• "Gip" Costa, author of "Jacob e Dulce" (Konkani flavour of Goa's spoken Portuguese)
• Alvaro da Costa (journalism)
• Manohar Sardesai (poetry)
• Carmo Azavedo's From the Tip of the Pen (Ao Bico da Pena)
• Amadeo Prazeres da Costa (journalism)
• Fernando de Noronha's Nostalgic Memories of the Past
• Dr Olivinho Gomes, former Goa University vice chancellor
• Dr Carmo D'Souza, Angela's Goan Identity, Portugal In Search of Indentity and other books. In a recent lecture, Dr D'Souza himself traced the indigenous imagery, and the impact of Portuguese on Goan writing.

Resources for and about Goan writers

• The Goa Archives
• Fundacao Oriente, Panjim-based Portuguese cultural body, which has helped some writers with small grants of a few thousand rupees.

Sources

^ "Goan Literature: A Modern Reader", Journal of South Asian Literature Winter-Spring 1983

^ Translated in Manohar Shetty's Ferry Crossing

External links

• Goabooks website
• Goanet
• Goacom
• Goa-World