Communal Harmony in Goa: Assessing Attitudes and Devising Strategies for Promotion

Abstract

Communal harmony is a word that became immensely loaded with political implications for India after the Babri Masjid demolition that took place in 1992. The shock waves resulting from that game changer, were felt nation-wide. However Goa, the smallest state of India, was considerably undisturbed because it had a long tradition of peaceful coexistence that was strongly ingrained in the popular psyche. The Goans had endured troubled times during the Muslim invasions and the Portuguese colonial hegemony. Today Goa boasts of a healthy bond between Hindus, Catholics and other religious minorities. Goa’s vibrant economy has also attracted tens of thousands of migrants, seeking asylum from famine and scarcity struck states of India. Having been a world famous tourist destination for decades, Goa now aspires to be a commercial I. T. hub, having received the grant of the Smart City project for Panaji, the capital of the state, from the central government. With a healthy literacy rate of 88.65% and an impressive enrollment rate in the institutions of higher education, a sizeable number of Goan youths are vying for jobs in the industrial and commercial sectors that currently employ a large number of non-Goans. With these changing demographic dynamics as a backdrop, this paper is an effort to analyze why Goa is able to absorb and adapt to its burgeoning diversity and how new strategies can be devised to change the current narrative of the Emerging Economy of India.



Author Information
Padmaja Kamat, PES' Ravi S. Naik College of Arts and Science, India
Mallika Kamat, Goa University, India

Paper Information
Conference: ACAH2017
Stream: Humanities - Ethnicity, Difference, Identity

This paper is part of the ACAH2017 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon