GOAN BUT NOT LOCAL

The Identity Crisis of the Born Outsider

- Gauri Ghadge

BORN UNDER COCONUT TREES, YET CALLED "OUTSIDER"

Goa is often imagined as a place that belongs to everyone, a land where cultures meet without conflict, where Konkani is sung as easily as English is spoken, where heritage is worn lightly but proudly. Yet beneath this postcard harmony is a paradox: belonging here is not guaranteed, even for those born under its skies. You may eat poi at dawn, savour sannas with sorpotel at family feasts, cheer for Salgaocar or Dempo, and speak Konkani with ease, and still hear the cutting question: "Are you Goan?"

It is not simply a remark. It is a verdict, one that separates the "true local" from the "settled outsider." This invisible border seeps into schools and colleges, into who marries whom, into who rises in politics or secures a government post, and even into daily interactions in neighbourhood committees.

For thousands, it means living as insiders by practice but being cast as outsiders in perception, participating fully in Goa's life, yet denied its full embrace.

At the heart of this paradox lies Goenkarponn, that elusive sense of being Goan. Is it a gift of bloodlines and ancestry? Or is it an evolving culture that should include all those who live, breathe, and carry Goa forward?

THE UNWRITTEN LINE BETWEEN NATIVITY AND BELONGING

Goa's identity has always been described as elastic, simultaneously earthy and oceanic, rooted in tradition yet open to influence. But elasticity does not mean everyone is included.

Belonging is still carefully policed, not only by official laws but also through surnames, accents, parish registers, school alumni lists, and whispered family histories.