Histories, Identities and the Subaltern Resistance in Goa

Abstract

Spectacular outbreaks against the Portuguese receive regular scholarly attention. Resistance qualifies as an act against the colonial state, and in doing so, the dominant castes have succeeded in misrecognizing their social dominance. Fixing dominance on the colonial state narrows the agency of resistance and, consequently, produces a framework that leads to an emphasis on the formal properties of colonial power, ignoring its local and micro-context in which the dominant castes are deeply implicated. In addition, the dominant castes are relocated and redefined as primordial nationalists whose every act signals resistance. These two tendencies on the notion of resistance have been in vogue for at least a century, and the problem—existence of local dominance—is held in analytical abeyance. This article analyses the scholarly framework on the concept of resistance in Goa and examines the interplay of subaltern resistance, more particularly through identity and temple ownership with the workings of power.