Local Power in Colonial and Contemporary Goa

Abstract

Provincial governments, whether “colonial non-democratic” or “post-colonial democratic”, perceive local government as appendage to “Empire of the State”, despite support and legitimization for the latter from “Colonial Federal Regime” and later “Post-Colonial Democratic Federal Regime”. In fact, in the Indian state of Goa, local governments were more empowered substantively under the Portuguese colonial regime, than under present day democratic regime, even though the former were partially elective institutions with limited franchise. The article also maps the shortcomings of urban local government viz its racial bias in appointment to posts, prevalent corruption due to privileges bestowed on municipal officers and the virtual stagnation of local government institutions under the continental Portuguese colonial regime, unlike the evolution of democratic local government in the rest of India under the British.Besides the state created local institutions, this article focuses on colonial state’s assimilation of traditional associative communitarian institution. In contrast to this, it is argued that unscrupulous post-colonial governments have, under the guise of law and “public interest”, virtually annihilated these associative institutions by depriving them of their most precious resource – land. In the post-colonial phase, local governments have been intentionally kept financially dependent on provincial governments. It is evident that in the wake of over 50% urbanisation of Goa and rapid migration of people from the rural to urban areas and to Goa from other parts of India, local governments are ill-equipped deal with the complexities of spatial planning, water, and resource allocation and management due to large scale political interference from provincial governments and parties and their own shortcomings.