GOA TURNS HINDUTVA IN 2025!

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HISTORICALLY, Goans of all communities have celebrated Diwali, Christmas and even Id with equal enthusiasm. Exchange of sweets during Christmas and Diwali not to mention Gudi Padva is routine. But from the sound of it this won’t the case any longer with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad objecting to the celebration of Christmas even by the missionary schools in Goa. The VHP has been urging the Hindu community across the country to refrain from celebrating religious festivals such as Christmas, citing cultural awareness. The VHP has linked the appeal to safeguarding religion and tradition, targeting not only the general public but shopkeepers, shopping malls and educational institutions.
In a letter dated December 13, Surendra Gupta, the VHP’s province minister, wrote that in current times the Hindu community ought to engage in religious practices with self-restraint and dignity. The letter claims that organized efforts of religious conversion have been going on in various parts of the country for a long time, and participation in festivals of other faiths may lead to social acceptance of other faiths.

TROUBLESOME 2025
2025 has indeed become the year when even renowned lyricists and famous film personalities like Javed Akhtar have turned away from religion altogether. Questioning the existence of Goa, Javed commented “If god is really omnipotent why are the children in Gaza suffering?” Javed has condemned both the Vatican and the Maulanas for being obsessed with material possessions rather than the real spiritual growth of their people.
During the year that’s gone by even Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant and Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte have repeatedly been stressing the need to shift to spiritual tourism. In the face of the tragedy of Birch by Romeo Lane which claimed 25 plus lives, Vishwajit Rane has been claiming that Goa should move away from nightclub and beach tourism and focus on religious tourism. The state government has even sanctioned over Rs5crore to build Benaras-styled ghat steps on Divar island where the Saptakoteshwar temple and tank have been resurrected.
The “Hinduisation” of Goa has also been extended by default to educational institutions. With the introduction of the new educational policy, history is being re-written. Sorry, the Moghuls are out and the Hindu kings are now to be celebrated disproportionately. In Goa this is taking the shape of promoting the glory of the Kadamba empire — never mind that this dynasty hardly played any major role in the history of the state.

THE GAUD SARASWAT BRAHMINS
EVEN the Gaud Saraswat Brahmins who have been controlling all the levers of power seem to have abandoned Lord Parshuram for Lord Ram. The historical legend is that Lord Parshuram was angered by the killing of his Brahmin father by Kshatriyas and so he exterminated all of them. The legend goes that to create new land for his people he fired an arrow to create Goa, Benaulim is considered the place down south Goa as the exact place where Parshuram’s arrow landed. However, the abandonment of Parshuram, is dramatized by the glorification of Lord Rama with a 72 foot statue erected at the Partagali Math in Canacona. The GSB community of Goa who trace their connection to West Bengal, have always revered the Goddess Durga in her milder avatar as Shanta Durga in Goa. Now thanks to Narendra Modi’s obsession with Lord Ram, it is Lord Rama allthe way and local deities may be put on the back burners of mythological spiritual history.
Even culturally major changes have taken place in Goa. Presumably, as part of vote bank politics, all the migrant communities are being promoted. While earlier only the migrant Malayali people of Kerala and Bengalis used to celebrate Onam and Durga Puja respectively, now every migrant community in the state has started flexing its muscles. We have the Biharis with their Chath Puja, the Odiyas with their procession of Lord Jagganathan, and even the 10,000 residents of Jharkhand had a celebration in the Pilar Society grounds, ironically on the day 25 of their people died in the fire at the Birch Romeo Lane nightclub.
The Karnataka governmentis even planning to build a Karnataka Bhavan Goa in the port city of Vasco da Gama. Contrary to the general impression it is the Kannadiggas and not the Maharasthrians who are the largest migrant community in Goa.

CITIZENS AMENDMENT ACT
IT started with the Citizens Amendment Act aimed at keeping Muslims out of India. Under the Citizens Amendment Act (CAA) Hindus, Catholics, Parsees and Jains from neighboring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh and Afghanistan are welcome to become citizens of India, but not the Muslims of Pakistan, Bangladesh, or the Rohingas of Burma.
Ironically, 2025 also marked the year when the External Affairs Ministry of India closed the window which permitted Goans, whose parents or grandparents had registered their birth before Liberation in Portugal, from being entitled to an Indian passport. Since Portugal is a part of the European Economic Community, this effectively meats that they were entitle to the Shengan visa which permits residents of Europe to travel to any country within the community of European countries without a visa and work permits.
A lot of Goans took advantage of this window to migrate to the United Kingdom. Now of course the window is closed down permanently with the Indian government insisting that Goans, or whose forefathers had registered their birth even in Goa before Liberation should be considered as foreign citizens. Unless, of course, they voluntarily renounce their Portuguese citizenship.
But even after doing so they could only become citizens through the process of naturalization which requires that those seeking Indian citizenship have lived in India continuously for 12 years. Goans who had their birth registered in Portugal prior to Liberation have been denied the privilege of Indian citizenship.
The ongoing SIR is primarily aimed to marginalizing the minority communities in the State, particularly the Catholics. The fact that Catholic-dominated Salcette has rejected the BJP in the zilla parishad elections has made them even more determined to deprive the Catholic and Muslim people of their right to vote. Already the Chief Electoral Commission has dropped one lakh voters in the claim that they had migrated or were dead – during the visit of the Block Level Officer of the EEC when he visited the residence. Except that the BLO of the Election Commission visited the residences of those voters way back in 2003.
This is unlike the census where enumerators take down details of everyone residing in every home or jopadapati or even on the roads. This time who so ever’s details did not match the details in 2003 will have to prove their citizenship. Aadhar card is not acceptable as it is not prove of residence nor of citizenship. So the three lakh Goans of the 11 lakh voters will have to either produce their birth certificate or their passport, to prove they are citizens of India and entitled to vote.
However, many Goans are unlikely to have retained their birth certificates or passports; indeed, many Goans have not even travelled to Mumbai, forget about going abroad, excepting for those who have migrated abroad for jobs. Hopefully, in 2026, Goans will start asserting their rights as they have been doing, and as dramatized in the parallel story on Goans reclaiming Goa.