Goan Catholics - Ethnic Identity

Ethnic Identity

The Roman Catholics who originate from the state of Goa, a region on the west coast of India, and their descendants are generally referred as Goan Catholics. After the Portuguese possession of Goa in 1510, the Portuguese consolidated their power by imposing their own government and cultural institutions. The Goan Catholics were granted Portuguese citizenship, and were Portuguese citizens thereafter. Goan Catholics were given the status of "protected subjects" yet were excluded from the right to vote and from attending government sessions.

During the late 1800s, there began a large-scale emigration of Goan Catholics to Bombay, in search of employment opportunities. At the time Bombay was governed by the British Empire. Émigrés learned of the existence of another native Roman Catholic community, the better-known East Indian Catholics, who already resided in Bombay. Because the East Indian, Goan, and Mangalorean Catholic communities were converted to Christianity by the Portuguese, the British referred them as "Portuguese Christians." As the East Indian Catholics had come from a poor fisher-folk background, the Goan Catholics remained aloof from them and considered themselves to have a superior identity. In present-day Mumbai the cultural differences have diminished. All share the same churches and attend many of the same religious functions.

On 3 February 1951, to avert international criticism, Portugal amended her Constitution to declare Goa as an overseas province of Portugal. From that point forward, the Goan Catholics had the official rights as Portuguese citizens. After Goa was integrated into the Indian Union in 1961, the Goan Catholics, who had identified themselves with Portugal and Portuguese culture, did not fully integrate with Indian culture. Under Portuguese law, Goans born before 1961—when Portugal's rule over Goa ended—and their children and grandchildren are entitled to Portuguese citizenship. During the first post-Liberation years from Portuguese rule, Goans found it difficult to embrace the term "Indian". They called themselves "Goan" deliberately to distinguish themselves. However, the contemporary generation consider themselves culturally "Indian" first, according to the former Goan freedom fighter Tristão de Bragança Cunha.