INDIAN CITIZENSHIP AND GOAN BELONGING

The passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) has exposed the Indian state’s trust deficit with its people. As it stands today, one needs to prove that at least one parent is a legal citizen. Being born in your country is no longer enough to belong in India! For Goans, this amendment may be in direct contradiction to the Goa, Daman, and Diu (Citizenship) Order, 1962, which granted them Indian citizenship.

The CAA ostensibly aims to give refuge to persecuted non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. While the protocols and modalities of establishing persecution and refugee status are unclear, many commentators observe that the new amendment is a backdoor approach of accommodating the lakhs of Hindus identified as foreigners after the Assam NRC exercise.

The original law, the Citizenship Act, 1955, was enacted with the express purpose of recognizing all people as citizens within the newly-constituted India. This law liberally granted citizenship to people especially since India was a new nation formed after the demise of British colonialism. The liberal outlook of the law was in sync with standard democratic practices across the world. Thus, in India citizens were recognized on the basis of birth, descent, registration, and naturalization. Subsequent amendments to this Act (by Congress and BJP governments) restricted the liberal outlook of the law.

After the annexation of Goa, Daman, and Diu, the Indian government issued an order, appended to the Citizenship Act, 1955. Similar to the original law, the order extending Indian citizenship to Goans was also liberal in its outlook. Thus, the order states, “Every person who or either of whose parents or any of whose grand parents was born before the twentieth day of December, 1961, in the territories now comprised in the union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, shall be deemed to have become a citizen of India on that day.”

Though India had granted citizenship to Goans in 1962, the diplomatic tussle between New Delhi and Lisbon over the sovereignty of Goa, Daman, and Diu continued till 1975. India, in 1962, recognized that the problem of sovereignty and citizenship did not have a clear solution. Hence, the 1962 order left the option open for any person in Goa, Daman, and Diu to maintain the preexisting citizenship by notifying in writing to the administration or any other authorities.

In 1975, under the leadership of the then president of Portugal, Mario Soares, who was keen to normalize relations with India (following decolonization in Africa and East Timor), Portugal recognized India’s sovereignty over Goa, Daman, and Diu. This treaty, signed on 14 March 1975 recognized India’s sovereignty by backdating it to 1961. By normalizing diplomatic relations, both Portugal and India recognized that Goans were Portuguese citizens and that the transfer of sovereignty did not extinguish preexisting citizenship rights. These rights could be preserved, redeemed, or renounced. At least in the letter of the laws and treaties, the option to choose was with the individual.

Following the wave of decolonization in the 1970s, Portugal ensured that the right of preserving or redeeming Portuguese citizenship was not eroded once Portuguese territories were incorporated into newly-independent (and expanding) nations like India and Indonesia. By enacting the Decree-Law 308-A/75 of 24 June 1974, Portugal kept the option open for Goans to redeem their right of preexisting Portuguese citizenship.

Goans effectively became Indian citizens because a new territory was incorporated into the Union of India (a legal provision available in the Act of 1955). Descent or naturalization did not apply to the Goan case due to the armed intervention of the Indian army. Conversely, in the case of Portuguese citizenship, Goans can legally claim birth or descent because the Portuguese state, at least from the early twentieth century if not earlier, recognized birth and descent as legitimate means of granting citizenship.

Both the Order of 1962 (India) and the Decree-Law of 1974 (Portugal) operate based on the will of the individual (or at least that is the essence of the letter). While the Indian law required an individual to give in writing to refuse Indian nationality, the Portuguese law requires an individual to reclaim his citizenship by providing the appropriate documents establishing descent to (former) Portuguese citizens. The Indian law assumes the silence of the individual as tacit acceptance of Indian citizenship, while the Portuguese law assumes that an individual or his descendant would like to reclaim preexisting citizenship at any moment in time.

The CAA contradicts the legal history that the Union of India shares with Goa and Goans since 1962. The state of India cannot ask Goans to prove their citizenship as the legal basis for Indian citizenship is not birth or naturalization but conquest. If at all the Indian state can ask any question regarding citizenship, it is if Goans want to opt in or out of Indian citizenship. More than 50 years after the armed annexation, such a question is a fait accompli. Nevertheless, it does not change the fact that Goans can enjoy multiple legal rights of citizenship that nation-states should proactively protect.

As we have seen in the diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Lisbon, citizenship in Goa is tied to national and internal politics. Goans need to think of their citizenship rights in broader terms. They must also think of citizenship historically. The benefits of citizenship depend on knowing how citizenship was recognized in the past, what is its status now, and what it should be in the future.

(First published in O Heraldo, dt: 8 January, 2020)

PORTUGUESE PASSPORT AND THE LANGUAGE ISSUE

Rui Carvalho Baceira, who has recently completed his 3-year stint as the Consul General of Portugal in Goa, made some very interesting comments about his stay before moving onwards to head Portugal’s diplomatic mission in Palestine. Of his many observations, his statistics on the people applying for Portuguese nationality can offer some insights on the problems Goans are facing vis-à-vis education and employment. In an interview to a prominent national daily in Goa, Baceira said that most Goans seeking a Portuguese passport “are male, between 20 and 30 years old, and are not skilled. Few have a university background”. He further added, “In Goa, Portuguese passport aspirants are roughly 60% Christian, 30% Hindu and 10% Muslim”. While it is not exactly clear what Baceira meant by “unskilled”, the reference, perhaps, could be to a lack of professionals, such as doctors or lawyers, seeking the Portuguese passport.

Baceira’s comments are noteworthy precisely because they emerge out of first-hand information on how Goans are engaging with Portuguese nationality. The question is why is this happening – that is, why mostly unskilled Goans, without a university background, seek a Portuguese passport. Are any of the internal problems within the educational and employment setup of Goa pushing unskilled Goans out of Goa? The question is worth asking as many commentators in the past have made the suggestion, in the context of the controversies over Portuguese nationality, that it is rather the internal problems facing Goan economy and polity that is pushing people to migrate out of Goa.

The issue of a large number of Portuguese passport aspirants being unskilled reminded me of some commentators who had argued about Goa’s linguistic politics being detrimental to Goans pursuing higher education and professional courses. Some ten years ago, Bahujan Samaj and Marathi activist Ramnath Naik, in his History Hour talk titled, “Social Damage done by Goa’s Language Controversy and the Conspiracy behind it” at Xavier Centre (6 October, 2005), made the interesting suggestion that introducing Konkani in the Devnagari script overnight had consequences for the educational success of Goans. Naik asserted that shifting to a new language, without having the necessary infrastructure of scholarly books and trained teachers and scholars, had put members of the Bahujan Samaj at a disadvantage.

Naik’s assertion, though at first glance seemingly bizarre, may hold true, as the demand for English as Medium of Instruction (MoI) would demonstrate. The manner in which the MoI issue has played out in Goa over the last few years has made one thing clear: most Goans, irrespective of religious affiliation want English medium education for their children, as a way out of the stifling and narrow linguistic system presently existing in Goa. The question, therefore, is whether the linguistic and educational policies of the Goa government (irrespective of which political party is in power) has led to the increase of unskilled Goans, who are unable to access university education?

That poor or low-income families were not being able to afford quality education for their children was also a major issue that votaries for English as MoI constantly highlighted. It does appear that if there are many Goans unable to access quality education it is largely because the educational system, from the primary to higher education levels, is not equipped to provide education to all Goans, irrespective of income and social status. Moreover, in the past several decades successive governmental policies have only made the situation worse, rather than broadening the choices that Goans had in terms of pursuing educational opportunities (preferably in Goa itself). The result may simply mean that more and more Goans are being unable to pursue educational and employment opportunities of their choice or liking.

In his talk, Naik also made the suggestion that the impact of language policies is similar for Catholic communities as it is for the Bahujan Samaj. Baceira’s revelation that almost 60% of the applicants of Portuguese passport from Goa are Christian, allows us to return to Naik’s suggestion and evaluate its merit. It is no secret that within the current linguistic regime in Goa – of privileging Devnagari Konkani – most of the Catholics are seen as outsiders; even demanding equal status for Romi Konkani led to Catholics being labeled as ‘anti-national’. The demand for English as MoI was projected as antithetical to Indian culture; the detractors of English as MoI even went to the extent of communalizing the issue, calling it an explicitly Christian demand. In many ways the labeling followed a similar script of betraying the national culture as those obtaining a Portuguese passport were believed to have been doing.

Thus, along with a skewed language and education policy, this aggressive nationalism propagated by these votaries of Indian languages and culture also contributes to pushing people out of Goa. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that almost 60% of those who apply for Portuguese passport in Goa are Christian, and most of them are unskilled, without a university degree.

In many ways it can be argued that most of us already knew the facts that Baceira revealed. It is common knowledge that in Goa it is the Christians that move out in large numbers, especially on a Portuguese passport. Rather than stressing a lack for one’s own culture whenever controversies flare on issues such as Portuguese nationality and the language questions, it would do us a lot good to think about the internal systemic problems contributing to the migration of Goans. If these internal problems are not addressed immediately, one will only witness more Goans leaving the shores of their homeland. 

(First published in O Heraldo, dt: 27 September, 2017)