Language and Literature

Goa’s linguistic universe encompasses strong specificities. Apart from the most commonly spoken local languages, such as the Concani and the Marata, nowadays Goans also use Hindi and English, disseminated as the main languages used for teaching purposes.

Even though spoken for 450 years in Goa, namely by the elite of the State of India, Portuguese language was never able to disseminate and compete with local languages. With the end of the occupation in 1961, it was labeled “the ex-colonizer’s language”. However, literature and documents produced in Portuguese will always be part of the history of Goa.

In this context, noteworthy are two extraordinary repositories of written Portuguese, the Historical Archive and the Central Library. They preserve documents of all sorts on the history of European presence in the Indian Ocean and their relations with the Asians as well as an extensive collection of periodicals dated back to the 19th and 20th centuries, recording Goa’s everyday life where literature earned a privileged position. A few poetry and tales books were also produced in Goa, giving rise to quite a specific literary universe.

This topic aims to reflect upon this linguistic and literary production, in the past, present and even future, where it remains alive.