Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Goa:opinion Poll/spcial Status
Goa:opinion Poll/spcial Status
Group 2
Special Status for Goa is concept promoted by the Native people of Goa. It involves the granting of special powers to the Government of Goa by the Indian Government by amending article 371(1) of the Constitution of India. These powers would allow the Government of Goa to enact special legislation to control the migration of people into Goa and to place restrictions on the sale of land to Non-Goans.
The Goa Legislative Assembly passed a resolution for Grant of Special Status and a delegation led by the Chief Minister of Goa met the Prime Minister to apprise him of the need for Special Status. Among the Citizen Groups, there was Goa Movement for Special Status led by Mathany Saldanha and Movement for special status for Goa (MSSG)
These policies which were practiced over 50 years have slowly resulted in the destruction of Goa's unique culture and identity. Owing to large scale in migration, the Native Goans will soon be outnumbered by Non Goan. By some estimates, over 40% of Goa's population is not of Goan Origin. Goans realize that in a few years that they will be a minority in their own land and fear the loss of their land, their culture, their identity, language and ethos.
So that further destruction of their homeland and culture, that Goa may not eventually become another large Indian city, Goans are increasingly demanding that the Goa Government be given the right to control in migration and regulate land sales to only people of Goan Origin.
They reason that since the Constitution of India was drafted before Goa joined the union of India, and they have a right to special provision in the Constitution to protect Goa's interests.
d)Protection of our culture and ethos from the dominant cultures of India which have the potential of extinguishing the local one. e) Protection of the special laws of succession, marriage, divorce and others which is contained in the Common Civil Code which prevails in Goa ( and which incidentally eludes India so far).
This is what we mean by SPECIAL STATUS and that is our demand. India owes it to Goa and it has to be granted even by amending the Constitution, if need be.
Opinion Poll
The Goa Opinion Poll was a referendum held in the state of Goa, India, on 16 January 1967, to decide the future of the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu within the Indian Union.
history
India's independence Goa and small territories stilled ruled by Portuguese Nehru's promise The division of states based on language E.g.. Bombay- Maharashtra and Gujarat
Goan language??
Konkani main language but Marathi was dominant in all holy scriptures Hindus believe Konkani was derived from Marathi Hence merger
Political situation
UGP- for Support Catholics from south and upper caste Hindus MGP- against Support lower cast Hindus Of the 30 seats in the Goa, Daman and Diu assembly, 28 belonged to Goa, and one each to Daman and Diu. MGP formed the government, secured 16 seats UGP secured 12.
The MGP had the backing of the depressed classes and landless tenants of Goa. They were convinced that the only way to overthrow the dominance of the upper caste Hindu Brahmins, bhatkaars(land-owners) and the Catholics who had benefited from Portuguese rule; was to merge into Maharashtra.
After merger these previously dominant groups would count for nothing within the vast Maharashtrian populace and their influence would vanish. The MGP had promised that Goa would be granted several concessions after merger with Maharashtra. The chief minister of Maharashtra, Vasantrao Naik, backed up these promises.
Some of these promises were: Preferential treatment to Goans in government jobs Industrial and agricultural development Prohibition would not be applicable to Goa government notices in Konkani setting up a separate university for Goa development of Konkani.
The Christians of Goa accounted for 250,000 Roman Catholics during the 1960s a major portion of the Goan population and had considerable influence were fearful that the merger would reduce their political influence to nothing in the merged entity. Many Goan Hindus, on the other hand, have relatives in Maharashtra, and most speak a dialect of the Marathi language. But the determining question was whether Goa should cease to exist.
However there After Independence, India had seen communal riots and the emergence of more powerful Hindunationalist groups such as the RSS.
Unlike the Hindus, for whom Marathi was a medium of religious instruction, the Christians did not use Marathi. They mostly spoke in Konkani and did not have any feelings for Marathi. The pro-merger argument that Konkani was a dialect of Marathi did not please them.
Criticism
The opinion poll received a great deal of criticism from the anti-mergerists. Their grievance was that the Opinion Poll only offered them status-quo as a self administering union territory instead of full statehood that they desired. According to them the referendum should not have been on the issue of merger with Goa, but whether Goa should have an independent legislature or not. This issue led to a split in the UGP.