Goa is India's smallest state on the west coast, and its writers have written in many diverse languages. Poetry is a small and scattered field in the region, and this page makes an attempt to acknowledge those who have contributed to the field. It includes those listed below who have contributed to poetry in and from Goa, as well as those writing poetry in Goa. Poetry related to Goa (specially by those from the region) is known to have been written in Konkani (in the officially-acknowledged Devanagari and the popularly-used Roman scripts, apart from others), in Portuguese, English and Marathi, apart from other regional, national and international languages to a lesser extent.
Father Thomas Stephens, an English Jesuit living in Goa, "wrote the first Konkani grammar book and an epic 11,000-line Marathi poem, now regarded as a classic." [1]
Eunice de Souza, herself a prominent poet in English, writes: [2] "Joseph Furtado, who wrote in English and in Portuguese was one of the first poets to use what we now call “Indian English.” “Fortune teller, memsahib!/Tell fortune very well…/” There’s the great modernist, F N Souza. And we are probably the only people in the world to write an ode to sorpotel! In addition, poets such as the late Santan Rodrigues, Melanie Silgardo, and Raul da Gama Rose played an important role in poetry in English in the 1970s. They started a poets’ cooperative named Newground and published some volumes of poetry. Melanie, who has been living in London for some years recently co-edited with me an anthology called These My Words, The Penguin Book of Indian Poetry which includes translations of poems in all Indian languages, and poems in English."
Augusto Pinto, reviewer, writes of Joseph "Furtado, who passed away in 1947 at the age of 75, was one of the finest Indian English poets of his time" in a detailed article in the Himal magazine, published from Kathmandu [3]
Peter Nazareth, the editor of the first anthology in English of Goan writing, comments: [4] "I found some of the literature very strange, particularly poetry written before the fifties. The subjects seemed hopelessly romantic, the treatment archaic, the psyche concerned with the irrelevant. Was it just because I was out of touch? Or was it that being involved with the exciting, creative, literature of a whole continent, Africa, my responses were sound: that Goan writers were trapped in a deep, airless well?"
Goa Today, the monthly magazine from the region, has an article [5] on Goan poets in English.
Konkani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Konkani people, primarily in the Konkan region, along the western coast of India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages mentioned in the Indian Constitution, and the official language of the Indian state of Goa. It is also spoken in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat as well as Damaon, Diu & Silvassa.
Goan literature is the literature pertaining to the state of Goa in India.
Goan Catholics are an ethno-religious community of Indian Christians adhering to the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church from the Goa state, in the southern part of the Konkan region along the west coast of India. They are Konkani people and speak the Konkani language.
Goans is the demonym used to describe the people native to Goa, India, who form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Indo-Portuguese, Austro-Asiatic ethnic and/or linguistic ancestries. They speak different dialects of the Konkani language, collectively known as Goan Konkani. "Goanese", although sometimes used, is an incorrect term for Goans.
Balakrishna Bhagwant Borkar commonly referred to as Bakibab Borkar, also known as Bā Bha Borkar, or Ba-ki-baab was an Indian poet. He started writing poems at an early age. The author Vi SA Khandekar was an early champion of Borkar's poetry. Borkar joined Goa's fight for freedom in the 1950s and moved to Pune, where he worked for the radio. Most of his literature is written in Marathi, though his Konkani output is also considerable. He excelled as a prose writer as well. His long poems Mahatmayan, an unfinished poem dedicated to Gandhi), and TamaHstotra are famous. One of his famous poems is "Mazha Gaav", meaning "My village". After Borkar's death, Pu La Deshpande and his wife Sunitabai performed public readings of Borkar's poetry.
Goan Catholic literature is diverse.
The indigenous population of the erstwhile Portuguese colony of Goa, Damaon & Diu was christianised following the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510 and the subsequent establishment of the Goan Inquisition. The converts in the Velhas Conquistas to Roman Catholicism were then granted full Portuguese citizenship. Almost all the present-day Goan Christians are descendants of these native converts; they constitute the largest Indian Christian community of Goa state and account for 25 percent of the population, as of 2011 Census of India.
The Christian population of Goa are almost entirely Goan Catholics, whose ancestors converted to Christianity during the Portuguese rule in India. Christianisation followed the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510, which was followed by the Goa Inquisition from 1560 onwards. The Hindu population is mostly descended from immigrants from other states of India, who have been arriving in Goa since the last century There is a higher proportion of Christians in Velhas Conquistas than in Novas Conquistas.
Diogo do Couto was a Portuguese historian.
José Gerson da Cunha was a Goan physician who achieved international renown as an indologist, historian, linguist and numismatist.
Sudesh Lotlikar is an Indian Marathi and Konkani poet, producer and director of documentary films.
Joseph Furtado was an early South Asian poet and novelist who wrote in the English language. He has been praised as 'one of Goa’s best poets', albeit now 'in the shadows, pushed to the margins and somewhat forgotten'.
Alberto de Noronha was a Goan writer and translator.
Ramesh Bhagvant Veluskar was an Indian Konkani poet and litterateur. He died on 21 October 2018 at Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh.
The Goa Arts and Literature Festival (GALF) is an annual literary festival which takes place in the Indian coastal state of Goa, each December. It was founded in 2010.
Madhav Borkar is an Indian noted Konkani poet, former station director of All India Radio and Konkani litterateur.
Vaman Balkrishna Naique Prataprao Sardesai was an Indian poet, freedom fighter and diplomat from Goa. Along with Libia Lobo Sardesai, whom he later married, he ran an underground radio station, Voice of Freedom, that transmitted across Portuguese Goa from 1955 to 1961, advocating the cause of the Goan independence movement. Following the Liberation of Goa, he became the second editor of Goa Today magazine, and went on to become an IAS officer, serving as the Indian Ambassador to Angola. In 1992, he was awarded the Padma Shri. He has also been the co-convenor of INTACH.
Sandesh Prabhudesai is a Goan journalist and the author of two books on Goa's politics.
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