Identity and land
It has long been accepted in Goan public policy that agricultural land occupies a special constitutional and social status. It has not merely been treated as property but as the foundation of village life, food security and cultural continuity. The understanding that agricultural land ought to be held primarily by persons of Goan origin has evolved not through a single statute but through a mixture of land reforms, tenancy protections, and social consensus. This understanding has always rested on the idea that land in Goa is not an open market commodity but a community resource tied to local identity.
Yet, this identity based protection has never been given a precise statutory definition. The absence of a clear legal meaning of who qualifies as a person of Goan origin has left the system vulnerable to legal interpretation.
Unresolved Goan status
The issue of who is a Goan in law was sought to be addressed through the proposal of the Persons of Goan Origin Bill by the Revolutionary Goans Party. That attempt highlighted a central anxiety. If agricultural land is meant for Goans, then the law must define who a Goan is. However, no such definition was adopted. The legal system therefore continues to rely on residence, domicile and registration rather than ancestry, community or cultural belonging.
The introduction of 15 year residence certificates and long term domicile status has complicated this further. A person who has lived in Goa for fifteen years can now obtain formal recognition as a resident. Yet residence is not origin. The difference is legally and culturally significant. Without a statutory distinction, residence has become the gateway through which agricultural land protections can be entered and eventually bypassed.
Conversion as gateway
The recent amendments to the Goa Land Revenue Code and the draft rules for online issuance of conversion sanads highlight a deeper shift. The conversion of agricultural land into non agricultural use is no longer being treated as an exceptional regulatory decision but as a time bound administrative service. When scrutiny periods are reduced and digital pipelines are introduced, conversion becomes faster, easier and commercially predictable.
This matters because conversion is the legal moment when farmland becomes real estate. Once a conversion sanad is issued, planning restrictions give way to development rights. A field that once produced rice or vegetables is transformed into a plot that can host villas, apartments or commercial buildings. The law no longer sees land as soil but as an asset.
If the identity of the applicant is not carefully scrutinised, this conversion pipeline becomes a tool for those who never had any agricultural relationship with Goa. It becomes a mechanism through which residency can be converted into ownership and ownership into speculative development.
Lease and control
A particularly concerning pathway has emerged through long term leases and joint development arrangements. A non-Goan cannot directly acquire agricultural land in many cases, but a ninety nine year lease can deliver nearly complete economic control. A local landholder may remain the formal owner while the outsider gains full use, planning power and financial benefit.
Once such a lease exists, conversion can be sought in the name of the Goan landholder. The outsider, through contractual control, can then drive the development agenda. This allows identity based land protections to be used as a front while commercial exploitation proceeds in substance. What appears lawful on paper becomes predatory in practice.
This method allows agricultural land to be assembled, converted and monetised without the protections ever being formally breached. It is legal engineering rather than illegal acquisition. Without strong identity definitions and transaction scrutiny, the law is quietly hollowed out.
Zoning and ecology
The consequences of this approach are not merely legal. They are environmental and social. Agricultural land exists within ecological systems. Fields manage water, prevent flooding and sustain biodiversity. When such land is converted in isolated patches across villages, ecological balance is disrupted. Infrastructure is strained. Groundwater is depleted. Flood risks rise.
Zoning plans were meant to prevent this. Regional plans and village planning schemes were created to ensure that development happens where it is sustainable. Spot conversions undermine this logic. When land is converted on demand rather than through holistic planning, zoning loses meaning. Environmental degradation becomes inevitable.
The legal system still formally recognises public health, safety and planning as grounds for refusing conversion. Yet compressed timelines and digitised approvals reduce the space for meaningful scrutiny. What remains on paper as discretion becomes in practice a rubber stamp.
Backdoor deregulation
When these changes are viewed together, a clear pattern emerges. Identity is undefined. Residence is treated as belonging. Conversion is fast tracked. Leases are long term. Digital systems reduce human oversight. The result is a framework in which agricultural land can be quietly transferred into speculative development hands without ever violating the letter of the law.
This is not an accident. It is the result of policy choices. By avoiding the politically sensitive task of defining who a Goan is, while simultaneously liberalising land conversion procedures, the State creates a backdoor. It allows land to change hands without ever confronting the identity question.
The law is not merely about efficiency. It is about values. If Goa values its agricultural heritage, village life and cultural continuity, then its laws must reflect that. Procedural convenience cannot be allowed to dismantle substantive protection.
Sentiment
If agricultural land is to remain Goan, then Goan identity must be defined in law. Until that happens, every new amendment, every draft rule and every digital platform will quietly tilt the balance away from the villages and towards speculative markets.
