Over the past weekend, some journalists in an online forum were discussing the media coverage of the Goan brawl at Hounslow. Was it adequately noticed back in Goa? Did the coverage do justice? Are the comments on the same exaggerated? How should Goa be responding to such unfortunate events.
If you came in late on this, while Goa was celebrating its Sao Joao June 24 festivities this year back home, a small section of its young expat population got caught up in a brawl in the UK. This happened in Hounslow, the large suburban district of West London. Hounslow is one of the 12 metropolitan centres of Greater London.
There have been conflicting versions of what exactly triggered the clashes, or whom it involved.
There were two scenes shot on camera. One showing the brawl inside the club (later identified by some expat Goans as being the Circa Loca). The overwhelmingly male crowd seems to be irate over something, and battling on each other, as two camps seem to have got formed.
The ubiquitous camera then shifts to the scene outside. A burly British Bobby arrives, and demands to know "what's going on".
Just before that, on the streets, the Konkani language is heard going global in strange and unexpected ways. Young Catholic Goans seem to be exhorting one another -- in a language everyone accuses them of not speaking at home -- to take on (and attack) those on the opposite site.
We probably never thought we'd live to see such developments in our lifetimes. Goans getting caught in pub and street brawls in London. Konkani being used as the language to fight in the capital of the distant UK. Above all, people back home not knowing what to make of it all.
Subsequent reports (in The Goan, July 1) have said that the Hounslow "brawl" had led to Goans facing a "backlash". It reported that pubs, nightclubs were cancelling Goan public events. And that the June 24 brawl "involving some unruly Goans at a nightclub in Hounslow in West London on June 24 has led to serious consequences for the Goan community."
One Goan woman, identifying herself as Rowena Peres of Bambolim, and an eyewitness, gave her version to the Susegad Danpar Konkani video news bulletin put together from New Zealand and Australia.
"I want to voice out what actually happened on Sao Joao night, where rumours are being spread that Goans have spoilt their name. There was a group of non-Goan guys. We all had a very good time. The whole party went well. The last ten minutes, when the lights were on, there was chaos which happened with the non-Goan guys, where they started shooting bottles.... The fight was never between Goans. We all are united Goans (in the UK)," she commented. Peres says the Goans "got together" to support one another.
This managed to convince some. But others stayed skeptical.
Just recently, one of the Goa-based audio-visual media channels was discussing Goan migration. One of the participants claimed that some 200,000 Goans surrendered the Indian passports in favour of Portuguese ones.
A more official version, by way of an RTI reply from the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs), said that between 2011 and Oct 2022, some 28,031 Goans had surrendered their Indian passports to various Regional Passport Offices within India.
Whatever the exact figure, this is a significant number of Goans who see their future in some other land. Two generations after Liberation, that such a significant section of locals migrate is noteworthy.
Secondly, Goans struggle their way to their outside world in the backdrop of Goa's low capacity to offer decent employment. At the same time, our political class seems most uninterested in this section (unless they are resident in their mostly-coastal constituencies).
Even our press could definitely be more proactive over such issues.
There are other complexities too. The earlier lot of Goans who migrated to the UK (mostly from East Africa) tend to look down on the recent, Konkani-speaking crowd who went there on Portuguese passports.
Some have raised issues about the inability of young Goans in dealing with alcohol issues. But, it would also seem that largely single, Goan male migration has its own dynamics. This perhaps makes the mix more volatile; and this is something worth recognising.
From Hounslow, Southall, Heathrow and Cranford are all nearby, as one expat Goan put it. So, there is a large concentration of Goans there.
Goan public memory often tends to be weak and short-lived. Hounslow might be one small incident that got magnified through videos that went viral. But even small incidents can act as flash points.
Way back in May 1976, a small Goan community in Malawi [http://t.ly/fbx3i] comprising around 100 families or, around 500 people, received a 72-hour 'prohibited immigrant' expulsion notice. This incident happened at the Goan Club in Blantyre, after something seemingly trivial happened.
One club member had then allegedly asked that the ongoing radio broadcast of a speech being broadcast by the then Malawi dictator Hastings Banda (1898-1997) be turned off. Banda, the Western-supported despot, whose rule was seen as a "highly repressive autocracy" was President, later Prime Minister and headed a one-party government.
The UK is not Malawi. Or at least that's how we perceive things. "These guys [the Goans in the UK] know they cannot get deported for bad behaviour," one journalist wrote. But, whatever the case, it's time those who realise the relevance to Goa -- its expats have long been an unacknowledged source of its prosperity and growth -- sincerely take up long-term perspectives on such issues.
