The intersection of the oppression of caste, class, gender, sexuality etc., is normalised and rendered innocent by masking it into ideologies that hide them. This is often achieved by a mechanism named as controlling images by a black feminist thinker, Patricia Hills Collins.
Goans are assaulted with several negative images. We can try to transpose this notion of controlling images to explore how the negative images are controlled to harvest political capital.
The image of the Inquisition is being craftily controlled and constantly used to polarise Goans and create political capital for the right-wing. Often the negative image of the Inquisition is juxtaposed with St Francis Xavier to direct the assault on Catholics and others who hold the Saint in high esteem.
This aligning of the Saint with the Inquisition does not just serve to polarise Goans, but also might assist in dissuading Hindus from expressing their devotion to the Saint.
We can notice the dynamics of the controlling of images in the way the CM of Goa went on with his discourse of temples brought down by the Portuguese even without having any serious study of such temples, when we know that several of them were already build at
different sites during the Portuguese rule.
This discourse around the temples serves to image the dark rule of the Portuguese selectively. There may be several dark aspects to the rule of the Portuguese, but the fact that only the image of temple breakdown is used indicates that it is used to achieve political benefits. This image control seems to be required to continue the domination of the BJP over Hindu votes.
Authority to define becomes a major power tool. When an authoritative figure selectively paints the dark side of our past, we can see the power of controlling images.
Controlling images is a powerful tool to maintain the status quo and practice the politics of distraction that can cover the dark actions of the rulers.
In recent days when Goa was disturbed with the demand of Subash Velingkar for the DNA test of St Francis Xavier, Goans of all walks of life appeared to understand it as the ploy to divert their attention from the pressing land issues in Goa. The politics of controlling images works with already existing symbols.
This is why perhaps St Francis Xavier is being attacked in recent days, although his work has less to do with Goa and more to do with Asia. His image as Goencho Saib grew only after his death, when his
body was miraculously found uncorrupted.
This image control of St Francis Xavier does not really reflect reality, but is aimed at creating a new order of social relations that divides Goans and benefits the right-wing polity.
In fact, the image control is used to render divisive politics as normal, natural and even just. And as such, it makes divisive politics, though it is cut on the body of mother India, appear nationalist and therefore, inevitable.
Image control is indeed a way of hiding intersecting oppressions that actually have to do with the sale of land, control over water as well as other natural resources of Goa by vested interests. Nationalism then becomes opium and with the tool of controlling images, it becomes a hiding place of vested interests that is working to convert Goa into a coal hub. Even so-called development like the new Borim bridge appears to mask the interest of the coal lobby.
Maybe we have the challenge to critically contest the valorisation of nationalism and development. The image control of the kinds of nationalism and development that is unleashed in Goa seems to have teeth to hide that are biting Goa. Goa is de-Goanised and Goans are fast exiled in their own land.
The politics of image control has also led to the construction of Goa as an Other India for the rest of Indians. Our tourism industry thrives on this image control of Goa. Goa as an Other India not just serves the Casino industry, but also big builder corporates. Goa as an Other India has become a binary in the imagination of our Indian brethren and often it is nurtured through image control by the tourism industry, builders and the casino lobbies.
This has led to the commodification and sale of Goa and Goan-ness itself. Goa appears to be objectified and commodified and sold to the highest bidder. Some Goans actively work with the commodification of Goa. It is pushed into a crisis that is best described as: ‘Go Goa gone’.
Staying with the theme of objectification, we can enter another related issue. Goan Christians have been imaged as objects and not subjects of history. This imaging is effected by bringing into play the conspiracy theory of forced conversion. As objects of history, their identity is defined by history written by the upper caste. Their history is named only to serve the interests of those who claim that they are the real subjects of Goa’s history. This claim of being a subject of history underlines that it is a certain upper caste who truly collaborated with the Portuguese rule. They both benefited and paradoxically suffered from the colonial regime. But by imaging Christians as objects of history, they seem to produce a handle to hide their role as collaborators of the colonizers. This hiding also is effected by imaging their suffering and displacement as victimization. Though some of this is true, there is no doubt that some of it is a construct. We can see how the trade intersections of Portuguese domination –especially in Mangalore and Cochin—enabled some upper castes to prosper. Here, we have tried to view politics in Goa through the lens of image control developed by Patricia Hills Collins. This scrutiny of the politics of image control can assist us to examine oppression that intersects several layers of our society. Intersecting oppressions are hidden by the power of image control. By exposing this politics of image control, we are enabled to resist it and build up positive and emancipatory imaging.
(Fr Victor Ferrao is an independent researcher attached to St Francis Xavier Church, Borim, Ponda)