Identity, spatiality and post-colonial resistance: Geographies of the tourism critique in Goa

This article maps some of the ways that the critique of tourism development in the Indian state of Goa is connected to Goan patriotism. Reactions against tourism in Goa assume a prior definition of 'Goa', and this definition is often patriotic. One of the central processes to understanding contemporary Goa's identity politics in the face of tourism is its former colonisation by the Portuguese. Treating the tourism critique in Goa as a geographically and historically specific discourse in this article means discussing four aspects of what will be called its spatiality: geopolitics, geohistories/disembeddings, socio-spatial biases and situatedness. It will be argued that the spatiality of the tourism critique shows that its connection to patriotism is not straightforward and immediate, but contingent. It will also be argued that although the spatiality of the tourism critique points to its heterogeneity, it is precisely because there are multiple constructions of 'Goa' and 'Goan identity' that the discourse constitutes its object, Goa.