Comments: Giuseppina Raggi  Moderator: Patrícia Silva 

About

In the field of Heritage Studies, themes on Contested Heritage are increasingly relevant, problematizing the issues that arise when different agents or communities - religious, ethnic, or national - attempt to appropriate, hegemonize, manipulate, or exclude elements or layers of heritage sites, often with the aim of asserting a dominant political vision to the detriment of another community, thus shattering plural and diverse readings and experiences of that same heritage. In South Asia, Contested Heritage issues are particularly related to anti-colonial movements, and the rise of nationalist rhetoric, usually leveraged in conservative religious movements.

This context is essential to address the heritage of Portuguese influence in India, especially in a perspective that seeks to balance the promotion, valorisation and conservation of this heritage with the aspirations of different communities or economic and political groups. Especially in the last decade, minority groups have been facing increasingly assertive policies of cultural hegemony by the Hindu majority (Hindutva), policies that have a strong impact on the Portuguese influenced heritage, traditionally associated to the Indian Catholic minorities that are closer to them, both physically and culturally.

Framed by the projects "(Re)Framing Identity: management of constested cultural heritage in South and Southeast Asia" (CEEC-IND/02566/2017) and "PORTofCALL. African-Asian-European Encounters: Cultural Heritage and Ports of Call in the Indian Ocean during the Early Modern Period" (PTDC/ART-DAQ/4357/2021), this paper will reflect on the present and future of Portuguese-influenced heritage in the Bombay and Goa regions.

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