Jason Keith Fernandes
Jason Keith Fernandes is Researcher, Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA), ISCTE, University Institute of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. His research interests that include citizenship, post-colonial theory, and increasingly theology are the result of his academic formation in law, the sociology of law, culture studies, and anthropology. Prior to his entry into the academy he worked in the areas of environmental education of students while based in Bihar, provided legal research support for environmental movements when located in Bangalore, and the developmental funding sector during a stint in Hyderabad. A firm believer in bridging the gap between the academy and the public sphere, he has written op-ed pieces for various Goan and Indian newspapers since 2006.
NIF Books
In the mid-1980s, Goa witnessed mass demonstrations, violent protests and political mobilising, following which Konkani was declared the official language of the Goan territory. However, Konkani was recognised only in the Devanagari script, one of two scripts used for the language in Goa, the other being the Roman script. Set against this historical background, Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa studies the contestations around the demand that the Roman script also be officially recognised and given equal status.
Based on meetings and interviews with individuals involved in this mobilisation, the author explores the interconnected themes of language, citizenship and identity, showing how, by deliberately excluding the Roman script, the largely lower-caste and lower-class Catholic users of this script were denoted as less-than-authentic members of civil society.
As citizens of a former Portuguese territory, the Goan Catholics’ experience of Indian citizenship does not fall entirely within the framework of British Indian history. This allows for a construction of the post-colonial Indian experience from outside of the British Indian framework, and its focus on Catholics enables a more nuanced study of Indian secularism, while also studying a group that has remained largely underrepresented in research.
Purchase: Amazon
Reviews:
‘Citizenship in a Caste Polity demonstrates with bravura how fruitful it can be to engage what is arguably the most burning issue in contemporary India, namely the question of citizenship, from the country’s smallest state. By looking at contemporary India from Goa’s peculiar historical location between the epistemological frames of Portuguese India and British India, Fernandes is able to build a wider critique of citizenship in India.’ - Kenneth Bo Nielsen, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo, Norway
Book Awards
Winner of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies Selva J. Raj Book Award (2017-2022)