We live in an age of superlatives and hyperbole.
          Though current financial crisis has exposed shaky
          foundations in the global financial system, the
          prefixes lure of the large still surrounds us. No
          longer restricted to the once imperial West,
          hegemonic agendas now also permeate the narratives
          of the Rest.

India has its own triumphalism -- popular rhetoric about the emerging elephant or tiger, the new superpower of the Asian century -- grand projections that come along with presumptions of long-lasting high economic growth to pay for a blue-water navy and nuclear shields and big arms deals.

But my Delhi episode, which took place sometime in 2004, reminds me of the beauty and importance of smallness. More than the specific football institution Sport Lisboa e Benfica, it was a feeling of solidarity and equality which led us in to each others arms whenever the Portuguese players scored a goal against the British.

Those eleven men in red, representing a decrepit Southern European club which insists calling itself Glorios, were playing in freezing industrialised North England, against powerful Liverpool F.C, and the reds were decided underdogs.

          When the match began, they were dismissed as having
          absolutely no chance, because these Portuguese
          are tiny, and not just in stature. It was these
          slurs that instantaneously united my Mozambican
          friend and myself, that evoking a surge of
          identification between that Benfica team, and
          Portugal and Mozambique too. This is the alliance
          of the small.

The alliance of the small

I suspect that there is a latent sensibility that binds together the people, cultures and nations that exist towards the margins of across our increasingly megalomaniac world. It is a realization that the very fact of smallness is no longer a handicap, but rather offers a tremendous potential to be explored.

How wrong are those nostalgic Portuguese who imagine that their once imperial country retains the slightest importance in the economic arena! How wrong are Westerners who dream about an alliance of democracies, as if eternally non-aligned India would fall for that obvious anti-China trap! And how wrong are those Goans who think that superpower India serves as the ideal pay-back strategy to expurgate their post-colonial inferiority complexes! These are golden highways to nowhere. What we need instead are simple paths, narrow but secure, which recover and interlink the plurality of tiny ports and communities created during sixteenth century Globalization 1.o1.

Macao, Malaca, and Maputo. Luanda, Lisbon and São Paulo.
Goa, Díli, Praia, and Bissau. The crux of the matter is not composed of coordinates and capitals. Above all, this is a deterritorialised community of the small and diverse who are committed to resist the homogenising impulses of Globalization 2.0.

Sikh Indian-Portuguese in Lisbon, Goans in Toronto, Mozambicans in Delhi, Timorese in Beijing: these and all other hubs of dislocation and hybridity are the bridge-builders of Globalization 3.0, of an alternative order which preserves the eternal human need to differentiate.
Smallness can no longer be construed only in geographic terms; small is also different, exquisite, alternative.

          Herein lays the specific power of Goa and Portugal
          and the historical relationship which binds them.
          Portugal, on the Western flank of the flourishing
          European Union, and Goa, on the Western flank of
          powerhouse India share a parallel, peripheral
          situation. Both neighbour booming world cities such
          as London, Paris, Frankfurt, and New Delhi, Mumbai
          and Bangalore. Both are small but not insignificant
          units within their larger geostrategic contexts.
          And both face the infinite emptiness of vast
          oceans.

Goa and Portugal: One bridge and four pillars

When engaging with Goa, the Portuguese like to paraphrase their utopian poets and writers and refer to the Portuguese-speaking countries and regions around the world as a comunidade de afectos, a community of common sentiments and values. And thats where, unfortunately, the engagement dries up, very close to where it started.

There is thus an urgent need to materialize the latent solidarity among the small which we are talking about. After all, thats precisely what the former Portuguese empire is reduced to today -- a multitude of small narratives. But how can we realize an alternative? Looking specifically at Portugal and Goa, and moving to the realm of the concrete, I see four pillars on which a new Indo-Portuguese bridge for the 21st Century can and should be founded.

          First, the reality is that Portuguese and Goans are
          suffering from a severe overdose of history. It is
          time to stop looking for answers in the rear-view
          mirror and to start accelerating past those who
          insist in digging deeper and deeper trenches in
          some imaginary battlefield that matters little to
          anyone anymore.

There are already alternatives. Younger generations of Portuguese and Goans are already shaping new spaces and avenues of communication. There is a mutual rediscovery underway, and it is far from being unidirectional. While the number of Portuguese visitors to Goa has trebled in the last couple of years, the flow of Goans to Portugal has also drastically changed in quantity and quality: Goan students, artists, researchers and professionals are now a frequent sight in downtown Lisbon.

          Second, we live in an increasingly multilateral
          world where strictly bilateral relationships make
          little sense outside a wider framework. For Indian
          Goa and European Portugal this requires a
          decentralization of relations. In my opinion, the
          viability of a strong Panjim-Lisbon bridge depends
          on the vibrancy of equally strong bridges between
          Goa and Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Macao etc.

It is time for Portugal to take this reality into account, to resist its usual paternalistic logic of believing the original patent of the Lusofonia project resides with the mother country. The recent opening of a Brazilian Consulate in Mumbai, and its booming activities in Goa testifies to a new, much preferred reality. It is indication of a growing network relationship which will benefit Portugal as much as India (and Goa) and Brazil, these are not zero-sum games.

          Third, we have to stop addressing culture as a
          disparate dimension. We all know there is a need to
          stop depending on scarce and haphazard funding from
          one or the other foundation. The fact is that,
          unless India and Portugal start exchanging
          investment and trade on a massive and significant
          scale for both countries, then the cultural
          dimension of the relationship will remain what it
          is -- a succession of mostly amateur activities
          arising from a mixture of goodwill and opportunism,
          and more rarely, personal commitment.

With the potentially explosive anniversaries approaching fast, I believe there is an acute need for diplomatic, political, cultural and business consensus in order to pre-empt the noisy extremists on both sides who might want to hijack the agenda (as happened in 1998).

To do this, any successful exchange will have to focus on areas such as contemporary music, arts and literature, science and technology, privileging young and cosmopolitan audiences (ideally also in Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, and Bangalore), and embedding the activities within the wider objective of re-establishing Goa as an exchange hub between East and West, North and South. With the right business and media partners, such an initiative could have a tremendous impact in Portugal and India, and also reposition this centuries-old channel for utility in the new millennium.

          Fourth, there is an urgent need to update mutual
          images. For Portugal, it is simply a fact that
          South Asia remains an enormous black hole on its
          strategic world map, and there is little to no
          contemporary perspective on India. Until 2006,
          Portugals diplomatic corps in New Delhi consisted
          of exactly two officers, there is not one single
          Portuguese media correspondent in the whole of
          India, and Portugal remains (among the European
          Union countries) the least involved with investment
          and trade with India.

Burdened with the colonial past, and unable to engage with the new reality of India, Portuguese officials dealing with Goa often think that it is better to just ignore the past, in order to avoid controversy. While well-intended, this silence is nevertheless often interpreted as pure arrogance.

At the same time, indoctrinated by simplistic text-book type vilification of the Portuguese colonial interlude as a type of kali yuga, and blindly following what they believe to be the politically correct mainstream elites in Delhi, the Goan intelligentsia has unfortunately invested little effort in updating its archaic image of Portugal. It is therefore not surprising that Goans have encountered little incentives to rediscover Portugal as a democratic, cosmopolitan, welcoming and prosperous first-world country.

A personal dimension

          Almost five years back, when I first landed in New
          Delhi, I felt a bit like Fernão Mendes Pinto, the
          famous Portuguese 16th century adventure traveller
          in Asia. In thirty years of diplomatic relations
          with India, not one single Portuguese Prime
          Minister had paid an official visit to New Delhi,
          so what was I doing there? Why was I opting for an
          M.A. at Jawaharlal Nehru University, which probably
          no one knew back in Portugal, instead of opting for
          prestigious academic programs in London or Paris?
          This is, at least, what many of my Portuguese
          professors asked me.

Now that rising India has hit the global headlines, everyone lauds my 2004 decision to move to India as having been calculated and strategic. There is no doubt that it was a bit of that too. But it was much more than that. It was, above all, a decision to confront myself directly with a difference which attracted me. I believed that I did not need any intermediaries (London, Paris, etc.) to manage my (re)discovery of India and South Asia.

It is this direct immersion into India and its diverse cultures that allowed me to completely change my worldview.

The effervescent political environment of my university campus, from hardcore ABVPites and Marxists to Naga separatists and Naxalites; my long journeys from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, in overcrowded trains and buses; the readings and studies at New Delhis monumental libraries; my interactions with Indian professors, diplomats, politicians, but also with my Bihari maid and my Punjabi neighbours; and finally my work as a media correspondent, trying to give the Portuguese readership some glimpses of this rapidly changing India -- these were invaluable experiences that completely changed not only my image of India, but also of Portugal, Europe and the world.

This is why I believe that fundamental change comes with human exchanges based on dialogue and interaction. If Portugal and Goa want to re-engage, they have to give absolute priority to people-to-people contacts across a variety of levels (business, technical, cultural, youth, sports etc.).

Towards 2013: Jogos da Lusofonia in Goa?

I believe that a new relationship between Goa and India and Portugal and Europe is not only possible, but a great opportunity for the 21st Century. To conclude this essay, I would like to explore the specific field of sports cooperation between Goa and Portugal, which in few years has achieved more diplomatic, political and business cooperation than was managed in the three previous decades.

In an unprecedented move -- proving that New Delhi is far less reluctant to value Goas distinctive heritage than is assumed in Lisbon -- the Indian Olympic Association has become an associated member of the Federation of Portuguese Speaking Olympic Committees (ACOLOP), in order allow the Goan delegation to participate in the first edition of the Jogos da Lusofonia (Lusophone Games) in 2006 in Macao.

The nearly eight hundred athletes who competed in Macao, from eleven countries and regions worldwide, embodied the alliance of the proudly small, and began to realize what so many have only dreamt of: a Goa reconnected with the global system it helped to establish.

While the second edition is scheduled to be held in Lisbon, in 2009, the Government of Goa has already expressed its willingness to host the third edition, in 2013. This is a bold and visionary expression of intent which has excellent chances to succeed.

The Indian-sponsored 2013 edition of the Lusophone Games in Goa would serve as a catalytic force to the development of the four pillars I have proposed. First, by concentrating on sports and the younger generations, the international event would be geared towards the future, and not the past.

Second, it would de-emphasize the narrow Panjim-Delhi-Lisbon relationship and embed it within the larger South-South lusophone cooperation axis, while projecting Goa as a strategic intercontinental platform, from Brazil to Macao, and from Portugal to Timor.

Third, while the Games will certainly attract the financial support of Indian businesses seeking to penetrate the Brazilian or Angolan economies, they would also require a close cooperation between Portuguese and Indian companies in order to develop Goa into a hub of infra-structural excellence.

Finally, as proven by the recent Olympic Games in China, international sports events are about so much more than just
sports: from the initial lobbying (Goa faces tough competition from Brazil) up to the economic planning and marketing, global media attention and audiences, political cooperation and the rich human dimension of exchange and interaction.

          Goa and Portugal are small, but their distinctive
          traits, their rich historical link, and their
          perennial openness to the world offer us an
          excellent example of how we can design alternatives
          to the supposed end of History and the
          megalomaniac meta-narratives which are persistently
          forced upon us. For Goa, we now have the chance to
          reclaim the role as a strategic
          inter-civilizational broker and to return to the
          global limelight in the 21st century. For Portugal,
          it is the chance to step out of the shadow of the
          past, and realize its ambition of recovering
          extra-European grandeur by shaping and fostering
          alternative alliances. In all of these various
          dimensions, small is beautiful.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Constantino Hermanns Xavier is based in Lisbon, where he is a guest lecturer at the Department of Political Studies, New University of Lisbon, and affiliated with the Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI). He has an M.A. and completed an M.Phil. in International Politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he researched on Indias new diaspora policy. While in New Delhi (2004-2008), he also worked as a Press and Information Adviser to the Embassy of Portugal, freelance correspondent for Portuguese weekly Express and broadcaster Rádio Renascea, and as a columnist for the magazine Atlântico. Constantino is a Portuguese citizen of Goan and German origin.

This article appeared in a recent publication in Goa, during the Portuguese cultural week here (November 2008).