porvorim goas journey post1961 in every sphere including historical political social and cultural was discussed at a national seminar recently the seminar goa 2011 reviewing and recovering 50 years was organized at the xavier centre of historical research xchr and thomas stephens konknni kendr tskk altoporvorim which was also supported by directorate of art and culture as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of goas liberation from portuguese rule around 150 people from different colleges and other educational and research institutions participated in the discussions and deliberations as 19 papers on diverse themes were presented at the seminar provincial of goa jesuits fr anthony da silva while welcoming the gathering urged the people of goa to assume a blended identity that welcomes and draws from outside influences and cultures dileep deobagkar vc goa university who was the chief guest questioned and challenged the audience to reflect on who a true goan is rudolph heredia noted sociologist from mumbai situated the socioeconomic and political crises in goa in the wider context of india the 10 business sessions of the twoday seminar saw papers on different areas of goan society and culture dr savio abreu seminar coordinator and director xchr highlighted the themes of postcoloniality identity culture and modernization in his paper on civil society movements in contemporary goa fr victor ferrao from the rachol seminary challenged the audience to a new perspective as he reinterpreted goas past as a traumatic experience for both the hindu and christian communities and looked for ways to cope with this trauma there were papers on the role of the press and its links with politics by lourdes da costa rodrigues senior librarian central library and fredrick noronha freelance journalist prajal sakhardande of goa heritage action group made a fervent plea to the younger generation to get involved in the heritage conservation movement the session on language culture and identity evoked hot discussion and debates parag porob dept of history goa university linked the myth of parashurama to the cultural hegemony of the upper castes in postliberation goa which was not challenged by the bahujan samaj despite the political domination of the mgp fr pratap naik of tskk while highlighting the facts and figures of the konkani language argued that the one script one dialect one community principle has failed to unite konknnis other papers presented threw light on subaltern groups of goa and land reforms brought about by the mundkar and tenancy acts in the concluding session rowena robinson professor of sociology iit bombay summed up the various topics dgp aditya arya was chief guest at the concluding function where fr apollo cardozo excutive director tskk proposed the vote of thanks