Clean break, tangled lives: December 1961 in the Goan short stories “Rucmá, a Mulherzinha de Salém” by Maria Elsa da Rocha and “Guerra” by Sheela Kolambkar

This article analyses the representation of December 1961 in two Goan short stories: the Portuguese-language “Rucmá, a Mulherzinha de Salém” by Maria Elsa da Rocha and the Konkani-language “Guerr” by Sheela Kolambkar. I argue that these two stories avail themselves of the suggestive potential of the genre to represent Liberation not as a clean break in the socio-historical development of the territory, as it appears predominantly in the English-language literature of the territory, but as a discontinuity which, in the wake of colonialism, left behind a tangle of undefined hopes, obscure fears and unsettled issues. Both “Rucmá” and “Guerr” represent the period anteceding the Indian military action as a chronotope of uncertainty, which Liberation deepens rather than resolves. Writing post-1961, in a climate of growing tension during the democratization of Goa, the authors seem to advocate for social unity based on a recognition on the part of the two principal religious communities of Goa of a certain conformism in relation to colonial rule. In conclusion, I pose the question of whether this appeal to unity has a conservative function. The proposition underlying the article is that an internal literary comparatism, which juxtaposes the various languages of Goa, might shed light on attitudes concerning the main social facts and historical events in the territory.