From the manor houses to the digital media: the musical repertoire of the Agapito de Miranda collection (1911-1995) in the face of digital musical life in Goa

Abstract

The Portuguese decolonisation in the Indian Ocean was not a planned process. Since the independence of the British Raj in 1947, the Indian Union has made repeated attempts to negotiate the annexation of the small enclaves comprising the so-called ‘Portuguese State of India’. However, Portugal was the last of the European empires to decolonize its colonies in South Asia, and the military annexation of Goa in 1961 by the newly independent Indian Union began the historical process that transformed its political identity as the capital of the Portuguese empire in Asia in an Indian Union Territory and, after 1987, in India's smallest state. What were the consequences of the chaotic end of the Portuguese empire in Asia? How do the singularities of Portuguese decolonization reflect upon the musical practices of its former colony? In which way the musical life in Goa, in the context of post-memory, reflects the singularity of a postcolonial territory that didn't become independent after colonization? I would like to answer these questions by comparing the work of Agapito de Miranda’s (1911-1995), a music amateur and composer who produced a private collection of manuscripts related mainly to the musical practices of the Goan catholic elite and the YouTube performance of Mandde by the group Goychim Lharam created in 2016. According to the group video description, it “tries to depict the actual gatherings that happened in Aristocratic or elite families on occasions of festival or engagements or weddings during the Portuguese era”. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss how the post-memory generations have strived to recast the musical repertoire Agapito has collected and registered.