Maria Aurora Couto

Maria Aurora Couto is the author of Graham Greene: On the Frontier: Politics and Religion in the Novels. She has taught English literature in India, and contributed to periodicals in India and England.

Newsclips

The Indian-ness of pluralism. Sagarika Ghose interviews Couto in the Indian Express.

Bibliography



Goa: A Daughter's Story
Penguin India, 2004

In December 1961, Indian troops marched into Goa putting an end to over 450 years of Portuguese rule, the longest spell of colonialism on the subcontinent, and Goa became part of the Indian union. Maria Aurora Couto's unique blend of biography, memoir and social history brings us the Goa behind the beaches and booze culture that is projected for the tourist and which has unfortunately come to define Goa for the vast majority outside the state. Starting with an account of the immediate aftermath of Liberation, Couto goes back and forth in time to examine the fundamental transformations in Goan society from 1510, when Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa, up to the present. Drawing upon the experiences of her own family and those of others, both Hindu and Catholic, she writes of the influences that have touched all Goanbsthe Luso-Indian culture; conversion and the Inquisition; political and cultural changes in Europe such as the French Revolution and the ideals of republicanism; folk traditions, music and the Konkani language; and, ultimately, freedom and integration with India. In the process she reveals how Goa, which combines the best of traditional and cosmopolitan lifestyles, has evolved into India's twenty-first-century model of economic development and communal harmony. It is as much an appraisal of Goa's past as it is an examination of its present and a vision for its future.

Shores of Paradise. Review in the Deccan Herald.

Wonder and glory of Goa. Review in the Tribune.

Apparent divide, actual bridges. Review in the Hindu.

Lost in the fine print. The Telegraph.

South Asian Women authors
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