‘Island-ness’ of Hindu Temples: Building Cultures of Exclusion and Exclusivity in 19th-Century Goa, India

<p dir="ltr">19th-century Hindu temples on mainland Goa were once located on estuarine islands facing the Arabian Ocean. After relocation on the interior mainland, they emerge as metaphorical ‘islands’ amidst a sea of green on the religious geography, whilst their architecture presents a spatio-visual enigma. This essay critically examines their unique phenomenon of ‘island-ness’ through two contextual case studies. I ask, what kind of societies and habitats do dispossessed Goan Hindu elites produce upon losing their ‘island-ness’? The study applies broad theoretical strokes of ‘structural functionalism’ to interpret their built environment, reimagining its principal elements to invent a conceptual frame.