Goans (Romi Konkani: Goenkar, Portuguese: Goeses) is the demonym used to describe the people native to Goa, India, who form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Indo-Portuguese, Austro-Asiatic ethnic and/or linguistic ancestries.

[10] Konkani was suppressed for official documentation use only not for unofficial use under the Portuguese governance, playing a minor part in education of the past generations.

Goans use Devanagari (official) and Latin script (liturgical and historical) for education as well as communication (personal, formal and religious).

In the past other scripts such as Goykanadi, Modi, Kannada and Persian were also used, but later fell into disuse owing to many social, political and religious reasons.

However, the annual number of Goans learning Portuguese as a second language has been continuously increasing in the 21st century through introduction in schools and the opening of Instituto Camões.

[14][15][16] The Marathi language has played a significant role for Hindus near the northern borders of Goa close to Maharashtra and parts of Novas Conquistas (lit.

Some are known by the occupation their ancestors have been practising; Nayak, Borkar, Raikar, Keni, Prabhu, Kamat, Lotlikar, Chodankar, Mandrekar, Naik, Bhat, Tari, Gaude are some examples.

Only a small number of native Muslims remain and are known as Moir, the word is derived from the Portuguese Mouro, which means Moor.

[28][29] Goans have been migrating all along the Konkan region and across the Anglosphere, Lusosphere and Persian Gulf countries for the last six centuries because of socio-religious and economic reasons.

Many overseas Goans have settled in the erstwhile British Empire and the United Kingdom mainly in south-west town of Swindon, Leicester in the East Midlands and in London (especially Wembley and Southall).

The first recorded instances of significant emigrations of Goans could be traced back to the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510 and the subsequent flight of the surviving Muslim residents to the territories ruled by the Sultanate of Bijapur.

There were migrations of Goan Catholics to other parts of the global Portuguese Empire, such as Portugal, Mozambique,[26] Ormuz, Muscat, Timor, Brasil, Malaca, Pegu, and Colombo.

[35] However, upper-caste Goan Hindus did not travel to foreign countries due to the religious prohibition imposed by the Dharmaśāstras, which states that crossing salt water would corrupt oneself.

[36] The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1878 played an important role in speeding the emigration of Goans in the latter half of the 19th Century, since it gave the British the authority to construct the West of India Portuguese Railway, which connected the Velhas Conquistas to the Bombay Presidency.

The end of colonial rule brought a subsequent process of Africanisation and a wave of expulsion of South Asians from Uganda (1972) and Malawi (1974) forced the community to migrate elsewhere.