An Unfortunate & Irrational Outpouring
Of 'East Indian' Malice & Xenophobia

©Lúcio Mascarenhas, March 3, 2007; Revised June 1, 2009, St. Angela of Merici
This Page Dedicated To The Sacred Heart of Jesus
http://www.geocities.com/livrant/norteiro-malice.html

From: Peter Rebello
To: Lúcio Mascarenhas
Subject: Catholic East Indian blogsite on the net
Date: Sat, Mar 3, 2007

Came across a blogsite named http://www.eastindians.blogspot.com but is it true what is written on the blogsite and the information posted in the comments menu?

A Goan

1. Not all 'East Indians' are paupers and not all Goan, Mangalorean Christians, etc. are economically well off. Indeed, it is a fact, that among the Goan Christians at least, poverty is relatively more prevalent than among the 'East Indians' or Mangaloreans.



2. The 'East Indians' are an admixture of descendants of converts from different caste and socio-cultural backgrounds, from the various Brahmin castes such as the Samavedis and the Pathare Prabhus, to Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra castes and sub-castes, the last including the Nakhwa Kolis. It is not at all true that the last (Nakhwa Koli) are distinct from the rest of the 'East Indians', and any such pretension can only be the result of a false and inexcusably discriminatory superiority syndrome.



3. It is true that most of the land in the city and suburbs of Bombay belonged predominantly to the Catholic 'East Indians' and that they have been expropriated (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/expropriation) often with no real compensation, in a naked land grab, both by the English and by the Free India government. This is a wrong that needs to be addressed and corrected.



4. It is not true that the Nakhwa Kolis have not suffered. They too have been deprived and continue to be deprived, by land expropriations in an manner worse than the 'upper caste' 'East Indians', by being denied access to the sea principally due to rampant reclamation of land including creeks and inlets permitting fishing craft access to the sea, besides the rampant pollution and destruction of mangrove (inter-tidal swamps) lands.



5. It is indeed hypocritical and unfortunate that the City of Bombay and the Province (Pradesh) of Maharashtra mollycoddle slum dwellers who are basically illegal encroachers on lands that do not belong to them, via the 'Slum Rehabilitation Authority', even while it turns a blind eye to the plight of the 'East Indians', the aborigine natives of Bombay, whose lands and properties continue to be expropriated.
   
   Thus, we read the report of the 'Afzulpurkar Committee' appointed by the Shiv Sena-BJP government of Maharashtra in 1995 under the chairmanship of Mr. Dinesh Afzalpurkar, Chief Secretary of Maharashtra:

   "For lifting them (slum encroachers) from their present levels, cross-subsidisation of the cost of their dwelling units and allotting them free of charge, though not supported by housing philosophy, had become a necessity and a cure in the given situation.
   
   "Slum-dwellers deserve this preferential — probably unequal treatment — to bring them into the mainstream of social, cultural and economic fabric of this pulsating city. The study group has relied heavily on this philosophy.
   
   "If inequality has to be removed, there have to be unequal laws." — Afzalpurkar Committee Report, 2000 A.D.

   Thus, the government of Maharashtra considers it a necessity to legitimize and provide free housing to people who have stolen other people's lands in broad daylight — and with the connivance of the State and its functionaries — even as it rejects with contempt the rights of legitimate property owners, the 'East Indians', who have been blasely expropriated, and refuses to compensate and rehabilitate them!!!



6. It is utterly false and a malicious misrepresentation of the facts to pretend that "after 1960, Goan, Mangalorean, etc. priests took advantage of the economic pre-occupation of the 'East Indians' and as a result successfully monopolized the clergy...." This is a very basic — and false — simplification of the truth.
   
   As a matter of fact, the 'East Indians' were once part of the same larger social and ethnic community along with the Goans and the Mangaloreans, jointly part of the Konkani (or, more precisely, 'Concannim') ethnic community (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Indians).
   
   The Mangaloreans emigrated from Goa in successive waves at the urging of the Kings of Bednore and Soonda, but were transformed radically by the trauma of Tipu Sultan's pogroms and having to take refuge with the Hindus of the region, so that they became largely approximated to the Hindus.
   
   On the other hand, the 'East Indians' were historically called Norteiros (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norteiro_people) or 'Northern people' by the Portuguese who had conquered Bombay and its environs from the Arabs and Turks, etc. and who had converted most of the native peoples, regardless of caste, to the True Faith.
   
   With Goa in the center of Portuguese India, Bombay and Bacaim were called the North or, more precisely, 'the Court of the North' after the governing body administering the area from Bacaim, while the Mangalore and Karwar (or North & South Canara) regions was called the South or 'Missao do Sul'.
   
   After the transfer of Bombay to England, and in the era following the Napoleonic Wars and the Michaeline War in Portugal, between King Michael I and the traitor Peter the Apostate, his elder brother, supported by England, when Goans began to be enticed by the English to come and take up employment with them in Bombay, the Norteiros, who were called Bombay Portuguese by the English, as contrasted to the Goans, alarmed at the intrusion of Goans and the economic threat they posed, and in order to stress their loyalties to England in opposition to the Goans, who were subjects of Portugal, renamed themselves after the East India Company as the 'East Indians'. But this is a foolish name, for British India, Dutch India, Spanish India (the Philippines), Portuguese India, etc., together form the East Indies, and all the inhabitants, are together the true East Indians (The name 'East Indian' in its correct form, is the opposite of 'West Indian', which refers originally to all of the Americas, and now principally to the states of the former British West Indies in the Caribbean Sea & Antilles Islands).
   
   Moreover, this move was instigated by the English themselves as part of their basic 'Divide et impera' (Divide & rule) policy copied from the Muslims' Millat system.
   
   Again, during the three of four centuries prior to World War I, the Goans, Norteiros and Mangaloreans were united together in the imbroglio called the Padroado-Propaganda Conflict, with one group of Catholics holding to the old Catholic jurisdiction or Royal Patronage ("Padroado") exclusively granted in perpetuity by the Popes to the Kings of Portugal, and the other holding to the jurisdiction of the Vicars Apostolic sent out by the later Popes under the auspices of the "Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith" or 'Propaganda Fide' ("Propaganda"). During this time, Goans were split against Goans, Norteiros against Norteiros, and Mangaloreans against Mangaloreans.
   
   Also, as the Goans remained under the Portuguese while the Norteiros and Mangaloreans came under the Protestant English or Hindu or Muslim kings, such as Tipu Sultan, etc., they alone remained most fervent in the faith and therefore too, for all those centuries, it was the Goans who produced more priests and clerics than any other ethnic group in the East Indies, barring possibly the Philippinians. It was Goan priests who manned the missions all over British India, and who went as missionaries to the British and Portuguese East Africas and to West Asia. The predominance of Goan priests, and to a lesser extent, of Mangalorean priests, was not due to any conspiracy or underhandedness, but merely the result of historic development, just as the Irish served the purpose of re-Christianizing much of Western Europe after the devastations caused by the Teutonic incursions.



7. It is a nonsensical lie and gross pretension that "all the schools and churches in Bombay and its environs were built by the 'East Indians'". It is also nonsensical to pretend that the vast majority of Church properties were acquired between 1947 & 1960, and that "all from the 'East Indians'". As a matter of fact, most of the Church properties date back from Portuguese and the Padroado-Propaganda Conflict times, when often Padroado and Propaganda parties set up rival parishes in close proximity to each other, as a result of mutual recriminations, schisms and splits.



8. It is false and malicious to allege that "Goan and Mangalorean priests" misused Church properties in Bombay & environs to benefit exclusively Goans and Mangaloreans to the exclusion and detriment of the 'East Indians'. It is also wickedly ungrateful — given that, as a result of the selfless work of European, Goan, Mangalorean and other priests, including the occasional 'East Indian' priest, the 'East Indians' are the most educated, relatively, than the Goan or Mangalorean communities in Bombay!



9. It is a very vicious lie, and one that crosses all limits of decency, to allege that "during the Konkani masses in Church the Goan / Manglorean priests share a lot of secret information with the Goans and Mangloreans".
   
   Additionally, this is also an untenable pretension, as the 'East Indians' claim to be Marathi, and spoken Marathi and spoken Konkani are largely inter-intelligible!
   
   Churches have never been used to share any kind of secret information, and it also remains true that, relative to the Goans, the 'East Indians' are largely more affluent!!!
   
   As for the Mangaloreans, they partake of a common entrepreneurial spirit found also in the Hindus (e.g., the Shettys, etc.) of the same region (Mangalore-Tuluva), and their relative prosperity is by no means the result of any such pretended 'Church conspiracy'.
   
   Moreover, Goans and Mangaloreans, though sharing the Konkani language, do not get along well, and will hardly cooperate in such a public conspiracy!
   
   Lastly, this allegation is nonsensical since 'Konkani masses' and other vernacular services did not exist 1947-1960, but were introduced 1969, as a result of the Vatican II Reforms!!!

EPILOGUE: A WARNING